Indiana State Sentinel

Will the Union be Restored?

The Louisville Democrat has been manfully fighting Southern secession for a year or more and it has now turned its guns against that older and more debasing treason, the abolition doctrines of the Republican party. We are glad to see this, for in the melee of the present war, this dangerous faction has been allowed too much quiet, and its leaders have gone on from bad to worse, till they have well nigh crushed out all manly sentiment from that political organization. The destructives in Congress, in the adoption of an abolition programme, have greatly strengthened the cause of the rebellion, and loyal men in the free States have either to consent to an utter overthrow of the Constitution and its guarantees, or be classed as "rebel sympathizers," if they oppose the wild despotism of the faction which rules the roast in Congress. We speak pretty confidently for the patient and manly Democracy of Indiana, and declare that they will oppose, inch by inch, all measures which have for their object the overturning of the institutions of the slave States. They, at least, will be faithful to the pledges made by our fathers, and countenance no measures of policy which shall look to the immediate emancipation of the slaves of the South as a "military necessity," which they regard as a mere pretext for the commission of a great national crime to the free white laborers of the North. The Democracy everywhere wish this revolt put down, and have contributed three hundred thousand men to aid that object, but they never will become the advocates of a Union in which the negro and the white man shall be joint partners. It was not the Union made at Philadelphia in 1787, and if the political traitors of New England desire such a Union, the Democracy will not consent to be a portion of it. Indiana is specially committed to this great truth—that the negro and the white man can never be joint partners in the heritage of national freedom and glory. Nine years ago the people of this State, by a majority of nearly if not quite one hundred thousand votes, declared a perpetual separation of the races, and that majority and their sons will see that neither Abraham Lincoln nor Congress, nor Wendell Phillips and his confederate Abolitionists shall be able to change a verdict founded on the highest principles of our Government and the wisest dictates of self preservation. Indiana has taken her stand against this admixture of negro population and has placed that prohibition in her Constitution. If the members of the present mad and crazy Congress think they can destroy and overturn slavery in the South, perhaps they would have the same power to compel Indiana to change her Constitution, and admit the emancipated negroes upon her soil. If so, let the poor fools try it. The "boys" who have, so far, done so nobly in defense of the Government and the Union, would quickly "crush out" the Abolition cohorts who might attempt to change the organic law of the Hoosier State. Indiana is for the Union as it was, as it is, and as she means to preserve it—"with the dignity and rights of every State unimpaired"—co-equals in everything, inferiors in nothing. Those who are opposed to such a Union had just as well join the rebels at once, and cease their pretences of love for the Union. They are, in fact, its most deadly foes.

The Louisville Democrat has the following just remarks in regard to the present hypocritical and silly Congress. We think it about time that the Democrat had opened its eyes to the future of the country, and if the Journal of that city would but open its batteries in unison, we might have the proud satisfaction of attending the funeral of Abolitionism in the West before many months:

The Abolitionists are doing the worst they can in Congress. We had some hopes of moderation, but recently the radicals seem to have made some headway and it is not unlikely that they will push all their measures through. That is now the best they can do for the country. This rebellion would have cost a few hundred millions less if Congress had learned some sense without experiments so costly, but the people have filled Congress with such partisans, and they will have to pay the expense of treasure and blood.

The army has done well; it will accomplish its work: but that will not be a restoration of the Union. We can assure the Administration and these radicals that the sword will not accomplish the end, however successful our armies may be. All armed opposition can be put down and will be put down, but still the powers of the Government can be nullified. We may have a dead Union, which, like a poor invalid with one half paralyzed, will linger out a painful existence.

The violent partisanship in Congress will keep alive feeling equally violent in half the country, until a chronic antagonism accomplishes by mere inertia what force never can accomplish. This Union must be harmonious. The Federal Government must have the co-operation of States and people; and a policy must be adopted that will bring that about, otherwise all this blood and treasure is wasted for nothing.

We had hoped that this Congress would do what is to be done, and thus shorten the conflict, but they lack the capacity. The people will commit the work to other and more competent hands.

The children of Israel did reach the promised land; but even Moses, for his sin, was not permitted to see it. Just as certainly will this Union be restored, but the present leaders will not see it. They have sinned too long and sinned too much. It is not in the order of Providence to allow men who have cursed the Constitution and the Union to be permitted to rejoice at its restoration. Men who have themselves been rebels against the Constitution and the laws for a quarter of a century will not enjoy a triumph over other rebels with impunity. Sumner, Greeley & Co. may rejoice now, and exult in what they think their triumph; but they will fall fast and fall far. The people of this country have a good deal of wisdom, if they do go crazy once in a while. They will soon appreciate the difficulty and displace those who stand in the way.