A PARALLEL BETWEEN THE GREAT HEVOLITIOX II IK&JHI OF A N 1 ) OF 1S60--61, BY A GENTLEMAN OF MISSISSIPPI, MERIDIAN. MISS. DAILY CLARION BOOK AND JOB OFFICE. 1864. A PARALLEL Bi'M'WfcEft THE«iAIMW10rB«MI()F AXi» m airhi mmm of whl G1SSTLEMA All • BOOJ L '■■; 1 9-f A PARALLEL ^ BETWEEN JAMES II AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN -^-^-A*. Hi pi few epo< i. • recorded in history have bad bo important a bearing on the cause of civil and religioaa liberty, as the great revolution of 1688 in Kngland. Scion foot by a sover- eign who ascended the throne with a deliberate purpose to • -ulivci l, ihe Fundamental principles on which the government rested, in order to elevate his own party and tenets ; and met by the (irmTind wise resistance of those who cherished a profound devotion to their Constitution ; resulting in the dethronement and disgrace of the legitimate sovereign, and there establishment of the rights sought to be pro; tvuted by him; it stands forth as a signal light lor instruction and guidance in ail cases where those entrm fed with the executive control of a Government shall attempt to pervert the forms of the Constitution to the destruction of the principles on which it is founded, and of the rights which it was ordained to secure. The secret springs of human depravity are, and have bcec, in nil ages of the world, the same ; and, if we trace them a ; they are found illustrated in the efforts of men of wicked ambition to usurp power and to subvert right, we shall iind a wonderful coincidence in the motives, the ways and the means, the pretenses and subterfuges, by which each men have endeavored both to accomplish their ends and to con- ceal their designs, fn many of the most nolable of such events, the past will be found the original of whkh the present is but the reproduction in all the es^nlia) features pf wickedness and dupliejfy. We propose, in those remarks, to trace briefly some points of similitude between the 'Revolution new in progress in the Slates composing the late American Union, and the groat Revolution of 1688, in their leading features; and to reduce them both to the same motives of depravity, usurpation and mtatuation, in their respective authors. THE REVOLUTIONARY DESIGNS. 1. Tho first and leading purpose of James II was, to remove all political disabilities from the adherents of the Church of Rome— disabilities created by numerous laws excluding such persons from civil aud military office, which had ripened into a settled and fundamental policy of t he- realm. These laws and customs, whereby the Protestant Episcopal Church was made* the established religion of the nation, were incorporated into the Constitution, and recog nized as an essential part of the government ; and so firmly established was thw'system, that it was found impracticable to obtain any material change in these laws, through Parlia- ment, the only power recognized as competent to make the change in a legitimate manner. In order to accomplish his end, he determined not only to pervert all his' power and prerogative, but to set at nought the laws and customs of the realm, and to usurp supremo power at discretion, in defi- ance of the Constitution. James II came to the throne a firm Roman Catholic. — But, under the constraint of widespread suspicions as to his iklelity to the government and the rights of the Established Church, he made the most solemn pledge that he would maintain the established government, in Church and in State, that he would defend the Established Church in all her rights, and would strictly respect all the rights of his people in connection with it. Notwithstanding this pledge, it was not long after his accession, before he showed his determina- tion to place in office men of his own church, in violation of the laws excluding them from such offices, and to pervert the whole machinery of government to usurpation and oppression, in violation of the most cherished principles of the Consti- tution. He resolved that Roman Catholics should be ele- vated to the highest dignities in Church and in State, though his own pledge and the Constitution were- trampled under foot in the acts; and that this should be the paramount object of his administration. Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United State- as the representative of a party who*? avowed put ■ pose was to destroy the institution of African slavery m t lie United State?. This was the ma%BOl>jeot of that party and the controlling issue in the election. lie accepted the nomination w ith a pledge that he #as in favor of the ultimate extinguishment of slavery in the United States, and that hi 1 would use all the power of the government to that end. lie was elected lor the express pappose of accomplishing that end. Xo sooner was lie elected than the Southern State? were aroused to their danger. Their right to hold slaves was expressly guarantied in the Uowtitutimi- had been con Btantly recognized by all the departments of the government, ii'n.ty legislative and judicial, in nil the pa^t history of the Union - and it was well known that the right was incor- porated as an indispensable condition of the Union. To de s'titoy or materially to impair that right w>i:-. therefore, to annul a Lundanieatal condition of the Union. It was to subvert the « \in^t':!iition^//?-^?-y overt art, of the policy to which Mr. Lincoln was pledged, to take the same step. These decisive measures brought Mr. Lincoln to a pause in his course. It was necessary to lull the troubled elements, lest the raging storm should overwhelm him and all the hopes of his partv; and to do this he did not scruple. P72320 to resort to deception and falsehood. Li'ke Itia prototype, James, who falsely dfedttied that ho would defend the I btfelied Church, and would respect, the rights of his pe< in connection with it— he declared in his inaugural aefth that he had "no purpose directly or indirectly to interfile wUh the institution of slavery in ihe States;" that he h bclkv€d he had 7W Inicful right to do so" and that he ^hed no inclination to do so." If he had then declared that it toras hi, in tention to carry oat Ids pledge, and abolish slavci y, oitU- cr directly or indirectly, under any pretense whatever, it would have been impossible to keep a majority of the States in the Union. It was, therefore necessary to bend to the storm which swept the country at the prospect of his acts of open revolution of the government ; and thi ■:» declar- ation was intended to delude the people of the States remaining in the Union into security, until he was firmly in possession of the power of the government; and the remaining States committed to the support of his admiirs- tratiou bv the insidious measures into which they were to be inveialed ; when lie might avail himself of (he circum- stances as a pretext for carrying out the policy to which he. was committed. Like the noted declaration of James, it was made for deception, and was intended to be broken so soon as the storm then raging, which even threatened to drive him from power, was hushed. It was necessary to prepare the country, by a slow and insidious process, for the development of his real design, concealing it amid the confusion and excitement which were to follow his inauguration, by reason of the measures of hostility to be taken against the seceded Slates, until the limes would be propitious to its promulgation, and circum- stances, to be brought about by his own policy, would afford him a pretext for its justification. No sooner, therefore, was this solemn declaration made, than he set about a course of schemes, marked at every step by perfidy and lawlessness, to create a. pretended necessity to justify the fulfillment of his original party pledge. These are worthy of a brief no- tice. .Resolved to reduce the seceded States to submission to his power, by waging war against them, it was yet an important point of strategy to cast upon them the odium of! commencing hostilities, at least to a decree that would quiet the sm uples pf a large number of Union-loving men agaiaSl the right and propriety of waging war against those States. Ife gave re- peated assurances, thro hiaSccictarj a\ htale,io the Gomtaw- sioiici-a oi Lite seceded States, that Fort Sumter, in the Stite of South Carolina, should be evacuate ; while, during tho same time, every exertion was being made to send reinfoi. «.inont i and ' provisions to it ; and wheu all thing* were rJpe, the evacuation was refused, and the authoiihes of tho Confede- rate States defied, and it became necessary to take it by force. This was artfully designed to throw upon the South the responsibility of commencing the war. and to enable Mi. Lincoln, with more color of justice, to call his- cohorts to the held, for the pretended purposefof vindicating the honor and rights' of the Union, which, it was alleged, had bwi wantonly outraged ; and immediately the whole country rang with the clamor that :ar ag ■ \nmtnccu b)j tkeactvj the South. The device worked its object, and fully prepared the pub- lic mind in the Northern and Western States, devoted to the policy which elected Mr. Lincoln, to take the hist great step in this war ol invasion, subjugation and revolution. It aroused the conservative men of those States, who had an overweening devotion to the Union, and believed that war was made by the South against the Union. He quickly siezed upon this excitement, and, in violation of the clear provisions oi the Constitution, without any color of authoi ity of law, he issued his proclamation calling for 75,000 men, professedly "to suppress combinations too powerful to he suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceed- ings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law." This proclamation was justly regarded, by the South, as a declaration of war, and as a preparation for invasion and subjugation ; and so clear and cogent were the do- nunciations of its unconstitutional and despotic character, that even Mr. Lincoln and his co-ad jittors were brought again to a pause. At first the intent to invade the seceded States was denied. Yet it was necessary to put down tho up-rising oi the people of Virginia at this act of usurpation ; and, for that purpose, to invade that patriotic and Gonstitution-loviug State. But how was the constitutional power to do sof by the mere act of the Executive, to be justified ? Tkte . difficulty, great as it was, did not baffle the tvits oi Mr. Lincoln's advisers , nor turn him from his purpose. They determined that the act of retrocession of Alexandria by the United States to +be State of, Virginia was