The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1863-04-23

of War. Washington is the capital of thir-
ty-four States At the time this insolent
threat was uttered, the Confederacy was
confined to the seven cotton growing States
What right could this rebellious group Of
States, far off on the Gulf of Mexico, with a
sum total Of little more than two and a
hall millions of white inhabitants, have tc
the metropolis of the Unionp. Seven days
later, the pavement of Baltimore was stain
ed with the blood of Massachusetts, men,
Fastening in obedience to lawful authority
to the defense Of the Capital. Events have
shown the unshaken loyalty Of Maryland. =
Not voice was raised in all her borders in
response to the proclamation Of the Confed-
crate General, who crossed the Potomac
last September with an army Of $4,000 men
"to liberate oppressed Maryland" West.
ern Virginia was next attacked. Mr.. Sen.
ator Mason, in q published letter, signed by
his name, had told the citizens of that part
the State, (who had no more intention
than the Western counties of Massachusetts
to secede from the Union that if they pre-.
sumed even to vote against the ordinance,
they must leave the State, such being that
gentleman's understanding of the principle
that government. must rest on the consent
of the governed. In further illustration Of
the principle, Western Virginia was over
run by the Confederate troops till they
were driven out by Rosecrans and McClel.
Ian. Kentucky and Missouri were next in.
vaded. There, too, the progress of events
have disclosed, on the part of the masses Of
the people, an mistaken loyalty 10 the Un'
ion but they have been overrun, plunder-
ed and devastated by the armies of this pa
cific Confederacy, which asks for nothing
but "to lie let alone and allowed to go in
peace" Though the first act of the Seces.
sionists in Baltimore, after the muTderous
attack on the Massachusetts, troops. was to
tear up and burn the bridges on the rail-
roads leading to the North and West, Mr..
Benjamin (the humane Secretary of State tc
the Confederacv) ordered the Union men,
charged with bridge-burning in East Ten.
nessee, to be tried by "a drum head court.
martial" if convicted to be hung, and thei,
bodies to be left on the gibbet near the
bridges destroyed the mass Of the people
in East Tennessee being all the as. loyal to
the Union IS in Western Virginia.* The
same is the case, to considerable extent,
in Western North Carolina, in Northern
Alabama, in Arkansas, in Louisiana and in
Texas; but coniscation, impressment into
the army, the blood hound, the scourge,
and the halter, are the machinery by which
this pacific Confederacy produces its vaun-
ted unanimity. You may recollect that
Gen'l Houston, the Governor of Texas, re.
fused to call the Legislature of that State
together, to act on the question of secession
With reference to this refusal, Mr.. Iverson
of Georgia, on the third day of the session
Of 1860 81, openly declared in the Senate
OF the United States. that eff he did not
yield to public sentiment, some Texan Bru.
tus will arise to rid his country of the hoary
headed incubus, that stands between the
people and their sovereign will"
An attempt I know, is made especially
by foregn writers to assimilate the existing
rebellion at the South with the American
revolution. We might, as against England
accept this view Of the subject, for she no,
only denied the right Of the Colonies to as
sert their independence, but treated the at
tempt to do so as rebellion. Although
she denies our right by legislative act, tc
close to ports Of the rebelious States, she
did it herself in the Revolutionary War by
George III, Q. 5, and two years after the
capitulation of Burgoyne and after the in
dependence of the States had been acknowl
edged by France, she sent Mr. Laurens to
the tower as traitor. She therefore is, a.
much as estopped from recognizing the
right Of secession as we are from denying
it,
But the truth is, there is not the slightest
similarity between the secession of the reb.
el States aud the American revolution, un.
less upon the principle that all rebellions
are just. Our fathers in 1776, set up nc
unqualified right of revolution, and it would
have come to nothing, practically, ifthey
bad for in any sense in which there is ar
abstract right, on the part Of the people, tc
revolt, there is also CO extensive right, on
the part Of the government to suppress the
revolution. They claimed no right for .
part Of the people to throw off q constitu.
itonal government, for this would be to
strike at the root of all government. What
they taught was, that governments were in.
stituted to secure the inalieuable rights Of
man, among which are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness, and lnasmuch as gov.
ernments derive rheir just power from the
consent of the governed, whenever any form
of government becomes destructive of these
ends it is the right Of the people to alter or
abolish it and institute another. This is
the whole of their doctrine on that subject,
and it is of course equally true in monar.
chies aud republics, in centralized and con-
federatc governments.
The Declaration of Independence further
held, that the inhabitants of the Colonies
we're lone people" viz, the American peo-
pie; that they were connected with IAN
othern neopla viz the English Inv com.