Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-02-09

Now, this act OF Union thus accomplished,
and this Constitution, thus established, clearly
aud solemnly laid upon the General Government
and the people Of the free States these obliga-
tions:
1. To treat their Southern sisters SO received
into the Union, with courtesy and Kindness, and
as equals, and to abstain from all Interference
and medding in their domestic affairs.
p To faithfully execute all the provisions of
I the Constitution.
Up to 1860, the General Government at
tempted to keep these obligations on its part, it
being, to that date, controlled by the Democratic
party.
But these obligations were not kept:
l. BY the Abolition people in all the North.
2. BY the Abolition State governments of the
I North.
! l. OF the acts of the Abolition people.
If your neighbor was in the habit of coming,
every few days, to the line of your 1T or yard,
and talking TO your domestics IN denunciation of
your character and family government, trying to
excite in them hostility to you; to induce them
to desert you, and to inlict injury on you and
yours; and should, further, at such impertinent
and meddlesome visits, throw among them libel
lous papers and prints calculated TO stir them up
to discord and rebellion, what would YOU think
of him! What would YOU do in such a case 2
Such are Just the acts which the Abolition people
of the North have been perpetrating upon the
They have stood upon the Northern bank of the
Ohio, and shouted across TO the servants of the
people south of that beautiful stream, telling
them that their masters were barbarians heathens
soulmurderers, unworthy to sit at the commun-
ion table of our common Lord, or to be admit
ted TO His heavenly mansions; and have thrown
among them papers and prints calculated to in
duce them to desert their masters, and, in many
instances, to burn their houses and murder their
wives and children.
In this. these Abolition people have violated
good breeding, the rules of politeness, friendship
and equality, and the spirit of the Constitution
and laws the United States.
Again These Abolition people, during the
same period have stolen away and secreted from
their masters the domestics of the South; and,
when those domestics have run away they have
resisted the masters and the officers of the law in
efforts to effect their return in obedience TO the
express provision of the Constitution of the
Union. In this, these Abolition people have per-
petrated robbery upon the South have refused
to fulfill their constitutional obligations and in
many instances, have been guilty of treason,
treason yet unpunished, against the United
States.
Again During the same period, these Aboi-
ton people have tormented the common Con-
gress of all the States wit insulting, infamma-
tory petitions, asking that body to do an uncon-
stitutional act, viz, to abolish slavery by stat
ute. In so doing, they have kept up an inter-
meddling, irritating, threatening political war
upon the Southern people.
2 OF the acts of Abolition State Governments
in the North, nullifying the Constitution of the
United States.
l. BY refusing to surrender criminals.
g By resisting the officers of the United
States who were attempting to return fugitive
slaves to their masters in obedience to the in
functions of the Constitution and the law of
Congress
3. BY enacting laws making it criminal of
fense for their citizens to obey portions of the
Constitution of the United States, and BY send
ting offensive Abolition legislative resolutions TO
the Legislatures of slave States.
l. OF refusing to surrender criminals.
If citizen of the North goes into Southern
State and steals slave, ne is guilty of a crime
and is punishable by such State; and the Con-
sttution requires that such criminal, as well as
others, if he escapes, before trial, into another
Stale, shall, on proper demand. be surrendered
for trial sc
This provision of the Constitution, as to such
criminals, the Abolition States of the North re-
fused TO fulfill. Governor William II. Serdrd
of New York, set perhaps, the first example of
such refusal in 1885, which example was fol-
lowed by the Abolition Executives of other
Northern States, down nearly to the breaking up
of the Union in 1861, few months previous to
which event, Governor William Dennison, of
Ohio, perpetrated, perhaps the last example.
Chancellor Kent, in the first volume of his Com
mentaries, he being an old Wing, Northern
man. and iurist second TO none has recorded
his opinion of these acts. He declares that after
having read everything on the subject and most
maturelv considered it, he is deliberately of the
opinion that those acts were violations of the
Constitution of the United States; and have
not met with respectable law authority that diff
fcrs from him.
The position taken by these Abolition Gov
ernors operated as a direct encouragement to
Northern fanatics, higher law men, TO undertake
thieving expeditions TO the South.
g OF resisting the officers of the United States
when executing the fugitive slave law enacted by
Congress in fulfillment of the Constitution.
When the United States Marshals, by COM
mand of process issued by judicial officers of the
General Government, have attempted to restore
to their masters runaway slaves, it has been the
practice for the State officers in the Abolition
States TO arrest the Marshals and throw them into
prison. seize the fugitive slaves and run them off
TO Canada, and then arrest and imprison the
masters, as felons, for daring TO come, under the
protection of the Constitution, TO reclaim their
slaves. / will not spend time in enumerating
cases under this head. l appeal to the memory
of every living man in the nation.
3. Ofthe laws enacted by the Abolition States
called personal Liberty Bills" Furnishing their
citizens for obeying portions of the Federal Con-
stitution. The purpose and operation of these
statutes were to infiet severe fines and imprison-
ments upon officers and citizens of the States who
should assist a master in reclaiming his slave,
and also upon the master himself for attempting
reclamation.
1 will not characterize these statutes Their
condemnation appears upon their face.
When the Southern States began to secede,
and the Abolitionists of the Northern States to
be called to reflection; when they begin TO appre-
hend that thev had drawn the cord so tight that
it was swapping, some of them counselled the
immediate repeal of these laws Said Gov.
Banks, of Massachusetts,, in his last message-he
who had once expressed willingness TO 'let the
Union slide" and who, at later day, as he
stood by the side of Seward, upon Arlington
Hights, and witnessed the start of the grand
army Of the Potomac southwark, is reported to
have said, with a significant wave of his hat that
the Union had slid, that that was the last of the
Republic; said this Governor, remarking of the
Personal Liberty Bill of Massachusetts-'I can
not but regard the maintenance of statute,
whether unconstitutional or not, which is so un-
necessary to the public service, and so detriment
al to the public peace, as an inexcusable
wrong"
Said the Governor of Pennsylvania, about the
same time in his message, in reference to the re-
peal of the Bill of that State" Before assuming
the highresponsibilities now dinly foreshadowed,
[the war upon the South it is solemn duty to
remove every just cause of complaint against
ourselves, so that we may stand before High
Heaven and the civilized world without fear and
without reproach." At the same point of time,
said Gov. Morgan, of New York, now better
known as "Shoddy," in his annual message:
Let the free States fulfill all the obligations to
the Federal Constitution and laws; then, with