The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1863-02-13
TREASON I!

1t is time the ioval North we've waking VI
again to the importance Of crushing out trea-
son in the Free States. It is time that al
offensive warfare was begun upon the traitors
who infest the North and are insidiously
poisoning the public mind. The treason OF
the Val!andigham and Wood school Of poll
ticians of to-day, is monstrous. 1t is closely
copied in Massachusetts by the Boston Post.
and in Vermont by the Bellows Falls Argus
and Rutland Courier. 1t is a time when 10y
al Democrats must cut loose from this cop
per-head faction or be swallowed up in their
treason.
We sometimes hear the copper-head press
and individuals use such expressions as these
democrats do not owe allegiance to Lin
coin, &C." 3" Lincoln is only at the head OF
the Government, &c." He is not the Gov
eminent"
Certainly this is great logic. Because a
man is democrat and does not think as
does Abraham Lincoln, therefore he owes no
allegiance to him We never heard it claim
ed before that we owe no allegiance to him
who is at the head of the Government" >
The President is commanIer-in-chief Of the
army and navy. Do our soldiers and sailors
owe no allegiance to him? The President
is the highest officer in the land in the civil
government, all governors of states, judges
and executive officers are sworn to be true
to the government of which he is the head
how can they be true to one and false to
the other9
The extract from Douglass speech which
the Argus puts up and which we declared to
be reasonable as it stands, is unfairly taken
from other parts Of the speech which showed
the honorable senator to mean this in a very
different way from what the editor Of the Ar
gus claims as his views.
Senator Douglas, also, says: GAS the
President of these United States, Abraham
Lincoln claims our allegiance and support as
loyal citizens. For my part l know of no
other course for an honest patriotic man to
pursue than to aid the government in all
efforts to put lown the rebellion; for whoever
negects to do this indirectly aids the rebels. y
They say: "Is Mr. Lincoln the United
States Government ~ Are the men cas-
ually in office who may be wise men or fools,
honest men or knaves, the government, or is
the government the constitution of the coun-
try"
The Government is living thing, embod-
led in all those whom the people have placed
in the different offices. From the school
committee appointed to arrange our school
affairs and the petty town and county officers,
up TO the President of the United States who
is at the head of all. We find the living rep
res ,ntatives of the laws. The theory of the
copper-heads if carried out would be that,
the child in school owed no allegiance to his
teacher but to the school regulations,-that
the soldier owed no allegiance or obedience
to his general but to the articles of war that
the general owed no obedience to the gener-
al-ln-chlef but to the constitution
The constitution in itself with all its mighty
truths and principles is dead letter-only
so much paper until those it provides to be
its servants, go to work, and then it becomes
great and mighty thing. Yhe absurdity of
talking about Government and "consti.
tuition in the abstract-with no officers to