Cjjt Centre §lcmwrat j BELLEFONTE, PA. Thursday Morning, July 11 61. I J. J. BKISBIN, EDITOR & PUBLISHER. W. YU. BROWN, ASSOCIATE EDITOR. More Men Wanted from Centre. The late Army Regulations call for the increase of companies to one hunired and one men. Capt. Gregg, of the Centre Guards has sent Ist Corporal Frank McGarvoy to this place to raise the Twenty.Four men ne cessary to fill out that company. His re cruiting office is at the Conrad House. A meeting will be held on Saturday Evening, in the Court Ilonse, for the purpose of rais ing these men. Let the sons of Centre res pond na they have dor.e heretofore. CAPTURE OF A CENTRE CO.. COMPANY. •The Capture of a company of Pennsylva nia troops, by the rebels in Virginia, haß caused a deep feeling of regret wherever the fact has become known. The affair occurred near Martiasburg, and was the result of a surprise by a party of rebel cavnlrv, who were mistaken for regulars of the troops cap lured. From what we can learn, the men were fiom what ia called'the " Loop," in Centre county, commanded by Captain Iless, who is well known in that county as a brave and gallent gentleman- It is hoped that an exehang- of prisoners will be made between the two armies in a short time, when these men will be released; but in tbe meantime we fear, from what "we have learned, that tbe Pennsylvanians are treated in the most bru tal and outrageous manner.— Hjirr.iaburg Ttlegoqplf To Our Friends. We trnst that our friends who have receiv ed bills from us within the last two weeks will attend to this matter promptly. It needs ne argument on our part, certainly, to con vince men that money is necessary to carry on tbe publication of a newspaper these times, and certainly we must look to our pa trons for it. Every body knows that we are poor and have no capital of cur own to use in business, therefore, if we do not get mon ey enough to piit'us through we must run in debt, which is the ruination of any young man ; and,more than thie, if wc do not meet those debts when due, then our credit is run out. Debts are pressing us now, and we de sire to meet them. The very paper upon which we print from week to week is unpaid for, the rent of our office and bouse is to be paid. Wc must have the necessaries i f life, and to get these in Bellefonte requires mon ey. We trust that our friends will take these things into consideration and pay us at lenst a portion of what is due. The first six months of this year are about up, and those who wish to save half a dollar would do well to take advantage of our advance terms. We need three hundred dollars. There are due on our booVs, for the last year alone, < ver SIOOO. It is a strange thing, if out of this sum, together with shout S]SCO which is due on this year, we cannot raise three or four hundred dollars Let every man who owes us consider this a dun. Congress. Congress met at Washington on Thursday last—forty-three members of tho Senate and cnedundi&l and fifty-seven members of the. House being present Galuuha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, was fleeted Speaker of the House, and Emerson Etheridge, of Tennesee, was chosen Clerk—both on the first ballot, — Congress is now in complete working ordvr, and it is believed will at once proceed to con sider and relieve the pressing wants of the country, Bills intended to ensure an imme diate aDd effectual crushing out of the rebell ion h?ve already bee.D presented by Gen. Wilson, and there can he no question of their speedy passage. Congress exhibits a spirit of hearty response to the suggestions corvey* ed by the President in his special message, and before tbe ]r:srnt week is past will doubtless confirm his acts and place in his hpnds tho power needed to successfully as sert the National supremacy. The President now reeommcrds the immc mediate enrollment of 400,000 men, end the appropriation of $400,000,000 t> meet the present emergency. He is satisfied that this rebellion can be most quickly and tffec tually put down by an overwhelming exhi bition of the national power. This determi na'inn well be welcomed with joy by un told thousands who are panting for an op portunity to take the fi-ld agaißst tho eefiai t traitors. There is not a foyal man in the Free States who will not respond to h • uig geition wiih a hearty Amen. If Congress de sires to satisfy th 9 popular feeling, it will grant every man and every dollar asked for without a day's delay. Our people are rpady to sanorios any measure that promises to qtisll the present rebellion, and proetir? the complete vindication of tbe supremaiy of the Corptitu ion end a full atonement to our violate'' laws. Given the men and money, awd under the wise counsels nf President Limo'n and General Scott, this result will not be long in its development. We believe that three leaders have been Pi&vidpntiaily assigned to the work befi re them, and that they will faithfully fulfill to the et d theni> sion of preserving and regenerating tl e n#- tin„ THE OIIIOANS IN AN AMBUSCADE. THEY C UT THEIR WAY" THROUGH. FIVE REBELS KILLED. Prcxannoy V* , Julv 7 Forty five men, belonging to the. Third Ohio regiment, under Captain Laws< n, while on a scouting expe dition fell in with an ambuscade of several hundred rebels, at Yfiddlefork Bridge, twelve tni'es