been tried for treason and punished accordingly, this present civil war is inaugurated upon us, for secessionism could not have risen in the first instance, nor is there any thing on record to show that secessionism could or would have arisen first; for abolitionism. began back as early as the year 1775, and even before this period of time in Pennsylvania among the Quakers. Thus, in tracing the periods of emancipationism in the Northern States, we are enabled to trace the incipient stages of abolitionism, which, as history proves, antedates secessionism, and would destroy the industrial pursuits of the South, which are guaranteed to them, by those clauses in the Constitution. To endeavor, in any manner, to pass laws in contravention of those clauses in the Constitution, is sedition and treason, for it is waging war against the states holding slaves, and becomes intolerable as a capital crime, in view of the letter and spirit of the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States will bear no disintegration; it is a whole, not a part of a machine for government, upon the faith and pledges of its adoption, as we then were in the several and sovereign states, with respect to our domestic institutions of slavery, marriages, wills, deeds, and the regulations of contracts. As well might all be subverted as one, and in this there would be no choice, as to invading State sovereign rights. If it should be questioned where we stand, we will now answer, that we stand on the letter and spirit of the Constitution, and denominate ourselves' Constitutional men,' without any prefix or suffix to the designation, eschewing every ism which is not countenanced by the organic

sw of the land. We breathe a sovereign contempt for new fangled names in politics, for all of them have lodged, on their standard, obsolete men, gone out of use in their former positions, for their radical doctrines, and hope to obtain office on the false pretence of having reformed! A Democrat or a Republican may be a Constitutional man, which depends on his course of action, solely with reference to the Constitution. He is known only by his acts. At this juncture of time, a Union man has become a questionable character, who is only known by the policy he advocates. If he is a Constitutional Union man he is all right, and is a good man; but if he is an Abolition Union man, he is a rebel to the Constitution, acting in violation of that most sacred Compact. Such a one is known by the policy he advocates, and will, in an organized community, bear close watching, lest he do harm. A man or a party advocating the letter and spirit of the Constitution to be carried out, which recognizes neither Secessionism nor Abolitionism nor Emancipationism, are good doers, and should be sustained by honest men under all circumstances. An administration is not the Constitution, but it is founded on this compact; hence it is either constitutional in its objects, or anarchal or tyranical. This depends upon its acts in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Compact. In the administration of the Government, the oath of office admits of no change, under any circumstances, from that compact, the supreme law of the land. For every official, without having an wise discretion given him, is sworn, in the most solemn manner, to protect and defend the letter and spirit of

that palladium of our liberties, that is, the Constitution.

When the matter which composes the present. Constitution was under discussion in the several States or Colonies, and after delegates were elected by the States to represent each in the Convention, each delegate was, ex-officio, bound to take an oath to support the highest organic law then over him, which was, literally and effectually, the State Constitution or Compact; and this was the basis of his action; for he could not aid and abet in making a compact in opposition to the State compact. An oath of office is naturally and conventionally made to discharge the functions of the office faithfully, according to the compact, and any deviation from it subjects the incumbent to perjury. The people, through their delegates to the Convention forming the Constitution, became bound to protect and defend this compact on its adoption. Hence, by descent, it is the primordial law of the land. It is the basis of the Government, in the same manner as the constitution of the earth is the basis of its government in its orbit; for, with reference to the latter, it is governed by the law of gravitation, and by centripital and centrifugal powers made natural to bodies; and thus is the general Government. For it is by the force of gravitation it possesses that causes it typically to revolve in its orbit, and by the means of its centripical and centrifugal forces, which are defined by the terms general government and state governments,that one is kept from absorbing the other, and consequently, serves as a balance against the effect of the other. If

the former was inactive, the States would absorb the General Government, and if the States were inactive, the General Government would absorb them. Therefore in governments, as on the earth, those two powers or forces must balance each other, or all is lost! Hence, in the organization of the constitution of the earth, we see its counterpart in the Constitution of the United States, which is the highest praise that man can pay to man! The States bear the same relation to the General Government that the stars do to the constitution of the earth. The administrative power of the United States Government is embraced in an executive, styled President, whose oath of office is, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." The paraphranalia of the Administration are embraced in his secretaries, foreign ministers or representatives, custom-house officers, postmasters, attorneys, marshals, judges and military officers, being mostly confirmed by the United States Senate. The Administration is liable to change every four years, while the Constitution is perpetual. To which do the people of the United States owe allegiance in this case, that is, their first allegiance? to the Administration, the creature of party, with passions as near wrong as right, and with strong manifestations to depart from the compact, or with frequent departures therefrom, or the Constitution; which is likened to the constitution of the earth, that is unchangeable as the designs of the creation? In this light an

American owes his natural allegiance to the compact and the laws made literally to accord with the spirit of that compact; but to none else, for these are primordial and organic, when confirmed by the supreme court of the land, who are sworn to support, defend, and protect the Constitution, not Congress, nor the Administration. These, in law and equity, are often mere creatures of the most abject passions, indicating more the animal than the intellectual; and what would be the condition of an honest and faithful constitutional man? ever true to the mark, but who is opposed to the Administration, which, having the power, mistrusts his want of confidence to it, and pleads that he should take an oath to support, defend, and protect the Constitution and Administration, if the Administration, in its revolutionary tendency, should wholly depart from the Constitution? Would he not be naturally absolved from his oath in part, because of the latter having committed the act of perjury in not adhering to the letter and spirit of the Constitution? These are grave and serious questions, and should be met by the philosophy of reason and good common sense, which make a man in any region. We expect to tread on men's toes that tread on the Constitution, the organic law of the land; and by the Eternal, this is right! to the contrary, notwithstanding!

Constitutional liberty is the boast of Americans; and the toleration in discussion and in difference of opinions, where that difference is constitutional, is the great safety-valve created in the palladium of our sacred heritage, and when this is curtailed and