American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-04-06
Harrisburg, Feb, 1864.
Who Caused the WARP

The Pittsburgh Post had the unblush-
ing audacity yesterday to republish that
stale falsehood that the leaders of the
rebellion and the leaders of Abolitionism
are alihe guilty of our country troubles"
meaning the present war Does the
Post remember that distinguished lead
er of its own party-Alexander II. Ste
phens, now Vice President of jeff. Dayiss
Confederacy, and the ablest man in it
in speech to the Georgia Convention in
January, 1862, frankly met and ably re-
futed the charge that the South had been
goaded, or taunted, or somehow driven in
to rebellion2 If ithas forgotten that ref
utation of the charge it is now so stupid
and SO unpatriotic as to repeat, we will re-
fresh its memory by citing an extract from
Mr.. Stephens speech. Speaking Of the
threatened rebellion, he thus admonished
his hearers:
Pause, | entreat you, and consider for
moment what reason you can give that
will even satisfy yourselves in calmer mo-
ments-what reasons you can give to your
fellow sufferers in the calamity that it will
bring upon us? What reasons can you
give to the nations of the earth to justify
it? They will be the calm and deliberate
Judges in the case and to what cause of
one overt act can you name or point on
which to rest the plea of justification P
w hat right has the North assailed? What
interest of the South has been invaded
What justice has been denied and what
claim founded in justice and right has
been withheld? Can either of you to-
day name one Governmental act of wrong,
deliberately and purposely done by the
Government at Washington, Of which the
South has a rightto complain | challenge
the answer.
"Now, for you to attempt to overthrow
such Government as this, under which
we have lived for more Than three quar-
ters of century-in which we have gain
ed our wealth, our standing as nation,
our domestic safety-while the elements
of peril are around us, with peace and
tranquility accompanied with unbounded
prosperity and rights unassailed-is the
hight of madness, folly, and wickedness,
to which L can neither lend my sanction
nor my vote"
The Post, however, is not satisfied with
one misrepresentation, but in the same ar
ticle prints half dozen Others, one oi
which reads thus: "Abolitionism prevent
ed settlement of our troubles by the Peace
Convention which assembled in Washing
ton three years ago" sthis charge may
be repeated during the campaign, we here
take the opportunity to nail to the counter as
base coin -
The Peace Conference, which met il
February, 1861, appointeda "a Committee or
Propositions and Resolutions, which il
due time reported proposed amendmen
tothe Constitution, embodied in a new ar
tiele of seven sections, to be called tn,
thirteenth This article was so wholly il
the interest of slavery, as the intelligen
reader will remember, that the Repubi
can members of the Convention, upon con
sultation, proposed asubstitute in the form
of a preamble and resolutions. The pre-
amble declared that the Convention recog
nized and deplored the divisions and dis
fractions of the country, but denied tina
any existing alterations or ordissensions jus