unconstitutional; that, therefore, that city was still a partoi thc-District of Columbia, and that the Executive had a perfect right to order the ibices of the United States to any part of that District Having taken possession of Alexandria, under this shallow pre- text, it was not considered necessary to show even a pretense of justification for advancing a hostile army be- yond that point into the heart of the Slate of Virginia*; and that bold step was quickly taken. And the war, thus begun by the invasion ot one of the States of the South, soon assumed the character of flagrant war between hos- tile powers. But notwithstanding the excitement produced in the public mind m the Union States by these events, and the apparent alacrity with which they had responded to the call of Mr. Lincoln, there was a deep-scaled misgiving in the mind3 of large numbers of .the people of the most ol those States at the prospect of an unnatural, fratricidal war, and lest it should terminate in the destruction of the Constitution and their liberties. Such a war could not be contemplated without horror; and the conviction tilled the public mind that it could be justfiicd only on the ground that it was absolutely necessay to maintain the Constitution and to restore the Union, with the rights and liberties of each State intact and unimpaired, as tho' the war had never occurred. They were constrained to admit that upon any other ground, or for any other purpose, the ivar waged by them icould be unnatural and unjustifiable — totally repugnant to the Constitution, and destructive of the jwineiplcs of American liberty. So strong w T as tins sentiment that the authors of the war were compelled to yield to its de- mands, and its justness was admitted in the most em- phatic terms by Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Seward, and b$ Con- gress. Mr. Lincoln, in his message of July 1861, says ; "Lest "there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as "to what is to be the course of the government towards "the Southern States, alter the rebellion shall have been "suppressed, the Executive deems it proper to say, it will "be his purpose (hen, as ever, to be guided by the Constitution u and the laws, * * He desires to preserve the gov- ernment that it may bo administered for all as it was "administered by the men who made it." He employs the italic words,' in order to make this pledge emphatic, In an official communication of Mr. "Seward, as Secre- tary of State, .to Mr. Dayton, minister at the court ot France, dated 22d April, 1861, the following explicit lan- guage is used: "There is not even a pretext for the corn- "•plaint that the disaffected States are to be conquered by tk the United States, if the revolution fails, for ihe right? of "the States, and the condition of every human being in them, ''will remain subject to exactly the same laws and farms of ^administration, whether the revolution shall succeed or JaU, "In the one case the States would bo federally connected ii with the new Confederacy; iu the other, they would, as "now, be members of the United States ; but the Cons . "tioris and laics, customs, habits Oliver them up, even in the States remaining in the Union. The war raged with increased violence i,n the summer rii 1862. The rc^ferses of that period, to his arms &jled his acherents with dismay, and' , seemed* to threaten overthrow and disgrace to his cause and to the Siates which were mainly supporting him. The public mind at the North ■■ct'mcd to be stunned to insensibility and prepared tosubmb ■> any em-ami; v. however $>&rihog and abhorrent to prin- pie, wlvoa off, a id any hWpe or promise of relief to the 'sporate fnrtmms \ ? •.-.. ■ Coasted arma^ehts of the United. 'ates. But few ron>n';oa;»ffveh ; among them were found idy to ehi-vt. to Tirei- ,r 4> *5 ;ash. i'ii tones of sober reason, aukl have been re*: 1 -*' d< : ?j <•.- rifoli-sirous. What he had rst ca'ivri fo do h success u-f his arms, he was now em- -aklcncd to p!-eA umb ? r-v-'^rse^.-ho^ng for better results. War and cim-Vio'-i ana tibtioHlvA -uiwj rendered the time favorable to the i mention m r.he urea idea of Mr. Lincoln and his party. afo'6 .-o seized the jucetuia to promulgate his grand coup £ eM. On the 22c! September, lSr)2 y he issued ♦ 13 his proclamation declaring all the slaves in the sec*4f Slates free ; thereby, according to his own admission ink inaugural speech, declaring the annihilation of the Constit tion and Union created by it, falsifying the pledge of b chief minister of Slate, am: doing violence to the declar; tions of Congress. Thus was fulfilled the great object which brought him ml power, and thus were verified the worst apprehensions oi th< South. The act stands forth a confessed violation of the Constitution, attempted to be justified as a measure of neces- sity to suppress the alleged rebellion and to restore the Vnion. But the pretense is too shallow and absurd to com rnand any respect, either for its sincerity or its soundness. It is nakedly absurd; because it purports to maintain the Union, by usurping powers confessedly denied by the Constitution ; which would be, not to preserve the Union made bv the Constitution, but to Set up a new and different Government, without limit of power, to be admin- istered by the Executive, at will, whenever he considered that a, necessity justified the exercise of undelegated el- even prohibited 'powers, and whenever he possessed the physical power to enforce his edicts. This is a bold and profligate revolution in the Government, and not a resto- ration" of its legitimate functions; and when the edict is attempted to be maintained by torce, it is rank treason before Heaven and agaiust the Constitution. To say that the Union could not be maintained but by violating the Constitu- tion, at once the source and limit of its power, is to admit it a failure; and to say that the Government should be sustaiaed by 'means of violations of the organic law of its existence, is to proclaim a revolution. It is false and perfidious; because the abolition of slavery in the Southern States, ii effec- tual, would render the restoration of the Union impossi- ble, since their right to hold slaves is solemnly recognized in the Constitution, as a right of private property, involv- ing, in a high degree, the happiness and domestie welfare of "those States: and as an element of political power in the Government] rights considered so indispensable to their best interests, that it is acknowledged the Union couh not have been formed without their full recognition. This right of property is placed beyond the power ol the Federal Government, bv the 9th and 10th amend- . 14 merits to the Constitution. The abolition of slavery m those States would, therefore, be to deprive them of their cardinal rights under the Constitution, and to destroy a fundamental condition of the Union, as it was made. If the slaves be rendered free, as this proclamation declares them to be, Mr. Lincoln's doctrine is, that their freedom is perpetual and beyond the power of the Government. This condition of freedom would, then, be irrevocable, under his theory; and it would be impossible, at any time, to restore those States to the Union without the aestriiciion of their original fundamental rights, the pro- tection of which was an indispensable condition of the Union. The proclamation destroys the State Constitu- tions under which they entered the Union, which the United States are bound to respect, and with which the} 7 have no right to interfere. Hence it Is idle to say, that this revolutionary measure can be justified as a means of restoring and preserving the Union. It is radically de- structive of the Union, incompatible with its existence, and renders its restoration impossible. It is, therefore, too plain to admit of any concealment, that this monstrous act could not have had for its object the reservation of the Union, but was the fulfillment of the the- ory that there is a higher law for the administration of the government of the United States, than the Constitution, and a more sacred duty to the officers under it than that imposed by the oath tp support that Constitution ; and that, reckless of the Constitution and of his oath to support it, he has com- mitted the high crime of attempting to abolish the Constitu- tion, iu order to fulfill the pledges of his election, and carry out the miserable schemes which have worked a to:al revo- lution in the government of our fathers and drenched our once happy land in blood i James came into power with a fixed purpose to accomplish his unconstitutional ends — so did Mr. Lincoln. James denied the moral force of the religious system of England on his conscience — Mr. Lincoln was the representative of a party, holding that there" was a higher law, which, in conscience, he was bound to respect, than the Constitution ; and he has acted accordingly. Both made public declarations, on com- ing into power, falsifying their real designs; and both vio- lated those declarations, and attempted to fulfill their primary purposes. After James had reached the polat of openly violating his pledge, lie claimed the right to commit the acts on the ground of his prerogative, as the legal head of the Church and the defender of the rights of conscience— when Mr. Lincoln came to the Fame point, he has set np the neces- sity of preserving the Union as a pretext for hi,: manifold violations of the Constitution, and for his attempt to fulfill his original party pledges— claiming the right to violate the Constitution, as incident to his power as commander-in-chief of the army. The difference is only in name. What James claimed the right to do by prerogative, Mr. Lincoln- assumed The power to tiofrom necessity ; both claims being in flagrant violation of the Constitution. But the pretest of Mr. Lin- coln is much more shameless and desperate than that of James, since Mr. Lincoln's usurpations are, in many instance* against the .express prohibitions of the Constitution which he had sworn to support, with the declaration on his lips that it gave no warranty for the acts he has committed. Bis infamy is more flagrant because he had- openly committed himself before his Election to a course destructive of 'tee Constitution, and had accepted his omce at is of those who confidently relied on his faithfulness to his pledge. The judgement of mankind has pronounced the usurpations of James an attempted revolution ; and both the usurpations of Mr. Lincoln and the plea of necessity offered for their justiicatiom if successful, would most eile^;:' . flish the Constitution and set np a despotism. History has consigned the '"name of James to infamy; it remains to be seen how it 'ill dispose of Mr. Lincoln. FALSE PHILANTHROPY AGAINST VESTED RIGHTS. 