Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-03-10


A Concession to Democratic Prfn-
cipies.
With great pleasure we perused an article in
the Journal of yesterday npon the disposition of
"the rebel States thrown upon our hands by the
fortune of war" In answer to the inquiry care
the seeded States Territories" that paper re-
spends: 1--WE know of but two forms of political
organization under our Government, States and
Territories, members of the Union, and mere ma
tonal domain regulated by the Union. If
the seeded States are no longer States in the
Union, they are Territories. Which are they?"
Answering this inquiry it remarks:
Are the seeded States out of the Union? If
they are, it is either because they have right to
go out, and have exercised it, or because, without
right, they have accomplished it by force. Have
the seeded States right to leave the Union?
Nobody on this side of the Ohio except few
fools admit that Then they out by a sue
cessful exertiOn of force2 Not quite. This war
is waged for the very purpose of deciding that
point, and the war is not yet. Till it is, and
its event proves favorable to the rebels they are
not out OF the Union. Then neither by right nor
in fact the seeded States out of the Union.
They still members, diseased. fearfully con-
vulsed, but not amputated They have abdi-
is true, but we do not choose to consider them
dead because like a little boy in the pouts they
say "they will go off and die"
Assuming the ground that the seeded States
can not sunder their connection with the Union
voluntarily, and that they have not so done by
force. the journal takes the position that sound
policy requires that the Government should MAIN
tain the present State organizations with the ad-
ditiOnal reasons that it sis more in accordance
with the spirit and theory of our Government and
more consistent with the purpose for which the
war was undertaken" 1t says:
Loyal men in the rebel States will rally to the
support of their old Governments purified and
made loyal, but they will have little encourage
ment to support Territorial Government which
degrades them, and, to all their sufferings under
the rebellion adds the shame of distranchsement
under the Union. If there are no more loyal
men in any rebel State than will fill the offices,
the Union ought to maintain that State Govern
ment and set it moving in its old channel
The act of a State can interpose no shield be-
tween the delinquent citizen and the offended
Government His State can not transfer his guilt
to its own incorporeal shoulders, because his
State is not known in the matter of his obedience
to what is lawfully ordered. Rebellion, there
fore, is the crime only of the individuals con-
cerued in it. Ire State can not be guilty of il,
and can not be punished for it, without admitting
that in all the relations of the citizen to the Cen
eral Government, the State stands between them,
and must alone be recognized and held response
| ble by that Government. We should have to ad-
NIT the secession doctrines of States rights in
der to find the crime for which to punish State,
and to admit that would be to admit that its Sc
cession was right and that there crime 10
punish. As an individual offense, therefore, re-
1 Ill. L 4
the war commenced. Senator Trumbull de
cIared in the Senate that "the Administration
could not if they would eoerce State to obedi-
ence, but could only coerce The disobedient citi
zen." The President advances the same view in
his first proclamation, April 10, 1861.
The war was commenced, therefore. not to
punish States, or coerce States but to punish err
ring persons. To degrade State to the terrific
rial condition is to punish State, and thus
cognize its guilt which is in contradiction of the
true theory of our Government, and at the same
time it is to punish all the citizens alike without
reference to their participation in the rebellion.
Such a policy, it seems 70 us, must be at once
unjust, unnatural and impracticable.
This position of the Journal is in direct opDo-
sition to the views advanced by SUMNER and the
radical Republicans, and the policy they advo-
cate. They argue that by the act of secession
the seeded States have lost all their rights in
the Union, and that they should be regarded and
governed Territories, and that Congress has
full power to regulate and control their domestic
institutions and policy. This, as the Journal
contends, is in direct conflict with both the spirit
and theory Of the Government.
We are happy to record this concession to
Democratic principles and policy upon the part Of
the Republican organ. What said as Governor
WRIGHT and the Journal characterized it, the
"bogus" Democratic 9Th of January Convention,
and the platform upon which they jointly "spitf''
The ninth resolution says:
This war should not be waged in the spirit of
conquest or subjugation, for the purpose of
overthrowing or interfering with the rights or in
situations of the States, but to defend and MAIN
tain the supremacy of the Constitution, and pre-
serve the Union with all the dignity equality and
rights of the several States unimpaired.
These few lines contain the whole of the Jour
naPs argument condensed. Again: The sixth
resolution of the platform, which the Republican
organ boastingly says Governor WRIGHT "riddled
and blasted with all the vigor of his vehement
nature" reads thus:
The maintenance of the Union upon the prin-
ciples of the Federal Constitution should be the
controlling object of all who profess loyalty to
the Government-aDd in judgment this pur
pose can only be accomplished, by the ascendency
ola Union party in the Southern States which
shall, by counter revolution. displace those who
control and direct the present rebellion.
And this proposition of the Democratic Con-
vention tersey stated, is completely demonstrated
to be the policy of the country and in accord
ance with the theory and spirit Of the Government,
by the argument of the Journal in discussing the
best mode of treating 1.-THE rebel States thrown
upon our hands by the fortune of war; I'm
willingly the Republican organ has indirectly,
but none the less positively, admitted that the
doctrines avowed by the Democratic party present
the only just method of restoring the Union or
the seeded States their position in the Union,
upon the principles Of the Constitution and in ac-
cordance with the spirit of our institutions. Aud
for the maintenance of principle, the value of
which is most forcibly illustrated by the discus
sion of the Journal upon the policy to be pur-
sued towards the seeded States the Republican
organ and its allies have denounced the Democ
racy as partisan and disloyal. Loyalty is best
demonstrated by firm adherence to principle,
and the Democracy believing now, as they ever
have. that the principles and policy they advo-
cate are necessary to the preservation of the
Government and the prosperity Of the country.
they give the best evidence Of their patriotism by
firmly adhering to their party organization.
az Counterfeit ones ON the Terre Haute
Branch of the Bank Of the State Of Indiana,
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