Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-06-05
MEMORIAL ADDRESS BEFORE G..
w. QUIMBY POST, MAY 30, 1899.

1n0 h0IQOE1d1 LAY oodkOSc SANOA ny
Mr.. M. w. Farman of Westfield, be-
fore the G. A. r. Post of Barton, is
here presented in part. Dwelling
upon the great men of the North and
the South who helped make the coun-
try's history, of the masterful speeches
by Webster, Calhoun, Hayne and
others relative to the great question
of slavery and of the events which
led up to the election of Lincoln, Mr..
Farman said:
When Mr.. Lincoln took up the scep-
ter of authority on the 4th of March,
1861, the Government was in an ex-
tremely perilous condition. The fall
of Sumpter precipitated matters. The
people of the North were aroused and
responded with alacrity to Lincoln's
call for troops. When Mr.. Lincoln
became President he swore that he
would faithfully execute the office of
President of the United States, and
that he would to the best of his abil-
ity preserve, protect, and defend the
constitution of the y. 8. The action
of the South was unconstitutional, un-
reasonable and suicidal. 1t is held
that the constitution was adopted by
the people, not by the states. The
enacting clause of that instrument ex-
pressly declares that, "We, the people
of the U. s. in order to do thus and so,
do ordain and establish this constitu-
ton for the U. S. A." The constitution
and the laws enacted in pursuance
thereof, are the supreme laws of the
land, anything in the constitution or
laws of any state to the contrary not
withstanding. What right then has
any state of the Union to exercise
sovereign authority or to assume
other sovereign powers?
But must any state or any individ-
ual obey laws of Congress that are
unconstitutional? By no means; that
would be despotism, and would thwart
the very end for which the govern
ment was ordained. The trainers of
the constitution did not consider that
they had prepared perfect instru-
ment adequate to all the needs of all
the future, and so provision was made
for its amendment by the people in
such particulars as might seem best
for the common veal.
The Confederate principle would be
suicidal in its results. If the South
ern states might secede from the
Union at will, then it would follow
that the same right would belong to
the Eastern, Northern and Western
states; any or all the states might
secede and the boosted Union would
prove an empty name. The nation is
not merely an organism, but is NOR
al organism, therefore it has person
atty. The condition of personality is
freedom; the basis of personality is
self determination. The nation should
possess the attributes of sovereignty,
to wit: independence, authority, SUI
premacy, unity and majesty. 1t must
order to stand on an equal footing
with them. 1t must have authority
to control its internal affairs in order
to preserve its unity, and this author
ity must be supreme. But the nation,
although possessing sovereign power,
has no right to do wrong. The words
of Aristotle are true: 1.-THE end of the
state is not merely to live, but to live
nobly."
The relations existing between the
nation and the individual are Of the
closest and most direct. Love of
country and feelings of patriotism are
natural emotions in the bosom of man.
1t is not by chance that men refer to
the Fatherland in terms of tenderness
and affection, and in times of peril
display for it a sonlike devotion. The
nations life is recognized to be sacred,
and therefore the preservation of that
life is sacred duty.
1t is true that when all other rights
fail-the right of appeal to the courts,
and the right of the franchise with all
that involves-there still remains with
the people, as last resort, the right
of revolution. But had the South
been deprived of these rights? Surely
majority of the Judges of the Su
preme Court favored the interests of
slavery as the decision in the bred
Scott case, rendered, perchance, at
the risk of defying law, humanity and
history, bore ample testimony. AS to
the franchise, no one thought of deny
ing that right to the Southern people.
True, MIR. Lincoln had been consti-
tutionally elected President; true he
was an anti slavery man; true he was
a Republican, and the Republicans
would confine slavery to the states