2. In Ireland there was no disability or exclusion of the Irish in holding office, either civil or military. Yet the English and Scotch colonists had the ascendency in the government ot the country, the plain result of their supe- riority in wealth, intelligence and influence. James resolved to place them under the ban ; to give superiority. to ignorance and barbarism in the native race, oyer intelligence and cultivation in the colonists: "to deprive the latter of all places of honor", and exclude them from 11 positions of profit and influence ; and to subject them o insults and injuries of person, and to confiscation of roperty, which would deprive them of their rights, and 'tlier drive them from the island or place them in a state 16 of degradation to -the Irish inhabitants; To efiect this, Hb determined to unsettle the policy and institutions which had grown for a long series of years under the industry and intelligence of the colonists, and had become established as the basis of the wealth and prosperity of the country ; and which, whether right or wrong in the. abstract, iii its inception, had been firmly fized by time and general consent, and could not be disturbed without unsettling the very foundations of society. Instead of reconciling the hostility and antipathies existing between the tvo races — which be occupied a position as an Eng- lish Catholic enabling him to do — he set about disturbing the laws which regulated their rights and relations, and which by rime had become an/ established system ; and adopted a course to destroy firmly-settled- and long-en- joyed fights, and to array, one class of society in more deadly discontent, violence and strife against the other. These exhorts have bee,n held, by the opinion of the world, :o be a wicked interference with the settled policy of the country, and an outrage on private rights. To all this, the course of Mr, Lincoln bears a striking analogy He was the avowed advocate and pledged rep- resentative of the dogma that the slaves in the Southern States are equal in political and social rights with their masters, according to the principles of American institu- tions; and that slavery should be "abolished and this equal- ity established. His nomination was supported on this ground, and his election was heralded throughout the country, as — in the language of Mr. Seward — "the great triumphal inauguration of this policy into the government; " and, in the language of Mr. Chase, as a work that would "go straight , on vydhout faltering or wavering, until the swu in all itk journey from the utmost Eastern horizon through the mid- heaven until he sinks behind the Western bed, shall not be- hold THE FOOT-PRINT OF A SINGLE SLAVE IN ALL OUR BROAD and glorious land." The domestic system of those States was to be destroyed; their system of labor broken up, involving revolution in their political rights, and wide-spread ruin to theirs main pursuits, their wealth, their property and their social institutions, and desolating to their landed estates ; degrading. the master to the foot- ing of equality with his slave, and striking down his im- memorial rights, which, in .every for lu. had received the 17 •lion and guaranty of -their Constitution and IawsJ belli State and Federal. In the policy of James, there were not wanting consid- erations of justice, in the abstract, in excuse or palliation of it, inasmuch as its professed object was to favor the original inhabitants of the country, a race of people pos- sessed of many noble elements of character, which only required cultivation to be developed, and which the gov- ernment might properly foster. But these reasons had no existence in the ease of the negroes of the Southern States. They were of different color from the white race, were marked by as an inferior race, had evei occupied that condition, and had no claims as the original inhabitants of the country. They seemed destined it- nature to fill the place of menials to labor in the heat tke. Southern sun, was indispensablc'to the derel- ■nt of the resources of wealth marked by Provide ■ office" of tl >n. in supplying the world with ultural products highly conducive to the comfort ot kind. In conformity to this law of naturtf, assigning • » theih the position of menials and operatives, they <>;■ their progenitors were imported into the country, as property ; from our first settlement here, they were held. give's, and 'that status was assigned to them'bythe of those States 1 e Union w-as former! ; thti ■ recognize! as slaves and propdfty in the Coristftul which made the Union; and that'pnion was formed v iiie distinct admission, in the Constitution, that the right to hold them as slaves was a part ot the domestic polif-y e Staves, which was incorporated as an elerrtent ot ! t and of representation in the government of the United States, by the terms of the Constitution. right icas therefore, engrafted into, and formed a part c- i'umpact -of the Union. Besides all this, the slaves tfeie contented and happy in their condition. Mr. Lincoln^ mission was to destroy tin's institution . even at the hazard of a dissolution of a great and happy i powerful Federal Union ; and while in point of wioiednes* and infatuation, in the main design, this crusade bears a re- markable similitude to the Irish policy of James, it is nk< marked by a strong analogy to that, in many of its details. Jauaes adopted the policy of ejecting the colonists \ nearly ail ?es in Ireland, arc of placing Catholw IB ieir places. The army wars filled with recruits of the na- ves, to the exclusion of the colonists, with license to the ew recruits to burn the houses of Protestant colonists and dunder them of their property, under the most shocking nsults and outrages to their persons, regardless of sex or condition. These outrages were not only not punished, but were encouraged, and a large portion ef the most respect- able inhabitants were driven into England for safety. Mr. Lincoln has proclaimed the slaves free, and armed them to resist their masters. >He has incited them to commH the most horrid acts of plunder, arson and murder, without regard to age, sex or condition, against the white race and their legal masters, and given them protection when taking refuge for their crimes in hig military posts, refusing to de- liver them up for punishment. He has solemnly declared in his proclamation of September 22d, that he- "will do no act to, repress them in any efforts they may make for their free- dom" however abhorrent to the laws of God and of human- ity ! Large numbers of the most respectable private citizens have been actually driven from their homes,- by his military commanders, under his authority, stripped of all their prop- erty and banishe-d into distant States, because they would not take the immoral and unconstitutional oath to support the r*cts of his government. In numerous instances favor has been shown to slaves where, mercy would not spare their masters, who were peaceable private citizens; and prece- dence has been given to the slaves, with insult and outrage iQ. their masters, in disposing of their own pillaged proi>- e<|y> His soldiers have been allowed a full license to sack cities and towns; to burn the private dwellings of persons' not bearing arms, and frequently, of helpless females ; to burn churches and desecrate their altars and rob them of 'heir sacred utensils ; to pillage and destroy the entire prop- erly of private citizens throughout whole sections of the country, with every form of injury and insult to their own- ers. His course of vandalism has not occurred in merely exceptional cases where discipline could not«prevent it, but t has been the settled practice wherever his armies advance *to the Southern States ; so that in large regions of the lost wealthy and fertile parts of those States, the private uzens, nor. bearing arms, are stripped of every vestige of e means of subsistence; their mills, barns, granaries =and 19 farm houses, with their contents, wantonly b timed ; the;! gardens and the enclosures of their plantations destroyed ; their timber felled; their horses, mules and cattle taken away by force ; their money, jewelry and costly furniture and clothing either stolen or wantonly destroyed, and their own slaves either taken away from them or incited to insult and violence against them. Compared with these outrages against the rules of civiliz- ed war, and the dictates of humanity, to say nothing of the claims of justice and constitutional right, even the enormi- ties of James in. Ireland sink into utter insignificance. THE«t LAWLESS PROCLAMATIONS. 3. James issued his original Declaration of Indulgence, by which he set at nought a long series of acts of Parlia- ment in favor of the Established church, enacting penalties, or creating disabilities against Roman Catholics, Protestant Dissenters and Non-Conformists. This was for the pur- pose of making interest with all classes laboring under these disabilities, and to obtain their support, which was ultimately to be used to establish the supremacy of the Romish Church in England, when he should have the power. Re afterwards put forth his second Declaration of Indul- gence, repeating the statements of the former, and declar- ing his (leicrmiu:i! ion to enforce it, by giving office only to such persons as suited* his designs and that he had dismiss- ed many from office for their opposition to his views. This declaration was ordered to be read by all the officiating min- isters in all the churches in the Kingdom. It was a gross and palpable eifbrt to strike down the Established Church, by trampling under foot ail the laws in its favor, though forming an essential part of the Constitution of the realm. After the same precedent has b^en the course of Mr. Lin- coln, He and his party have annulled the law for the re- capture of fugitive slave-, a law passed, under most solemn circumstances of conciliation and compromise, to enforce a positive right specified in the Constitution. This Was done m violation of an emphatic pledge in his inaugural address. 