Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-03-12
pairing the fundamental principles Of ho

protection of the liberties of the noonIn.
for the right to select the elector in whcr,'
the political power of State shall ha
lodged involves the right of the State ~
govern itself. When deprived of this nro
rogative, the States will have no power
worth retaining; all will be gone, ard thew
will be subjected to the arbitrary will oT
Congress. The Government will then La
centralized, if not by the passage of Iavra
then by the adoption, through partisan in
iuence, OF an amendment directly in con.
tiict with the original design of the Con.
stitution. This proves how necessary II l.
that the people should require the admin,
istration of the three great departments Of
the Government strictly within the Iimita.
tions of the Constitution. Their bonnd-
aries have been accurately defined. and
neither should be allowed to tresspass mon
the other, nor, above all, to encroacb
upon the reserved rights of the people and
the States The troubles of the past four
years will prove to the nation blessings if
they produce so desirable q result.
Upon those who became young men
amid the sound OF cannon and the din of
arms, and quietly returned to the farms, the
factories, and the schools of the land. will
principally devolve the solemn duty of per.
petuating the Union of the States, in de.
fence of Which hundreds of thousands of
their comrades expired, and hundreds Of
millions of national obligations were in
Cured. A manly people will not neglect
the training necessary to resist aggression,
but they should be jealous lest the civil be-
made subordinate to the military element.
We need to encourage, in every legitimate
way, study of the Constitution for which
the war was waged, knowledge of anu
reverence for whose wise checks by those So
soon to occupy the places filed by their
seniors will be the only hope OF preserving
the Republic. The young men of the Nil
ton, not yet under the control Of party,
must resist the tendency to Capitalization
an outgrowth of the great rebellion-and
be familiar with the fact that the country
consists of united States, and that When
the States surrendered certain great rights
for the sake of a more perfect union, they
ret2ined rights as valuable and important
as those which they rolinquished for the
common veal.
This sound old doctrine, far different
from tho teachings that led to the attempt
to secede, and kindred theory that States
were taken out of the Union by the rash
acts of conspirators that happened to dwell
within their borders, must be received and
advocated with the enthusiasm of early
manhood, or the people will be ruled by
corrupt combinations of the commercial
centres, who, plethoric from wealth, annu-
ally migrate to the capital of the nation to
purchase special legislation. Until the
representatives of the people in Congress
more fully exhibit the diverse views and
interests of the whole nation, and laws cease
to be made without full discussion at the be-
hest Of some party leader, there will never
be proper respect shown by tho law
making power either to the judicial or exc
cutive branch of the Government. The
generation just beginning to use the ballot
box, it is believed, only need that their
attention should be called to these consid-
erations to indicate, by their votes, that
they wish their representatives to observe
all the restraints which the people, in
| adopting the Constitution, intended to
impose upon party excess.
Calmly reviewing my administration Of
the Government, feel that, with q sense
of accountability to God, having conscien-
tiously endeavored to discharge my whole
duty, have nothing to regret. Events
have proved the correctness of the policy
set forth in my first and subsequent mes
sages the woes which have followed the
rejection of forbearance, magnanimity, and
constitutional rule are known and deplored
by the nation.
It is matter of pride and qualification,
in retiring from the most exalted position
in the gift Of II free people, to feel and
know that IN long, arduous, and eventful
public life, my action has never been in
fuenced by desire for gain, and that L can
in all sincerity inquire, "Whom have /
defrauded whom have / oppressed or
off whose hand have 1 received any bride
to blind my eyes Herewith ?" No respOn-
sibility for wars that have been waged or
blood that has been shed rests upon me.
My thoughts have been those of peace, and
my effort has ever been to allay conten-
lions among my cOuntrymen.
Forgetting the past, let us return to the
first principles of the Government, and,
unfurling the banner of our country, in
scribe upon it, in ineffaceable characters,
"The Constitution and the Union, one
ann inseparable."
ANDREW JOHNSON.
Washington, d. g., March A. 1869.
The Alabama Treaty.
The language that has been used in this
country against the Alabama treaty with
England points not to different form of
treaty, but directly to war and on this
question the Saturday Review Nondon)
says:
"Yet it is incredible that any serious
politician in the United States should con-
template, after years of negotiation ending
in the concession of almost every Ameri-
can demand, an utterly unprovoked resort
to arms. 1t is. indeed, by latent menaces
that American diplomacy has succeeded in
alarming the timid portion of the English
community, including, perhaps, more than
one statesman high in office but there is
a limit to the concessions which might be
preferable to a rupture. If the treaty is
not ratified, there ought to be no hurry in
recommending negotiations. After APP
preaching to the verge of humiliation in
its anxiety for justice and Cancellation, the
English Government has thrown upon the
United States the responsibility of delib
erately keeping the quarrel open. No
great importance should be attached to the
willful retention of pretext for war
Grave as the evils of war would be, il would
be better for England to face it at once
than to submit to intolerable degradation.
A war gratuitously commenced for the pur-
pose of avenging on England the recogni-
ton of belligerency which was simultane-
ously accorded by France, and two or three
weeks later by every European Power, in
Guiding Russia, would be an outrage re-
volkinn m tho moral caDca of mankind and