Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1864-09-03
Peace or War.


Peace or War.
The time has arrived when the advocates .
of War and the friends of Peace range
themselves under their respective banners
We occupy no neutral ground. So long as
the sole object was the vindication every
where of the supremacy Of the Consttu-
ton, we held that the application OF force,
limited only by the degree Of resistance to
be overcome, was justi6able. Despising
the men to whom chance had con6ded the
government of the country, aud abhorrIpg
their principles, we nevertheless sustained
them because they were the legitimate de.
positories Of popular power But we lin
tied our support within the Constitutional
bonds which they prescribed to themselves.
Demanding the national aid, they spoke
with no feeble voice, as to the only ground
on which they had any right to make such
demand. The President in his inaugural
address, and in his message to Congress,
the Secretary of Stpte in his diplomatic in.
structons, and Congress by the resolution
Of july 1861, united in declaring hat the
rebellion had no necessary connection with
slavery that it was subject which con-
cerued the States aone---that their au-
thorly vas exclusive and preme-that
tho Federal government had no right to
meddl Elm the matter, and that there was
no design or desire to interfere, directly
or indirectly with the admitted sovereignty
of the several States over all their domcs-
tic institutions.
These declarations were voluntary, self
imposed limitations more than this, they
were admissions, that, to 60 beyond these
prescribed bounds, would be TO violate th
principles on which war could alone be
justified, and to warrant the resistance Of
all the friends of the Constitution.
The federal administration has violated
its own rule and abandoned its sole de.
fense for all the misery it has caused, for
wounds and deaths unnumbcred, for do
mestc desola,on unparalleled, for taxation
unprecedented, for national bankruptcy
for impending and universal ruin. The
premontion ol toe emancipation procla-
nation has found fit consumma'ion in the
recent manifesto IN which the Presiden
procaims that no propositions for peace
will be considered which do no, include
the abolition of slavery, Thus it is now
avowed that the war is not waged for the
Union and Con tit uion, hut for fanatical
Abolitionists and negro slaves. The very
contingency has arisen in which the gov
eminent virtually declared, that obedience
10 the Constitution demands resistance tc
the War. Those who fought Davis in de
a; lense Of the Constitution, are now called
on to fight Lincoln in its defense. Eact
: has violated the obligations Of that instru
ment, and both are traitors to the country
, The former is te be met in the field, the
d after al the polls.
" o IUt buITCuueI tliu Ouiou1 Il oupoy l
y vania, at least, can never submit. Fore
i most in its formation, ever faithful to it
/. obligations, bound by the traditions OF tn
t, past, the duty of the present, aud the hop
e Of the future. Pennsylvania will adhere
with inaexible frmness, to the union O
IS the States as formed by our fathers ,neith
IN er on the one hand, alternating to ineffec
I'd tive feebleness the just powers Of the Fed
ID eral government, nor, OH the other hand
- expanding those powers by usurpation
re which would at once annul the rights o
al the States and destroy the liberties of tn
% people.
a. The Constitution formed the Union an,
bs is its sole security. He therefore who as
he sails the Constitution is the enemy of tn
at Union. Conspicuous. not for courageou
Il boldneSs but for iusolens presumption, il
~ this wicked work is Abraham Lincoln ,wh
n. declares that the preliminary price Of ne
sotiston sven for peace and soou, is t.