'He has caused a law to be passed abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia against the wishes of their owners. He has displaced from their positions, the most conspicuous o*r his generals in command of his armies, because they 20 were appp&ed to carrying on the war as~a means of abolish-' ing slavery, and were unwilling to pursue his policy in plac- ing arms in the hands of slaves, encouraging them to escape from their masters' possession, arid enlisting them in his ar- mies. As if to pursue the very forms adopted by his pro- totype James, he has issued his first and his second Proc- lamations of Freedom to slaves, assuming, as did James the power by proclamation to annul all the laws, both $tate and Federal, and trie rights guarantied by the Constitution, in regard to holding slaves, ■• THE RIGHT OF PERSONAL LIBERTY AND OF AX INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY. 4. By the common law of England, no subject not be- longing to the army was liable to summary punishment by military tribunals ; nor was even a soldier in the army sub- ject to such punishment, in time of peace.- James deter- mined to set aside this rule: and in order to effect his purpose, he dismissed from office Judges who would not .-auction his tyrannical demands and pronounce the power to inflict such summary punishment legal, and placed on the bench corrupt tools who would declare the law according to his will; and under this arbitrary power, many subjects were doomed to severe aind disgraceful punishments. It was a rhenshed vyish with, him to repeal the Habeas Corpus act, be- cause it stood an obstacle in the way of Ins exereise of summary vengeance against his enemies, who, having com- mitted no offence against the law, would not have been sub- i'( t to punishment, except by the violation of the settled rules of legal procedure, Mr. Lincoln has followed the same example. In the case of Merry man — a private citizen in the State of Maryland, vylio wa~ arrested wiihout warrant and by mere military ;»rdfi-, and was detained in a military prison — he ordered ih at the party should not be produced before the Chief Jus- tice of ti,e jvijifed Slates in obedience to th ; e writ of Habai* (><;q)>ji granted by him ; and notwithstanding the decision oi dial. emjnejU and pure Judge — that the poWerthus assumed was in vioiaiinu of the Constitution of the United States- — • ;. rsistod h vr* ■■: permit the prisoner to be produced * of his cl'.- ten lieu lu be emruired into; and 21 Siess was mirsueo! by him hi many 5 ar. ' rwards, denying the benefit of the sacred writ of Habeas Corpm to parties :y imprisoned under : >. But he did net stop at this. By the fifth amended Article of ihe fcimatitution, "no person shall be held toaiv- ^'.V(T for a capital or- i infamous crime, unless on i; presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases .-•.: king in the Fand or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in tirrte of War ortounlic danger." This U entirely set at fiawi+lit by his proclamation of 24th Soptem- . LS '<-, decreeing that*/?/ p:/wMt discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia d rails, or guilty of any dis- practice, affording aid and comfort to the rebels against the authority of the United State?, shall be subject to martial ami Uabh to trial and jnmiskmeni by Court Martial or mill- ion. Iv.vr Jarhes had not the hard ihortii to down at one. hloW the sacred ami venerated writ 'of Hal ; but Mr. Lincoln not only did not scruple to do this, but he has boldly -dared to override i! m strike .clown the private citizen who was protected bj* il . ohi- bitions, so that all the departments of the Government united, were powerless to subject him to the arbitrary mode of trial ordained by Mr. Lincoln. He has deterred judges from the performance of their duty to n let i lawless imprisonment private citizens arrested by his mere ord •a some i tgtyaining them basely to sustain his illegal edicts, and in others, has imprisoned ll ) had the vir- tue to declare that his acts were unconstitutional, incases brought before them in the due course of judicial duty. He has despised the legitimate authority of an independent judiciary, and setthe military above the civil power, in mat- ters of right of private citizens, and has deliberately set at naught, the Constitution and the laws which it was their sol- ( mn duty and high prerogative to expound and main- tain — and all this in States remaining in the Union. o THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OF THE TRESS THE EEIGN OF TE?;ROm 6. James established a Reign of Terror, under which the liberty of conscience, and the freedom of speech and of the press, were effectually prostrated, or perverted to hia ends of usurpation and oppression. Mr. Lincoln, in defiance of the first amended article of the Constitution has attempted to crush the freedom of speecli and of the press. He has caused large numbers" t)f citizens of States still in the Union, to be seized and im- mured in distant Ba stiles, mi close and loathsome imprison- ment, deprived of all the comforts of life, to the great pen! ot their health and even of their lives, and there kept for many months, and in many cases for more than a year,, without Irgal notice of the charges against them, denk the sacred right demanded by them and guarantied by the fifth and sixth amended articles of the Constitution, to be proceeded against according to law, to be confronted fojy witnesses against them, and to have a speedy trial. He has suppressed many newspaper presses in States still members of the ' mon, and imprisoned or banished from their homes their editors ; thereby, in many States, com- pletely stifling the freedom of the press, or subduing it to abject servility to his will. These enormities were com- mitted m States belonging to the Union, where the course of aw for the punishment of offences, if any were committed by the parties, was entirely unobstructed, and for no other cause than that the persons had exercised the right of Amer- ::.:: citizens to discuss the acts of his administration, and to denounce his violations of the Constitution, ASSAULTS ON CHARTERED INSTITUTIONS. ;. James made war on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, because they would not obey his illegal behests, and place Roman Catholics into offices of high trust, in vio- lation of their charters and the laws of the land. He de- posed me duly appointed Presidents and officers of those corporations, assumed to appoint minions of his own will, in order to pervert them to the ends of the Romish Church; aria, for the contumacy of the officers ejected by him in in- ng on their clear legal- rights, the} r were subjected .to grievous insults and to cruel persecutions as criminals. Mr. Lincoln's course lias been o^ the same character., He deposed the regularly elected and constituted municipal officers of me ci:y of Baltimore, because they were suspect- ed o: being unwilling to subserve his purposes ; and having 23 overran ihe city by military force, these officer.3 were dX: rested at midnight by armed ruffians, without notice of criminal charge against them, and hurried off to distent military prisons, where they were kept in close confinement and in great suffering of body and mind, for more I twele months, denied The right of trial or any civil In the meantime, the people of the ciiy, overawe 1 by presence and menaces of iiis foices, were constrained to elect officers who were presented for election, as the mi his power. THE RIGHT OF FREE SrPFHAGE SUPPRESSED. 7. James determined to pack a Parliament by force I -fraud, by causing his dependants to return as duly eli wem\ era, those who were ready to register his edicts io cur- tying out his arbitrary measures ; -fjocting frani office all who would not vield to his wishes in foistii members to Parliament, and. appointing those who would \\y obey ■ nd carr^ out hi* end by fraud intimidation a: the elections. Thus the public voice to be stifled and popular opinion falsified, and a debased and rupulous majority of his minions placed in the House of ©ORimohs, to sustain his usurpations. Of the sftme complexion is the conduct of Mr. Lincoln. • it early became an important point with him to reduce to his dominion the Southern Stales which had not seceded. His first efforts were devoted to Maryland. Under the pre- tence of defending Washington City against the feigned danger of capture by the seceded States, a heavy military j was precipitated upon that Stat... on of her chief cities and towns and im'porta: 5ns for c: defense, disarming all citizens, placing the State u ai solute military rule, gagging the press, and arresting ail civil officers and citizens who dared to express any c: to these galling oppressions. lie dispersed the Lc . tare by the bayonet, seizing a large number of its members tiles : and all this for no other cause than that he found they would declare their opposition to ]:[- usurpations, and take legitimate measures to protect the State against the: ... The municipal authorities of the city of Baltimore, foi same reason, were deposed and banished, as above stated. In this state Of things, elections were to be held for the of Govern s cf the Legislature in- No i 24 her, 1361 ; and oilers were issued, by the General command- ing in 'Baltimore, to the officers holding the elections, to ar- rest all persons suspected of being favorable to the Confed- erate States or of opposition to the acts of Mr. -Lincoln'* Government. The necessary effect of this was to overawe the voters and drive all from the polls, except the base and degraded who were willing to crouch to the tyrant. To the honor of the State, be it remembered, these were few; for the high minded and elevated men of that time-honored State, the worthy descendants of the old ''Maryland lice''' of the Revolution, were excluded from the polls and disfran- chised, under the terror of a degrading and intolerabie'im- prisonment; and the votes cast were a mere handful of the pop- ulation. Mr. Lincoln's object was accomplished by this shocking mockery o f the right of suffrage — this vile outrage upon the rights of freemen — and a Governor, and a Legisla- ture were returned,. not to represent the people of the State, hut the subservient tools of his power, to obey his behests. That this- history is. truly stated, let the following testimony from a disinterested source, given a: the time, by" the '• Lon- don Morning Herald,' 7 attest : The latest news from America informs us that Mr. Lincoln has achieved at last one political success. He has converted Maryland, and that State, under the protection .of some 25,000 bayonet*, '•votes the Union ticket ;" that is to say, gives a majority in fee various electoral districts in favor of Federalist candidates far the State Legislature and official situations. * * * We cer- tainly think that little weight should be attached to votes given under such conditions in any European country. Maryland is un der martial law. Her Legislature has been dispersed by armed