The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1867-05-02
For the Rock Island Argus.

Having proven in my last number that
Virginia was a state, now wish to prove,
bv Professor Lewis, that if she ever was a
state she could not die, though she is to-day,
like Poland, Hungary and Ireland, deprived
of her most sacred rights as a sovereign
state.
Professor Lewis says
at is the pang of dreaded dissolution, and all
this the more terrible because true state is not
made to die death is not natural to it, The
state says Cicero, is formed for eternity How
graphic as well as how profound! And So, he
proceeds to say, the state undersoes no ordinary
natural dissolution, like a man, but it must be ut
terly extinguished and blotted out by violence
it is as if a world had persisted and fallen into |
ruins.
This is precisely the sad fate of the south |
ern states now converted into conquered |
nrovinces and governed by a military despot- |
ism, as memorable as that of Russia. And
in vindication OF the tyranny OF the oiack
republican party, he thus hbels the late
United States. He calls them "a raobie OF
contemptible nationalities placed In near
confidently, where they may be ever snarlIng
of and biting each other 1t is a den OF VI
ners and any act of God in history, wheth-
or through foreign subjugation or otherwise,
that closes it's kissing mouth Is to be desired
and PRAYED for by every true friend OF hui
mainly"
Here, as throughout his Photograph, Mr..
Lewis denounces with the bltterest scorn,
and falsely, too, the political principles of
Thomas Jefferson. which Mr. Randall (also
al New Yorkerl so highly, as l have shown,
eulogizes. In this he exhibits the lamenta-
BILE existence in his soul Of that "class and
hereditary hate" which pursued Mr.. Jeffer-
son through life, and is now intensely revivi-
fed by the party III power, who boast OF put
ting down forever his principles.
The above quotation shows beyond cavil
thai Mr.. Lewis unblushingly ignores the
right of self government, as held by the dem
ocratic party for three quarters of a centu
nv: that he condemns the sublime doctrine
of the declaration of independence-that al
governments derive their Just powers from
the consent of the governed, and that Vol
tare was in error when he thus tersely de
scribed our system of state and federal gov
ernments -
I'm short several sovereign and indepen
dent states may unite themselves togethe
by perpetual confederacy, without eacl
in particular eeasing to be perfect state
They will form together a federal republic
The deliberations In common will offer n
violence to the sovereignty of each mem
ber."
Let US examine the history of the fedora
compact between the states, or as Mr.. Levi
libeously terms it, IA den of vipers," an
see if, practically, the civilized world ha
ever been blessed with better SYSTEM
This 'den of vipers" has for three quarter
of q century given us unexamped peace il
ternally and externally. 1t has secured fc
the people, up to 1860, greater amount
happiness, liberty and material prosperit
than the civilized world has ever before wi
messed, and yet Mr.. Lewis,in the gall of bite
ness, insanely, or from innate depravit
''prays for foreign subjugation," provided IL
party In power cannot compass his vile
ject.
But Mr.. Lewis, like some other learnt
men, is very selfcontradictory, perhaps, b
cause he thinks that common people are l
capable of detecting his contradictions, in
gard to who makes nations.
On the one hand, he dogmatically assert
"a nation never creates itself. 1t lisa who
and as such, is the work of God and histo
or rather of God working in history. L
of 1887 did not make the nation, a
they had no right to unmake it.
God made the nation; it cannot be said
often. 1t is God that makes nations n
perfectly natural the bounds by which G
has made us one people. The national
ing comes not from any mere convention
arrangement claiming either to make it
unmake it, as they please. 1t is God Il
made us. Equal to, may we not say surp
sing, that of any other nation that it was
ly power ordained of God"
On the other hand, Mr.. Lewis, Just as d
matically, makes the following assertions
"The one common war with mother Brit
made US one nation. The states make