Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-05-30

of the north, that the sovereign power
was vested in the people and that the
people had ceded certain of these
rights TO the general government ard
that such cession of power was ire
vocable so long as the government, in
the exercise of such rights, did not ex-
coed the constitutional limits; the con-
stitution itself defining the extent of
the grant of power. This doctrine of
state rights was the lever with which
the south enforced its demands
against the north for years before the
war. Th=' north retreated from It's
positions time after time to prevent
this threat of secessicS from being
carried into execution. The one great
object of the people of the north was
the preservation of the union.
AS you know, the liberty of the
slave was accomplished directly
through the operation of the enamel
patton proclamation, issued for the
purpose it was, at the time it was, and
by the power it was, is one of the his
torical events that demonstrate the
matchless genius of Abraham Lincoln
and his remarkable judgment of human
nature.
Time and again Lincoln had stated
in his public addresses prior to his
election that he had no intention of
interfering with slavery in any of the
states where it then existed. In the
convention which nominated Lincoln,
the party solemnly bound itself in its
platform not to allow its action in op-
position to slavery to go the least step
beyond the limits traced out by toe
constitution. The slave states were
expressly assured of the most scrupu-
lous protection of ali their constitu-
tional rights, and this protection and
these rights were further defined to
the effect that slavery in the states
is subject to their exclusive control.
So that Lincoln and his party were
pledged to keep hands off slavery i'll
any state where it then existed
These declaration were made in
good faith. Furthermore they were
made for an express purpose. They
were made to prevent threatened Sc
cession by assuring the south that the
Inauguration of Lincoln as president
was not an organized assault upon the
institution of slavery
south Forfeits Rights.
Now how did it happen that after
all these declarations that slavery was
not to be interfered with that the
emancipation proclamation was is
sued? 1t came about this way: That
while these declarations of non-inter-
ference were made in good faith, when
the southern states seeded from the
union, they forfeited their right 10 de-
nand the fulfllment of these promises.
They were then at war with the peo-
pie who had made tht promises and
were hence subject to all the rules of
war
The men who enlisted in the north
did not understand that they were ell
gaging in a war to free the negro.
These men were fighting to save the
union and that alone. One writer has
said that Lincoln understood the peo-
pie he held to a death struggle in be-
half of a great republic; and knew
that while the masses would fight to
the bitter end in behalf of the union.
they would not kill their brothers and
spread mourning over an entire land,
in behalf of the negro.
They were abolitionists at the
north, but all the people of the north
were not abolitio1ists. Some writer's
go so far as TO say that at the outbreak
of the war, abolitionism was not only
unpopular in the north. but was de-
tested. We read that early in the con-
test, a group of singers were driven
from the camps of the Army of the
Potomac for singing abolition songs.
Living Principle of Government.
"* Slavery ceased. The the
DRY OF the Declaration of independence
became a living principle of govern
ment and all made possible by the
brains and bravery of the northern
army
OF all the organizations in exist,
ence in the United States today, the
one that demands the highest qualifi-