east, and were surrounded. After a douerte figh-, they cut their way through, 1 ing ore killed ar d having five wounded. Five dead rebels were found to-day on the vcene nf the eoofi et. President Lincoln's Message. It may seem out of pluce to remark on the affile of a document whose substanoe is of snch e-ave import, and whieh is an exposi- ' tiori of the state of tbe country in the most | momentous crisis of its history. But there is such a homely and honest simplicity in this j message; its manner peems to perfect a pic ture of the war ; it is so transparently writ ten— to borrow one of its own expressions— " without guTe and with pure purpose," that it cannot fail to take a strong hold on the popular heart, and endear Mr. Lincoln still mora to the great body of the people, who prefer rigorous, every day common sense, quaint expression and shrewd mother wit, to tbe pomp of artificial rhetoric or the stiff formality of a mere state-paper style. Tbe ; message bears internal evidence that it is Mr. Lincoln's own, its peculiar raciness of ex prossion proving that it has not been retoueh |ed by any member of the cabinet. The un j feigned sympathy with " the patriotic in stincts of plasn people," which runs through it, and the original ways of putting things with which it abounds, are calculated to | strengthen that confidence in Mr. Lincoln's ! honesty and robust common sense, which causes the sturdy masses t > feel that ho is a . raan to lean against in a great etnergenoy. The Message is calculated to set at rest all apprehensions—if, indeed, any have ever been honestly entertained—that the Presi dent would ever allow this struggle to be brought to a pusillanimous close by an igno ble compromise with the traitors. True, there is not in tbe Message any of that spu r'ous ece gy wb'ch consists of the piliDg up of vehement expressions: for the President is perfectly self-poised, and reasons through out the document in that easy, familiar, com mon sense way which implirs the concious ness of a strong nature that he will be found equal to bis duties. But with this absence of any straining to appear resolute there is sufficient evidence that having " put his foot down firmly," he will keep it down. Tbe s'rong things in the Message aro all the more impressive from the simplicity and absence nf bluster with which they are expressed.— The main reccmendation which President Lincoln offers to Congress " for the purpose " of making this contest a short and decisive " one," speaks very decisively for the energy with which he desires the war to be prose cuted. When he asks tor at least four hun dred thousand men and four hundred mil lions of dollars, he indicates so clearly his sense of importance of crushing the rebellicr by the overwhelming exertion of force as to dispense him from using toward the rebels the language of strong menace. It befits the dignity of a great nation and a strong gov ernment to let its deeds prove to the world tbe energy of its determina'ion. When we put in the field au army as large as that of France, tbe most military nation of Europe, although France has thirty six millions of inhabitants and tho free state of the Union only twenty millions, neither onr own people nor foie : gn nations will need any assistance in drawing correct inferences as to the vigor with which the government intends to follow up the rebellion. President Lincoln, to provethe possibility of raising and main'air ing so large an army as he asks for, stn es iliat tbe four hundred thousand men he wan s make only one-tenth of the citizens of the free states capable of military servic, while the four hundred miliions ol dollars are only one twenty-third of tbe estimated value cf the property of these states. The interests of freedom, of oommtrce, and of good govern ment alike demand that this war ihill be abort; and if the President's recomendations are adopted by Congress, the earnest wishes of the people in this respect will be fully mot. The Message seems to haTe been written under a sense that the contrast between the pacific tone of the Inaugural and the present call for an array of overwhelming force re quired a full argumentative justification of the warlike attitude of the government. Mr. Lincoln accordingly gives a simple, succinct and perfectly calm narrative of the facts connected with tbe attempt toprovi-mn Fort Sumter, the more statement of which is a sufficienf argument in justification of the war; aod then, after a conclusive refutation (with out naming him) of Chief Justice Taney's inculpation of his action in the matter of hie action in the matter of the habeas corpus,' 1 e proceeds to make the most original and con clusive demonstration of tbe absurdly of secession that has ever been presented to the country. He pushes tbe pretense that only CoDgress can suspend the writ of habeas corpus in time of rebellion or invasion to a perfect reductio ad absurdum, by showing that, if this position is correct, a rebellion which should succeed in prtventirg Con gress from n e ting, sb tbe secession rebels threatened to do, wuuld annihilate the gov ernment by leaving it without any power < f self-protection. The argument against t! e right of seoessicn, founded on the fact that most of the members of the federal Union were never, historically, independent states, nor scates at all until their admission int° the Union, will produce a great impression on the public mind, both by its novelty and its force. How n state tifat was elevated to statehood from a condition of territorial de pendence. at the sole discretion of the gov ernaipnt of the Union, can fall back on its original independent and sovereignty, none of the seeessian oracles have ever told us.