The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-03-13
Treason under a Mask of Loyalty.

The worst type Of copperheads claim to
have great respect for the Constitution-"the
Constitution as 1t is,1 only, and not the Con-
stitution as 1t may become under the constitu-
tional action of free people. They go far
their, and tell Of their willingness to sustain
the government in all constitutional meas
ures" to put down rebellion. The copperhead
organ of this city, for example, copies the fol-
lowing resolution of the copperheaded legisla-
ture Of Indiana, to show how very loyal that
bodyis:
sResolred, That, notwithstanding our want of
confidence in the Administration, we yet here
by pledge ourselves to support it in all con-
stitutional measures to suppress the rebellion
at the South, and restore TO the Government
the proper and full exercise of its legitimate
authority"
its face, and is well calculated, viewed by it
self alone, to beget the impression that no OBJ
stacles will be thrown in the way of the gov
eminent by the opposition, in its struggle to
maintain its authority, and to suppress the
most gigantic and the most wicked and cause
less rebellion that the world has ever known.
1t may be safely asserted, however, and
maintained by the most convincing facts, that
these professions are often but thin mask of
loyalty, beneath which is very lily concealed
as rank treason as ever filed the breast of an
Arnold or a Burr, a Davis or Floyd. When
JEFF Davis was making speeches before demo-.
cratic conventions in this city, he was loyal in
almost precisely the same terms that the cop
perheads now use. The expelled rebel Sena-
tors, before their expulsion, talked in precise
~ the same strain. After Breckenridge left
the Senate, and entered upon the open course
of treason, his language would have been UNI
Objectionable in any convention of copper
heads that has been held in the North for the
last six months. The speeches of Valandig-
ham and Seymour, of Fernando Wood and
james Brooks, of John ii. George and Ira A.
Eastman, of F. o. J. Smith and E. r. Wig
gin. would subject their authors to no incon-
venience II made in Charleston, or in the pres
ence Of JEFF Davis at Richmond Nor would
those speeches be deemed offensive by Davis
even should every sentence be closed with an
apostrophe to the Constitution as it is" and
q pledge to sustain President Lincoln in all
constitutional measures" And why?
For this reason, precisely-Jef Davis knows,
and every intelligent man knows, that by "con-
only such measures as will oppose no resist
ance to rebellion, as will leave the rebel chief
tains complete masters of the field, and enable
them to force their way into Washington If
they will, and dictate the terms on which the
ct ruggle shall end. Is not this so? The cam
did reader is invited to consider the following
facts:
/. When secession was openly promulgated
in the South, and seven States at least had
ignored the national flag, taken possession OF
70 rts, revenue cutters and navy yards, the doc
trine was laid down by the highest official
democratic authority that the government had
no constitutional power to oppose force to Sc
cession. Mr.. Buchanan Inundated the nation
in his annual message, four months before the
assault upon Fort Sumter, and when rebellion
was a mere infant that could have been stran-
gled in its swaddling clothes, by enunciating
tn doctrine, that while a State had no consti-
tutional right to secede there was no consti-
tutioDal power in the government to prevent,
resist, or punish secession! The only "coDsti-
tutional measures" that he could employ to
suppress such rebellion, was to told his arms,
sit down in apathy, and see the national fabric
crumhling TO atoms over his head! The doc
trine that coercion" is unconstitutional as a
remedy for secession, was the doctrine of the
democratic administration then in power.
2. When Fort Sumter was taken and the
rebel Congress at Montgomery held jubilee,
and the rebel Secretary Of War promised tina,
In sixty days the confederate flag should float
over the federal capitol. and JEFF Davis en-.
gagged domestics TO attend his family at the
White House on the following Fourth Of July
President Lincoln issued a proclamation call
ing for IS 600 men to defend the capital, and to
enable him TO regain stolen property. Then
1t was the copperbead journals Of the demo
cratic party denounced the war as Lincoln:
war;" advised their political friends not to re-
spond to the call Of the President, said the
South was engaged In struggle precisely
like that which engaged the colonies in '76
and urged that the President had no power to
march federal soldier across the line of a
State. Some copperheads in Connecticut ev.
en- proposed tn refuse passage across that
State to Massachusetts, troops on their way to
defend the national capital! The emphatic
doctrine of tie leaders was, that, though the
President had right to defend the city o.
Washington-provided he could get the con.
sent Of the States to march troops there-hs
had no constitutional power to march single
man into Virginia, or any other State, with
out the consent OF the authorities of such
STATED
8. When the proposition was made for Con
gress to provide for the confscation Of the
property of the rebels, the liberation Of theil
slaves, and their employment for military pur
poses. the proposition was fatty met by the de
NAL Of all constitutional power to do so. Con
gress, it was said had no such power; only thu
President, as Commander-in-chief, could exer
else such authority.
4. When to save the credit of the country
and TO supply the means of carrying on its 81
gantic operations by land and sea, 1t becam
necessary to issue government demand notes
there being no other available means o
raising money,--the constitutionality of tn,
measure was fatty denied; aud when Con
gress made such notes legal tender, the charg