The South and the Constitution

By reference to our telegraph columns it will be seen, that the rebel Congress have unanimously adopted a preamble and resolution, setting forth that the United States are waging a war against the Confederate States, with the avowed purpose of compelling them to re-unite under the same constitution and government, and that sooner than do so they will suffer all the calamities of a most protracted war.  This disabused the public mind of the vapid stories set afloat by the proslavery press, that the prevailing sentiment at the South is that this is a war upon the part of the North solely for the abolition of slavery, and the impression it tries to convey that the Republican party is seeking to overthrow the Constitution, when it seems that it is the very object of the South itself is striving to accomplish.  The pro-slavery party will now see that its friends of the South, whom it would preserve in the integrity of their constitutional rights, are themselves endeavoring to thwart their efforts.  This is such a poor return for the favor they have sought to do them, that we hope these gentry will not hereafter oppose any effort that may be made by the people of the North constitutionally to rid the country of Slavery.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 10, 1862, p. 2