— Mr. Lincoln has in his argument given them a nut to crack that wi 1 be likely to beak their jaws. i here is a srasM literary purism, or rather dihttanteis n, that may not relish the careless and homely aptness of President Lincoln's style, but this Message really contains more unborrowed and vigorous thcught, chouched in teims which wili carry it irresistly home, and give it a spcure lodgment in the popular mind, than is to he found in any executive d cument since the days of Jackson. What for example, cao be more telling than bis argument (in his way of putting it) that, as the states cannot expel a state from the Un ion, they have no power to virtually do the fame thing by all but one secediog and form ing a new confederacy, leaving that one out in the cold? In good truth tbe secession absurdities have Dever been bo thoroughly riddled as they are in this excellent and manly Message.—AT, J*. TFo:W. •GFiSBGS! lo3S!:m:€>o3ei.j&L !, 3P. The President's Message. 4G0.0G0 MEN AND 400,000,009 OE MONEY WANTED. Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives. —Having been convened on an extraordinary occasion, authorized by the Constitution, your attention is not called to any ordinary object of legislation. At the beginning of the Presidential term, four months ago, the functions of the federal Government were found to be generally sus pended within the several States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, excepting those only jof the Post Office Department Within ■ those States all forts, arsenals, dockyards, 1 custom-houses, and the like, had been seized and were held in open hostility to this Gov- I ernment, excepting only forts Pickens, Tay ' lor, and Jefterson on and near the Florida j coast., and Fort Sumpter, m Charleston har bor, South Carolina. The forts thus seized j had been put in improved condition, new ■ ones had bten built, and armed forces had i been organized and were organizing, all • avowedly with the same hostile purpose. i The forts remaining in the hands of the i Federal Government, in and near these States were either beseiged or menaced with war ; like preparations, and especially Fort Sura ; tcr, which was neatly surrounded by well ; projected hostile batteries with guns equal in quality to the best of its own, and out numbering the latter perhaps ten to one. : A disproportionate share of the Federal mus kets and rifles had somehow found their way i inio these States, and had been seized to be ! used again-1 the Government. Accumula | tions of the public revenue lying within them had been seized against the Government.— The Navy was scattered in distant seas, ; leaving but a very small part of it within the itilmodiaie reach of the Government j Officers of the Federal army and navy had i resigned in great numbers, and of those ! resigning a large proportion had taken up ' arms against the Government. Simultaneously and in connection with all | this, the purpose to sever the Federal Union was openly avowed. In accordance with this purpose, an ordinance had been adopted l in each of these States, declaring the States j respectively to he separated from the Na j tional Union. A formula for instituting a ; combined government for these States had j been promulgated, and this illegal organiza ! tion in the character of the Confederate . States was already invoking recognition, aid ' and intervention from foreign powers. Finding this condition of things, and be- I liavicg it to be an imperative duty upon the | incoming Executive to prevent, if possible, : the consummation of such attempt to de j stroy the Federal Union, a choice of means :to that end became indispensible. This ; choice was inatle ar.d was declared in j the Inaugural Address. The policv chosen j looked to the exhaustion of all 'peaceful I measures before a resort to anv stronger j ores. It sought only to bold only the pub- I lie property not already wres-ed from the i Government and to collect the revenue, rely ing for the rest oir time, discussion and tire ballot box. ft promised a continuance of the mails at the Government expense to the very people who wereSresisting the Govern ment, and it gave repeated pledges agairst any disturbance to any of the people or any of their rights. Of all that which a Presi dent might constitutionally and justifiably do in such a case, everything was lorborne, without which it was believed impossible to keep the Government on loot. On the sth of March, the present incum bent's first full day in office, a letter of Major Anderson, commanding at Fcrt Sumter, written on the 28th of Febtuary, and receiv ed at the War Department on the 4th of -March, was by that Department placed in his hands. This letter expressed the profes | sional opinion of th'- writer, that reinforce - : ra nts could not be thrown into that within | the time for his