violence, the majority of both Houses are in Federal prisons, uride'i; the warrant of the Secretary of State — in direct defiance of iaws as laid down by the Supreme Court of the United Stales, whose judgement is final and irreversible, even by act of Congress Her journals have been seized, suspended, ruined : the presses broken, the editors sent to goal. She is held ddwn forcibly by an army of occupation, said to number 25,000 men, amid a population of little over 700,000, an army backed by 200,000 troops within a few hours' march of Baltimore. The General commanding thai r-rmy has given orders for the arrest of all voters suspected. of sym- athy with the Confederate States — that is, of every one likely to 'ote against the "Union ticket." The elections are j.o be made after the arrest of every leading man of the opposition or moderate parties, under the bayonets of "Federal troops, who have elsewhere shown that murder in cold blood is at least as much to their taste as fighting, while it is a good deal less dangerous in the present state of discipline, and in the total absence of all legal protection for life, liberty or property. There are a certain number of men in Maryland, as elsewhere, sufficiently degraded or sufficiently bitter 25 in their partisanship to TK>te under such circumstances, and from these only will there come an approval of Mr. Linooln'a policy — an approval given not by the respectability and intelligence of the State — that is to be sought in Fort McHenry, or in homes turned into prisons, or at best in disgusted abstinence ftom a vote which has become a mockery — but by every element that is dangerous to society and hostile to liberty, **From his own proclamations, and from those of his generals — From his violations ©f law, his outrages on the judges, his violence to the Legislature, 1m careful repression of all free opinion — not from votes given in the presence of ill disciplined militia with loaded rifles — must Mr. Lincoln's position towards the citizens of Maryland be judged. S«ch outrages as have been committed in that State by his authority were never yet paralleled under the mo&t lawless of British governments ; neither by Cromwell, or William of Or- ange in Ireland, nor by Charles II in Scotland. 'The acts of 1861 were repeated in the election of No- vember, 1863, for members of Congress, with circum- stances of aggravated outrage. Immediately preceding that election, the commanding General of the United States' forces in the State, issued hia order requiring that all persons offering to vole at the election, should take an oath to support u ffie Government" of the United States, and to "do no act, either directly or indirectly, in hostility to the same' 1 — requiring bis officers to report to him all judges of election who shall refuse to carry out this order , or refuse, upon a voter being challenged, to require the oath to be administered — and requiring his oincers with their forces, to aid tiie judges in enforcing the order. Thereupon, the Governor of the State issued a proclamation in c ff be t declaring the order to be il legal and vmd, and that the rights of the citizens of the State should be maintained, if necessary, by force. At the same time, he informed Mr. Lincoln, that there was no necessity for this military order, because nearly all the candidates verc •'•loyal men." But the General commanding caused this proclamation to be suppressed, by prohibiting its publican tion in the newspapers. On the day of the election, bands of armed soldiers took possession ot the places of election, in many parts of the State, and their officers proceeded to challenge every voter and interrogate him as to his support of t3io ^Government." They defined that loyalty to the Govern- ment meant, the being in, favor of prosecuting the war to pui down the rebc r ion, by every means; r.nd, with this inr^rprct- atfon, required the citizens to tnVe tins oath, Injo** 1 - 26 parts, the judges refused to administer the oath, as con- trary to the laws oi' Maryland. Iu others, the citizens were deterred from the polls by fear of being arrested and imprisoned. Large numbers were denied the privi- lege of voting, because they would not take the oath. Those who refused to take the oath were, for the most part, supporters of the Opposition candidates, and citi- zens of well known character, whose fidelity to the Con- stitution was unquestionable. When the judges refused to administer the oath, they were arrested and the elec- tion broken up. By these means, the election was controlled entirely by the arbitrary edicts of Mr. Lincoln and his military sub- alterns ; the Constitution and laws of the State were trampled under foot ; the candidates supporting Mr. Lin- coln's administration were returned as elected; and their opponents, deprived of the votes of loyal citizens, who supposed they were freemen and entitled *to the right of suffrage, as citizens of Maryland, were thrust out. In substance, the election was carried, and the opponents of the administration were defeated, by Mr. Lincoln and his military subordinates, by his military decree ; and it differs only in form from a proclamation, before the election, prohibiting, by military force, an election according to the Constitution and laws of Maryland, and declaring the candidates who supported his .administration, members of Congress. And thus does his administration support itself in Congress! The same course was pursued towards Missouri. A largo military force was sent to take possession of that State, arid by intimidation and force to control her affairs according to the dictates of Mr. Lincoln.! The freedom of speech and of the press was suppressed ; the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to take counsel upon the acts of those en- trusted with office and for redress of grievances, was struck d.wn at the point of Che bayonet ; the constituted . political bodies were overawed by military fc ces, to set aside the regularly elected and constituted Executive authority of the State, and to put in his place one ready to sacrifice the rights and dignity of the State at the will of the usurper * the reg- ular military organization of the State was forcibly broken up and disbanded. In short, without having taken any step but what the people of the State had a perfect right to take under the Constitution, the State wa3 overrun by armed forces ; the popular voice was effectually suppressed by vio- lence and terror : the sovereignty of the State was prostrated, and reduced to the condition of a dependency of Mr. Lin- coln, in all her most essential interests. In the State of Kentucky, a more politic course was pur- sued, but to the same end. Her strength and local position were so formidable as to render it exceedingly hazardous, as was supposed, to excite her jealousy for constitutional rights, by boldly sending armed forces to occupy the State and to control her action, as was done in the comparatively weak States of Maryland and Missouri. Such a course, it wa3 feared, would arouse her opposition and throw her weight with her sisters of the South. Butshe was morbidly wedded to the Union ; and, acting upon ;hat feeling, the Government of Mr. Lincoln resorted to the artifice of introducing small numbers of troops, by degrees, into the State, ostensibly for her domestic defense, and for the pretended purpose of pre- venting the occupation of the State by the forces of the Confederate States. She was thus deluded as to the design, until from time to time, under various pretexts, large bodies of [troops had been sent to the most important parts of the State. 'With the full light of the despotic acts in Maryland before her eyes, she refused to take timely warning. By de- grees, many of her leading politicians had, either by delusion or corruption, been brought to be supporters of the usurpa- tions they lad at first openly denounced. These things ac- complished, it was no longer necessary to conceal his pur- pose. He had taken armed occupation of the State with large forces, a. the most important points, and had secured the aid of able advocates of his policy in the State. The development of his plans quickly followed. All important places were filled with military forces to put down all demon- strations of opposition to his course, and to bring the State under his absolute dominion, il embers of the Legislature were intimidated and silenced in their efforts to arouse the public spirit to defend their liberties. . The Governor-was at first hoodwinked, then inveigled, and finally defied, his pow- er despised and his official position set at nought. The presses were silenced, the freedom of speech crushed, and the right of personal liberty denied, to all who presumed to think that the acts of Mr. Lincoln were unconstitutional and dangerous to the public 'liberty ; and they were driven, in large numbers, from the Statefwith insult and destruction of their property, and many were consigned to military prisons. The crisis of the liberties of the people had passed, and their 28 • rights were a* the will bf a despotism. On the 18th Febru- ary, 1863, a military commander, acting under orders from his superior, by military force broke up a Democratic con- yention of the people, at the seat of government, called to- gether and sitting according to the long established usage ot the party, for the purpose of nominating candidates for the State offices, to be voted for at the ensuing election in Au- gust. And not content with this lawless act, and as if to declare the absolute triumph over the liberties of the State, and to follow implicitly the precedent of James' Declaration —that none were to hold office except such as supported his policy — the officer declared to the convention, that "none but tnen of undoubted loyalty to the United States Government, would, under any circumstances, be allowed to run for any office, or fill any office, if elected" And this declaration was shortly afterwards proclaimed by the superior com- manding officer for the State, as the rule to be enforced in the State ; and it now stands as the law of that once proud and free, but now degraded and subjugated, commonwealth, having received its most ample fulfillment at the election in August. Immediately preceding that election, on the 31st July, 1863, Gen. Burnside issued an order declaring the State under martial law, for the alleged "purpose of preserving the purity of elections" What was meant by the "purity of elections" and how such an end was to be promoted by sucli unpre- cedented means, is manifest from the orders issued and the course of proceeding