The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1862-08-01
tFor the Daily Press.l
1.-THE Constitution rs il is, and the Union as
il Was.~

1
party now constantly insisting upon the above
motto, in Maine, is represented by the Argus !;
and, that in 1861, it was opposed to the Con-
stituton as it is, and in favor of dissolution
ofthe Union. This we proved by citations from
that paper
| The party is made up of men that formerly
figured largely in the late Wing party, the late
the late Know-nothing, or Native American
party, and its illegitimate offspring, the Con-
stitutional Union party. Among its members
are men who were prominent leaders in all
these obsolete organizations. 1t was the OBJ
! ject of these leaders, in the days when these
| parties flourished, to crush out the grand ideas
of freedom and justice, which the fathers put
into our Constitution to distinguish govern
ment on this continent from the despotisms
| of the Old World.
| This Wing party died, and made no sign
1t contained many noble men, who strove, and
vainly strove, to make it speak for freedom
and justice. We behold its giant, who had
often spoken for freedom, in the hour of his
desperation, like Sampson, lifting up the pill
lars of the house in GAIA, by one mighty effort
burying his party and himself in one common
ruin. Thank Heaven, the Constitution re-
mains!
The late Democratic party made a more
desperate struggle for life. We see it writh-
ing in agony at Charleston, like poisonous
serpent, divided by the mowers scythe. In
the last Presidential race the tail end put on
its ticket one traitor out of two. The head,
feeling the ruling passion strong in death,
determined not to be beat, put up a traitor at
each end, and gloried in its shame.
The Know-nothng party was shapen in mi
guilty, and in sin was it conceived. 1t was
born of the spirit of persecution. 1t never
grew to maturity. The child was ready to be
born, but there was not strength to bring forth.
In the hour of its travail it brought forth the
Constitutional Union party" and family cry
ing "Ichabod," gave up the ghost.
This Constitutional Union party early lent
its aid to treason in the use of a cracked Bell
1t was soon found out, and died 'unwept, I'M
honored, and unsung.'
There were good men in all these organiza-
tons, but they were led into evil by unscrupu-
lous politicians. They led the country for
thirty years, and they led her to the brink of
ruin. But they have passed away; the places
that knew them will know them no more.
l have said, "For more than thirty years
within my recollection. it 1.-THE Argusl has fav-
ored all those measures that have encouraged
the Shareholders to commence this war"
rhafs fI,o - Az
war is undeniable. 1t commenced in South
Carolina, the leading slaveholding State. 1t
then broke out in the other cotton States,
where there are many shareholders. The war
had commenced in eight of the extreme slave
holding States two or three weeks before Mr..
Lincoln became President. However, seces-
sion could not be forced on the people of yir-
ginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkan-
sas, where the shareholders are less numerous,
till they were first placed under the military
power of jefferson Davis and the Southern
Confederacy.
With regard to Kentucky, Maryland, and
Missouri, where the shareholders are less nu-
merous, the skill of the traitors has not been
able to draw them into the net of secession,
although there have been reasons to fear such
fact might be accomplished. In little Della
ware, and the republican, or free States, there
has been no secession, and no fear of it. The
extent of the treason has been in exact pro-
portion to the number of shareholders. The
great majority Of the people in western vir-
ginia, north and east Kentucky, and in east
Tennessee, where the Shareholders were few,
have turned out to be loyal. So there has been
a manifestation of loyalty in west North Caro-
lima, in northern Alabama, and in northwest
ern Georgia, the number of shareholders be-
ing small in those sections. But where the
shareholders are numerous, there is very little
evidence of loyalty, and in South Carolina
may say none, except among the slaves.
The fact being established, that slavery is the
primary cause of this war, it is manifest the
shareholders never would have commenced it
had they not anticipated aid from the North.
The free population of the eleven seeding
States was only 5,5sl $40 in 1860, when the
war began. The free population of the TWEEN
ty-three loyal States was 21,sSse47, almost
four times as many. Then there were $780,
ZIG slaves, loyal blacks, to be added to the
Northern population, whenever the President
shall invite them to desert the rebels. aid the
government, and receive their freedom These
facts were well-known to the leading traitors.
In consequence of these facts, they never
would have commenced this war if they had
not expected aid from the North. They say
so. Now, there are two classes of men in the
North-the anti-slavery men, and the pro-sav-
cry men, the radicals, and the conservatives
or, in other words, the constitutionalists, and
the concessionists or compromisers
Now the Argus and its partizans say the an
ti-slayery men, the radicals, or the constitu-
tionalists are the cause of the war, and they
complain of Wade, of Wilson, of Hale, and
other prominent republicans, calling them alb
clifton leaders, because they were not willing
TO change the constitution to suit the aristoc-
racy of Shareholders. But the traitors took no
encouragement from the opposition made TO
their schemes. We distinctly charge that the
Shareholders took encouragement to commence
this war in consequence of the aid they had re-
eeived from the pro-slavery men, the conserva-
tives, or the compromisers in the north. They
say so in plain words.
Hear the Charleston Mercury exclaim in
anguish:
Where are Messrs. Fillmore Everett, Win
throp, Gushing, Butler and Hallett, of Boston;