New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-09-03
NATIONAL INTEGRITY, CONSTITUTIONAL
LIBERTY, AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.

4 Gen, Custer, an officer of some distinction,
has lately been engaged in newspaper con
troversy with the notorious John W. Forhey.
Forney commenced the war; and Custer, IN
mindful of the Presidents advice that ammu-
milton is wasted in shooting at dead ducks,
comes back in long letter defending himself
spiritedly and successfully. We find nothing,
however, specially remarkable in the reply,
Except the enuneiation of the political prin
ciples by which the general and his associates
claim to be guided, and which, he says, are
embodied in these six words; National in
tegrity, constitutional liberty, individual
rights
National integrity" is a phrase which is
useful for eleetioneering purposes perhaps,
but really means nothing practically For it
may be assumed unhesitatingly, that all the
platforms and all the declarations of principles
that may be put forth from now till dooms-
day, will not preserve what is called national
integrity if there should be any good reason
to break that integrity up, Until few years
ago, all the threats that were made to dis |
solve the Union came from the States of New
England. The Hartford convention was the |
first disunion convention held in the country,
Threats were made by New England men to
dissolve the Union when Louisiana was adj |
mitted, and again when Texas was annexed |
Let New England, or any other portion of the
country at any time believe that the
Union ought to be dissolYed--that there is
ample cause for it-and that the movement |
will be successful-and there Will be no hest
tation. IN taking the step, in spite of all the |
pirate and nonsense about national integrity |
that ever has been put into party platforms |
or ever will be. They will say, when occasion
serves, and they want an excuse, (what Mr. |
Calhoun always said, and what great MANY
honest men this day belieye) that this coun- |
try is not nation and never was--that it is a |
voluntary confederation of States, with re-
served rights enough to protect themselves
from being swallowed up in the whirlpool of
Capitalization. Experience shows, as in the
ascot the fugitive slave law a few years ago,
that New England can sickle on State rights
as keenly as any Of us when it serves her in
terests orher passions to do it. National in
tegFlty may doyery well for phrase, but it is
a piece of political triekery to assume that the
people Of this country are irreyocably pledged
to it. Amid all the amendments to the Con-
submitted at the last Congress, not
one was offered to confirm this national intep
rity by constitutional edict The radicals them
selves have saved the point, and declined to Il
commit themselves, 1t was useful for them
during the war to employ the phrase to de-
eieye the masses, but everybody knows that
the leaders were fighting for national integ-
rity, not for national integrity's sake, but for
the abolition of slavery and the possession of
political power, and from a fear that their ma
terial interests would ssuffer by a dissolution
of the Union. They never really loved the
Union half as much as the Southern people
did
Constitutional liberty, which Gen Custer
next enumerates, is good phrase, and a good {
thing too, if he had only been kind enough to ?
give us any assurance that everybody will
interpret it just as he does. We have mol
doubt his Interpretation of it would be a toll
srably fair and just one-but unless he can
'ffer us some pledge that Congress and the
people will construe it as he does, we confess
he promise is somewhat vague and unsatis-
actory. Liberty is a good thing and consti-
utional liberty still better, provided the whole
onntry agree upon the meaning of the words. J.,
3ut, from 1889 to this day as everybody 4
nows, there have been diverse readings of the
which were as oppositeas the
'oles. John Randolph said, forty years ago,
hat the Constitution was construed so latitu-
inously by some people that, figuratively
peaking, one could drive a coach and four