The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-07-01


Coz J. L. POWER, Clarion Office;
DEAR SIR: Enclosed with this l send to
Won letter on a subject OF such import
ance as will no doubt commend it to your
attention. As there can be no higher duty
than to guard against false impressions in
the instruction Of children, so there can be
no care more essential than the proper
selection of the school books. In them to
pervert history and propagate untrue doc
trine, is to poison the sources OF our politi-
cal streams. | have not seen the book
referred to, but judging it by extracts
given, | am surprised that ii Should have
received such an endorsement as is cited,
Among the less informed persons at the
North there existed an opinion that the
negro slave at the South was mere chat
tel, having neither rights nor immunities
protected by law, or public opinion
Southern men knew such was not the case.
and Others desiring to know could readily
learn the fact On that error the lauded
story of Uncle Toms Cabin" was founded,
but it is strange that a utilitarian and
shrewd people did not ask why slave
especially valuable was the object of pri-
walton and abuse? Had it been horse,
they would have been better able to Judge
and would most probably have rejected the
story for its improbability.
Many attempts have been made to evade
and misrepresent the exhaustive opinion
of Chief Justice fancy in the "Dred
Scott" case, but it remains unanswered.
From the statement in regard to Fort
Sumter, child might suppose that a
foreign army had attacked the United
States-certainly would not learn that the
State, South Carolina, was merely seeking
possession of Fort Oh her own territory
and claiming that her grant of the site had
become void.
The Tyrant's plea OF necessity. 20 excuse
despotic usurpation, is offered for the I'M
constitutional act of emancipation and the
use OF the epithet rebellion :" a word
inapplicable to States generally and most
especially so to the sovereign members OF
a voluntary union. But, a,as, for their
ancient prestige, they have even lost the
plural reference they had in the Coustitu-
ton, and seem so small to this utilizing
tuition, as to be described by the neutral
pronoun I'll !" Such language would be
appropriate to an imperial government
which, in absorbing territories, required
the subjected inhabitants to swear allegi-
ance to it.
Ignorance and artifce have combined so
to misrepresent the matter of official oaths
in the United States that it may be well to
give the question more than a ptssing
notice When the sovereign. independent
States of America" formed a constitutional
compact of Union, it was provided in the
9Th article thereof, that the officers "of the
United States and of the several States,
shall be bound by oath of affirmation to
support this Constitution and by the law
of une LIST, 1889, the form of the required
oath was prescribed, as follows Il, A. B.,
do so.emnly swear or affirm as the case
may bel that l will support the ConGtitu-
ton of the United States"
That was the oath. The obligation was
to support the Constitution 1t created no
new obligation, for the citizen already
owed allegiance to his respective State and
through her to the Union OF which she
was member. The conclusion is unavoid-
able, that those who did not support, but
did violate the Constitution. were they who
broke their official oaths The general
government had only the powers delegated
to it by the States. The power to coerce a
State was not given, but emphatically re-
fused. Therefore, to invade a State, to
overthrow its government by force of
arms, was palpable violation OF the Con-
stitution, which officers had sworn to sup
port, and thus to levy war against States
which the Federal authorities claimed to
be, Notwithstanding their ordinances of
secession, still in the Union, was the trea-
son defined in the third section of the third
article of the Constitution; the only trea-
son recognized by the fundamental Law Of
the United States.
When our forefathers assumed for the
several States they re resented, a separate
and equal station among the powers of the
earth, the central idea around which their
political institutions were grouped, was
that sovereignty belonged TO the people,
inherent and unaiienab e; therefore, that
governments were their agents, Instituted
to secure their rights. and deriving their
Just powers from the consent OF the gov
erned; whence they drew the corollary
that whenever any form OF government
becomes destructive of these ends, 1t is the
right OF the people to alter or abolish II. !"
etc. What was meanl by the word "peo-
pie" in this connection, is manifest from
the circumstances. 1t could only authori-
tatiyely refer to the distinct communities
who, each Tor itself, Joined in the declara-
ton, and in the concurrent act of separa-
ton from the government Of Gfeat Britain.
By all that is revered in the memory of
our revolutionary sires and sacred in the
principles they established, let not the
children OF the United States be taught
that our federal government is sovereign;
that our sires, after having, by a long and
bloody war, won community independence,
used the power, not for the end sought, but
to transfer their allegiance, and by oath
or otherwise to bind their posterity to be
the subjects of another government. from
which they could only free themselves BY
JEFFERSON DAVIS.