The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-03-09

of our own government under our feet. We
are looked upon as the un natural beast that
deyours her own offspring. = sight of abhor- ,
renee and loathing e All men, Sir, We. are
not crushing rebellion, We are rebelling
thousand fold stronger than ii was when We
began this bloody suicide called crushing it
The power of rebellion Is not chiefly cannon
aud musketry. bgt in; the win and determina-
tion of brave people. Napoleon declared
that no people, RoweyeF sMalt, eouiu. pe
conquered if tLey gre united IN ailoye pi then
| ipstitntious and a determination to be Free
That is the lesson of history as yell as of eters
nal right No, sir, we are not crushing re-
4 bellion, but we are giving the southern peo-
ple the will, the last sacred instrument Of hon.
! or and patriotism, apd the power to make this
unhappy separation final and eternal What
i have we done p We have i Illuminated their
sky with the light of their burning dwellings,!
/ We have filed the fair fields with blood
/ We have destroyed their wheat-6elds of pr-
! yate and unarmed citizens : We have entered
! their private houses and stolen their spoons,
]. pianos, books, works of virtue and art, not
i even sparing the jewlery and wardrobes of
their women, nor the food that is necessary
for the lives of their children!a We have
driven their aged men and their aged women,
, too, from beds ofs.ckness, and forced them to
4 90 penniless into the world, to- seek among
I strangers, as lEPopertsheu perhaps as them-
selves, shelter from the ferocious savagery
of our lust J. And all this bloody, this dam
nable brutality, has been called saDtng the
i Union /! Sir. the man who does not blush at
the recital of these deeds, is lost to reason
4 and to shame. He is it companion of the
Ihogling Dervishes, the Zoghis and .Sunnis of
4 India and Arabia The man that calls this
bloody business s'sayirg the Union, p deserves
a straight jacket, or halter for a dupe or
hat 70
La Union held together by the pressure of the
blood Of its victims II that be Union,
what would be disunioa A number of
States pressed together by the force of armies,
and kept together only by the prick of the
i bayonct, would not be Union, but would be
j precisely the reverse of everything that goes
i to make Union. The success of Mr.. Lin.
coln's war would be the most fatal destructi IN
OF the Union, inasmueh as it would not. only
make an eternal end of that constitutional re-
latin of the States which constitutes the
Union, but 1t would destroy the very. prinsi
j pie on which all the govefnments, State and
Il Federal, are founded. 1t would strike the
soul of the American system and establish
upon Its ruins the Involuntary or despotic prin-
cipIe OF the Old World And this is Just
what portion of the Democratic party has
beea, aud still are, helping Mr. Lincoln to do
4 But not one of these aposlate pemocrats dare
attempt public argument to pIove that. the
Federal Government has any coercive power
upon States. All the coepcive powers of the
federal Government are confined to individ-
uals. This is enc Of the great points of diff
ference between the old Articles of the Con-
federation and the present Constitution The
fact that under the Articles of Confederation
the action of the, Federal Government was
net upon the offending citizen, but upon the
States, it was thought hazarded war Upon the
| S ates, and was one of the causes why the
States could not be 10 duced to keep MP their
representation IN Congress. One of The chan
yes demanded by the new Constitution was
that the Federal Government should have no
cocrcive power upon the State governments
To avoid this danger of conflict of arms be-
tween the Federal and State governments, the
Federal power was allowed to act direc: "
upon q delinquent citizen, the States reserying
to II cir citizens the zig ht to be tried and pun
| ished only in the district and State where the
offence may be committed. BY the Constitu-
| tion the Federal Government abandoned all
hts to proceed against State, and achieved
the right 20 act directly upon the citiEen.-
| but tie Constitution torbIds 1t 10 take citi-
| zen bey ond his own State and district to try
ham. For dong this very thing, Mr. 1incofp
has been justly denounced as having violated
| the Constitution. But he has no more right
| to make acdr upon State than he has to send
u citizen away from his own State to be inn
prisone or tried. Why strain at a gnat and
swallow camel2 Why turn the world up
4 side down about the Unconstitutional sending
OF man beyond tn, jurisdiction of his State.
while you assist the Administration in the far
4 greater crime OF making war upon a State
1t is known to all that there were individuals
in the ConsLituronalrCo Convention who desired
| to ciothe the Federal Government with power
| to coer State, and on two several occasions
u resolution to that effect was introduced
once by Mr. Randolph, of Virginia-but each
time 1t was instantly negatived by the Con.
vention. Not single State would have adop-
ted the Constitution had it given such pow
or to the Federal Government. To avoid the
most distant possibility of conflict between
the Federal ana State Governments, the Con-
stitutlon expressly forbids the Federal Gov
| ernment to commence or 10 prosecute any
sui against one OF tie United States" This
was adopted as nm amendment to the Consti-
| tuition in 1898, as a means of reassuring the
States that the General Government could
never have an excuse for commencing or pros
ecuting kostilities against them. 1he main
object of the creation of the Union vas to pre-
serve the States, and the liberties of the pco-
pie as they then enjoyed them under their
State Governments. This fact is to be kept
in mind when we stultifyng the Cons titl .
tion.A When DIR summer took an oath to sup
port the Constitution he Gays he swcre to sup
port it onl ylas he understood it But this is
net the meaning of the oath, for it means to
support the Constitution it was understood
by those who made it, and by those who adop
led it. Noy, We know that those " no made |
the Constitution, BY their votes in Conven-
tion, refused to give the Federal Government
the right to nsethe coercion of arms against
State, as Mr.. Madison expressed it, s.from |
any consideration whatever While some of T
the States were hesitating to adopt the Con
stitution, Mr. Madi on and Mr.. Hamilton
wrote q series Of articles in the Federalist for
the purpose of fully e1plaing the import of