Year: 1860




chanan's Organ.


Amos Kendall writes the following charac-
teristic letter to the Constitution in reply to some
articles in that sheet denouncing him as a
''bloody monster ready to strangle women and
children" for having asserted that two hundred
thousand volunteers would arise to preserve
the Federal Union on the occasion of the
first attack upon it.


WASHINGTON, October 1860.
To the Editor Of the Constitution:





Sir. It is a sad sight to see the organ of a
democratic administration attempting to estab-
tablish the doctrine that it would in any event
stitution and enforce the laws of the United
States consttutionally enacted Disguise 1t as
you will, your doctrine amounts to this and moth
ing less Already the peculiar organ of nulifica-
ton in the South is recommending secession
while Mr. Buchanan is still in office, upon the
assumption that he may not enforce the laws
and defend the Constitution, which by his Off
cial oath he is bound to do. Doubtless the as
sumption is unwareuted, though justified by the
tone of his acknowledged organ.


Let it be remembered that the question is not
now what the South ought to do in case of an
actual and irremediable outrage upon her rights
and institutions The threat is to secede if Mr.
Lincoln shall be elected. Will his mere election
absolve the people of the South from their allie
glance to the Constitution and laws of the Uni
ted States, relieve the President from the duty
of defending the one and executing the other
This is the real question under discussion.


You talk about coercing states, States are
not the subjects upon which the Constitution
and laws of the United States operate. They
cannot commit treason nor be hanged as traitors
But neither can they, by any act of theirs, ab-
solve their citizens from their allegiance to the
United States.


Now suppose Lincoln were elected, and citi-
zen of Charleston, acting with without the
sanction ofthe state authorities, having cargo
of sugar entering the port, should refuse to pay
the legal duties and with an armed party should
resist the officers attempting to collect them thus e
vying war against the United States do you think
the President would be faithful to his duty and
true to his oath if he did not, if necessary use the
militia. the army and navy, in taking care that
the laws be faithfully executed and in preserv-
ing, protecting. and defending the Constitution
of the United States Could he WITHHOLD his
under such plea suffer the Constitution and
laws to be subverted If bloodshed ensued
who would be responsible-the President, who
would be Ito the best Of his ability attempting
to perform his sworn duty the traitors who
were attempting to subvert the government


Your doctrine suppose, is, that the state au-
thorties state convention may declare Il
state out of the Union, and thus ahsolve
all its citizens from allegiance to the United
States


Now, each state, by a convention elected by
the people, agreed with every other state by the
adoption of the Constitution. that all its provis-
ions, and the laws passed in pursuance thereof,
should be the supreme law of the land"


They all agreed to take por: ion of the powers
Heretofore possessed by their respective state
governments and vest them i'll common govern
ment, (based on precisely the same authority as
their state governments,) whose Constitution
aud the laws passed in pursuance thereof should
I've above the the reach of all state authoritv
How. then. any act of 4 state absolve its cit
izrns from obedience to this supreme law Of the
lanl.' declared by its highest authority con-
vention elected by the people TO he binding,
'anvthing in the Constitution and laws of any
state to the contrary Notwithstanding


To nie 1t is wonder that any man can enter
tain an idea to my mind :" absurd. The theory
of our government obviously is, that the citizen
nw es allegiance to his State government to the
extent of it's reserved powers. and to the general
government to the extent of it's granted powers,
and that no act of the general government can
relieve him from allegiance TO his State, and no
act of his State can relieve him from allegiance
to the United States


Let me he not misunderstood. do not deny
the right Of rebellion in the people of any State
when uncOnst tutional Outrages shall be commit
ted on their rights and institutions. and all hope
for redress by peaceful means has vanished-
But deny that the language of aspiring 6ema-
gogues, or the election of one of them to the
Presidency, would constitute such an outrage,
though Iust cause for alarm.


/ also deny, that in such event. the South
would be without hope of redress 1t is not to
be found, however, in personal denunciations of
eminent democrats, in attempting to force on the
democratic party new and useless issues, in
threats of disunion Let all this cease, now and
forever. Be ust to the northern democracy; in
to fhoT TT,ion
Jackson, and you will rally irresistible force,
who, by the aid the ballot only will rescue your
institutions from danger, and firmly maintain
cry constitutional right.


You say that southern men demanding
ly their constitutional right. Do you think
they have constitutional right to destroy the
Constitution? ? Such, indeed, is the claim of
right to secede from the Union, if based any 9th
ground than right of rebellion for gross and ir
remidable wrongs.


AS evidence of my inconsistency you quote GER
tain sayings of Senator Douglas! l might, with
propriety, demur to this testimony; but l adopt
those quotations in the main sentiments.
thu and now. unchanged and Interchangeable. [
believe that fidelity to the Constitution in the
North and in the South is the only means by which
the Union can be long preserved | do not doubt
that WI hen the theory of Senator Seward, false in
fact and reasonable in effect that slave labor and
free labor cannot exist in the same community.
becomes the settled rule of action in the general
government the Union will come to an end
But my faith is equally strong that it is in the
power of the friends of the Constitution in the
South, by cordial union with its friends in the
North, to avert this catastrophe and its conse-
quent calamltles.


In conclusion, I implore you and those who
act with you, to abandon your denunciations of
men with whom you must ultimately act in pre-
serving the Constitution and State institutions if
they are to be preserved at all. Do not further
verify the old maxim. that whom God intends
to destroy he first makes mad That cordial
6perotion of the supporters of Breckinridge,
Douglas, and Bell might prevent the triumph
of Black Repubicanism. and may hereafter
der its triumph transient and innocuous, OBJ
serving can doubt. Why, then, not labor
to bring them together, instead of thrusting them
further apart! Is the new tangled dogma
which the Charleston Convention split, any
theoretical claim to right of secession. of more
Importance than the preservation of the Union,
the Constitution. the peace. the happiness, the
prosperity, and the glory of our country, hitherto
unequalled by those of any other people on the
face of the earth or shall Black Republicanism
in the North and Secessionism in the South be
allowed to cut asunder our bond of union and di-
vide US into hostile States occasionally drench-
ing our now joyous fields in the blood of their
cultivators Any man who thinks this Union
can be peaceably broken up, or, if 1t could, that
peace could always be maintained between its