Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-01-24

The following resolutions were offered in
the legislature by Mr.. WATERS of Sutton, and
referred to the committee on federal rela-
tiOns =
Whereas, it is the privilege of state legisa-
lures to express their sentiments upon all
questions of national policy that effect the
public interest, and especially in times of
great public danger and calamity to assist the
national government by strongly supporting
those rightful measures which its chief magis-
trate, acting under his constitutional obliga-
tlonS to the country, shall deem essential to
the national welfare, therefore
Resolved, that the people of Massachusetts,
speaking through their legislature, hail the
emancipation PROCLAMATION of the president
as war measure, dictated alike by sound
craftsmanship, prudent generalshp. and a
wise philanthropy and although traitors in
arms may illuminate threats of windictive re-
taliatiOn and their sympathizers everywhere
Indignantly as>ail, yet will Massachusetts
stand tirmer by the government as it thus
shows its determination 10 use every effort
sanctioned by the consideraie judgement of
mankind to thwart the purposes Of organized
and shameless treason, make its 0riginatOrs
and participants feel the full consequences of
a war which they alone inaugurated. and
cause the constitution and laws to be respect
ed and obeyed, so that hcaven-born justice
may resume its sway, the starry banner of
freedom wave over the entire Union. and
peace and prosperity prevail throughout its
border.
Resolved, that believing it 20 be the most
solemn duty of the president to foil the designs
of traitors and bring them before the tribunals
of justice to receive the punishment common.
Surate with their crimes, and, that he may eff
tectually do so, we believe it to be an mper-
alive necessity that the allies of traitors and
sympathizerS with treason, whoever they may
be or wherever found. that seek to betray the
country into the hands of those who would
destroy it, should be Summarly dealt with as
aiders and abetterS of treason; and to this end
we regard the suspension of the writ of ha5eas
corpus by the president as wise, just, and con-
stitutional, for the government beng assailed
by rebellion and threatened by invasion the
public safety did require it.
Resolved, that the war in which we are now
engaged, is not one of subjugation or of con-
quest, but war to maintain our national uni
ty, thrust upon us by unprincipled men, the
chief of whom, while holding high offices
under the government IN former admnistra-
ton, betrayed those honored trusts, piled their
tricks of treason, violated their oaths of office
and entered into most foul conspiracy to
destroy the American Union, and erect on its
ruins an oligarchy of despotism. To effect
the contamination of this nefarious scheme,
they have instituted reign of terror, by ar
resting peaceably disposed citizens, and in
generating them in loathsome prisons, hun
dreds of whom have been executed without
trial, accused of no crime but love of country,
while others have been driven from their homes
to the mountains and deserts, hunted and slain
like wild beasts, for being suspected of SYM
pathy for the Union. The savage Indian
tribes have been melted to deeds of rapine,
parallel in the history of this continent, per-
petrated upon the defenceless men, women,
and children of frontier state, the author
ship of the instgation to these fiendish atroci-
ties being distinctly proven, by the contempo-
raneous words of the official chief of the re-
bellion, i'll message to the rebel congress. in
which he says 'our Indian allies have proved
faithful to us Therefore it behooves us men
and Americans, by every principle of honor
and justce-by every instinct of Humanity and
-preservation-by the dearest rights and
interests Of freedom ever enjoyed by man
by the sacred trusts bequeathed to us by the
patriot fathers of the republic, to unite and
concentrate all our energies, to use all the
powers and WELD all the forces which God
has given US, with all the vigor and earnest
ness which the laws of civilized warfare per-
nit and the stern necessities of the hour de-
mand, that we may demonstrate to the world
our capacity for self-goverhment, protect the