Government. How could this be done,

does the English

reader ask, in amazement? Very easily. If a set of desperate, determined men should proclaim a vote on a certain day, and should proceed to the polls to shoot down or to insult any person who presumed to vote inimically to their schemes, it is fair to infer that the vote would be quite one way, and that the wrong way. Or, if a set of delegates should vote against a secession ordinance, and the vote should be declared affirmative and the "ordinance" immediately proclaimed, how should the people, scattered thinly over a large section, thwart the well-matured but wicked subversion of their liberties? There are thousands of Union men in the cottongrowing States, but they are perfectly at the mercy of the horde of cut-throats who "go in for fight." In the central and border Slave States the Union element is really in the majority, but, unfortunately, the slaveholding Governors of all those States are under the baleful control of the ambitious magnates at Montgomery and Richmond, with whom they are in the closest communion, and they have, literally, sold out their constituents to the rebel cause. A general election, if it could be ordered and conducted in such a manner that men might vote as their judgment dictated, would, beyond question, restore the border and central States to the Union; but, such an election, until United States bayonets are on hand to protect the sanctity of the franchise, would simply be impossible. The presence of troops in Maryland has saved that State from the grasp of the conspirators. So of Missouri. Kentucky is true in spite of a Governor who has used every effort to precipitate the State into the vortex. Virginia, it is but fair to presume, will be voted into the Union again as soon as she has the means of fairly visiting the ballot-box. Important papers seized at Alexandria, in that State, by the United States officers, reveal the means by which the voting

LOYAL SONS OF VIRGINIA.

25

out was accomplished. The Washington Star thus announces the matter:

"The letters are believed to prove, beyond the possibility of denial, that the adoption of the ordinance of secession by the Virginia Convention was the result of fraud, usurpation and terrorism unsurpassed in the history of civilized government; of naked and palpable revolution, to the end of entirely sweeping away at a blow the liberties of the masses of the State, in order to place in the hands of the conspirators and their instruments, for life, the entire machinery of the Government of Virginia."

So outraged have the loyal men of Western Virginia (full one-half of the State) been, that they had resolved, if allowed by the General Government, to secede from the State, and, by electing their own officers, come into the Union as the Virginia de facto. These loyal men have been addressed by some of their leading citizens on their duty in the crisis. We may quote from the addresses an extract which shows how the people understand the matter:

"Will the disunion majority of the Richmond Convention come into the ranks, and shoulder the musket, in the strife which they have inaugurated? They will keep at a respectful distance from danger. They will fill the lucrative offices, and secure the rich appointments which appertain to the new order of things. They will luxuriate on two, or three, or four hundred dollars per month, with horses and servants, and rations to match, while the Unionloving people will be called upon, for the honor of Virginia and two shillings per day, to do the fighting, and undergo the hardships of

war.

"If those feelings which actuated our revolutionary fathers be not all dead in us, we shall exhibit our love for Virginia by repudi ating this tyrannical rule which the Richmond Convention has endeavored to impose, and suffer not ourselves to be sold like sheep from the shambles. The people yet hold their destinies in their own hands-it is for them to accept or reject a tyranny worse many times than that from which the war of "76 delivered us-not the tyranny of one man, but of many."

The same spirit of resistance to the usurpers is decidedly manifested in Tennessee, by some of the most able and influential men in the State. But, their eloquence and patriotism are all for nought, since the Governor, without any authority from the people, enters into a “treaty" which joins Tennessee to the "Confederacy." The world never before beheld such insolent betrayal of trust.

In the Kentucky Legislature an influential Senator thus addressed (May 28th) those Senators who sought to ally the State to the government of Mr. Davis:

"When Kentucky goes down, it will be in blood. Let that be understood. She will not go as other States have gone. Let the responsibility rest on you, where it belongs. It is all your work, and whatever happens will be your work. We have more right to defend our Government than you have to overturn it. Many of us are sworn to support it. Let our good Union brethren of the South stand their ground. I know that many patriotic hearts in the seceded States still beat warmly for the old Union-the old flag. The time will come when we shall all be together again. The politicians are having their day. The people will yet have theirs. I have an abiding confidence in the right, and I know that this secession movement is all wrong. There is, in fact, not a single substantial reason for it. If there is, I should be glad to hear it; our Government has never oppressed us with a feather's weight. The direst oppression alone could justify what has brought all our present suffering upon us. May God, in his mercy, save our glorious Republic!"

This is the ring of the true metal. It tells the story as it should, and will be told if the loyal men of the Slave States are permitted to speak.

It will be time for sympathizers of the London Review school, who believe in the "sacred right of self-government," to spend their pity and logic upon the seceded States when they learn that "the people" have precipitated the treasonable act of separation from the parent Government.

A

THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.

27

V.

THE SPIRIT AND TEMPER OF THE SLAVE "CONFEDERATES.”

Do we live in an age of barbarism that brothers should enter into deadly conflict-that fellow-citizens and neighbors should drive the steel into one another's bosoms? we hear some of our good humanitarian friends ask, who reside beyond the sea. We ourselves ask the same question daily :-do we live in an age of barbarism? when we read extracts from Southern papers, or hear the story of some poor exile from that unhappy "confederacy." Our humanitarian friends ask from a want of knowledge; we ask having a full knowledge, with facts before us appalling enough to satiate the appetite of the most inveterate seeker for horrors.

The Government of the United States is one of the most beneficent the world has known. It grew out of the spirit of humanity, and embodied that noble sentiment: "All men are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Livingston, Hamilton, Madison, Adams, infused their integrity, their patriotism, their virtue, into the instrument of our national life which they willed to us as their richest and most priceless heirloom. That instrument we have abided by, ceaselessly and faithfully. Under it we have grown to a greatness which, in its very magnitude, is surprising even to ourselves. Our happiness has been equally secured: no people who ever lived had so great cause for gratitude and thanksgiving. So many schools, so many churches, so many printing presses, telegraphs and railroads, so many ships, so much enterprise and such high general intelligence are simply results of our Constitution:-could we adduce a greater evidence of its entire beneficence?

But, even the Prodigal was not content with the plenty and the glory of his father's house, and he wandered away to become the feeder of swine. So, in our National mansion are Prodigals, who, spoiled by prosperity and wicked with ambition, have gone out from the shadow of our temple to cast their lot among those of their own kind-have seceded, to erect, on the ruins of their former virtue and patriotism, a structure of their own-a "" Confederacy" whose corner-stone should rest upon the bodies and souls of human chattels. It is not strange that such men should entertain passions and feelings not consonant with righteousness. Indeed, it would be as unreasonable to expect forbearance and tenderness from the spoiled child who strikes the bosom from which he has drawn his life.

The spirit of the Union-loving States is the spirit of the Constitution.

THE SPIRIT OF THE SECEDED STATES IS THE SPIRIT OF WICKEDNESS.

That this is true, we have only to demand attention to facts to prove; and we particularly wish our humane friend in England to be correctly informed that he may judge fairly of the relative character of the two sections now at war.

We have said our Constitution was a beneficent instrument, giving in evidence our wonderful material, moral and intellectual growth. Such a development is only possible under the wisest and most humane Government over a humane and truly Christian people. Devotion to such a Constitution—to . such laws, is evidence, of itself, of the virtue and integrity of the citizen.

Who are devoted to their maintenance and protection? Look at the record! The inaugural of Mr. Lincoln, his proclamations, the orders of the War Department, all declare that the Constitution and the laws must be sustained.

Do