Brave and able Defender of States' rights in New York.
A gentleman who has recently arrived from the
North brings us, among other things, a number of a new monthly journal entitled "The Old Guard, a monthly journal, devoted to the principles of 1776 and 1787," It contains several able papers; among them, "How to Treat Unconstitutional Acts of Congress," "The Administration as a Gold Cambler;" "
Seward on Federal Usurpations and Despotism;" "Strength of Armies," &c. In the article on How to Treat Unconstitutional Acts of Congress, it counsels Resistance.
It declares that "when a free people submit to oppressive acts, passed in violation of their Constitution, for a single day, they have thrown down the palladium of their liberty; submit to despotism for an hour, and you concede the principle.
John Adams said, in 1775, 'Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud.'. It is the only thing a people determined to be free can do. It was the cowardice and treachery of the Senate of
Rome that allowed the usurper to gain power, inch by inch, to overthrow the
Republic.
The history of the downfall of Republics is the same in all ages.
The first inch that is yielded to despotism — the first blow dealt at the
Constitution, that is not resisted — is the beginning of the end of the nation's ruin." It advises appeal first to the
Courts"the
State Courts"against unconstitutional acts of Congress, but should they be struck down or suspended, "then
muscle becomes the supreme law of the land.
Then every man's own right arm is not only the
Government de facto, but the
jure divino."
The "Old Guard" is full of the true spirit of '76 It hesitates not to tell the
Government and the people what the war has done for the
North, as the following article, copied from it, shows:
Now We are Revenging Sumter.
The following are the reported casualties of this war from its beginning to January 1st, 1863
| Federals killed | 43,874 |
| Federals wounded | 97,029 |
| Federals died of disease and wounds | 250,000 |
| Federals made prisoners | 68,218 |
| Total | 459,374 |
| Confederates killed | 20,893 |
| Confederates wounded | 59,915 |
| Confederates died from disease and wounds | 120,000 |
| Confederates made prisoners | 22,169 |
| Total | 222,677 |
They have killed twenty two thousand eight hundred and seventy four more of our men than we have of theirs.
They have wounded, not mortally, thirty-nine thousand four hundred and fourteen more of our men than we have of theirs.
One hundred and fifty thousand more of our men have died of disease and wounds than of theirs.
They have made prisoners of forty-six thousand more of our men than we have of theirs.
Our total casualties are two hundred and thirty-seven thousand two hundred and ninety-seven more than theirs — that is, our casualties have been fourteen thousand more than as much again as theirs.
This is the way we have "revenged the firing on
Fort Sumter."
But this is not all. We have spent almost
two thousand million more of money than they have spent.
We have made two hundred thousand of our women widows.
We have made one million of children fatherless.
We have destroyed the
Constitution of our country.
We have brought the ferocious savagery of war into every corner of society.
We have demoralized our pulpits, so that our very religion is a source of immorality and blood.
Instead of being servants of
Christ, our ministers are servants of Satan.
The land is full of contractors, thieves, provost-marshals, and a thousand other tools of illegal and despotic power, as
Egypt was of vermin in the days of the Pharaohs.
We are rapidly degenerating in everything that exalts a nation.
Our civilization is perishing.
We are swiftly drifting into inevitable civil war here in the
North.
We are turning our homes into charnel houses.
There is a corpse in every family.
The angel of death sits in every door.
The devil has removed from Tartarus to
Washington.
We pretend that we are punishing the rebels, but they are punishing us.
We pretend that we are restoring the
Union, but we are destroying it.
We pretend that we are enforcing the laws; but we are only catching negroes.
That is the way we are "revenging
Sumter"
Selling our souls to the devil and taking
Lincoln " Co's
promise to pay. We have it in greenbacks and blood.
That is the way we are "revenging
Sumter."
