Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1866-07-19
The Convention of Southern I'M
tOnists.

ut which the call published below, for
Convention at Philadelphia on the first
Monday OF September, was adopted and
sign, d. II II document OF great i'm
portauce, not 30 much for its immediate
effect as for the probable future results
of the movement inaugurated by 1t.
The true, steadiast, prosecuted Unionists
of the Southern States, represented by
the signers of the call, have been little
heard from during the rebellion or since.
They have been silenced by the over
whelming majority of rebels and trail
tors surrounding them. They will con-
tinue to be prosecuted and down-trod-
den, unless they organize and labor for
their own protection. This they are
about to do. They will now make
themselves and their cause heard
throughout the length and breadth of
the land. They will be in a minority.
They will carry no Southern State cleo
tion. But they will organize begin
ming. They will form nucleus around
which growing loyal sentiment at the
South will gather. Their numbers will
be increased as intelligence is diffused
among the Southern people and their
territory is filled by free immigration.
Starting as an oppressed and prosecuted
minority, they will grow till they become
the great party of progress and freedom
at the South, as the Republican party
now is at the North. Meanwhile, their
call, endorsing and sustaining Congress,
will add strength and determination to
the Union party of the North, for it is
the voice of the only portion small
though it be) OF the Southern people,
whose fidelity to the government and
the Union, in the time of peril, gives
them an imperative right to be heard.
The call is as follows
To the Loyal Uniontsts Of the South.
The great issue is upon us. The ma
joritY in Congress and its supporters
firmly declare that the rights Of the cit
zen, enumerated in the constitution and
established by supreme law, must be
maintained inviolate. Rebels and rebel
sympathizers assert that the rights of the
citizen must belong to the States alone,
and under such regulations as the re-
spective States choose voluntarily to
prescribe. We have seen this doctrine of
State sovereignty carried out into it's
practical results, until all authority in
Congress was denied, the Union tempo
rarily destroyed, the constitutional rights
of the citizens of the South nearly ami
hilated, and the land desolated by civil
war. The time Las come when the
structure Of Southern States govern
ments must be laid on constitutional
principles, or the despotism grown up
under an atrocious leadership be permit
ted to sremain. We know of no other
plan than that Congress, under its con-
stitutional powers, shall now exercise its
authority to establish the principle
whereby protection is made coextensive
with citizenship. We maintain that no
State, either by its organic law or legis-
lation, can make transgression on the
rights of the citizen legitimate. We de-
mand, and ask you to concur in demand
ing, protection to every citizen of the
great republic on the basis of equality
before the law, and further, that no State
government should be recognized as le-
Ultimate under the constitution In so far
as it does not by its organic law make
impartial protection full and complete.
Under the doctrine of State Sovereignty,
with rebels 10 the foreground controlI-
ing Southern legislatures, and emblt-
tered by disappointment their schemes
to destroy the Union, there will be no
safety for the loyal element of the South.
Our reliance for protection is now on
Congress, and the great Union party that
has stood, api is standing by the ma
tionality, by the constitutional rights of
the citizen, and by the beneficent prin-
ciples Of free government.
For the purpose of bringing the loyal
Unionists Of the South into conductive
action with the true friends of Repub-
hcan government at the North, we invite
you to send delegates in goodly num-
bers from all Southern States, including
Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia,
Maryland and Delaware, to meet at indie
pendence Hall, in the City of Philadel-
phia, on the first Monday of September
next. 1t is proposed that we should
meet at that time to recommend meas
ures for the establishment of such gov
eminent in the South as accords with
and protects the rights of all citizens.
We trust this call will be responded to
by numerous delegations of such as rep
resent the true loyalty of the South
that kind of government which gives
full protection to all the rights of the
citizens, such as our fathers intended,
and we claim as our birthright. Either
the lover of constitutional liberty must
rule the nation, or rebels and their SYM
pathizers be permitted to misrule it.
Shall loyalty or disloyalty have the
keeping of the destinies of the nation
Let the responses to this call, which is
now in circulation for signatures, and is
being numerously signed, answer. No
lice is given that gentlemen at dis
lance can have their names attached to
1t by sending a request by letter, direct
ed to d. w. Bingham, ESQ.,, Washing
ION, D. G. ...
W. B. Stokes, Tennessee.
A. J. Hamilton, Texas.
Torop1n Sharmnnd TQyaG