espected.
The reason is two-fold. First, this war, upon the part of the North, is
for the maintenance of the Constitution as our fathers gave it to us.
Its object is not a crusade against slavery. What may be the results of
the war in relation to slavery is one thing; what should be the simple
purpose of the North is another. That this war, however it may turn,
will be disastrous to slavery, is evident from a great variety of
considerations. But that we should pretend to fight for the Constitution
and the Union, and yet against its express provisions, in respect to
those held in bondage by loyal citizens, is simply to act a part
subversive of the true intent of the Constitution. To violate its
provisions, in relation to loyal citizens South, is in the highest
degree impolitic and suicidal. It is the constant aim of the enemies now
in armed rebellion against the Union, to misrepresent the North upon
this very point. By systematic lying, they have induced thousands South
to believe that the election of Lincoln was designed as an act of war
upon slave institutions, and to subvert the Constitution that protects
them in all that they call their property.

There is nothing that the rebels South are more anxious to see than the
Government adopting a policy that will give them a plausible pretense
for continuing in rebellion. The Constitution places the local
institution of slavery under the exclusive control of those States where
it exists. Its language, faithfully interpreted, is simply this: Your
own domestic affairs you have a right to manage as you please, so long
as you do not trespass upon the Union, or seek its ruin. All loyal
citizens should be encouraged to stand by the Union in every Southern
State, with the unequivocal declaration that all their rights will be
respected, and that their true safety, even as noblest interests, must
lie in upholding the North in the effort made to put down the vilest
rebellion under the sun. My second reflection is, that those South, who
are in armed rebellion against the Constitution and the Union, must make
up their minds to take what the fortune of war gives them. This
rebellion should be bandied without gloves. The North should permit
nothing to stand in the way of a complete and permanent triumph. As
Northern property is all confiscated South; as Union men there are
treated with the utmost barbarity; as nothing held by the lovers of the
Union is respected, the greatest injury in t