The Placer herald. [volume] (Auburn, Placer County, Calif.) 1855-1991, 1862-11-29
[From the New York Caucasian.]
"The Constitution as it is and the Union
as it Was"

This banner cry of the northern democrat
cy;yet weak, but destined soon to be the watch
word of millions, is perhaps not clearly UNI
derstood in all its significance, and inasmuch
as this journal, if not the first, was among
the first, to give utterance, we propose to
explain it in all its truth and grandeur.
This Union, this Federation, this Republic,
this great and majestic. fabric Of American
freedom and American civilization, is nei.
ther to be divided, broken up nor over
thrown, however it may be jostled or shaken
by the storm now sweeping over it. 1t will
live, and live forever, and though the blood.
shed and suffering now inflicted on the peo'
pie would seem to be needless they will
rise purified and regenerated, and while set
Ting forever the great cause of all these
troubles, clearer and better views of govern.
ment and of political rights and duties will
result from this suffering.
The "Constitution" is a compact not be
tween States but between the people of the
States, and the Union" is the result The
men who made the Constitution were white
men, who represented white men, and they
designed it for white men alone, and if a
member Of the Convention had proposed to
include negroes or Indians in the political
system then created, every honest and can
did mind must admit that it would have
been voted down unanimously. This is
great, vital, alllinportant truth that CAM
not be denied, or got over, or blinked out
Of sight, and it should be regarded by every
democrat and every patriot as the starting
point for all their reasonings, and all their
actions, and al their hopes, now, and in the
future. Furthermore, the Supreme Court
has decided that such is the Constitution;
that it applies only to white men; tia: while
the individual States may fix the status of
the negro as they please, within their own
borders, they cannot make him citizen Of
the United States, and, therefore, the ten
thousand negro votes cast for Lincoln in the
northern States, vitiated that election, viola'
ted the Constitution and outraged the rights
of every citizen of the South, and indeed,
insulted the manhood of every citizen of the
Republic, North and South, East and West.
Such is the Constitution, in spirit and prac-
tce, from the hour il was created until Mr..
Lincoln was inaugurated.
The Union" which is the result or crea'
ture of the Constitution, is in perfect accord
with it, until Mr.. Lincoln came into power.
From George Washington to James Buchan
an, from 1888 to 1861, there was no varia
ton or exception from this great tundamen
tai pr ci pie of a white government, gov
ernme g , in which negroes, Indians, mongrels
&c, ere utterly ignored, with no more
connection or relation than had the negroes
Of Africa or San Domingo. All the States
save Massachusetts, had slavery" that is,
the negro element was in its normal condi
ton. 1t was protected and guided by mas
ters, just as the children are by their parents.
and though in some localities, negro labor
was not very productive, it is an obvious
absurdity TO speak of slavery" being an evil
for 'slave" negro is negro in his natu
raj position, while Stree" negro is simply
useless negro or social mon,rocty The
States thus bound together by unity of ideas,
gress as was never before witnessed in the
worlds history. AS European emigration
increased and negro population increased,
new acquisitions of territory became neces-
sary to the well being of both white and
black, and the broad and genial statesman
ship of Jefferson and others of the Virginia
school, purchased Louisiana, and driving
back the savage and useless Indian, opened
up to American civilization the fertile and
glorious West and outh-West, for the
benefit Of both our homogeneous and mixed
populations. A few years later, Texas was
annexed, carrying with it California and
Oregon, with thousand miles of sea coast
on the Pacific, and gave us a monopoly of
cotton and gold, and of breadstuffs, as the
grand result of these acquisitions.
What G orious spectacle, what hopel
full future, what a grand civilization, thus
presenting itself for the admiration Of man
kind! Thirty millions of the noblest, free
est and happiest white men the world ever
saw, with four millions of subject and JOY
GUS negroes who comparatively were in
position of even greater enjoyment and hapl
piness. But one thing seem needed. We
required more tropical Territory. We need
ed sugar and coffee region. We would
monopolize these great products, as we al
ready did these of cotton and gold, and, to
growers Of the Upper Mississippi, and the
tong mechanic and laborers Of northern
cities, should have sugar for five rather than
ten cents pound Millions upon millions
of sugar lands in Central America, Jamaica,
Hayti, &c, were wasted, blighted by baleI
ful deusion. Those genial and fertile re-
gions that God had designed for the happi'
ness of His creatures, we're rendered desc
late barren wastes through wicked and
disgusting imposture got up by European
despots, in order to hem in, demoralize and
overthrow American institutions.
Mr.. Buchanan, as the head of an Ameri'
can democracy, should have purchased Cuba,
seized HaSMi and Central America, and
diving back all European resistance, ac'
quired the whole Continent to the Equator.
But az it was, with the stars and stripes
floating from the Lakes to the Gulf seas,
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean,
no such empire, no such freedom, or people,
or civilization. had ever before BEEN seen or