Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1864-07-22
The COpDerheaa District Platform.

The COpperhead District Platform.
We publish to-day the platform "adopt-
ed unanimously and with three sheers,
by the so-called Democratic Convention
at Princeton, on the Goth inst 1t is q
rather remarkable effort, and is distia-
guished as much for what it asserts as
for what it omits to assert Let Us dis
sect it aud look At its several parts, I'M
der the microscope of criticism
al That any departure from the doc
trins Of the Declaration Of Independence,
that governments derive their just pow
ers from the consent of the governed, is
dangerous to civil liberty"
The doctrine of the Declaration was
right under the circumstances that called
it forth, and is right at all times when
entertained and dselsredin behalf Of
the victims of tyranny and oppression.
But it would be just as right and fair to
apply this doctrine in the case of the
eonvicts in penitentiary, as to apply it
now to Justify the position Of the seees-
sionists and rebels of the South, and to
relieve them of the crime Of treason and
the odnm and punishment attaching to
H. The resolution quoted by as had d.
rect reference to the Southern Rebellion,
and could have referred to nothing else.
Hence, its meaning is that the secession
isls and rebels are doing as our Revolu-
siouary Fathers did, that is, they are
resisting tyranny, and esdea 'oring TO
establish free republic and that unless
they consent to return to their allegiance
and to obey the laws, the war ought to
stop where il is. and they be allowed to
become an independent and separate ne
ton. In this view of the resolution, III,
rebels are right and the Federal Gov
eminent is EroHg in this war, and our
bond Of Union is a rope Of sand, aud
there is no reliability nor permsuenee ia
our form Of government We are ell al
sea. We are drifting helplessly on the
sands Of anarchy, or rushing hesdlong
without compass or ruddsr, to the bleal
and surf-lashed rocks Of military despot
ism For as sure as God reigns, il W,
cannot have law, order, and constitu
tional, regulated liberty, there is no al
Tentative but Mexican anarchy or Aus
srian deSpotism
lfthis be not fair Interpretation o
resolution No /, viii the Tmss pleas,
give us the true one, or will Mr. White
sey, the committeeman from vanderburgl
county, favor us with the correct expo
| sition.
Carried out to its logical results, tn,
doctrine held by rebels and endorsed b,
the Copperheads of the First District o
Indiana, becomes utterly subversivs Of al
legal, Constitutional, or moral restrain
on the bad passions and unhallowed Ii
eentiousnsss of mankind. If such
doctrine be true, there can be no family
no church, no society, no State, no Ma
tional Government. The moral and po
litical elements ara dissolved, civilize,
society reverts to barbarism, and "chao
is come again might becomes right
Ii a State, or dozen of them, can Sc
sede from the Union, there is no Union
nor. can there possibly be ons. If I
State can secede at will, county ear
seesde from State, and township frou
county. If South Caroliaa is an indie
pendent power, or can become one b,
another secession, we may next expec
TO see Vanderburgh county become on,
also, and then Union township will Sc
mp on its own hook. Persons about In
dianapohs have long spoken jessingly o
Boone county as the estate of Boone,
not dreaming until these latter "Demo
cratic" days that they were giving ex
preston to a truism, while in = "spori
i've vein Verify "Inaiy a true thing il
said in Jest" So We may next hear o
the State of Knight township, the Stat
of Union, the State of Pidgeon, the FIRE,
city of Evansville, and the principalit,
of Lamasco.
How absurd, yea, how criminal, OF
reflection appears such a doctrine as tn,
Princeton Convention enupciates Their,
is one thing eertain--if this is tn,
Democratic" doctrine, and that mart,
succeeds in having it endorsed At N,
polls, all of cur people who have any
thing to lose had better get sheir effect
ont of the country and into some o.be
where there are laws to protect them
Human life and property will be sntirel
at the mercy of desperadoes, as is tn
case in Kentucky and every other plac
where the Federal authority is not il
fall and unGiSputed exercise
! There must be some central aathont