The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-03-02

nave got t06lE DtOOu Up 10 4Cfu
their papers, the speeches of their
orators, and the resolutions of their
Assemblies, is to be stirred as wlth
the tones of a trumpet. How the Old
time comes back upon u.s. Alas! we
of the conquered banner once
talked and wrote and felt In the 30 BILE
strains of Democratic, State Rights
liberty. which now blaze upon every
Democrats hill and enkindle hearts
In every Democratic valley of the
Western course and final seat Of EN-
pire. We felt so long before barring
the arm to fight for our convictions.
The Freemen of the West stand now,
where the men of the South stood
ten years ago, and where Gen
eral Bragg's manifesto from the
head Of his Kentucky army told them
they would stand after the then war
was over. It is an undeniable fact
that the West is to-day as deeply an
tagonistic to the ideas, principles, and
designs Of the East ae the South was
before the late war. We have for
long believed that the West and the
South were natural allies, and that it
was New England fanaticism that
had ingeniously thwarted the edict,
Whom God has joined together, let
no man put asunder." This was the
inspiring thought of the friends of
Stephen A. Douglas in the South.
Had the alliance been perfected, the
devilish isms of the East might have
been squelched or controlled, and a
world Of war suffering avoided.
But let the dead past bury its
dead Especially can we. say so
when we see the very policy sup
posed to have been sepulchred in the
graves dug by sectional war, rising
from those graves and asserting the
grand groundwork of the eternal fit
ness of things upon which it is based
Jefferson, Madison, John Taylor,
of Carolina, Nathaniel Macon, nay,
not even John @. Calhoun, held up
the State Rights theory of govern
ment to a higher standard than do
these Western Democrats. They
plant themselves upon the rock
founded and glorious. principles of
Virginia and Kentucky In 1883.
The first Kentucky resolution, in
these memorable words, is flung out
as a standing motto at the heads of
the columns of many of their papers
THE FIRST KENTUCKY RESOLUTION OF
1798 II
Resoloed, That the several States
composing the United States are not
united on the principle of unlimited
submission to their General Govern
ment, but that by compact, under
the style and title of a Constitution
for the United States, and of amend
ments thereto, they constituted a
General Government. for special pur-
poses, delegated to that Government
certain definite powers, reserving each
State to itself, the residuary mass Of
right to their self. government: and
that whenever the General Gov
eminent assumes undelegated pow
er, its acts are unauthoritative,
void, and of no force; that to this
compact each State aeceded as q
State, and is an integral party, its co.
States forming, as to itself, the other
party; that the Government created
by this compact was not made the ex-
elusive or final judge of the extent OF
the powers delegated 10 itself, since
that would have made its discretion
and not the Constitution, the measure
of its powers; but that, as in all other
cases of COMPACT AMONG POWERS
HAVING NO COMMON JUDGE, EACH
PARTY HAS AN EQUAL RIGHT TO
JUDGE FOR ITSELF, AS WELL OF IN
FRACTIONS AS OF THE MODE AND
MEASURE OF REDRESS. ha5sr
Does not the perusal of this carry
you back, Southern reader, to he
elder and better days Of the Repub.
lie? And does not the attitude of
Western Democrats sgartle you with
its similarity to your own in other
times2 It would seem that not only
does the course of Empire march
westward, but that upon its rich and
illimitable fields is to be fought over
again, the very battle of State Sow
ereignty principles which failed in the
South.
10 that struggle we eau only look
Forward as actionless, but not the
less breathless, spectators. We of
the South have made our bloody liba-
ton to the free principles which were
common Inheritance from our fathers.
Our swords are broken, our shields
battered out of all form of pauOply,
our conquered banner Ia the dust,
and under duress, we take all our
chances for liberty with those of our
countrymen who deny US our birth
rights and allow traitors to tram
pie upon them, and thus blaze the
path OF precedent to manacle their
free limbs also. Meantime, Mr..
Charles Sumner may quiet his deli
cate nerves. for there is no longer
any disposition to fight In the South
ern rebels" They are perfectly sat
is6ed, but would not have been had
thew done less than they have To ~,