Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1863-05-14
The War..Its Cause, aud the real
aim Of the Rebellion.

~ kept before the people Dy the copper
head press, and its blatant echoes through
out the North, there is no one which is
clung to with such pertinacity, and so
often repeated, as that which charges the
war, at present existing, as the conse-
quence of abolition agitation in the free
States Their sharp Of thousand
strings is oftenest twanged on this chord
Of their complaints, and there is no denun-
citation too strong and no damnation too
deep to meet copperhead's idea OF ex-
act Justice to northern aboliuonist.
Now in these days of war, and strife,
and commotion, and when the very air sis
filed with the noise of the battle--and
sensational reports meet us at every throb
of the telegraphic wires--it may be well
occasionally to revert back TO an occasion
al point in the history of the few past
years of our government and test the
truth of these wholesale charges. While
we are watching the army in Virginia,
and criticising the generals in command
there, and specializing on the probable re-
suits of their movements, let us keep an
eye upon these rebel guerrillas--the cop
perleads of the North-and see that they
make no inroads upon our line of battle
here.
BY the slightest attention paid TO the
political history of the country for the
past few years it will be seen that this
charge made upon the abolitonists is OF
all things the most preposterous. Who
ever in after time shall write the history
of this rebellion will give a very. different
view Of the matter, and place the brand
of infamy not upon the northern abolition
lists and fanatics, but upon the slavery
propagandists who have been nursing ii
it with a mothers love for the past thirty
years. They will see that it was no ''per-
sonal liberty bills-no action of northern
fanatics no Legitimate enoroachment o
the free north that impelled them II
their course to destruction.
The men VINO conceived and put IL
force this rebellion were not impelled b!
any real or fancied grievances" for which
they asked redress. Not even the securl
ty of slave property by newer or NOR
perfect guarantees than those which tn
constitution gave them would have salts
fed them and made them loyal citizens
the Republic. The proflers made IN tn
Peace Congress, and especially the Corwi
resolutions in the United States Congress
sufficiently proved this. No; they want
ed new government, based upon primo
pies radically different from those OF ~
or as Mr. Stephens, the present Vice Pres
ident of the Confederacy said, "a goN
eminent the corner stone Of which shout
be slavery They desired an olgarch
confederacy from which the democratic Q
ement of the government should be sht
out, and in which free labor should ha,
no recognition save as the "mud-sills
the structure having no personal or p
litical rights or voice in the conduct OF a
fairs 1t was for this that John lyle
and James X. Polk, and Frank Pierc
and Buchanan, backed by the democrat
of the North, 1--WE feel ashamed to say
toiled and labored for the terms of the
executive lives. It was for this that 81
dell and Soule worked and plotted in Me
leo and Spain for the acquisition OF co
genial territory. The blood and treasu
of the nation was freely offered In e
change for the lands of the tropical elm
that could nourish slaves and break doN
the cncroachments of free labor. b
pretext was wanted. They thong
they had it in 1882, alledglng as the cal
the tariff of 1928. General Jackst
however, pricked the bubble nullihcatl'
and while he afterwards regretted to
dying day that he had not hung the lea
crs Of the rebellion then, he predicted tn
the next movement Of these malcontel
would be made precisely as it has be
made in the cause of slavery and slave
extention. In due course OF time
prophecy Of the illustrious jackson v
fulfilled. The pretext was made, and g
tonpued disclaimers and northern apo
ylsts were already in sympathy with tn
southern masters and ready to join tn
in the overthrow of the government, a
aid in the substitution of a new TO
which should recognize the supremacy