The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-07-04
The KeSe9Ei8n Drnwin- it's own
Portrait


mo3,1 E,cCatiner an article giving SO correct
and clear a view OF the principles and de-
signs OF the Rebellion that we can render
no better service TO the cause of truth than
by aiding its circulation:
!, The establishment OF the Confederacy is
distinct reaction against the Whote coarse
OF t@e m5StGken civilization OF the age. And
tins Is the true reason why we have been
lett without the sympathy of the nations
until we conquered that sym pathy with the
sharp edge Of our sword. For Liberty
EInaaty, FRATERNITY 10e hGge deliberately
substituted SlGVeTy, iSu5ordiRdtion, and
Government. Those social and political
problems which rack and torture modern
society we have undertaken to solve for
ourselves, IN our own way, and upon our
own principles. That among equals equal
ity is right among those who are m0t5traE-
ty unequal, equality is chaos; that there are
stare races born to serve, ueGster races born
to goge1't;-such are the fundamental prin-
ciples which we inherit from the ancient
world, which we lifted up in the face of a
perverse generation that has forgotten the
wisdom OF its fathers; by those principles
we live. and in their defense we have shown
ourselves ready to die. Reverently we feel
that our Contederacy is a God seat mis8ion-
arg to the nations, aoih great truths 20 preach.
We must speak them boldly; and whose
hath ears TO hear, let him hear.
"Thank God the Confederates have some
statesmen and thinkers up to the mark and
level of the situation. There are men in
these Confederate States who have long
deeply felt and earnestly striven to express
though timidly and speculatively-on
what foundations of fact. with what corner
stone Of principle, our social situation was
one day to be built up fair and bright
Now is the time. Let them speak in no APP
ologetic tone, nor place US, at their peril,
in any deprecautious attitude. This peo-
pie has won the right surely to be "let
alone They will accept no deduction in
politics, in literature, in philosophy they
will not follow but lead, not borrow but
lend. They are more than content with
their own principle of morals and way of
life, and will stand upon it to the end, so
help them Cod
With these clear and decisive declara-
tons do the advocates of the Southern re-
bellion present themselves and their cause
to the world. They proclaim it reaction
against the fundamental principles ofmod-
ern civilization. Against every idea which
the world accepts OF Justice and Of liberty.
the rebellion is distinct protest. They
declare that the great problem which racks
and tortures society elsewhere, of the ele-
walton Of the lahoring classes into dignity
and freedom, they have solved by a short
and easy method of their own. There are
races which are born to perpetual servi-
tude; this IS the fundamental principle
which the new social state has received
from the ancient world, and which it is
sent of God to lift up before an unbelieving
generation.
Before principles like these we stand in
wonder and adherence. Such avowals re-
mind US Of those extraordinary suggestions
of treachery and baseness which Machia-
velli and his school, in dark and evil days,
propOunded as the contamination of states
manship. Over those inculcations the
world has perpleXed itself ever since, to
find some possible explanation of q de-
pravity which, to an age of higher cultiva-
ton, seems utterly Incredible. We need
no longer perpleX ourselves. The doctrines
OF 1.-The Prince so long inexplicable to
minds which retained either any honesty
or any shame, find a parallel III these afro
cious principles. which illustrate the
method Of their origin, and the manner Of
their publication.
For whole generation the dire slavery
of Virginia has been becoming more in
tense. Under the thin disguise of neces-
sity imposed upon them by the violence of
the abolitionists, the Shareholders of that
State have devised measures for the con-
solIdatlon OF their system, and for the
perpetuation of perhaps its worst atrocity,
the breeding of slaves for the market.
In her early history, Virginia had al
lowed to those of her citizens who were
masters, the poor privilege OF atoning for
the wrong of Il lifelong oppression by
emancipating, at death, their slaves. But
under this arrangement the free colored
population We're becoming inconveniently
numerous; and when, some ten wears
since, humane master bequeathed to his
slaves the privilege of choosing whether
they would be emancipated III America or
emlgrate to Liberia, the courts Of that State
1apIlnG hi I.r-
to 8 slave was by that very act invalidated,
A slave IS thing, not person; he can eX
erclse no faculty of choice. The choice is
as impossible as it would be e such an OBJ
ton had been left to horse: and in this
denial the highest judicial authorities IN .
Virginia united. The theory of slavery
that slave is, IN the eye Of the law, inca
pablo of any act or function of man-in-
capable Of any marital or paternal rights,
incapable OF holding property, OF receiving
education, oreven OF exercising, by what
ever consent OF his master, any power Of
choIce-this monsrrcus and frantic outrage
upon the manhood OF a fellow being-nay.
OF race of Acknowledgements deliberately
accepted as an improved form of society to
which 1t Is the high privilege and the grand
junction OF the slave-hreeder's Contedera-
cy to recall the generation Of vipers which
Is too abandoned to acknowledge it. Who
tna6 mas any conception OF Justice, any rem
nant OF human sympathy, or any sense Of
the responsibility Of an accountable crea-
ture, does not shudder and shrink at the
statement? It is wickedness naked yet
not ashamed
This isa war not of geographical sections,
nor OF political factions, but OF principles
ana systems. 1t is rebellion against all
that is known in society as civilization, and
IN favor OF despotisms the meanest, and
oppression the most cruel which at this |
day exists among men. The only right
which the rebellion claims, and that which, |
II successful, its future history is to Illus
lrate and establish, is the right of master
race to hold servile race in degradation. !
1 nat there are slave races born to serve,'' |
IS the great truth which the Confederacy is |
sent to preach, TO which its statesmen are
% adapt their social systems, and on which |
they will stand to the end We say then |
hat our war against this rebellion is in |
orlnciple the most sacred for which peo-
Die ever took arms, war for social eGuali- |
y, Tor rights, for justice, for freedom. This |
5 not, as our brethren across the ocean |
nave proclaimed it, an aimless or unmean-
ng strife. Its object is quite as distinct as |
hough we had some national insult to re-
,ent, or some impending danger to repel. |
t....