The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1862-05-16

the idea of building forts, to move away
from navigable streams so as to keep aloof
from our gun-boats, to draw our armies at
ter them into the hot climate of the Gulf
States, and thus to prolong the war, if pos
sible, until, as they say, our Government
''shall be banlrupted." Sanguine people,
of course, will not credit this theory. 1t
may not be correct, and we hope it is not
But whatever may be the result of the war,
Mcclellan has done his share to bring it to
successful close, and should it fail to restore
the Union, it will not be because the war
was not properly conducted on the Federal
side, but because it was not the remedy for
the disease TO which it has been applied.
SHADE IT,, Somerset Co., May 7, 'G2.
4Rr. Editor:
l am an ignorant man, living on the Al
leghany mountain, and solicit information from
you and your numerous correspondents. have
lately received a copy of our glorious ''Consti-
tuition of the United States" / read the fol-
lowing passage in Section HI:
''Treason against the United States, shall con-
sist only in levying war against them," &c, &c.
Now | am an humble peasant, an unsophis
ticated mountaineer, and | wish to know how
any one can be guilty of treason properly and
const'tut'onally speaking? Treason consists in
Nlayiag tcar against the United States; but if sew
ell or eight States secede from the formerly Uni
ted States, l want to know how you can make,
or prove, any one to be a traitor in the seeded
States. The States are no longer ''United;"
therefore, no treason and no traitor can be found.
am poor man on the Allegheny mountain,
ard | want information. | cannot be proved a
traitor, even if / should speak against the pre-
sent state of things for it is treason only to
speak against the United States.
QuERE.
REMARKS.
Our correspondent, however ''unsophisti-
Gated, must know that there is no Consti-
tutional right of secession; that the so-call-
ed Confederate States" which have preten-
ded to secede from the Union, had not the
power, under the Constitution, to do So and
are no more out of the Union to-day, ''Con-
stitutionally speaking, than they were when
! they denounced the disunion secessionists of
the Hartford Convention so years ago. The
Union is, Theoretically, as perfect and COM
plete at the present moment as it was when
the Constitution was ratified by the States.
And it is to the theory of our Government
that we must look for the determination and
punishment Of crimes against it. That the
ory is contained in the fundamental law, or
i'll other words, the Constitution. There
fore, as that law, that Constitution is still
just as binding upon the people of the Sece-
ded States as it would be, had they never
adopted their ordinances of Secession, and,
as that law, that Constitution is the tie that
holds the States together, it follows that we
have still, theoretically, and, therefore, for
all judicial purposes, zHi1y,tour United
States. Hence the taking up of arms by
citizens of the would-be independent States
in their efforts to throw off the authority of
the Constitution and the Federal Laws, is
''levying war against the United States,"
and, therefore, treason. True, if VIC look
at the present condition of things in our
country, from a practical standpoint, we
are compelled to admit that we are dis-rlni-
ted people. Whilst, according to the Con-
stitution, there can be no such thing as
dissolution of the Union, the people of the
seeded States have practically (at least for
the presenf effected such dissolution. A
temporary separation is acknowledged by the
fact that we daily speak of restoring the
Union. Butwhen this question of Disunion
comes to be regarded in a legal sense, we
can look only to the Constitution for our gui-
dance, and that leads us straight on from
Maine to the Gulf, without discovering sim
gle chasm indicating political separation.
| B9"The Indiana Democrat Just started ut In
diana, Pa, by our particular friend, j. b. SAN
SOM, Esq, late of the Fulton Democrat, is
neat and spicy sheet. We wish "Jeemes" all
the success he deserves, and that is not q little
Cameron in Oongess.
WASHINGTON, April 30.-The following res
olution was submitted by Mr.. Holman, from
the Committee, and was read:
Rcsolred, That Simon Cameron late Secre-
tary of War, by investing Alexander Cum
mings with the control Of large sums of public
money and authority to purchase military sup
plies without restriction, without requiring from
him due guarantees for the faithful performance