East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1862-02-04

i
the nation? Southern Union men anC
slaveholdersl Who most loudly, long
ingly begged, prayed, besought the Re
publican party to pause in their career q
triumph and concede Something To cna
bic them to save the South from the vile;
Of the small and weak party IF disunion
ists?d Southern slayeholders, who would
have died ior the Union tien'as bravely
aud i"yously as any of ns to-dsyl sdi
i We make no exenss for the rebellion
We do not pretend to say that it was
justified by any act of the Northern
States or Northern people. 1t was con.
,ceived in sin aud born iu iniqpity, But
IT the mother was Southern party, OF
was slavery, the father was Northern ia.
naticism and anti slavery, aud the child
LOT shame bears more resemblance to the
father than the mother. For slavery was
the protsgs, the adopted child of the Con
sutution, while anti-slavery was the
avowed enemyo Of the Constitution, aud
bore on its flags, its newspapers, OH its
very forehead the marks Of that enmity
which are now assumed by the Southern
/ feDelflOn
1t is hardly probable that we have
convinced The World that slavery is not
responsible for the war, but we have en-
deavored courteously 10 answer a question
that was courteously put. We do not
attempt to "whitewashp slavery. We
bnt defend the fonnders of the Constitu-
ton. They pledge US, as their posterity,
to support that institution Just as long as
any State desires it. We believe the
truth to be a. plain as daylight, that if
Northern States aud Northern anti
slavery men had observed the pledges of
the Constitution towards slavery, the
Southern disunionists would have re.
mained impotent; and we also believe
that Northern fanaticism, playing into
the hands of Southern disunionism, is the
cause of the war, while slavery, recog.
nised by the Constitution, has been the
silent subject which designing men Of
both parties have used to produce the
terrible results we are now experiencing.
THE WAR NOT TUE cULMINATIoN OF THE Po-
LITIcAL DIFFERENCES OF HELAsT TWENTY
YEARS.
We replied yesterday to the latter part
of the Worlds remarks by answering
their request to state what were, in our
opinion, the causes Of the war We did
not intend to avoid distinct reply to
their argument, designed to show that
slavery was the responsible cause, but we
reserved such a reply and propose 70
make H. now T. is deserving of careful
attention, for not only our contemporary,
but many others have been misled by
this error, which, mistakes a mere sue.
cession of events for logical sequence
of cause aud effect. q I....
The proposition is that "the rebellion
is the elimination Of controversy which
commenced with the annexation of Texas,
and continued almost without interrup
ton down to the Inauguration of Presi-
dent Lincoln" OF this proposition The
World asks The Journal "to make either
an explicit admission or explicit denial "
We deny it explicitly. The rebellion
is but an event occurring in the course of
years after various events in the great
controversy between the Democratic
party and their opponents. That con.
troversy was national, in Maine as strong
as in Louisiana. To charge that tho
elimination Of that controversy il the
present war, is to charge the rebellion
on the Democratic party, and to make its
hosts, who have been the immense ma
jority in many parts of the North a. well
as the South for the past fifteen years,
responsible for this revolt, which was &C.
comPlisbed by a handful Of designing
men, aided in getting up rebellion by a
furious party in the North whose very
motto was that the Union was compact
with hell. .-,.,i.,i ...a.. ..ri,i,,r
The men who were in what The World
calls "the interest Of slavery" were
throughout this controversy the defend
ers OF the Constitution against the as.
saults Of its enemies Had they succeeded
in controlling the nation, the rebellion
would never have been heard of, except
as it had been for forty years, in North
ern anti-slavery meetings thinly attended,
and in Southern Rights conventions
which were hardly esteemed worth re-
porting. -. 5.i5y. a4r.a.,, All vi E...
1t is a favorite way of avoiding the
effects of this view, to charge that the
Democratic party were working for
slavery. The charge is false, as the world
now knows. Tho Democratic party
found that slavery had constitutional
rights If Northern fanatics had never
attacked these rights, it woald never
have become necessary to select them out
from other con titutional provisions for
especial defense ami support. There
were other con ,titationsl rights which all
msn o,nced1d, and no man attacked. If
a party hal been raised to attack the
ri rht Of trial by jury, or to claim for
States sovereign powers delegated to the
General Governmentby the Constitution,
or to urge any other opposition 20 that
instrument, either the Democratic party
or some other party would have risen to
the defense Of the Constitution. The
constitutional rights Of the slave-owncr,
as il happened, we're selected for special
attack, and; true 70 their ancient priuci-
ples, tho ID moorats stood by the C,nsti.