Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1862-03-02
Letter from Amos Kendall.
LETTER II.


Ho'o far the United States are one peOpls-The
defense Of local institutions not rebellion-A
'caT upon them is vGr on the principles of the
COnstitutiOn-N is reuOlution North as ,oeH as
SOpth-hs fatal sftcts a, home and abroad.
To ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President Of the United
Statea
RESPECTED SR.-In ny frat letter [ endesy.
ored to chow that the only legitimate object Of
the pending war is the integrity of the nation as
constituted by the Constitution of the Uni.ed
States. ishall now attempt to point out some
OF the consequences to be spprehelded from
making il war on the fundamental principles
of that Constitution.
Let 1t never be forgotten that We are one peo-
pie and one nation only 30 far as the Constitution
makes us one. Outside of that bond we are
thirty-four peoples and thirty-fo 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 q right,
under the Constitution, to defend their local
laws and institutions by arms, If necessary, and
it ia the duty of the United States 10 uphold and
AID them in the attempt. A war confined to
such an object would not be rebellion, even
though the United States were tho ae0ressor.
Just 80 far, therefore, as the pending Wsr may
be waged against Southern institutions, the
Southerners in arms will cease to be rebels, and
the Northerners in arms will become in truth
whatthey are now falsely charged With being
the Wanton aasailsnts of Southern rights. Let
me not be misunderstood. Thus far the war
has been confined to an enforcement of the
Constitution and laws Of the United States,
and, in their armed resistance, the Southerners
Gal nf.L 4 al
the United States abandon this firm and safe
platform; let them announce that the war is
hereafter to be waged against the constitutional
laws and institutions of the Southern States,
and they will measurably relieve the traitors
from the odium of causeless rebellion, will
give to their cause color of right, and will
nerve their arms for q more desperate resistance.
Then, indeed, would the war become one of sub
ugation-prosecuted, not for the purpose of
maintaining the Constitution, but In subyersiou
of its fundamental principles.
Such position would be attended with mis-
chievous, If not fatal consequences, both at home
and abroad. It would paralyze many North
ern patriot, who would give his life for the
Union, not because ne loves Southern institu-
tlons, but because he holds sacred the princi.
pies of the Constitution, and deems their pres
ervAtion essential to the maintenance of
order and Law, ss well in the North as at the
South. rr
All intelligent men know that Republic as
extensive as the United States, embracing such
o variety of climates, productions, institutions,
opinions and interest1, cannot exist under one
consolidated government, and at tho tame 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 o! an
attack on that fundamental principle of the
Constitution which leaves every State free TO
govern itself in all things which pertain to it's
local affairs. In the subversion Of that princi
pie he sees nothing but a cluster of hostile Re. |
publics, like those of Greece, wasting each |
other in continual wsrsi or great Empire like |
that of Rome, In which liberty shall be crushed |
under the iron rule of an aristocratic Senate or
IN usurping Cesar. With such prospect be-
fore him, how can any true friend of liberty |
austain, with confident hope and unhageiDg en- |
thusiasm, the prosecution of this war7 .
But the paralysis which an abandonment Of |
the Constitution would produce in many a |
Northern arm would not be its only effect. Il
would in an equal degree nerve many South |
ern arm, and array in active hostility many
Southern friend of the Union. 1t wou d ena-
BILE tae rebels to say that the North 10 attempt
ing to subvert constitutienal rights which the
South ls ngnttng TO maintain, lt would In the
eyes of the world, mitigate the crime of rebell-
ion by enabling the rebels to assert, with some
plausibility, that there was conspiracy in the
North against their constitutional rights. It
would enable them TO say to Great Britain and
France that the North as we'll as the South had
abandoned the Constitution which made them
one people, and become equally revolutionary
that the one was as much entitled to be CON
sidered and Acknowledged a separate ard inde-
pendent people as the other.
But it is said that slavery is the cause Of the
rebellion, and, therefore, It should be extermi.
mated. The assertion is but remotely aud par
TALLY true, and, IS far as it ia true, by no means
lustifies the conclusion II the mere existence
OF plavery were sufficient to produce rebellion,
the Constitution would never have been formed; I.
or, having been formed, 1t would not have lived
to three score years and ten II slavery were Of
itself suficienr to mako Gen rebels, then all
slaveholders would be rebels. So far is this
from the truth that the most conslderate among
them look upon the Constitution ana the Union
as the only outside protection which chat irsii-
tuition has. 10 their view, and that Of all
disinterested men In other states, that feature
Of the Constitution which guarantees the
return Of fugitlves from labor, commends
II TO the cordial and persevering support