Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1863-09-18
Could the War have been Avoided and the
Union Preserved!
p. HEIBY.

Could the War have been Avoided and the
Union Preserved!
We occasionally hear of some Vallandig
ham stump speaker, or read some article in a
Bogus Democratic Journal, affirming that the
adoption Of the Crittenden Compromise would
have prevented this terrible war. We have
before stated, time and again, that the leading
rebels commenced this war for disunioR-that
for years they have labored for disHniOn.-
That so far back as 1858, W. L. Yancey was
organizing the Order of the Knights of the
Go'deu Circle, and avowed as his purpose in
so doing that the people of the South must
look forward to an independent sovereignty
"a motto of the leaugers of the South was ::
" A Southern Republic is our only safety"
From many similar passages in the sayings
and doings of Southern men, we might prove
conclusively that disunion was the end aimed
at more than their rights in the Union. For
they knew full well that their constitutional
rights were all perfectly safe in the Union
II was rights and institutions far different which
the leaders in the rebellion wanted.
The Richmond Enquirer as far back as 1856.
declared that the Declaration of American
Independence is exuberantly false and fallae
ious."
The Charleston Standard said in the same
year: % The truth is that all are not born
equally free and independent, but eqalliiy with
out freedom and without independence"
The Charleston Mercury in 1861 said; "Ai
the North the progress and tendency of opin-
loo is to pure Democracy, less government an
archy and agrarianism. Military despotism
is far preferable to Northern Democracy"
j. Q. Moore, Of Mississippi, in De Bows
Review, in 1861, said-"Those pestilent and
pernicious dogmas-the greatest good to the
greatest number-ihe majority shall rule-are
in their practical application, the frightfuI
source of disorders, never to be quieted-phi-
osophies the most false, and passions the most
wild, destructive and ungovernable.
Thus much for the antagonism of the rebel
leaders to the institutions Of our country-In-
stitutioDs which have so exalted us as a nation.
and made US so prosperous in all the past Il
is apparent that the rebellion is against North
ern Democracy. 1t is not a rebellion to pro-
cure or to secure rights under the Constitu
ton, for we have the confessions of Yaneey.
Dudley Mann, and R. A. Rost, that their rights
under the Constitution were sale. When they
were abroad as the Commissioners Of the
Southern Confederacy they said:
at is from no fear that the slave would be
liberated that Secession took place. The very
party in power has proposed to guarantee slave
ry forever in the States, if the South would
but remain in the Union. Mr.. Lincolns
Message proposes no freedom to the slave, but
announces subjectiOn of his owner to the will
of the Uuion-in other words, to the North.
Even after the battle of Bull Run, both
branches of the Congress at Washington pas
sed resolutions that the war is only waged in
order to uphold that (prosIavery) Constitu-
ton, and to enforce the laws (many of them
pro-savery.) and out of 172 votes in the Low
er House they received all but two, and in the
Senate, all but one VOTE
Hear also Alexander H Stephens, in the
Secession Convention held at Montgomery
Georgia, 1861. He said:
"Pause, entreat you, and consider for a
moment what reason you can give that will
even satisfy yourselves in your calmer moments
what reason you can give to your FELLOWSHIP,
ferers in the calamity it will bring upon us
the earth to justify it They will be the calm
and deliberate judges in the case and to what
cause to one overt act can you name or point,
on which to rest the plea of justification =
What right has the North assailed? What
interest of the South has been invaded p
What Justice has been denied ? and what claim
founded in justice and right has been withheld?
Can either of you to-day name one Govern
mental act of wrong, deliberately and purpose
ly done by the Government at Washington, oil
which the South has a right to complain? !
challenge the answer.
In reply to MIR. Stephens, Mr. Inglis, said
IF there is any gentleman present who wishes
to discus this subject as a matter of course
this body will hear him, but for one am op-
posed to it, As Mr.. Parker has said most OF
US has had this matter under consid Grafton for
the last 20 years. and we have arrived at de-
cision upon the subject"
Mr.. Keith, said: Sir, we are performing a
great act, which involves not only the stirring
present but embraces the whole great force OF
ages to come. have been engaged in this
movement ever since l entered political life."
Mr.. Rhett, said: "The secession of South
Carolina, is not anything produced by Mr..
Lincoln's election, or by the worst execution of
the fugitive slave law. 1t is a matter which
has been gathering head for thirty years"
Aud to this opposition of the Southern
leaders, Stephens did at last succumb. And
he became the Vice President OF the rebel con-
federacy.
Now let US inquire, was there any room for
compromise with these leaders. None what
ever, and we might multiply quotations from
southern speeches and southern journals to
the end of the chapter, and it would only prove
more substantially what we have stated. We
were in favor of peace Convention in 1861
and every peaceful measure which did not in
terlere with our rights, and the rights of the
people guaranteed by the Constitution. But
we never wanted a compromise TO the provisions
and the guarenties of that sacred instrument
whose aim was to ruin the Government
Evansville Gaz.