The Portland daily press., 1862-07-16


All change is not Improvement All move
ments are not progressive. There is a back
ward and downward as well as a forward and
upward course. Revolution is not always re-
form. Heretofore, In all revolutions attempt
ed, so far as the pen of the historian informs
us, the primal movement has been with the
masses, crushed down by oppressive power,
striving to throw off their burdens and TO find
relief In an enlarged freedom. 1t is also true
that, up to within very brief period of time,
all popular tumults, and outbreaks against the
constituted order of things, have been in the
direction of wider sphere Of liberty for the
toiling many, and narrowing of the circles of
power on the part oil the aristocratic, and rul-
ing few, and in no instance within the scope
of our reading, has there been any widespread
rebellion designed to narrow down the priv
ieges Of the masses, and to give renewed lease
to the powers of despotism. 1t has remained
for boosted free and democratic States, in the
blazing light of the nineteenth century, to fur
ish the first example of this kind.
The Southern rebellion did not start with
the people. 1t was movement long contem-
plated by aspiring demagogues, and carefully
concealed from the honest masses of the peo-
pie until too late for them to resist its tide and
to prevent its elimination in overt acts oftrea-
son. Not single ordinance Of secession, in
any State, was passed by convention or leg
islature chosen for the avowed purpose of TAX
ing such movement into consideration. Con-
ventions were made up of delegates elected
for altogether different purposes, and when
brought together, ignoring entirely the objects
which the people had in view in their elections,
they have wickedly taken the responsibility of
ion, so far as their ordaining could do such
thing, but in no case have the usurpers and
despots dared submit their work to an open,
fair and unbiased vote of their constituents
The Virginian Convention, elected mainly by
Union men, took the responsibility of voting
their State out of the Union, subject TO the op-
prordt Of the people, and then, with closed
doors and in secret conclaye, put their own in
famous ordinance in practical force before the
time arrived when they had provided that the
vote should be taken; and facts go to show
that not only in Virginia but in Tennessee and
other States, provision was made to force the
States into secession even should the people,
at the ballot box, vote against it: and facts al
so show that where vote was taken, Union
men by thousands were deferred from voting
against secession, by armed bands in the inter-
est of the conspiritors, whose mission seemed
H. A.
pie, and to give expression only to the rebel
element. These faets-unquestioned facts
show that the present rebellion did not orig
mate with the people but with demagogues;
did not originate in any feeling of oppression
or tyranny on the part of the general govern
ment--in which all had an equal voice-but in
a long cherished purpose of ambitious men to
divide the country; not in any desire to in
crease the boundaries of free thought, free ex-
preston and free labor, but in purpose to
abridge all three, to establish an oligarchy, to
strengthen and perpetuate the bonds ofoppres-
sion, and to erect negro slavery into funda-
mental and perpetual basis of social order.
And what have they gained! Read south
ern papers; of the general poverty and dessoa-
ton gradually coming over the whole "Sunny
South" Of the bankruptcy, ruin, high prices of
''a''es VI p"ie Necessity anu aiiiios' Mor'ihess
ness oil articles oil export, and then the reader
will see what the condition of the South is to-
dav. Then IN real;ze what o.;n saeess;o, hoe
..--..,,. la, !. -, a., c.n'-... - :,
oio"s"' WIN ~ ieau 'iie ioho"hhs' from the
Savannah Republican of Jan. q, 1859, show
ing the picture as il existed before the mildew
Of traaso, cas-, H. b,;,b, ovor tho e,oa of ,,o,
:, W. '''e ''so VI s''"'
lheh prosperous ana happy country:
Prosperity or THE Sor-ru Whom ,,o
hear men talk about the onnression or Govern.
mept and the dissolution Of the Tnion wa H.
Voluntarily turn 10 the real condition. az ,ha
country and ast o,rselres whore ara ,ha Oh ~
dences az a down-troddnp neonlae Whara
the burdens that nress So heavily mon ,,s %
Where tho min and dav.stat;on do, na,,sa,s,..
editors and sensation orators So often dea;ct
In terrible colors &c NJ our varv doors and sta,
inc ms IN the facep Echo answers a,,haro 81,
There i NOT to-day on the broad taco Of ,ho
clobe : neonle so tree indenendent ham, a nj
nrosnera,,s 40 tho c;t;zeas Of tha Ia,,, ana
States of tho American IYnon This T. a g.,
,ha, c.nna. ha dan;ad nmr a., = n, ,ao,
49,, ;nS,str.' !, n'.;. "epa.. a u iiu-
Our planters of cotton and rice. who consti
tute the great body of the people, never in the
history OF the country, enlOyed such a harvest