The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1863-03-27
Fix your Eye on the Mark!
Fem the n. Y. F,eeman's Journal,

| Iyroes IN Workmanship MISS their au
by eyeing the instrument with which the,
shoot, instead of looking fxedly on th,
mark to be hit. In th. important affairs
of life, most men are tyroes. They accep
appearances for realities, they fuss witt
the shooting irons, and do not cover tht
thing to be shot. Hence ths failures thai
characterize humanity.
Our aim, if We be worthy the name O
freemen, is to preserve the free character o
! institutions. The character Of our insti
tuition is not identified with any piece OF
bunting or of silk-wheiher with a less
Or larger number of stars or of stripes
That flag was honored only as the symbol
and outward token of living POLITICAL or
ganism. The. essence of our institution is
not undistinguishab!e from the Feleral
Union, and the Federal Constitution. -
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe
and the rest Of the fathers of the country,
were freemen, and were full of the best OF
the spirit Of our institutions. Yet they
lived, and wrought out the independence
Of this country, and Of the Sovereign States
composing it, before either the Federal
Union, or the eletal Constitution, had
an existence.
The practica point of these general con-
siderations is this; The political good we
aim at is securing r"ace, security, liberty,
and prosperity, for the people. The Union,
as it existed by and in the Constitution of
the United States, while kept-that is, till
violated by the !awless personal liberty
bills Of Northern States, and set at naugh.
by the election of President on purely
Sectional, and not on the Union idea-
was the most perfect guarantee we could
have had for the preservation oe our per-
sonal, family, local, and State libertiea-
We fear, land we think, hat nothing equally
good AS it has been, can be substituted for
it. But,to show what the guarantees were
that made the old Constitution Union so
potent protection for the Liberties of the
people, we may brush away al; the
notions that certain shallow politicians,
newspaper editors, and New England
preachers and lecturers have gathere! out
of New England spelling books and their
own uneducated brains. 1t is fact :hat
the only part Of the country where the
common people understand the true the
ory of our Government, was at the South
where because the people rejected New
England prints and books, New England
has insisted that the people were less ed
ucated than her own table-tipping and
nutmeg manufacturing spectators.
To learn the true principles on which
the Union was founded, when the people
have forgotten, or never learned. their own
political traditions, it is necessary to 60
back to the writing Of the fathers who
founded our system. This is the only wise,
the only rational, the only civilized meth
cd. The Constitution was adopted, 'to
secure the blessings of liberty t. oursel
yes and to our posteritv.' Jefferson as
sured US that l.5erty was to be secured,
not BY fixing it that our rulers were to be
elected by the people, bu. by tying those
rulers down to tie letter of written Con
stitutions-outsiLc of which all their acts
should he null aud void. Farther than
this it was by the widest possible distri-
button Of powers because, when executive,
legislative, and judicial powera had no lon
ger check on one another, the Govern
ment-whateverits protessed forul-s the
very definition of a depotism. SO said
Jefferson and he adopted aimot the
words of Montesquieu, in bis "Spirit of
Laws" The language Of Washing .on, in
the Farewell Address, is almost in the
same words.
But, let us turn to those most imme
diate.y active in framin G ibe Constitution
tha. formed the Union. What light do
their writing and explanation of the work
manship Of the Constitution, give Us, in
regard to the present posture Of Linco!n's
Administration towarIi the country, the
oo.,:.es and the people!
Listen frs, ~ Madison, who, with SC
much reason, has been called the Rather
of the Constitution Writing, in the
FederoHst, to urge the States TO secede
from and disrupt the ed Confederati"n,
and to form the new AMI "luora peri c.
Union, hs said, in \ LF. number Of that
celebrated periodical
"The State Governments may be regar
ded as constituent and essential parts of the
Federal Government, whilst the latter Is
nowise essential to the operation or organ
ization of the former y
This i. potent consideration, and o
grea! comfort to our own times Madison
says again, continuing the subject in tht
next number of the Federalist:
"Ambitious encroachments Of tht
| Federal Government on the authority O
tho State Governments, would not exct,
the opposition OF single State or few
States only. They would be general sig
mails Of alarm. Every Governmen, woulc
expouse the common cause. Il correspon
dence pould be opened Plans of resistanc
would be concerted. ONE spirit 'couu aai
mate and conduct the wh0ie. The sam.
combination, in short, wouid result from
an apprehension Of the Federal, as aca
produced by the dread Of toreign yoke
And, uuless the projected innovation
should be voluntarily renowned, the sam
APPEAL to a trial Of force vouM be mad
in the one case, as ,cas made IN the other
But vhat deg.ee Of madness could cve
drive the Federal Government to sucj
aa ertremityr'
Madison rightly fo..told til. manner O