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

tutions not RebeIisOn-A War upon
Them is a War upon the Principles
of the Constitution-Itis Revolution
North well as South-Its Fatal
Effects at Home and Abroad.
LETTER Il.
To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States:
RESPECTED Sir: In my first letter endeavored
to show that the only legitimate object of the
pending War Is the integrity OF the nation con-
stituted by the Constitution of the United States.
/ shall now attempt TO point out some of the con-
sequences to be apprehended from making il a
war on the fundamental principles of the Consti-
tuition.
Let il never be forgotten that we are one peo-
pie and one nation only so far as the Constitution
makes us one. Outside of that bond we are thir-
ty four peoples and thirty four nations, none of
which have any more right to interfere with the
local laws and institutions of the rest than with
the laws and institutions of China and Brazil.
The people of the States have right, under the
Constitution. to defend their local laws and insti
tut0ns by arms, il necessary, and it is the duty
of the United States to uphold and aid them in
the attempt. confined to such an object
would not be rebellion, even though the United
States were the aggressor. just so far,
therefore, as the pending war may be
waged against Southern Institutions, the
SOutherners in arms will cease 10 be
rebels and the Northerners in arms will become
in truth what they are now falsely charged with
being-the wanton assailants of Southern rights
Let me not be misunderstood. Thus far the war
has been confined to an enforcement of the Con
stitution and the laws of the United States, and,
in their armed resistance, the Southerners are I'M
qualified and unmitigated rebels. But let the
United States abandon this firm and safe plat
form; let them announce that the war is hereaf
ter to be waged against the constitutional laws
and Institutions of the Southern States, and they
will measurably relieve the traitors from the
Odium of causeesS rebellion, will give to their
cause color of right, and will nerve their arms
for more desperate resistance. Then, indeed,
would the war become one of subjugatOn-pros
ecuted not for the purpose of maintaining the
Constitution but in subyersion of its fundamental
principles.
Such a position would be attended with mis-
chievous. not fatal, consequences, both at home
ami abroad. 1t would paralyze many Northern
patriot, who would give his life for the Union,
not because he loves Southern institutions, but
because be holds sacred the principles of the
Constitution, and deems their preservation essen
tal to the maintenance of order and law, as well
/ in the North the South.
All intelligent men know that republic as ex-
tensiye as the United States, embracing such a
]
/ opinions and interests can not exist under one
consolidated Government and at the same time
allow the highest practicable degree of liberty to
all its parts. Hence it is that every true friend of
liberty revolts from the idea of an attack on that
| fundamental principle OF the Constitution which
leaves every State free to govern Itself in all
things which pertain to its local affairs. In the
subversion of that principle he sees nothing in
prospect but a cluster of hostile republics, like
/ Il Il
wars; Il great empire like that of Rome, in
which liberty shall be crushed under the iron rule
of an artistOcratic Senate or an usurping Caesar.
With such prospect before him, how can any
true friend of liberty sustain, with confident hope
and unfagging enthusiasm, the prosecution of
/ this war;
| But the paralysis which an Abandonment of the
| Constitution would produce in many Northern
arm would not be its only effect. 1t would, in an
| equal degree, nerve many Southern arm and
array in active hostility many Southern friend
of the Union 1t would enable the rebels to say
that the North is attempting to subvert the con-
stitutiOnal rights which the South is fighting to
maintain 1t would, in the ewes of the world,
mitigate the crime of rebellion by enabling the
rebels to assert. with some plausbiity, that there
was conspiracy in the North against their con
sttutional rights. 1t would enable them TO say
10 Great Britain and France that the North as
well rs the South had abandoned the Consttu-
ton which made them one people and become
equally revolutOnary-tha the one much
entitled to be considered and acknowledged a
separate and independent people as the other.
But it is said that slavery is the cause of the
rebellion, and therefore. it should be extermina-
ted. The assertion is but remotely and partially
true, and. far as it is true. by no means usti-
fes the conclusion. If the mere existence of
slavery were sufficient TO produce rebellion, the
Constitution would never have been formed; or,
having been formed, il would not have lived to
three score wears and ten. If slavery were of
itself sufficient to make men rebel, then all
SHAREHOLDERS would be rebels. So far is this from
the truth that the most considerable among them
look upon the COnSti luton and the Union as the
only outside protection which that institution has.
In their view, and in that of all disntereSted men
in other States, that feature of the Constitution
which guarantees the return of fugitives from la
Dor, comments IL To the cordial and persevering
support of all masters who have no object in
view beyond security in their lawful rights. No
such international regulation exists elsewhere in
the civilized W Jrld. and its maintenance ought
upon every principle of sound reasoning, TO have
made shareholders the last to give up the Consti-
tuition. In this view slavery was a bond of union
so far as the masters were concerned. rather than
an element of dissolution. And it is in this view
that certain men in the North have denounced
the Constitution az ga league with hell"
in another letter | will endeavor to point out
the true causes of the rebellion, and how fai
slavery has fostered them. | STALL also attempt
to show that the warmest friends OF emancipa
tioH ought to be satisfied with the progress theil
principles are making through the madness o.
slave owners and the growing necessities of thu
pending conflict. AMOS KENDALL.
February Is, 1862