The mountain Democrat., 1863-08-15
Origin Of the War.

ana Otner expenSeS-OraZenly tell tne
people that the Democratic party is re-
sponsible for the war. This is cool, in
the face Of the assertion of Douglas,
which assertion has never been disput-
ed, that "the sole responsibility of our
disagreement, and the only difficulty in
the way Of an amicabIe adjustment was
with the Republican party" in the face
Of Greeley's infamous declaration, repeat
ed and indOrsed by the Republican party,
that the Republicans "would not agree
to the Crittenden Compromise, and pre-
ferred the Chicago Platform to fifty
Unions :" in the face of the statement of
Ben Wade, that the Republicans would
rather see the "Union crushed than yield
an inch to the demands of the slave
holders"
The origin of the war, as every man
who has the capacity to follow cs"Ncc tn
their " logical consequences" or to trace
back effects to their origin, was, beyond
all question, the intemperatc agitation Of
the slavery question by Northern fanat,
ics-an agitation begun and perverseIy
and peysistsDtly continued By Sumner,
Wade, Giddings, Garrison, Greeley, Lin
coin and other Abolition leaders, who had
neither moral nor political jurisdiction over
the exciting subject which they assumed
to determine. In the North, it is well
known fact, the press, the forum, the the
ntcr, the pulpit, The tavern, the street
corner, every place rcsounded with excit-
ing utteranccs and violent denunciations
of an institution prevailing in the South,
which the North did as much as the
South to establish; but over which, ac-
cording to the Federal Constitution, only
the States in which it remained, had any
legal or moral control. So harsh, so Bit
ter, SO persistent, so implacable was
Northern denunciation of Southern sla-
very, for so many long years Of angry
disturbance, that the forbearance which
the South wantonly insulted and provok
cd as she was, patiently displayed, was
miSinterpreted by the fanatics of the
Sumner school. That forbearance was
the highest possible manifestation of rev.
erence and love for the Constitution and
the Union. But all this was miscon-
strued by the Abolitionists. In their
arrogance of numerical strength, and in
their pharisaical pretension to moral su-
periority, they impudently assumed juris,
diction, morally and politically, over a
great question which was as exempt from
their touch, as were the relations they
bore to their own laborers. But to
Northern Abolitionists, no right, how.
ever sacred or delicate, is inviolable. 1t
S utterly in vain that one of the leading
objects Of the Federal Government, plain
y declared in the preamble to the Con-
stitution, is to insure domestic tran
luility;" agitation ofa question in form
they knew to be utterly destructive of the
reposc of the South, they carried on, spite
IF all Constitutional restrictions. South
,rn statesmen warned them that it would
cad to resistance, but they laughed at
he warning.
The Abolitionists. conscious Of their
strength, and mistaking the fOrbcarance
and loyalty Of the South to the Constitu
lion and the Union, for intimidation, re-
solved to carry on their fanatical schemes
FOR the overthrow Of slavery. They de-
creed in their political councils, local,
State and national; they declared in their
presses, pulpits, and from the stump
they wrote it down in their platforms
hey vowed before heaven and earth, in
Every form Of utterance, that slavery
should never be extended in the terrific
les, the common property of North and
South, that not another slave State should
ever be admitted into the Union and
they declared that the decisions of the
Courts, recognizing the Constitutional
rights of Shareholders to enter the com.
mon territories, should be ovcrrulcd.
They went further, and said to insure
this, the Courts themselves should be re-
and conformed to the exac-
lions Of Abolition sentiment. Lincoln, in
public debate with Douglas, declared that
the Union could not exist, composed in
part Of slave and in part of free States
that all must be free or all slave-that
the agitation must go on till such crisis
should be reached. Palpably antagonis-
tic as such sentiments are to the princi-
pies of the Constitution, Seward caught
them up, and boldly proclaimed the "Ir-
repressiblc Conflict" doctrine and the
party indorsed his sentiments.
Lincoln succeeded and the triumph of the
"Irrcpressible Conflict" doctrine was pro.
Thus was the Federal Govern.
ment attempted to be made great en-
ginc Of oppression, operating upon ques.
tions and interests not only not commit
ted to its charge, but expressly exempted
from its touch. On the election Of Lin.
coin his heretical and disorganizing dog
mas were attempted to be enforced. The
South, with instructive and practical sa.
gacity, penetrated the designs and ten
dcncy of these dangerous doctrines. To
submit to their practical enforcement,