Cleveland Morning Leader

MORNING LEADER.

Saturday, February 16, 1861

For the Leader.

The chivalric sons of the South in the seceding States have declared the Constitution and laws of the United States to be inoperative and void as far as they are concerned. We have been expecting each day to hear that the Decalogue has likewise been repudiated. Certainly after the actions of Louisiana, of Florida, of Alabama, and of each seceding State, after robbing arsenals and plundering mints it would be no more than consistent for these worthies to pass an ordinance declaring the eighth commandment, as far as they were concerned, totally inoperative and void.

In the case of Louisiana such an ordinance might read somewhat as follows:

Whereas, The State of Louisiana has not as much money, nor as many arms, as she wants at the present time, and whereas there are certain arms and certain moneys in the said State, which belong to the United States of America, and whereas the only objection to taking said arms and moneys (the Constitution and laws of the United States being abrogated in the said State) is found in a certain commandment in the Bible commonly called the eighth commandment; therefore,

Resolved, That the said eighth commandment be, and the same is hereby declared inoperative and void, so far as relates to the stealing of public property by the said State of Louisiana.

Done in convention, &c.

We venture to make the suggestion to our Southern brethren who seem to have such a vast amount of faith in the power of ordinances to abrogate all law, and sanction every outrage.