Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-06-07

undef the ENSUING CONSTITUTION. Yet, in
sheer violation of these unuuestiopabIo
truths, the federal government sends into
ten States a military force empowered 70
sweep away their existing constitutions. to
subvert the sovereignty of their people, and
| to summon to the polls in the act of maxine
! new constitution, whomsoever COn0yoSo
| sees fit to designate for that purpose. We
have thus entered upon the career of found.
ing State governments upon force-and
upon external force. This stupendous nro.
| cedent cannot be without lasting. CORES
ponding results. It marks the overthrow
of the last barrier to complete consoIido.
ton for, if the existence of a supnosnd
necessity or expediency, to be Judged of bv
a present majority of Congress, can furnish
a reason to-day Tor subverting the sover
eighty of State by force, it can furnish
Just as good o reason hereafter for the av.
ercise of the same force 70 the same end :
The party administering the federal gov
eminent has only to will that q new state
government shall be founded on the suf.
frages of those who are not voters bv the
| fundamental law of the State, and the thine
is done by the irresistible and overwhelm.
ing force which the federal government
Yields.
| However fragrant may be this wrong.
however vital to the continuance of our free
institutions may be the principle involved,
we cannot look to the people of the South
ern States to resist that wrong and to pro
! tect that principle. We are not entitled to
| demand of them that they suffer martyrdom
in q cause which we have ourselves aban-
doned. They are powerless, and they are
therefore irresponsible. Resistance would
bring down upon them unutterable suffer
ing. For whatever woes, to us or to them
,cfl oh
terity will hold them absolved from the
duty of defending by their lives the funda.
mental theory of all American government
| 1t is on us that the moral accountability
| for the destruction of our system of free
| government is to rest and when we are
arraigned for it, in the judgment of those
who are to come after US, we shall have
but poor excuse to urge in our defence
1t is not true, that we could not have re-
stored the Union without doing this VIC.
lence to the Constituted. 1t is not true
that the normal relations Of those States to
the federal government could not have
been reinstated without tearing up the
foundation of their law. It is not true
that in order to recognize them as States
of this Union it was necessary to place
upon them the heel of military conquestand
! to stamp out their very existence as free
self-governing, and sovereign American
States. For every act of needless arbitrary
power that men can do there is retribution;
and nations are no more exempt than indi-
viduals from the moral laws which ordain
retribution. 1t will come when we have
come to the loss of q political system " hich
has been our glory, our safety, our happi-
ness, our boast, our sole safeguard against
the establishment of despotic power.
In my view, therefore, we are brought to
definite issue, which can be easily seen.
We have changed the form of our govern
ment, from the supremacy of q written
| Constitution, to the supremacy of the will
of party welding the physical power Of
the nation. The issue is, whether this is to
continue and to be permanent condition,
| or whether we ore to revert to the govern
ment of our fathers. 1t is said that revo-
| lutions never go backwards Whether this
one will be an exception it may require
more than mortal prescience to foresee.-
| We have as yet had but little to encourage
US in the hope that it may be SO for it is
plain that since We ceased to be at actual
war we have not chosen to restore the con-
ditions of actual peace, although We could
easily have done it, and that while the Con
stitution might have resumed its rightful
supremacy over our actions, we have not
permitted it to do so.
| We have now an opportunity to appreci-
ate the consequences of destroying State.
That political sovereign, the source and
the guarantor of all property, we choose to
suppress Upon vast region inhabited by
an agricultural people, and in an age when
capital is of essential relation to the tillage
of the earth, we voluntarily prefer to infict
q paralysis that renders even the produC-
ton OF adequate food an impossibility.-
| The most fertile acre in all that region is
not to day security for dollar in any mar
ket of the world. for the plain reason that
the political community in which it lies has
been deprived of its existence as a self-goy-
erning State and no man can tell what
| law, or whether any law, uphOlds the IL
! tie of the possessor. Let this condition
Of things continue for another twelve
months and we shall have made 81 nation OF
paupers to be fed by the world at large, or
| to perish on the most productive soil that
the sun shines upon in his course The
politician may chuckle at the chances Of
purloining q State for the uses of the par
| ty by obtaining q despotic control over
| the Constitution under which it may pre-
sent itself for admission into the Union.
The statesman who has either sense or PIN
lanthropy in his composition can see III
such scheme the probable destruction OF
the faculty and the means for maintaining
society in self-supporting condition.
But of the duty OF laboring faithfully to
| the end, while yet chance remains, have
no doubt. The examples of the great and
good who received this Constitution from
It's founders, and transmitted it unimpaired
to us, must not be lost to our memories, or
withdrawn from our sight. He, whose
name and fame you are about to common
crate, WILL let us hope, continue By his
monumental image to speak to willing
hearts, for ages to come, of the love which
he bore to this whole land, of the fidelity
with which he served its whole people, OF
| the courage with which he defended their
institutions, of the wise Cancellation by
which he reconciled their conflicting inter
ests, Of the eloquence with which he sway
ed them to right action, of the power which
he ever exerted for their good.
Again regretting, Mr.. Mayor, that l can
not unite with you in so interesting cere-
monv,
| remain, most respectfully,
g.. Your obedient servant,
| GEO. TIcKNoR CURTIS.
Dismal swamp Peat.
| We have q specimen of peat as prepared