Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1864-04-13

full we'll that if he should do this he could
not retain the favor Of his Abolition ad- !
herents
But Mr.. Lincoln has an earlier record. !
lIe sir, believes in the right Of secession.
lie is the man who, above all others, has,
| believe, the earliest and most conclusive
record in favor of this right of secession,
and have no doubt, sir, from his earlier
teachings-from the language used in his
political speeohes-that Mr.. Lincoln en-
deavored 10 hasten as much as he possibly
could this revolution in which we are now
so unhappily involved. He, sir, in lS48
in speech which ne made in Congress,
more than justified the secession of the
rebellious States, who have now taken up
arms against this Government. He con
cedes to them the right TO do so he treats
it as a natural and indefeasible right which
no man dare gainsay. Now, sir, let US see
what he says. In speech made in the
House Of Representatives in 1913, which
will be found in the Appendix to the Con-
greS5icaaJ Globe for lS47-48, page 81, he
said:
amy people anywhere being inclined,
and having the power, have the right to
rise up and shake off the existing Govern
ment, and form a new one that suits them
better. Uhis is a most valuable, most
sacred right, right which we hope and
believe is 10 liberate the world. Nor is
the right confined to cases in which the
whoIe people Of an existing Government
may choose to exercise it. Any portion
of such people that can may revolutionize
and make their own of so much of the
territory as they inhabit More than this,
a majority Of any portion of such people
may revolutionize, putting down a minor
| ity iHtcrmiHGled 1cM or near about them who
may oppose these movements. Such mi
nority was precisely the case with the to-
ries Of our Revelation. 1t is a quality OF
revolutions not to 60 by old lines or old
laws, but to break up both, and make new
ones"
Now, Nj. Speaker, quote these express
siOns, not because | acknowledge their
truth-not because any member OF TIE
their truth. We have always denied, ana
we do to-day deny, heresy IN toto. We say
to-day that none but disunionist at heart
could ever have uttered q sentiment SO
grossly nimical to the Constitution of this
Government. There is no man living to-
day in the North who is ready to utter
such n sentiment who is not an Abolition
ist. Every man in the North who has ut
tered sentiments Of this kind is to-day an
upholder Of the Republican party.
Now, sir, this language of Mr.. Lincoln
more than justifes the secession of the
rebellous States. 1t tells them they may
revolutionize, and where in any district
| they may meet minorities which they are
capable ofovercoming, they may put them
down 10y force-they may drive every thing
into confusion throughout the entire
land.
Now, sir, il may be pretented in Mr..
Lincoln's defence, that his ideas have un-
as late as 1861, when he took into his
hands the reins Of this Government, so
far from recanting the heresy which he
had previously proclaimed, he used in his
Inaugural Address this language:
"This country, with IFS institutions, be-
longs 10 the people who inhabitit. When
ever they shall grow weary of the existing
Government, they can exercise their con
stitutional right of amending it, or their
revolutionary right to dismember or to o.
verthrow it,"
That is Mr.. Lincoln's doctrine to day.
What rebelious State has ever attempted
to do more than Mr., LincolA declares chat
they have the right to do? Has South
Carolina or Alabama or any of the seeded
States attempted TO do more than revo-
lutionize and overthrow this government?
No, si., not one of them. When you de-
ny this right, they tell you that Abraham
! Lincoln, the head of the government of
this nation, told them they might carry
1t into practice.
So much then for the charges with re-
! gard to secession.
My friend from Philadelphia Mr.. SmTH)
remarked the other night q Do not re-
memoeF his precise language, but quote
the substance) that the vilest rebel among
them all-the man who sympatized most
deeply in every effort that was made by
| the traitors of the South to destroy the
government-the man who gave them aid
and comfort was James Bucanau, at that
time President of the United States. Now
sir, when did James Bechanan ever hold
doctrine so subyersive Of the principles
Of the Constitution ana the laws of this
doctrine enunciated by the present occu-
pant of the Presidential chair? When
did Mr.. Buchanan ever announce doc
trine SO outrageously subyersive of our
| Government and our Union? He never
held any such doctrine. have here a
part of the message of Mr.. Buchanan in
! 1850 in regard to the subject of secession,
and ! will read IL
"In order to justify secession as a con-
stitutional remedy, 1t must be on the
principle that the Federal Government is
a mere voluntary association of States, to
be dissolved at pleasure by any one of the
contracting parties. If this be so, the con-
federacy is a rope Of sand, to be penetra-
ted and dissolved by the first adverse wave
of public opinion in any ofthe States. In
this manner our thirty-three States may
resolve themselves into as many petty
arriDg and hostile republics, each one re-
tiring from the Union without response
bility, whenever any sudden excitement
might impel them TO such a course. BY
this course Union might be entirely bro
,Lenup into fragments i'm a few weeks