which immediately followed. Orders were issued to the State authorites having the ap- pointment of judges of the election, that no persons should be appointed but supporters of the Government of Mr. Lin- coln ; in violation of a positive law of the State, that such judges should be appointed equally from both political par- ties. Persons offering to vote and rejected as "disloyal" by the judges, were warned that they would be immediately ar- rested by the military officers ; and the judges were to be arrested, if they permitted any disloyal persons to vote. ^Disloyalty was ordained to consist in not being in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war, and of .supplying men and money unconditionally for the purpose ; and oaths were re- quired to be taken by the judges and electors, contrary to the Constitution and law of the State. Accordingly, the judges were appointed exclusively from the supporters of Mr, Lincoln's administration, all Democrats 29 being rejected. Many weak-minded men were dragooned into Toting for the "Government" candidates, contrary to their opinions, for fear of injury to them personally or loss of their property. Great numbers were deterred from offering to rote, for the same reasons. The candidates opposed to the administration, good and true supporters of the Consti- tution, were struck from the poll-books at many places, and in others, not placed on the books. Judges were arrested for refusing to obey these illegal orders, and citizens were imprisoned for attempting to vote, and avowing themselves Democrats, and refusing to take unconstitutional and tyran- nical oaths. As the necessary consequence of all this, not half the votes of the qualified electors in the State were polled ; the administration candidates for Governor and Congress received 67,586 of the 84,930 votes polled ; in many counties, not a vote was permitted to be cast for the opposition candidate?, and in many other counties, they re- ceived scarcely a tithe of the Democratic vote of those counties. Thus, by insidious degrees, have the people of Kentucky been infolded in the meshes of this revolutionary cabal, until they are utterly powerless to resist the most flagrant acts of an unmasked despotism, and lie prostrate at the feet of tho usurper. A. pliant instrument of Mr. Lincoln as Governor, and servile members of Congress, were forced upon the people of the State, by the soldiery of Mr. Lincoln, in order "to preserve the purity of elections." And now, it is submitted to all dispassionate minds, wheth- er the usurpations of James in respect to the right of suffrage, are not far exceeded in boldness and lawlessless, by m these out- rages in the States of Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky, still members of the Union and entitled to the protection of the Constitution of the United States for the rights of their citi- zens. THE* DIVINE RIGHT CP KINGS AND THE DUTY OF PASSIVE OBE- DIENCE. 8. There is yet another remarkable coincidence in tho views taken in England and in the United States, in relation to the right and pfopriety af resistance to the power of the usurpers, in both instances. James came to the throne as the legitimate sovereign, sup- ported by the voice of the nation. Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the United States, according to the forms of the 30 Constitution, and was duly inducted into office as the repre- sentative of a large party. James was supported by a large party, who, notwithstanding their misgivings as to his fidelity to the ecclesiastical system of England, sustained him on tho ground that it was their duty to yield passive obedience to the legitimate sovereign, the legal head of the church. The doctrine had numerous and powerful supporters, that no dis- regard of law and of established rights, however gross, and nr usurpation of power, by the rightful king, could justify forc- ible resistance to his authority, or excuse any efforts to depose him from power. This- was for the most part the doctrine of the Established Church, even after his acts of usurpation against the privileges of the Church and the rights of Protestants, had become, to the last degree, insup- portable. The same doctrine was deeply infused into the minds of a large majority of the people of tho United States in the present revolution. It was said, that Mr. Lincoln was elected according to the Constitution ; that, though he was elected as the representative of a policy destructive of the Consti- tution and was solemnly pledged to its accomplishment, yet the States were not justifiable in taking steps topm-, vent the consummation of that policy and the destruction of their most sacred Constitutional rights ; but that it was their duty to wait for overt acts of [usurpation, and then — when the revolution should be accomplished, which would have placed the States powerless in the bands of the usurper—to right themselves by expelling him from power, according to the forms of tbe Constitution ; that the clanger, however great and alarming, of his accom- plishing his designs, if invested with the power over those against whom it was to be exercised, would not jus- tify them in acting on the belief that he would execute his solemn pledges, and in withdrawing from the range of his power before they were subjected to it and ren- dered incapable of resisting it; for that would be to dis^- solve the "glorious Union." This is, in principle, the doctrine of passive obedience, proceeding from the theory of the Divine right of kings — a doctrine which w T as exploded by the revolution of 1688, and emphatically repudiated in this country in the revolution of 1776. It was urged to discountenance nil resort to extreme measures against James ; and, until his usurpations became intolerable, all efforts to depose 31 him from power were denounced as treason and sin. So in the case of Mr. Lincoln, the withdrawal from his power, in prospect of his effecting the revolution which he was elected and bound to accomplish, was denounced by ecclesiastical bodies and church judicatories through- out the North, as sin against God ; and by political con- claves and Government dependents and deluded citizens, as rebellion and treason. The form and name of the Un- ion were, in their conception, above the sacred rights that Union was intended to subserve; and many honest and patriotic nun were deluded from the proper course to maintain their liberties, by mere reverence for the Union which was about to be perverted to their destruction. But facts sometimes produce a wonderful change in men's opinions, and radical convictions of their judg- ments, m favor of truth, when logic and demonstration on principle have utterly failed. This was illustrated in both these eases. The usurpations of James enabled even the Established Church to discard her dogmas, and to see that "resistance to tyranny is obedience to God*;"' evolutionary acts of Air. Lincoln have shown the people of the Southern States, that their liberties were dearer than the Union, and that it was both their right and duty to withdraw from it, whenever it was to be perverted to their destruction and tho danger of accom- plishing the design was imminent. It was not so much the expulsion of James from power, as his acistf i surpation, which constituted the great revolution of 1638. His revolutionary acts were the cause of hisc-q-Uiou. If hil efforts had been successful, the revolution begun, would have been complete, in the sub- version of the liberties of the people of England. But they were arrested by force. So the despotic acts of Mr. Lincoln— first threatened to be .perpetrated, and since fulfilled— rather than the secession of the Southern States, have worked the revolution in the government of the United States. Secession was but the natural and right- ful effect of the revoiuiion made by the election of Mr. Lincoln with the policy avowed by him and'his party. It his usurpations, since developed in accordance with his drigiaiai pledges; are tolerated by the States now remai n- n£ in the Uni e Constitution will be effectually subverted, iu a « ■ principles cud objects, an d the 32 revolution which he has inaugurated, will be complete as to those States, whether the seceded States be Mitpikg&t&d or not. His despotism is not the les» Vagrant because the Southern States have seceded ; i&r he was pledged to the revolution before the States seceded. But bis course fully shows their wisdom in withdrawing from his legal power; and that they were abundantly justified in acting on the belief that the revolution he was elected to effect, would be carried out* Indeed, their worst anticipations have been more than fulfilled ; tor, in the space of two years after his accession to power, he has not left a single fun- damental right of American liberty untouched by his im- pious hand. He has trampled under foot the right of personal liberty ; the right of private property ; the right of personal security ; the right of freedom of conscience; the rights of freedom of speech and of the press ; the right of the people to meet together and peaceably to take legitimate measures for their own government; the right ot free suffrage ; the right of freedom from illegal search ; the right to bear arms in personal self-defence ; in short, every great right of American freedom ; and this in States still belonging to the Union. These are the vital spirit of American liberty. Tine Union was made to secure and perpetuate these "blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity." But it is mere form and machinery; and when these great rights are sacrificed, the skeleton may remain, but the life and spirit of the Union will be gone. And this is the revolution which the government of Abraham Lincoln is now working out upon the Constitution of the United States, and fastening upon its citizens — a revolution much more flagrant than would be the mer© change of the form of government to that of a monarchy. The civilized world stands amazed that a large portion of the American people should complacently look upon the prostration of all these great rights of human free- dom, at the hands of a reckless and desperate revolution- ary party, under the flimsy pretext of preserving the form of the Unicn ; and that an unnatural and savage war, in violation of the dictates of humanity and of the established rules ot civilized war among enlightened na- tions, should be tolerated, to prostitute a Union, whose cement is justice, domestic tranquility and brotherly love.. 33 to the ends of oppression and revenge against the people of the Southern States who have had