The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1863-01-09
Exlraes& from tho Message OF Gov.
Yates.

true spirit and according to Its honest and
fair Interpretation. ] may not be able to
appreciate highly the wisdom of the pro-
vision for the return OF fugitive slave
to bondage from which he is escaping, as
an independent proposition; yet because
IT is in the Constitution and was one OF
its compromises, in consideration of which
the free States got the Jefersonian Ordi
nance of l7S7, because it is in the Consti-
tuition, and because the Constitution was
in every other respect so perf,c because
it is the work Of our fathers, and the or.
ganic law Of the nation, l. lave leeu and
am still willing to see its every provision
enforced and maintained, in the prot &C.
ton of every right chained by those who
submit to its authority. ! have always
stood ready with my vote, my voice, and ),
if need be, my life, to protect every sec
ton in the enjoyment Of all its rights II
the seeding States had remained quiet,
and not assailed the Government, not
trampled in the dust the very Constitution
which secured them the uninterrupted
enjoyment of their cherished institution
there would have been not only no right.
but no disposition, to have proclaimed
emancipation. But they have overthrow
this Constitution and established for them
selves new one, therefore they can claim
no rights under the old. After years of
reconciliation. and secret preparation,
they perpetrated the act of secession, they
denied their allegiance to the Constitu-
ton, set up an independent Government.
! despoiIed the nation Of its money, its arms,
aud munitions of war. seized upon our
forts, insulted our flag, fired upon orr
soldiers at Fort Sumter, plunged our
hitherto peaceful people into sanguinary
fratricidal war, filled every homestead
with grief and covered the land with two
hundred thousand fresh made graves.
From the outset till now they have been
invoking the aid of foreign bayonets to
butcher our citizens, and to carry out thei,
wicked purpose to overthrow the Consti
tuition they have throughout conducted
the war upon principles of barbarity dis
graceful to the annals of savage warfare
The seeding States have forfeited al
Il
even their own lives, under the Consttu
ton, and the people of the loyal States ar,
released from any constitutional obliga
ton to protect them in any right whatev
er. A ierocious and bloody internecint
war, brought on by the wicked and infer
nal Vaccinations of the rebels themselves
has changed all the relations of the Gov
eminent and all the obligations ofthe Con
stitution to them.
The propriety of the proclamation i.
still further viudlcated upon the higher
ground of national elf-preservation. -
Though slavery was entirely beyond the
reach of the Government in time of peace
yet the Government, IN the exercise Of
its belligerent rights, has not only the
power, but i, is its bounden duty to pre-.
serve unmutilaled its territory, and te
weaken, cripple and crush out, by al
available means, rebellion aiming to un,
dermine its national existence.
That the President has forbore long be
fore taking the final step, was to be ex
pected Of one who had 10 often denied
the right Of Intervention in the domestic
institutions of the States; but when the
seeding States themselves made the issue
slavery against the Government--re
sorted TO arms to overthrow the Consti
tuition, aud to carve out of our dismem
bered territory an ollgarchy, the chic
corner stone of which was to be slavery u,
perpetual institution aud when alse
it cannot be denied that slavery is the
Y principal element III supper, OF the rebel
lion; | maintain, under all circumstan
ces, the proclamation was not only iusti
fable but inevitable. And if in time o.
war the Government can take the life o.
an enemy without the ordinary process o
law provided for by the Constitution, 4
fortiori can it not deprive the enem,
Of his property and emancipate hi
slaves
Indeed, it seems that Providence ha,
protracted this war and subjected our pee
pie to frequent humiliations and reverses
for the purpose of making the destruction
of slavery inevitable. In the first i'm
pressions entertained by the Prcsden
!. and the nation--that tho levy of seventy
five thousand men was sufficient to intim
!, idase the rebels into submission il GU
arms in the first instance had been every
where triumphant; if the Grand Army q
the Potomac had driven back the rebel
at Manassas, had taken Richmond, an,
planted the flag upon the capitol Of ever
State, and we had everywhere been vic
, torious by land and by sea, crushing tn
enemy as ii were within the contractin,
folds of a fearful anaconda, and the enc
my had returned to the rightful authori
# ty of the Government; then undoubted
c ly the Union would have been restore
i with the same blistering curse Of SLAYER
to rest upon US forever in the future, a
it had been in the past, a perpetual ele
= ment Of strife and art.burning. Unde
e such state Of things the necessity woul
: not have arisen under which slavery coul
A