The Union. [volume] (Georgetown, Del.) 1863-1866, 1864-03-18
SgtsfRGIameGAs,
Some d. one Rehel Pretenees.

There is something sublimely impndent
and reckless in the usual tone of rebel speak
ers or writers when discoursing of this gov
ernnleHt They boldly assume the right of
every inaividuaa State to quit the Union at
any moment, end break the unity so essential
to the national life. No matter that the Sc
ceding State might be large and central
one, like Pennsylvania or New York, sunder-
ing our seahoard section in the middle, and
preventing direct communication between the
remaining Seates which mght elect to re-
main--or that the outgoer might have had no
original rights whatever, but was the creature
Of the government, as in the case of LOU siana,
Florida, and Texas; bought with it,, money
defended by its arms, nurtured ir.to strength |
by profuse expenditure.
To state proposition so absurd is to refuto
it. 1t would be untenable on its face and en-
tirely unconstitutional, even though the Con-
stitution had not empowered the President to
suppress all insurreations-tho the states
men who foymed the Constitution had not
contemplated and debated this very point, de-
Gliding i negatively though Washington
himself had not led an army of ffteer. thou
sand men into the west of Pennsylvania. to
suppress an outbreak against nc national au-
thority. Yainly have designating sophists
tried toifnd distinction by which the State
shall have leave tG seeede ard its component
counties be restricted in the exercise of a
similar claim. The universal disntegration
which might flow from so pernicious claim
is of itself sufficient answer to all who up
hold it. But the letter and spirit of the Con.
sttution are also sufficiently explicit, and
concur in forbidaing the national disnember
ment.
But sill the rebels aud their sympathi2ers
prate namely and ineoherently, as if the ques
ton were an open one, and had mover beer
decided by augmentation overwhelming ant
unanswerable.
And il no such claim be granted to single
State, even though its population were unani
nous in the desire TO rcnd the nation, still
less could the injurious act be allowed on thu
part of those whose people desired to remain
in the Union. This was manifestly the cast
- N'S% 80 ~ttAOAAAits " ALJhloi
ana, Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee as il
notorious to all men who observed the cours,
OF events therein. and the desperate arts tt
which the traitors resorted in order to trampl
out the opposition. Numberless lies base
less and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT indeed as coul,
only find credenee among an ignorant peopl
were piled necessarily to rouse the passion
of the more impulsive, and when these wer
thus inluriated they became fitting instrr
ments in the hands of satanic leaders to in
pose the yoke on others, and compel obedienC
to the guilty traitors. The terrible murder
which, even before hostilities began, wer
habituaiiy perpetrated On northern traders
The south, were NOW re-enacted with add
tional severity o. hundreds and thousands
southern victims, adh9rents of the good oil
Union, who nlbiT dared to stand against s.
cess-on wa.ls5 their tongues could utter speecl
or their hands were At liberty to do a loyi
act
These horrible barbarities were at first fire
" recorded Ia th9 rebel journals, and eve
applaujed BY their editors as meritorious ne
foraaneosi we could expect no less from tho
who had approved the aasaulton Mr.. Sumne
and who IN tha most peaceful times urged ,
Their vigilance committees to deeds Of sava.
cruelty. But at a later period the head co
sp'raiors thought proper to restrict publicit
and then the assassinations went on more
cretly, the outsids world knowing only d,
tally the extent of these cruel murders Y
obtain little glimpse of these fearful seer
through the disinterested labors of our frien
the copperheads, who have exhuned spee
of General CAN'T whilst he was in the c,
tederate army, in which he coolly narrat
the hanging of Union man solely for poll
cal sentiments. Thousands of these dish
tragedies doubtless were going on all over q
southern country. The northern cQpperhe
Journals suppressed the facts, 50 far as "
possible, afiliating naturally with the SOU
ern murderers, and helping the Richmo
nsurpation to the utmost Of their poor abili
Such were the inhuman deeds By VII
the south was terrorisea, and such was
mode by which its boosted unanimitv was
tainel Bold and gallant men there "
who stood up and confronted the traitors v
defiant words but one by one these fel
spirits were eztinguished by bloody-han
assassins, who next attacked the quiet Cit
and shot him to death on his own bea
stone, or dragging him to anoisome dung,
LETT him there to perish by slow degrees.
DO jefferson Davis and his fellow trai
prate about southern repugnance to
Union, as if every individual dwelling wit
.he dark domain Of slavery had given
ing aequiescence to the causeless insur
ton And here are the northern sympa
GERS, also, who aid in intoxicating an idea
utterly false. A thousand evidences are
fore US, and even FROM the rebel docum
permitted to come before the world. to 8
1.-THE widespread disafection existing aga
the rebel government. On the coast an,
the mountains Of North Carolina, among
hills of northern Alabama and Georgi
all the couutry beyond the Mississippi
IN the rebel capital itself, thousands of
men and women pine for the auspiciops
hos. Al