the firmness and the virtue to defend their sacred rights. And what is to he the result of this unholy crusade? This is a question which should move the heart of every true patriot in this land, and of every friend of civil lib- erty throughout the world. It becomes us to meet it as our forefathers met the great crisis in their liberties in 1688. It is now no longer a matter of doubt, that the object of this war, on the fart of Mr. Lincoln, is not to restore the South- em States to the Union ; that is, the Union made by the Constitution — but to briug them to subjection to the do- minion of the United States, deprived of their most val- uable rights, and reduced to a state of degradation in comparison with other States of the Union. According to the theory and policy of Mr. Lincoln, they can never be free, sovereign and independent States of the Union, in the enjoyment of the rights of their citizens with which they became members ol it ; because their invalu- able right of private property, secured by the Constitu- tion, has been destroyed, and, according to Mr. Lincoln, cannot be restored. lie has assumed the power to abolish slavery in the States; by Executive edict. He asseverates that the act is valid, effectual and irreversible. lie claimsthis in his annual message of December, 1862 ; and in his recent letter to Conkling, he says there is no more power in the government to restore to slavery a slave so emancipated, than to raise the dead to life. Whether this be true or not in point of legal power and effect, he is irrevocably committed to it, asserts it on all occasions, and makes it the ground-work of his policy. lie declares his unalter- able adhesion to it, in his message of December, 1863. If, then the Southern States were to be restored to the Union, it could not, under his policy, be with their prop- erty in slaves; ior he insists that that would be an im- possibility. Thus, according to his theory and policy, slavery is irrevocably abolished ; and with it must fall the State Constitutions, which recognize slavery and found an important State policy on it ;"the great anl diversified domestic interests of the States depending upon it, must perish ; and their right under the Federal Constitution, 34 <*o positively secured by that instrument, must be de- stroyed. It is, therefore, plainly impossible to restore those States to the Union made by the Constitution, even if Mr. Lincoln had the disposition to do so, if this act is to stand. But it its equally clear that, though he had the power, he has not the remotest intention, of ever restoring them to the Union, with their rights of person and of property, under their State Constitutions and laws, and under the Constitution of the United States, unimpaired; for that would be political suicide. It would be to admit eleven Stales, arrayed in solid pkala?ix of deadly hostility to him and his parly ; - which, added to the powerful opposition- con- sisting of Democrats and conservative Whig* in the States now in the Union, would overwhelm him and his party, with all their hopes, and consign them to everlast- ing disgrace, and him, perhaps, to infamous punishment tor his flagrant and confessed: violations of the Constitu- tion. But it is perfectly manifest, from the position in which he is placed by his own acts, and from the recent avow r als of himself and his official friends, what sort of a restora- tion of the Union he intends. It is one founded on emancipation and confiscation — upon the destruction of high constitutional rights fully admitted, in his inaugural speech, to exist in the Southern States. This appears from his declarations in his interview with a committee from Kentucky in the summer of 1863, and from tlic labored letter of Mr. Whiting, a high and prominent officer -of his government. By this policy, the slaves are to stand eman- cipated, in fulfillment of the purposes of his party; and the citizens of the Southern States are to be stripped of all their other property of every description, and disfran- chised of all their rights. Thus, all their property is to be sold to pay the debt of their enemies created by the war waged against them to deprive them of their consti- tutional rights, thereby shifting this iniquitous debt upon them ; and their enemies are to become the purchasers of it, since their own citizens will have nothing with which to purchase, anil will be disfranchised and incapable of holding propofty ; the necessary effcet of which will be, that the pur :K \ m ast be their evemres, who will come into thecormiry to eir property and people 35 those States. The citizens of those States will be reduced to absolute poverty and degradation, and their imported enemies will own their property and be their masters, excluding them from all political and social influerce, and wielding the destinies of those States at their own will. Republican government will be suppressed in those States, and all opposition to his party put down, and they will be held.as the liege subjects of his power. Such will be the neccessary consequences of Mr Lin- coln's policy of emancipation and coruscation, as the basis of the restoration of the Union. They will work out three very desirable results for him and his party — 1st, to accomplish the first object of his election^ to aboNsh slavery; — 2d, to relieve the 'Stoles which have supported him iii wagfnrj this war, from the debt winch otherwise mitM ruin them; — 3d, to people the Southern Sfr&tesitith an imported. iatwu, ami transform (ho$< Sfofes, front deadly opposition. to him and to his party, to firm and obcdknl supporters of all the measures of his parti/. When these ends shall he ready for accomplishment, t ben, and only then, can Mr. Lincoln consent to restore those States to the Union. To do sfc" until they shall have been, for the most part, established*, would be the destruc- tion of himself and of his party, without the hope of re- covery. He too wed understands the precarious tenure by which he holds his power even in the States now in tin Un- ion, to incur t^is hazard of admitting States back into the Union, to his own desiruct'on. Having begun the war upon the insane idea that the seceded States could be restored to a harmonious, constitutional Union, by the sword and bay- onet ; and, disappointed in that, having gone, from one step to another, in acts of violation of the Constitution in the prosecution of this mad undertaking, until he has been led to subvert every essential principle of the Const'tulion, he now finds himself in a position from which he cannot re- cede. He must persevere in his course or involve himself and his party in irretrievable ruin and disgrace. • He cannot accept a restoration of the fjnion r>f the Const it a linn ; and, in the stress of the condition into which he has be n prceipated by the bad men v. ho surround and control him, he is now constrained to reject such a restoration, and the very pacifi- cation which he has repeatedly declared to be the sole ob- ject of the war, Under the wicked counsels to which he 36 lias submitted himself, he has involved himself in the. mazes of contradictions and duplicity, and is oppressed with difficulties and embarrassments from which there is no escape with credit and honor. He is in the dilemma of being compelled, either to bring destruction upon himself and his party, by accepting the restoration of the Southern States to the Union, according to the Constitution, if a re- union should be proposed by those Slates ; or to rush madly to the prostration of the Constitution, reckless alike of his professions and his oath, of right and of justice, by treating them as subjugated provinces. He has determined to take care of himself] and to make every thing yield to self-protection and the salvation of his party. Hence ht and his party icoidd be driven to reject all terms of restoration, except such as will save them from annihilation and disgrace — and these are, emancipation, subjugation and confiscation to the Southern States, Mr. Lincoln, therefore, could not if he would, and would not if he could, accede to a restoration of the' seceded States to the Union, as free and equal members of it, in the enjoyment of the rights and privileges guarantied to them by the Constitution — the only sort of Union consistent with the Constitution. If they were now to lay down their arms, repeal their ordinances of secession, and take Mr. Lin- coln at his word and apply for restoration to their positions in the Union, it is as certain as any future event can be — and indeed he has solemnly declared and reiterated — that they could not be permitted to do so, without a change of their Constitutions to suit his policy ; with the loss of their most valuable property .and a radical change of their whole polii ical system and their controlling domestic interests ; and without taking a position of inferiority to their co-States of the Union — a condition utterly incompatible with the Constitution. It is in vain to say in justification of this, that those States forfeited and lost their rights by their resistance to the authority of the United States, and are, therefore, re- duced to the condition of subordination by their own acts. For Mr. Lincoln planted himself, in his inaugural speech and in his first message to Congress, on the ground that the acts tf secession were simply of no legal effect and void, and were, together with all acts of resistance to the authority of 37 the United States by foice or otherwise, to be treated simply as the wrongful acts of the individuals committing them, and to be punished accordingly. And the war was begun and justified by him on the theory ihat 'hose States still continued, i?i law, in the Union, notwithstanding their acts oj secession; and it was upon this view, that the war was sanctioned by a large majority of the people of the States remaining in the Union. If that was true, the acts of secession worked no injury to those States, in their political capacity ; and their rights as States continued unimpaired. If it was not true, the acts of secession were valid and effectual, in the exercise of the political rights of the States ; iheUuitta was dissolved, and the war is one between separate and independent powers ; and if so, the ground on which it was justified was false and fraudulent, and the war itself is for conquest and oppres- sion, and an outrage on right and justice, without the shad-* ow of justification. On either branch of the alternative, he is precluded from denying to those States, their full consti- tutional rights, as free, equal and independent States, should they be willing to be restored to the Union. And yet he will be compelled to do so from political "necessity" operat- ing on him and his party. But, besides this, if the States are ever to become mem- bers of the Union again, they can only be such under the protection given by the Constitution to all their original rights and privileges. They must be restored with their Constitu- tions under which they enjoyed their rights when they seceded, and with the rights and institutions thereby esta- blished, intact. For the Constitution tolerrtes no Union, except thai between free, equal and independent States. It ic, therefore, clear, that nothing is to be hoped for to the cause of civil liberty and American institutions, if the efforts of Mr. Lincoln to subjugate the Southern States should be successful. And the course already pursued by his gov- ernment in the States and parts of States where he had ob- tained power — in suppressing the liberties of the people, and particularly the right of suffrage, and in discountenancing propositions for the restoration of the State of Louisiana to the Union — afford the most ample evidence f hat all the rights of those States are to be in subjection to his will, pre- serving only the form of free govern mc?U a?id constitutional rights, ti m-fty. thmi suhtrrrijwt f o the p»*& rf his prrrtft. . 