Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-02-24
The Cons1itntion of 11sa.

The Constitution of 1883.
Now, as in the years that preceded the forma-
ton of the American Constitution the question is
presented to the people of this country, shall we
! have Union under the Constitution of 1882
This question is not forced on us by events. The
war through which we are passing was COM
menced, and has been prosecuted solely for the
/ Union. The question of disunOn is not presented
to the Northern people by the army, by their
Government, by their condition. For the year
the North has been spending its fortunes, its best
! blood for the Union. But suddenly, here and
| there among US, the proposition as heard, now
only limited or lDutteFed, now broadly announced
and avowed, that the war should be changed in
its object, and the Union for which it has been
I prosecuted should be destroyed by the war power.
! Six months ago, If a man had uttered in the
| open streets the continents that Massachusetts
Senator now advocates on the floors of Congress
he would have been mObbed as traitor. The
! doctrine that State can secede is identical with
the doctrine that thirty three States exseind
one or that the present Senate and House OF
Representatives can declare certain States dead
bv their own acts. When the seeding States
sent commissioners to Washington to negotiate
terms OF separation, it was truly and clearly af-
frmed by Mr. Buchanan's administration, with
J the approval of the entire North, that there did
! not exist any power in Congress, or III the Con-
4 stitutiOnal Government of the United States to
recognize the secession of State, TO treat with
a seeded State. Suddenly we are told at this
late day by the Massachusetts Senator, that this
doctrine was all wrong, that the act of secession
was suicide and the Government of the United
States NAV at once treat the soil of the seeded
Stote as territory, and of course may cede il 70
inhabitants as easily as it can cede an island on
l7the Oregon coast TO England; in effect that the
Government may treat States as foreign powers.
The worse claim of the Southern States right
disuni0nist thus finds hacker and apolOgist IN a
/ Northern Abolition Senator, and is indorsed and
approved by his immediate admirers. 1t is con
tended by MIR. Sumner that the Government may
at any time when il regards an act of State re-
beliOus, treat the State as no longer within the
constitutional provisions, and subject thereafter
to the mere will of the central Government
1t has not escaped observation that this strange
plunge of New England Senator into the worst
| form of Southern notification doctrines has been
brought about by his anxiety to attack slavery.
Nor will il fail to attract attention that the enc
mics of the Constitution, at the North, the
anti-slavery men. They constantly seek to
avoid the true issue which we present, by charg
ing that defenders of the Constitution are infu-
enced solely by desire to perpetuitte slavery.
! Ii happens that the State of New York, or the
! Washington Government, cannot interfere with
slavery, as a system, without violating the Con-
necessarily the defenders of the rights of States
so far as the Constitution guarantees them. It..
therefore, occurs that, to defend the Constitution
Is TO defend the laws of slave States over slavery
| against unconstitutional interference; and to nd
vOcate the immediate abolition of slave laws,
and the principles of slaveholding, by any other
I than State authority leads the AbolitiOnist nee
essarilY to attack the Constitution. 1t might Oc-
cur that Southern and saveholding principles
would gain great ascendancy in Congress, so
that parties would seek by act of COngsess, or
proclamation, or otherwise, to force slave code
on New Y ork or Massachusetts The defenders
of the Constitution would be then, as now the
stern opponents of such attempts.
But since, for the present, Abolitionism sees
no method of attacking slavery so long the
Constitution stands in the way its open or insid
ious assaults are directed toward that, and the
leader of the radical men now presents in the
Senate of the United States the open question,
Will you have a Union of these States under the
Constitution of 1882 Mr. Sumner opposes it,
The Abolitionists oppose it. The leaders of the
Southern rebellion oppose it.
When the same question was discussed in the
States seventy years ago, it felt by patriotic
men North and South that 10 form a Union great
concessions of feeling must be made. Perhaps
no one was satisfied with everything in the Con-
stitutiOn. But the Union was worth more than
the wishes that they Yielded -f rfl
History has already recorded of these men that
they were among the wisest of politicians the
world has known. That they were patriots,
noble, seifsacri6cing, far seeing into that future
which has since proved so glorious. In agreeing
to that Constitution they founded the most be
nefcent, prosperous and successful Government
that the world has seen, and their names are
hOnOred and cherished, and will be honOred when
brazen records are effaced by time. go 81 -cf
But what shall history record of the Northern
ana Southern enemies of that Constitution who
breathe the air they breathed and live by by their
graves, on whose headstOnes the MOSES have not
had time to grow : The present trial will result
in their infamy, whatever be the end. Should
they succeed in destroying the Constitution of
lIc9, the attempt tO-erect on its ruins another
Governments will prove utterly vain. Higher law
doctrines, notification doctrines, the vague no.
ton of liberty which characterize modern r.ld-
cailsm, all these are the elements of eHmity to
the Constitution it now rs and of course will
forbid any new Union when the old one is de-
stroyed. Amid the wreck of the great faseic
will be seen for little while the distorted fea-
lures OF those who crushed themselves in their
mad plans of ruin, and then they will be forgot
ten, with all the fanatics of ALI ages, who have
been enemies to the best interests OF the race.
On the other hand, if, as the loyal American
heart hopes and prays, the Constitution is TO
come out of this trial with new strength and new
yig0F' fort race OF a thousand wears, then the
best hop for the present potters against il will
be that history ma. mercifully leave their mes
uhrec0raed in the story of this foul plot against
that Constitution which the fathers made and
which Washington commended to the care of the
nation, 10 whom, as mis- only children, he left the
Union an Inheritance of honor, and trust for
the benefit of future ages--Nei0s York Journal
Of Commerce. ~ hrt- fl - c1 r83's
I t.e-eaa - -ea1 fsas.
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