Year: 1862

that people should ever be so carried away as 10
believe that We have endowed any one or any


number OF NEE, when We may be lnarmed and


peaceful, wishing well TO country, to seize
our property, or papers, or persons, and 10 send
Us to the dungeon or the block. without any pro-
cess of Law, This is what Is claimed by the ad


vocates of emancipation under the war power.


But this is sheer nonsense; and il is nothing but
the madness Of the hour that begets or tolerates
such an idea. We suppose that this war power
would have existed just the same II Mr.. Breck-
inridge had been elected. IT does under Mr.


Lincoln.


Let US see Suppose John Z. Brecknridge had
become President in 1861, and in the excited
state of feeling in Massachusetts, there had been
riots and resistance of law We will suppose
that public meetings were held, aud the Consti
tuition burned, and the Union denounced, and the
President threatened; and in the midst of the ex
citement fugitive was seized in the city of Bos
ton, the court house put in chains, the people
came rushing in with arms from Lynn and " or
cester. and blood was shed. Dir. Breckenridge
first sends troops to Boston; Wendell Phillips
and Garrison are sent To Fort Warren; the Libe-
ratOr suppressed, and other papers of nti-sayery
sentiments refused the rights of the mail. Ii
goes on actually TO civil war, and the State of
Massachusetts is put under martial law. Ii is
declared and believed that this trouble comes
from the Abolition sentiment of the North, and
il is necessary 10 the peace of the country that
such sentiments should be crushed out-"the alb
clifton of power The Puritan oligarchy" must
be exterminated. Suppose that Mr.. Breckinridge
came forward with proclamation affirming that
the Government could not exist half slave and
half free, that uniformity of sentiment and con-
stitutions were essential, and that consequently,
anu by the power vested in him as Commander
in Chief slavery should be extended over all the
States, and all negroes found i'm Massachusetts
after a certain date, without owner or master,
should be sold at public auction. Does the per
son live that would claim this to be right? And
why nOtg Is not the war power as good on one
side as on the other! Does the accident of
an election change the nature o. the caseI Has
not the Government Just as much power to estab
lsh as to abolish slaveryl--tO make Ohio uniform
with kentucky a. Kentucky with 0hiog Now
who does net see that the fact of this assumed
war power would be for each President, If the oc-
casion presented-and he could make the occa-
sion if il did not come otherwise-to abolish or
establish slavery at will; and the institutions of
the country would change with each change of
the Administration, civil war being the conse
quence of such election. How long would or
should such Government endureI


If we were called upon for opinion of the
results to be expected from proclamation of
we NOulu give IL kptoNlucN tue
slaves claimed rights and liberties under it, as
follows: lst, the destruction of all the hopes of
the black race; I'd. the destruction of all the
hopes OF the white race under this Government
Sd, the destruction of all the hopes of the world
from our experiment of republican government.
The hope of the. black is in gradual elevation
through his master and by the aid of the whites
Immediately surrounding him: but il he grew
insolent and committed outrages under procla
nation of freedom, it would be followed by
death. The negroes would be murdered in
thousands and hundreds of thousands In the


loyal portion Of the country we should see every
slave State leaving US, and that would complete
the dissolution OF the Union; and in the free
States would spring up party hostile TO the
Government. That party would first carry the
election against the Administration in the North
west, and then carry the States to JEFF Davis. In
all sections of the land would be anarchy and
confusion. and out of the ruins of the republic
would spring military despotisms that would war
Upon each other and drag US through the hells
that the European nations have travelled through
in the three centuries past. This is the picture
it presents itself 10 us If Others il in bright
and charming colors, il is only because men are
differently constituted. And men should have
the right to think as they please, and to act as
they please within the Constitution and laws.
If emancipation is declared we shall be glad to
find ourselves mistaken, otherwise il were better
that this generation of men had never been born.