The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-03-09
AND Ashland COUNTY, OHIO. WEDNESDAY MORNING. MAR

general authority is confined to the collective
bodies that compose it.. every breach iof the
Laws must involv, state of war, and military
executions must become the only Instrument
of ciyil obediencega Such state Of things
certainly cannot deserve the name of govern
ment, nor would any prudent fnan choose TO
commit his haPpiness 70 it, egzs
Here we have the aseuFanee from the great
men who drew and fashioned the Consti-
tptiop. lst. That persons, and not States, are
1sf1,es only proper objects of Government" 49,
"a That a Federal GopcfpHent which should
claim the right to use the coercion of arms
against the States that made II, would not
adeserve the name ef Government" and thai
no .prudent man would commit his happiness
to such government" In passing, We should
observe that, as States are not the objects OF
Government, they cannot, of course, commit
the crime of s'rebellion." They are sovereign
bodies and the Federal Government can be
no more than the agent Of their joint sovers
eighty, with its powers specially defined by
the Constitution. Their action, therefore,
cannot be .rtbsllion," because they are not
subjects.
In further elucidation of this subject, we
are told in No. 16 of the Federalist that -
at seems to require no pains to prove that
the States ought not to prefer q national Con.
stitution, which could only be kept In 'zietlon
by the fundamentally Of a large army contln-
uaily on foot to execute the ordinary requtsi-
tions or DEGREES Of the Government And
vet this is the plain alternative involved by
those who wish to deny it the power of ex-
tending its operations tc individuals. Such .
scheme (nailitary force) if p,actica1le at all,
would instantly degenerate Into a military
despotism but it will befound in every light
impracticahle.
"When the sword is once drawn. the pas
sions of men observe no bound of moderation.
The suggestions Of wounded pride, the insti-
cations Of irritated resentment. would be apt
10 carry the States against which the arms OF
the Union were exerted, to any extreme nee
essary to avengc the affront or avoid the dis
grace of submission The first war of this
Kind would probably terminate in dissolu
tiop of the Union. The majority af the ma
tlouai authority must be manifested through
TIE medium Of the courts of justice.
Ii is needless to multiply authorities, for
every intelligent gentleman knows that the
Copstitution confers upon the Federal Gov
crnme Mt NO mower to make war upon q ate,
OF States OF this ,Union. As Mr.. Madison
said in the Cons,itdfioi al :Dcnyention AnJ
government for the United States, formed on
the supposed practicability ct using for,e
against even the unconsttusionai- proceedings
of the States, ,wonld prove visionafy and talla-
eion,., A Union of States containing such an
ingredient, seems to provide for its own de-
structiou." In explaining the Constitution
which he helped to make, to the Convention
OF Conpecticut, Judge Ellsworth said: ''Tkis
Constitution does not attempt to coeroe soy
ereien bodies-States in their political capa-
cities-no coercion is applicable to such bod
ie.." To the same effect Mr. Hamilton said /:
ITO coerce the States is one of the madest
projects ever devised. \ x Can any reas-
enable man be well disposed toward a govern.
ment which makes war and carnage the only
means of supporting itseli?-a government
that can exist only by tie sword Z"
Such, sir, is ;he testimony of the great men
who made the Constitution, delivered at time
cote nporancous' with its adoption and such,
We know, was the understanding Ct the States
when they adopted it. Then what are they
who conduct or support this war They are
revolutionists They are enemies of tie Uni
ted States They are destroyers of the Gov
ernn ent. It viii not do to call Mr.. Lincoln s
course n,isodp,inistration, for it is not an
administration Of the Governments at all-it
is a revol,ttion. The political machinery he
is working is of p neF ereationi in violation
of the Constitution and laws of Government,
in which we have Commissions for courts of
Justice, aud Provost-Marshals and Generals as
Judges The body that is sitting as Con-
eress is not % legal body. It is not Con
eress according to the Constitution and laws
OF the United States. One-sixth of its men,
bers represent no constituency they were
not elected even by the forms Of law they
are merely military appointments, made by
such creatures as Schenck Milroy or
Burnside. Some one has brought the charge
against them that they are neither gentlemen
nor Christians !. these, however, are not ne
cessarily Congressional qualifications. Butt
.. hat ho oil tod -bx-
the free choice of the people of their district,
according to the laws Of the State they pro-
fess to represent. Now, the war is the ne
cessary appendage of all this illesality, reyo-
luton, and despotism. 1t is the grand pillar,
raised, as we see, on the ruins of the Consti.
tuition, by which the usurpers hold their stu
alton. As means of restoring the Union, it
has proved fiiitless by a fatal, a terrible ex-
perience; and every day it lasts 1t removes us
farther off from every hope either of recon
ciIiation or of honorable peace Indeed the
managers and owners of this war have been,
fer more than year, telling the, people that
the restoration Of the Union and the preser-
walton Of the Constitution are "neither posi-
BILE nor desirable" The very proposition to
restore the URion is instantly covered with
their Kissing gibes and laughter. " hile the
proprietoIs of the war have, with magnani-
nous impudence, been frankly eonfessi1g that
the Union neither could nor should be saved
by it, there have been those protesting to be
friends of the Union. (and God forgive them }
calling themselves Democrats, who baye urged
that more blood and more money should be
layished in the ruineus and fatal contest
What can have seduced these men to sbandon
the Constitutions, to sforsake the ancient road
Of Democracy, and move With fatal steps
along the paths Of despotism and national
ruin What has beWitched themf Is it /