Weekly national intelligencer., 1863-08-20
WHO ARE THE ESEMIEs OF THE UNION,

nations of public policy and the proclaimed prin.
ciples of COL stitutonal law under which this war
was accepted by the Government and by the loyal
people of the United States after it had been forced
on them by the Southern Disunionists. We showed
that in its origin and in its progress down to late
date it was avowed to be war for the restoration
of the Union and the maintenance of constitutional
government, and we further showed that war for
such objects commanded not only the undivided
but the enthusiastic support of all loyal citizens,
after it had been rendered stern necessity by the
machipations and the violence of the insurgents.
We propose to-day very briefly to raise the ques-
ton, I" Who are the enemies of the Union I" The
inquiry is made necessary by the fact that some Of
its foes wear the livery of "loyalty."
1t is not necessary to designate the potters Of
this gigantic insurrection as the enemies Of the
Union. They are more taan this. They may
Justly be denounced as the enemies of mankind,
because the enemies of that constitutional liberty
which made the United States the hope of the
world. In season and out of season there has been
party at the South with whom the destruction Of
the Union has been paramount aim of covert or
overt striving for more than generation. Of late
years this party adroty avaling itsslf Of sectional
agitatons which it had created or intensified, in
creased rapidly in numbers and influence, advanc-
ing from one inordinate demand to another, pro-
fessedy in the interest of slavery, but really in the
interest of its revolutionary and disorganizing de
signs against the peace and stability Of the Re-
public.
Our readers do not need to be informed that
these conspirators have ever had in us constant
opponent. One of the most conspicuous among
them, now no more, (we aude to the late VIM.
L. Yancey,) bore public testimony to the fact that,
in his opinion, the National Intellgencer, by the
influence with which it was honored among a large
class of readers at the South, had done more than
any other single agency to postpone and Illustrate
the "Southern movement" We stood in opposi-
ton to these sgitators in the year $780, when they
clamored for a dismemberment of the Union on
from Mexico after our unjust war against that
country. We stood in opposition to them in 1854,
when, cooperating with class of Northern politi-
clans, they tore up the Missouri compromise and
opened tie fountains Of that Marah whose bitter
waters have since turned to blood. We stood in
opposition to them in 1858, when they clamored
for the admission Of Kansas under constitution
conceived in fraud and known to be repugnant to
the wishes of the people. We stood in opposition
to them when, for the constitutional and legal
election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the
United States they proceeded to spring the mine
they had long been laying under the foundations
of this Government And we stand against them
to-day, with the embattlcd power of the Republic
vindicating the majesty of the laws and the supre
macy of the Constitution.
All in the in urgent States or out Of them
who, whether by counsel, sympathy, resources,
or arms, voluntarily aid or abet these leaders,
are, We need not say, the enemies of the
Union" Many there are doubtless who have
been reluctantly driven into confederation with
these insurrcctionary projects, and who, if the
National Government had been present to give
them protection, would have been true in fact as
they are still true in heart to the Constitution of
their country, and to the Union and Government
of which that Constitution is the bond and symbol.
All in the Loyal States who seek to weaken the
Government in its efforts to suppress the nsurrec-
ton "the eneuies of the Union" All partisan
strife originated or fostered for this end, and all
factious opposition to the Government in any of
its departments or in any Of its measures, what
ever may be the motive Of that opposition, must
come under thectnsure Of an indignant patriotism
But those who sustain the Administration in
the adoption of measures which they believe to be
prejudicia to the best interests of the country
are men who cannot be true to the country, for
they are not true to themselves. The country, in
this her hour of need, has right to the best ser.
vice Of all her children, and they who would coun-
sci wisely cannot counsel insincerely. Truth, says
Bacon was never honored with the unclean in
cense Of lie, and manly patriotism never de.
mands at the hands of its votaries timid palter-
ing with conscience and personal duty. The hands
of the Government can be as fatally weakened by
servity as by faction, the former being the beset
ting peril of strong Administration and the latter
Of a weak one. The true citizen is he who seeks
to avoid both. He bears on his forehead "what
he thinks of the Republic" and never more con-
spicuously than in a time of public danger, when
interests the most momentous are at stake.
All who would divert the war from its only le-
gitimate and constitutional object are "the enc