Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-09-29
NEW SERIES--V0L. 81, NO. 3S.

admitted that Wnen tne inc Oh power
was accurately drawn between thu
Federal Government and State sover
eighty tho rights on one side were al
sacred as those on the other. But
within two or three years past the
low demagogues of your party have
got to putting in their platforms anc
associations that this is a nation anC
not a confederation. What do they
mean? What do you mean when you
indorse and reproduce it2 Do you
deny that tho States were sovereign
before they united2 Do you affirm
that their sovereignty wholly merged
in the Federal Government when they
assented to the Constitution Z Is the
tenth amendment mere delusion
Do You mean TO assert that the States
have not now, and never had any
rights at all, except what are conceded
to them at the mercy of the "nation p
No doubt this new article was inserted
in the creed of the Abolitionists be.
cause they supposed it would give q
sort of plausibility to their violent in.
terventlon with the internal affairs oi
the States but this is so false, so shall
low and so destitute of all respectable
authority that it imposes upon nobody.
As a part of this conflict of theories,
and resulting from it, you describe the
South as insisting that each State had
a right, at its own discretion, to break
the Union, and constantly threaten
secession, where the full rights Of sla'
very were not acknowledged In
fact and in truth, secession, like sla.
very, was first planted in New England.
There it grew and fourished and
spread its branches far over the land,
long before it was thought Of in the
South, and long before the full rights
OF slavery were called in question by
anybody The anti. Democrats of that
region in former as well as in latter
times, totally misunderstood the pur.
poses Tor which this Government was
made.
They regarded it as n mere CONNER.
cial machine, by which they could
make such "gayncful pillage," if al.
lowed to run in their own way. When
they we're disappointed in this by GER
tain perfectly just and constitutional
regulations of their trade which the
common defense and general welfare
made necessary they Immediately fell
to plotting the dismemberment Of the
Union. Before 1907 they organized a
conspiracy with the British authorities
in Canada for the erection of New
England into a seperate republic under
British protection. (Soe Carey's, Oil.
yer Branch and the Henry correspond
ence). Not long afterward Joseph
Quincy, whose fidelity to the party
that elected him was never doubted,
formally announced in Congress the
intention Of his State to leave the I'm
ion, "peaceably If she could, focibly if
she must" Their hatred of the Union
deepened, and their determination 10
break it up grew fiercer, as the resolu.
ton Of the Democrats to maintain the
independence of the country became
stronger. When the war of 1872 be-
gan they were virtually out of the
Union, and remained out during the
whole OF that desperate struggle, not
only refusing all assistance to carry it
on, but helping the enemy in every
possible way. 1t was while England
had her tightest grasp on the throat
of the nation that the Hartford Con.
vention was called to dismember it !;
and this, Mr.. Jefferson says, they
would not have accomplished but for
the battle of New Orleans and the
peace at Ghent. John Quincy Adams
IN 1889, and Abraham Lincoln in 1917,
made elaborate arguments in favor of
the legal right Of q State TO 60 out
The late Abolitionists did not attempt
to conceal their rancorous hostility to
the Union. "No Union with slave.
holders" was one of their watch.words,
and down to the opening of the war
its destruction was the avowed object
of their machination.
There is one conclusive proof Of
your enmity TO the Union, and that is
your unwavering opposition TO the
Constitution which held the States
together, You know as well as | do,
how absurd it is to suppose that any
man or party can support the Union,
and at the same time trample on the
Constitution and you certainly are
not ignorant that you and your predo-
cessors, from the earliest times, have
been anti-Constitutional in all your
proclivities. Contemptuous disregard
of Constitutional obligations is not now
the mere germ OF doctrine; il is a
part Of your settled creed. Before and
since the war, you have trodden under
foot every provision contained in the
great charter of our liberties. l do
not speak at random. challenge you
TO designate single Constitutional
right OF the State, or individuals, which
you have not at some time, or in some
way, utllbtIuNNi1 NiVioNSu'
This contempt for the Constitution,
this practical denial that an oath to
support it is sacred, implies disregard
fall laws human and divine, and when
adopted, 1t left nothing to guide you
except the propensities, evil or good,
of your natural hearts. Many Of you
and notably yourself) contracted no
individual guilt, because you were too
proud for petty larceny, too benevolent
for large handed robbery and too full
of kindness TO break wantonly into the
tabernacle of human life. But gener-
ally the moral principles of tho ultra
Aboltionists (if they ever had any
became so wholly perverted that they
saw nothing wrong in the worst often
ses that could be committed against
their political opponents. In their
eyes theft and murder not only lost
their felonious character but became
meritorious, il the victims lived south
OF the Mason and Dixon's line. When
John Brown stole horses in the peace
of God and the State of Missouri, he
was taking lawful booty; when he
sneaked into a quiet Virginia village
on a Sunday night and assassnated
defonseless citizens, he was hero and
when he died fclon's death on the
scaffold, TO which he was Justly con.
demned, he become a'martyr.
You persist in misunderstanding the
anto.bellum attitude of the Northern
Democracy. We stood steadiastly by
the Union against all attempts of the
New England party to break II up by
secession. We sustained the Consti.
tuition against the ferocious assaults Of
the Abolitionists We labored earnestly
TO save Republican institutions from
the destruction with which they were
threatened by you and as long as the
Southern nconlo acted with ma we