38 Now a question of the gravest moment challenges the 1 consideration of all true patriots in the States which have not seceded — of all Americans who revere the Constitution, and value the liberties secured by it. It is this — Ijthc South- ern Stales should be reduced to subj ligation to the domhvon of Mi\ Lincoln, and, wider his policy, should be made available to him' in the suprport of his part y, what is to become of the rights of civil and religious liberty guarantied by the Constitution, and contended tor l>y so many patriots and conservative men, in the other States, in opposition to these usurpations} God forbid that the ti me may ever come when they may' have to lament, in bitter- ness and in slaver} 7 , that they have turned a deaf ear to these solemn warnings, and been recreant to the preservation of their own liberties until it was too late ! We have seen that, with a ruthless hand, he has done violence to every right of American liberty, and usurped powers in numerous instances, against the positive prohibi- tions of the Constitution. What security, then, will the Constitutional and law-abiding men of those Union States have, that the overwhelming power of the government, with its army and navy! and all the dependencies which its pat- ronage will give it, unrestrained by the barriers of the Con- stitution, will not be directed against them, whenever they shall attempt to resist the march of a party, which has shown that it scruples at nothing which stands in the way of the ■ accomplishment of its fell purposes'? The Constitution 3S NO LONGER. TH:. SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND. Already the whol > theory of the government is subverted. The doc- trine is sole mnly promulgated and the precedents set, and con- stantly followed,, that those sworn to administer the government of the "United States, according to the Constitution, have the right to violate the Constitution whenever the welfare and safety of the Union, in the judgment of -the Executive, renders it " Jicccssary" — a doctrine which stabs the Constitution in its' vitals, revolutionizes the government, and establishes an absolute despotism on its ruins. Is any man so blind as not to foresee, that this fatal and preposterous theory will never fail to be put into practice, whenever the party grasping at power feels that it has the means- within its possession to commit the outrage with impunity? It has not hitherto been effectively resisted by the conservative men of the Union States, when so criminally exercised against the clear rights 39 of their own citizens : mikI is there any reason to believe that it will ever be attempted to be exercised under circum- stances more loudly calling for the resistance of all friends of liberty and the Constitution? It has outraged the right of suffrage in at least two States, hy pa cling representatives from Kentucky and Maryland, in the present Congress, by military coercion, and by forcing the election in the latter State of a convention to reform her Constitution and abolish slavery in the State, hi utter prostration of the rights and wishes of h?r people; and why may ml the same cbcrcion fe equally jt&ti/ickl and to/efSted to dragotih the people at the next. Presidential election, to kkqyprcss pposition to hit election and carry il by military force? It has dragged upright judges from the bench while in the discharge of their judicial duties ; dispersed Legislatures of" Union States and immured their members in Br iz?d and banished peaceable ms in flip for c tuvnaJsmg the acts of the usurp- ers ; destroyed presses nnd imprisoned their editors without legal trial; suppressed the right of suffrage ; destroved State goVerfrrnertt? ; dragged n from the sanctuaries of God while in the performance of their holy functions ; waged a merciless and barbarian war against State-, r - gafdlc's s 6f_ age, sex 01 ft ion ; imp: lirigs to commit ad n and murder agauist those hyp- ocritically called their "brethren ;'' and armed and iuciled negro slaves tc insurrection, plunder and murder against their masters, and the most horrid outrages against defence- less women and children. This has been sanctioned now, in order to present .the Union; and under its baleful influence, we have seen a people, who boasted of Constitutional free- dom, stand by and sec this political Juggernaut of "the Glorious Union" driven over the Constitution., trampling all the essential rights for which the government was esta- blished, in the dust, and enacting a revolution immeasur- ably more odious than if he had declared himself emperor, but that these great rights would be respected. Who shall limit this dreadful doctrine or stop the progress of these awful precedents? Everyday that this unnatural and diabolical war is continued but adds strength to the doctrine, and incorporates it more firmly into the government ; because it wUlJur?iish a pretext for the continuance oj the cnoimities practised under it. If it be tolerated much longer, the public mind 40 will become hardened to it, and it will ripen into conceded power. fTlhc South shall be subjugated, it will be to confirm the power, by giving to the government of Mr, Lincoln the political strength to exercise it at will; for the voters will be his vassals. It will require a large army to keep them in subjection,whose power will be used to support the government, until the chains are fastened on the country. What, then, will the Constitution-loving men of the Union States gain by the un- natural conquest ? Nothing but the destruction of the Con- stitution and the loss of their own liberties. What, then, is the course of wisdom to all the patriots of the Union States ? It is to rise in their might, and bring this hoi rid war to an immediate close. Its prosecution cav NEVER RESTORE TO THE UNION THE SOUTHERN STATE?, IN A MANNER TO CAUSE THEHEARTOF ANY TRUE AMERICAN PA- TRIOT to rejoice ; and it would be a thousand fold better, for the honor of American liberty and of free institutions, that the separation should be perpetual than that those States should be reduced to subjection and degradation, by the subversion of the Constitution, under the policy of Mr. Lincoln and his party. There could be nothing gained to the cause of Ameri- can liberty by such a subjugation ; but it would be held up to the eyes of the world as a miserable failure of republican institutions ; a solemn mockery and fraud on free govern- ment, and a wicked and brutal despotism under tkc guise of American freedom. And, the day that witnesses the subjuga- tion of the South under this policy, if it ever shall come, will utter the death-knell of American liberty. The poisoned chalice which has been forced upon Southern freemen to destroy their Constitutional liberties, will, in due time, assuredly be returned to the lips of those who have commended it, when- ever it suits the purpose of some infatuated or profligate party in power to make the application. Instead of freemen under the protection of a written Constitution, they will hold their liberties at the will of a tyrant, clothed with all power which he deems it "necessary" to usurp, and ready to en- force it by brute force. The friends of Constitutional liberty in the Union States. should arouse themselves to the high duty before them, and unite, like their ancestors of 1688, to depose Mr. Lincoln and his party from power ; by concentrated action, in and out of Congress ; resisting all his measures for the prosecu- tion of the war, and bringing him to condign punishment for 41 oath. In this way the Constitution might be rescued from destruction and the blessings of liberty secured to themselves and to their posterity. Their noble patriotism would stand side by side, on the pages of history, with the glorious revo- lution of 1688, and transmit their names to imperishable renown, as the fearless champions of civil liberty and the defenders of Constitutional freedom in the land of Washing- ton. It might be that, then, both sections of the country — severed and alienated, as they have been by the bad men, and under the malign counsels that have produced this revo- lution, but living under Constitutions founded on the same great principles, and securing the same great fundamental rights — might, in the course of years, when mutual interests shall - have healed the animosities between ihem, re-unite under one government ; or, what is more probable, might agree to live, in peacefuland harmonious relations, conduc- ing highly to the prosperity and happiness of both, each under its own government; and the only contest between them being, which should more perfectly illustrate the beauty of Republican- Government, and more nobly maintain the rights and liberties of American freemen. Should such be the result of the dreadful contest now going on in this land, it will, like the great revolution of . 1688, work out the re establishment of the great principles of American liberty, upon a firmer and more enduring founda- tion of well-defined and sacredly-observed Constitutional right. But should these fond hopes be disappointed^ then, indeed, will the sun of Constitutional liberty set to rise no more on this once happy land, and the darkness of anarchy or of despotism must forever envelop our beloved country. Canton, December. 1863.