Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1864-07-06

saries will decide for themselves. Wede-
sire to stand acquitted before the tribunal
of the world, as well as in the ewes of
Omniscient Justice, of any responsibility
for the origin or prolongation of a war SO
contrary to the spirit of the age as to the
traditions and acknowledged maxims of
the political system of America.
On this continent, whatever opinion
may have prevailed elsewhere, it has ever
been held and acknowledged by all par
ties that Government, to be lawful, must
be founded on the consent of the govern
ed. We were forced to dissolve our fed
eral connection with our former associates
by their aggressions on the fundamental
principles of our compact of union with
them; and in doing so we exercised a
right consecrated in the great charter of
American hberty-the right of free
people, when a Government proves de-
structive of the ends for which it was es-
tabished, 10 recur to original principles
and to institute new guards for their Sc
curity, The separate independence of the
States, as sovereign and co-equal members
of the Federal Union, had never been
surrendered, and the pretenson of apply
ing to Independent communities, so con
stituted and organized, the ordinary rules
of coercion, and reducing rebelious sub
jects to obedience was a solecism in terms,
as well as an outrage on the principles Of
public law.
The war made upon the Confederate
| States was, therefore, wholly one of
aggression. On our side it has been
strictly defensive. Born freemen, and
the defendants of a gallant ancestry, we
had no option but to stand up in defense
of our invaded firesides, Of our desecra-
! ted atars, of our violated liberties and
birtbright, and of the prescriptive institu-
tions which guard and protect them. We
have not intertered, nor do we wish, in
any manner whatever, to interfere with
the internal peace and prosperity of the
| States arrayed in hostility against us, or
! with the freest development of their Gesti-
MES in any form of action or line of
policy they may think proper to adopt for
themselves. All we ask, is alike immu-
nifty for ourselves, and to be left in the
undisturbed enjoyment of those inaliena-
bic rights Of 9 life, liberty, and the pur-
suit of happiness" which our common
ancestors declared TO be the equal heritage
of all the parties TO the social compact.
Let them forbear aggressions upon us,
| and the war Is at an end. If there be
| questions which require adjustment by
negotiation, we have ever been willing
and are still willing TO enter into cOmmu-
nication with our adversaries IN spirit
| of peace, of equity, and manly frankness.
| Strong in the persuasion OF the justice Of
| our cause, in the gallant devotion Of our
| citizen-soldiers, and Of the whole body of
! our people, and above all in the gracious
protection Of Heaven, we are not afraid
| to avow Il sincere desire for peace, on
| terms consistent with our honor and the
! permanent security of our rights, and an
earnest aspiration to see the world once
more restored TO the benificent pursuits of
| industry and of mutual intercourse and
| exchanges, SO essential to Its well-being,
and which have been so gravely inter
! ruptcd 10y the existence of this unnatural
! war in America.
| But if our adversaries, or those whom
! they have placed in authority, deaf TO the
! voice of reason and Justice, steeled against
the dictates Of both prudence and humani-
/ ty by the presumptuous and delusive con-
| fidencc in their own numbers, or those
| Of their black and foreign mercenaries,
shall be determined upon an indefinite
prolongation of the contest, upon them
be the responsibility of a decision so ruin
Gus to themselves, ana SO injurious to the
interests and repose Of mankind.
For ourselves, we have no fear for the
result. The widest pictures ever drawn
Of disordered imagination comes short
of the extravaganza which could dream
OF the conquest of eight millions of people,
resolved with one mind 'to die freemcn
rather than to live slaves" and forewarn-
ed by the savage and exterminating spirit
i'll which this war has been waged upon
them, and by the mad avowcls of patrons
and supporters, of the worse than Egy-
tian bondage that awaits them in the
event of their subjugation.
With these declarations of our diSposi-
tions, our principles, and our purposes,
we commit our cause to the enlightened
judgement Of the world, TO the sober re
Election Of our adverslrics themselves,
: and to the solemn and righteous arbiira-
tramcnt of Heaven.