The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-06-06
From tie Patriot g. Union.
Constitutional Loyalty against Constitu
tional Disloyalty.

tional Disloyalty.
| One of the most remarkable evidences OF the
infdelity of great portion of the people OF this
country to the principles that undcrlie the fab
| ric of our Government is to be found III the
| fact that the address issued by certain Demo-
cratic members of Congress, a majority OF whom
| were supporters of Mr.. Douglass, is violently
assailcd as dsloyal because it enuncates the
| immortal axioms which no party ten years ago
would have ventured to gainsay'
The subscribers to these great truths are de-
nounced as disoyal secession sympathizers by
men who have drifted so far away from the
true principles of Government that they are
startled at the contrast presented between the
| immutable principles Of the founders of our re-
publican institutions and their present practices,
| which SAVIOR so much of despotism that resort
| to despotic power and the terrors of denuncia-
ton are necessary to stfe those adomnitions of
conscience that disturb the quiet of even the
most resolutc cvil-doers.
1t is an unhealthy sign when those who de-
part farthest from the principles Of the Consti-
tuition are dubbed patriots, while those who
cling closest to those principles arc execrated
as disoyalists. There is but one sure and in
falliblc standard of loyalty in this country
and the standard is the Constitution and the
Union created by the Constitution. The man
who refuses to render unconditional allegiance
to the principles of our Government, the funda-
mental ideas upon which it rests, cannot claim
to be loyal citizen, no matter how great may
be his reverence for the individuals who, for
the time being, are entrusted with the admins
| tration of the Government, or how ready he
may be to concur in every unlawful act that
they may esteem necessary for the invigoration
of the Government. Our institutions are not
in their nature progressive. They were writ
ten in black and white more than half "-es.st''-
| 50 ua.vy now that they
were at the time of their origin. They arc no
more progressive than the principles of the
Christian religion, which were known as fully
to the man who reads the Bible in the fifteenth
| century as they are to the man who reads the
Bible in the nineteenth century. While we
have progressed in national power, in the arts
and sciences, and everything that has contribu-
| ted to make thirteen feeble colonies, with q
population of three millions, great and pow
erful nation with population OF thirty millions,
the fundamental, underlying basis of our struc-
ture of Government has remained as it was
written, unchanged and Interchangeable, except
| by the methods which it prescribes.
This being the case the Constitution of the
United States being our imperative rule of ac-
ton, as it was the rule of our ancestors, we can
look to no other infallibe source for our guild
ancc, and have no other standard of loyalty
than the Constitution. Measuring men and
| political organizations by this standard, it is
not a matter of doubt which party is best en-
titled to the appellation of loyal-which that
of disloyal. The men who signed and the men
] who endorse the Democratic address, adhere
! TO principles which, we have said, would have
passed unchanged ten, yes five years ago-The
men who denounce the address as q disloyal
/ document, have departed from old principles
and arrogantly esteem all Others disloyal who
refuse to tread in their footsteps and follow fast
in their progress towards dcspotism Or anarchy.
| Now, among the unquesionable constitutions
al right Of every State in this Union is that
of ordering and regulating its own domestic
concerns so far as they are compatible with the
power vested in the Federal Government. From
the beginning the laws and institutions of the
several States have differed widely, but har-
moniously. Massachusetts has never felt ag-
grieved because Louisiana administers justice
upon the principles of civil law; nor has Penn
sylvania given thought to the fact that Mas
sachusetts punish the crime of arson with death
or that Michigan Furnishes murder with impris-
onment. Massachusetts and New York confer
the elective franchise upon property qualified
negroes; Pennsylvania confines the elective fran
chise to whites; Indiana prohibits negroes and
mulatoes from crossing her borders, and Illi-
nois is about to incorporate the same principle
in her Constitution. The laws of property, of
husband, or wife, prescribing punishments for
criminals, Be-, are as various as the several
States. No two agree in every particular; and
yet these local peculiarites have never caused
contention and strife between these States, be-
cause they stir no deep seated passion, or pref
udice or principle in the human heart. Men
? care little for these differences and recognize
them as the necessary peculiarities OF our in
stitutions.
But the institution ofslavery is different. II
does excite hatred and prejudice, and for that
very reason it becomes a test of the willingness
of the people to adhere to the principles of the
Constitution in the face of what they esteem a
great wrong sanctioned and protected by the
Constitution. The Abolitionists who would
not think it within the power of Congress to a.
bolish the civil law in louisiana are persuaded
by the force Of resentment that it Is entirely
competent for Congress to abolish slavery in
Louisiana, and every other State in which il
now exists Now it is not because we have