The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer., 1862-07-19
From the Dubuque Herald.
To What Assumption of Power Might
ue Lead

To What Assumption of Power Might
Lead.
The doctrine of absolutism Of Govern
ment, which was exploded in America by
the Declaration of Independence, and by
the Constitutional recognition in States
and individuals Of certain rights, has been
revived lately by politicians Of the Aboli-
tion and Republican school, These poll
ticians make no distinction between Abso-
Lutte Sovereignty in the Government and
Prescribed or Constitutional Sovereignty,
and founding all their arguments upon
Absolutism in the Government, they very
naturally come to the conclusion, that
every right inherent or prescribed in an
individual or State, must yield to the Alb
solute will and Absolute power of the
Government. Being, in their estimation,
supreme, there is no tribunal before which
it can be brought to answer for any of its
acts. Such, briefly is the Abolition and
Republican idea of Government. To
maintain its own existence, the Politicians
Of these parties not only admit but declare
it to be the right of the Government to
sacrifice everything, to destroy everything,
to destroy everything, States, People, In
stitutions which might, by its most latu-
dinous construction OF its conception of
danger, stand in the way Of it's existence.
Government, according to this theory, is
evrything; the people, their rights, their
property, their institutions, nothing.
No one but a fanatic holds to such doc
trines in these days. The true theory of
Government, not only of our American
Government but of all civil Governments,
Is that its use and duty is to preserve the
integrity of the Nation, and to secure to
the people the free and full enjoyment of
their rights, in such manner and form, if
manner and form be prescribed to it, as
the compact of Government provides and
stipulates. If Absolutism could be prop
erly predicated of the United States, it
would follow necessarily that every right
or privilege enjoyed by tie people would
be concession to them from the Govern
ment, and that of course these rights and
privileges could be taken away.
So conceaes Politicians of the Abolition
and Republican parties. They declare it
to be the right of the Government to de-
stroy States; to deprive the people of
their rights, to do anything and everything
which it thinks might conduce to the
maintenance of its Absolute Supremacy.
Now, let us see how this might result
If put into practical operation. Suppose
that the Government, in the exercise of
what it assumes to be its absolute right,
undertook, on some pretext or other, to
destroy the existence of the State Of Iowa,
and to govern the people Of this State by
Stratocratic power The State of Iowa
might not believe, as the Abolitionis!s and
Republicans do, that the Government is
the absolute master. Of this State and Of
its people, and it might tell the Govern
mentso. What then? A conflict would,
Of course, cnsue, in which the Government
would be the aggressor, from our point of
view, and in which the State of Iowa and
its people would only be defending their
constitutional rights, which they would
have a right to do. It might be that the
Government would be the more powerful
Of the two, but that would not settle the
question Of right in legal or moral point
of view. The physical power to do a
wrong gives it's possessor no right to do it;
80 it does not follow that because the
Government is more powerful, physically,
than State or individual, it has the right
to destroy the State, or to deprive the
humblest individual Of his rights. In a
word, the Government has no more right
to dowrong than moral being has, and
| # it attempted to do SO, it is the right Of
any one who chooses to exercise his right,
TO resist 1t IN so doing. This declaration
Twill be called treason by the fanatics and
Eby the paid organs ofsthe Government, but
we know what it is to tell the Government
Its rights, duties and obligations To
preserve its rights, to perform its duties,