M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1862-03-13

"S'eoncr W Oe WHgeu against the
constitutional laws and institutions OF
the Southern States, and they will
measnrably relieve the traitors from
the odium OF causelees rebellion, will
give to their cause a color of right,
and will nerve their arms 70: q more
desperate resistance. Then, indeed,
would the war become one of subiu.
CATION prosecuted, not for the pur.
pose OF maintaining the Constitution,
but in subVerslon Of its fundamental
principles.
Such position would be attended
with mischievous. if not fatal, conse.
quences, both at home and abroad. -
1t would paralyze many Northern
patriot, who would give his life for
the Unicr, not because he loves
Southern institutions, but because he
holds sacred the principles ofthe con.
stitution, and deems their preserva.
ton essential to the maintenance of
order and law, as we'll in the North
as the South.
| All intelligent men know that q re-
nnblic as extensive as the United
States, embracing such a variety of
climates, productions, institutions,
opinions and interests, can not exist
under one consolidated Government
and at the same time allow the high.
Get practicable degree ofliberty to all
its parts. Hence it is that every true
friend Of liberty revolts from the idea
on that fundamental principle of the
Constitution which leaves every State
free to govern itself in all things
which pertain to its local affairs. In
the subversion of that principle he
sees nothing in prospect but q cluster
of hostile republics, like those Of
Greece, wasting each other in contin.
al wars; or a great empire, like that
of Rome, in which liberty shall be
crushed under the iron rule ofati arris
tocratic senate or an usurping Cesar.
With such prospect before him, how
. can any true friend OF liberty sustain,
with confident hope and unfagging
enthusiasm, the prosecution Of this
war2
But the paralysis which an aban.
donment of the Constitution would
produce in many a Northern arm
would, in an equal degree, nerve ma
ny a Southern arm and array in &C.
tive hostility many a Southern friend
of the Union. 1t would enable the
rebels to say that the Mort h is attempt:
ing to subvert the constitutional rights
which the South 10 fighting to main.
tain. 1t would, in the eyes OF the
world, mitigate the crime Of rebellion
by enabling the rebels to assert, with
some planssbility, that there was a
conspiracy in the North against their
constitutional rights. 1t would ena.
BILE them to say to Great Britain and
France that the North as we'll as tho
South had abandoned the Constitution
which made them one people, and be-
como equally revolutionary the
ont was as much entitled to be con-
sidered and acknowledged sepa.
rate and independent people as the
other.
But it ls said thst slavery is the
cause of the rebellion, and, therefore,
it should be exterminated. The as
sertion is but remotely and partially
true, and, as far as it is true, by no
means justifies the conclusion. Ifthe
mere existence of slavery were suffic.
tent to produce rebellion, the Coust i.
tuition would never have been formed;
or, having been formed, it would not
have lived to three.score years and
ten. lfslavery were of itself sufficient
to make men rebels, then all slavehol.
ders would be rebels. So far is this
from the truth that the most consider
ate among them look upon tho Consti.
tuition and the Union as tho only out.
side protection which that institution
has. In their view, and in that of all
disinterested men in other States, that
feature of Tie Constitution which
guarantees the return Of tugitives from
labor, commends it to the cordial and
persevering support of all masters
who have no object in view beyond
security in their lawful rights. No
such international regulation exists
elsewhere in the civilized world, aud
its maintenance ought, upon every
principle of souad reasoning, to have
made slaveho' ders the last to give upI
the Constitution. In this view slav-
cry was a bond of Union, so far as
the masters were concerned, rather
than element OF dissolution. And it
is in this view that certain men in
the North have denounced the Consti.
tuition as "a league with. hell"
In another letter | will eEdeavor to
point out the true causes of the rebel
lion, and how far slavery has fostered