Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-01-19
Extracts from Gov. Morton's
. Message. a.tsas oaff

| We are in tho midst Of bleody civil war,
forced upon the Government by the rebsllious
inhabitants of certain States. The theory
upon which this war was begun was the
pretended right Of State TO withdraw from
| the Union whenever its rights under the
Constitution of the United States we're
violated, of which violation il had the
exclusive power to Judge and determine.
This claim was founded upon the dogma
| that the Union was a compact OF sovereign
and independent States, to which they were
parties in their municipal character; that
the United States we're not nation, but an
aggregation of pationalities united 10 IA
co-partnership fercertain and upon certain
conditions, which were contained in the
| articles Of CO partnership known as the
Federal Constitutions. The exercise of the
right Of secession, or Withdrawal from the
Union, was justified by the allegation that
the people of the Northern States had
viosted their constitutional obligations by
refusing to capture or permit to be captured
in their midst, fugitive slaves escaping from
their masters, and by various other acts of
hostility to the institution of slavery and
by the further declaration that there was
good reason to believe that the Government
ofthe United States under the administration
of Mr.. Lincoln, would perform acts of
violence subversiye of the prosperity and
even the existence of slavery. To have
conceded the right claimed, and permitted
any number of States peaceably to Withdraw
from the U aien, would have involved not enly
the destruction of the Government, but the
absolute dissolution of the nation, breaking it
into as many fragments as there are States,
each claiming sovereignty and independence
as 10 all the others. When the war was
begua, therefore, there was but one Of tw
things for the Government to do, either to
suppress the rebellion and assert its integrity
as nation, or toasdicate it's authority and
confess itself without right to enforce its
DEGREES and perpetuate its existence, by con-
ced:ng the want of national unity aud the
right Of secession. 1t must be admitted
that between these NO there was no middle
ground, and the Government was forced at \
once to choice between national life and
national death, the life only to be preserved
by the total suppression of the rebellion
that menaced it. Between these centending
theories there could, in the nature of the
case, be no compromise, as they were utterly
antagonistic andirreconsilable. The rebel |
lion was begun upon an alleged right upon
which it must stand or fall, and was resisted
by the Government upon the ground that
its own life could not be preserved, if the ex.
istence OF this right were in any manner ,r
to any extent conceded.
1t is hardly worth while to consider what
would be our condition if this rebellion were
successful. The most thoughtless or sthpid
mind cannot fail to perceive that the several
States, Fragments cfa once happy and bower.
ful Republic, could not live together in
prosperity aud peace (; but that war following
n Ha onarohx, ,al r
personal liberty, would inevitably result. to
be succeeded by the night of despotism,
burying III utter darkness the fair homes
and beautiful prospects which once i)lumina-
ted our national horizon. Whatever it may
cost Us to preserve the Union, WIZ may be
assured It will cost us everything 10 lose it.
A refusal to prosecute the war bdcause it is |
expensive, would not be unlike the case of
q man who should resolve TO die because
the employment Of physi.ian would
embarrsss his financial affairs. r Nor would
1t he less absurd to refuse tos sustain the
Government and prosecute thf war, upon
the pretense that by so doing constitutional
rights and personal liberty w. kild be endan-
gsred, when we know perfectly we'll that if |
the rebellion succeeds, civil and religious
liberty and constitutional riphts, of fwhatever
kind, will be overwhelmed ia one common
ruin. -.I.
Let us hope that human slavery, which |
has ever been the source a national dissen-
sions and heart burnings; which from the
beginning has arrayed our people into
classes, and fretted them Into In utual ha-
treds; and for the reservation and pros
perty of which it has b. ssn solemnly avowed
that this mighty war; and most bloody
rebellion was begun anf is prosecuted has
received its mortal wofnd, and will soon be
consigned to the comnfon grave OF loathsome |
tyrannies from which, There is no resurrec-
ton, Should the Cdngress of the United
States pass joint DISSOLUTION to prohibit
slavery or involuntary servitqds throughout
the United Stetes, y do most earnestly hope |
that the people of the several States will |
hasten to give it their solemn sanction. SO
that it may pass into our fundamental law
and go out to all the world, that eur country
is in fact, as in nshne, 'ths land Of the |
free" as we'll as 'ths home of the brave"