The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-04-18

their own assemblies; not being represent
ed infhe British Parliament, they denied
its right to bind them in all cases, and, in
asmuch a. the King, combining with the
Parliament, had by long course Of abuses
and usurpatons, evinoed desire to reduce
them to absolute despotism, it was their
right and duty to throw off their allegiance
and establish their Independence.
In all this, need not say, there is not
the slightest similarity, in principal or fact,
with the case of the seeding States. Their
inhabitants are not separate colonial peo-
pie, but they are an integral portion Of that
lone people" which declared their indepen-
dence, and which, being loosely associated
under the old confederation of States, or
dained and established the present Consti-
tuition, Sin order to form more perfect
Union" In the Government which they
thus took part in forming, they are repre-
scented beyond the numerical proportion of
of the time its administration has been
controlled by themselves. This organic
law, thus formed, has been adopted by the
people of each of the States, as much as
their own State Constitutions, and there is
a provision in the text of the instrument
that this Constitution and the laws OF the
/ United States which shall be made in pur-
suance thereof shall be the supreme law
of the land, and the judges in every State
shall be bound thereby, anything in the
Constitution or laws OF. any State, to the
contrary Notwithstanding" All the pow
ers Of the Government having, for the
greater part of the time since its formation,
States and by those in other States in polit-
ical alliance with them, it is impossible,
Notwithstanding loose assertions and clam
ors to the contrary, that the seeding States
can have found it an oppressive or tyran-
nical Government, which, by the ,princi-
Piles of the Declaration and by the laws of
Nature, they had a right to throw of, or
even Of which they had any just right to
complain. They have accordingly re-
adopted this form of government with no
essential alterations, and it was admitted
| by Mr.. Vice President Stephens with the
exception of Mr.. Jefferson Davis, the
smartest man in the Southern service,) to
ment known in the history of the world
This confession was made.after the election
of Mr.. Lincoln, the Immediate pretended
justification Of the rebellion. A still more
important admission was made by Mr..
Davis himself, in one of his last speeches
in the Senate of the limited States, Goth
Dec. 1867 body in which he has never re-
oath now rests upon his conscience.
sour fathers, said Mr.. Davis, learning
wisdom from the experiments of Rome
and Greece, the one a consolidated Repub-
lie, and the other strictly a Confederacy,
and taught by the lessons of our own ex-
pertinent under the Confederation, came
together to form "a more perfect union
and, in my judgment, made the best Gov
eminent that has been instituted by man.
1t only requires that it should be carried
out i'll the spirit in which it was made, that
| the circumstances under which it was
made should continue, and no evil can arise
under the Government, for which it has not
| a q "a " 10 nj liz.
of the Government, elsewhere than to its
Consultation or to its administration, that we
must look. Men must not creep in the dust
Of partisan strife, and seek to make points
against opponents, as the means OF eva
ding or meeting the issues before us.
The fault is notin the form of the Govern
ment, nor does the evil spring from the
manner in which it has been administered.
Where then is it. 1t is that our fathers
formed a Government for a Union of
friendly States; and though under it the
people have been prosperous, beyond COM
parison with any other whose career is re-
corded in the history of man, still the IN
ion of friendly States had changed it's char
acter, and sectional hostility has been sub
stituted for the fraternity in which the Gov
eminent was founded" ,.,
In an Italian church yard there is q
monument with an epitaph on man who,
being well, dosed himselft to deoth with I'M
|
megLio, StO qui. II was well, wanted to
be better; and here am" Mr.. Davis was
living about two years ago, as he tells us,
under the best form of government ever in
stituted by man; no mean blessing that, to
begin with, as the world goes. There was
no taultto be found with the manner in
which it had been administered. OF how
few governments can that be said, in an
cient or modern times. 1t would, indeed,
| have been ungraciouS in Mr.. Davis to COM
plain of its administration, for it had al
most always been controlled by his friends,
and he himself had been literally educated
at its expense, and passed most of his life
in it's service, and was then filling one of it's
highest trusts. Under the practical work
ing of this perfectly -constituted and accept
ably-administered government, thecountry
he admits, has been prosperous beyond
comparison with anything recorded in his
tory. Was not this enough for man or peo-
pie? Alas, no! Mr.. Davis was not content
| with this exuberant felicity. He needed
something more; he desired ''nice and
subtle happiness" he sighed for "fraterni-
ty.' To get that precious boon, he dosed
/ himself with the maddening drug of seces-
| sion; and now behold him-the fetlocks of
| his warehouse wet with the blood of civil
| war, oozing from the trampled bosoms Of
| friend and foe, as he RACES over the field of
death in search of something better than
the best government, than an unexception-
able administration, than Il prosperity with
out example in the history Of the world!
Is this patriotic statesmanship or is it am
bilious frenzy! What! an unprincipled re-
bellion like this to be compared with the
work of our sainted Fathers. of Washing
ton and Franklin, and Jefferson and Adj
| ans, the heroes and sages of the revolution!
| This gigantic treason to be profanely Iaud-
| ed as the august foundation of a new State:
to be fed with foreign gold and nursed with
| foreign favor! Then let all pretense of
distinction between right and wrong, truth
| and falsehood, be forever abandoned. Lift
up your heads, We prison gates, and let
| your wronged inmates go free! Come home
from the Cannibal Islands, We missionaries,
and let the honest savage gorge upon his
0 just Bedlam, and send your abused phi
losophers, princes and statesman to their
homes! Cease your dull pirate, We teachers
Of morals! There is no crime, there is no
barbarism, there is no madness. Those
who make constitutions, not those who
break them, shall henceforwarGl be traitors
Our legislators and judges shall be the Gull
prits, not felons and thieves. Oaths shall