relief- rendered necessary by | the limited supply of provisions, and with a view ol holding possession of the same, with a force of less than twenty thousand good and well disciplined men. This opinion was concurred in by all the officers of his i ci mirmnd, and their memoranda on the sub | ject were made enclosures of Major Ander ' son's letter. The whole was immediately la d before Lieutenant General Scott, who at once concurred with Major Anderson in that opinion. On reflection, however, he took full time, consulting witn other officers of the army and navy, and at the end of four days came reluctantly but decidedly to tbe Same cenclusi- n as before. lie also stated at the same time that no such sufficient force was then within the ccnirol of the Government or could be raised and brought to the ground within the time when the provisions in the fort would be ex ; hausted. In a purely military point of view i this reduced the duty of the Administration iin t'"e ease to the mere matter of gettiog the garrison safely out of the fort. It was believed, however, that to so aban don that position, under the circumstances, would be utterly ruinous ; that the necessity under which it was to be done, would not be fully understood ; that by many it would be construed as a part of a voluntary policy ; ! that at home it would discourage the friends | of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and ! go far to insure to the latter a recognition abroad : that, in fact, it would be oiir Na tional distraction consummated. This could not lie allowed. Starvation was not I yet upon "he garrison, and ere it would be I reached Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This last \fould be a clear indication of pol icy, and would belter enable the country to accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter as a I military necessity. An order was at once j directed to be sent for the landing of the ! troops from tho steamship Brooklyn into I Fort Pickens. This order could not go by j land, and must take the longer nd slower route by sea. The first return news from the order was received just one week before the fall o f Fort Sumter. The news itself was that the officer commanding the Sabine, to which ves sel the troops Lad been transferred from the Brooklyn, actmg upon some quasi armistice of the latt Administration, and of the exis tence of which the present Administration, up to the time the order was despatched, had only too vague and uncertain rumors to fix attention—had refused to land the troops. To now reinforce Fort Pickens before a ( crisis would be reached at Foit Sumter, was impossible, rendered so hy the near exhaus tion of provisions in the latter named Fort. In such a conjucture, the Government had, a few days before, commenced prepar ing an expedition, as well adapted as might ' be, to relieve Fort Sumter ; which expedi- I tion was intended to be ultimately used or : not, according to circumstances. The strongest anticipated case for using | it was now presented, and it was resolved to send it forward, as had been intended in this contingency. It was also resolved to notify the Governor of South Carolina that if the attempt should not be resisted, there would be no eflort to throw in men, arms, or am munition without further notice, or in case of au attack upon tbe fort. This notice was accordingly given, whereupon, the fort was attacked and bombarded to its fall, without even awaiting the arrival of the provisioning expedition. It is thus seen that the assault upon and the reduc , tion of Fort Sumpter was in no sense a matter of self defence on the part of the as sailants. They well knew that the garrison j in the fort could by no possibility commit ' aggression upon them. They knew—they were expressly notified—that the giving of bread to ihe-fe.w iuavc- and hungrj* men of the garrison was all which on 'hat occasion couid be alteßipfod. unless themselves by resisting *so mm h. should provoke more. They knew that this Government desired to keep this garrison in the fort, not 'O assail them, but merely to maintain visible posses sion, trusting.as herein before stated,to time discussion, and the ballot-box, for final ad justment. And they assailed and reduced the fort for precisely the reverse object, to drive out the visible authority of the Federal Union and thus force it to immediate dissolution. That this was their object, the Executive well understood, and having said to them in tiie Inaugural Address, -'You can have no conflict without being yourself the aggres sors," he took paios not only to keep this declaration good, but also to keep the case so i free from the power of ingenious sophistry [ as that the world should not bo able to mis i understand it. By the affair at Fort Sumpter ; with its surrounding circumstances that I point was reached. Then and thereby the as | sadantsof the Government began the conflict : of arms without a gun in sight, or in expec ] taney, to return their fire, save only the few j in the fort sent to that harbor years before ! for their own protection, and still ready to ! give that protection in whatever was lawful. | In this act, discarding all else, they have for | ced upon the couutry the distinct issue—isn mediate dissolution or blood. And this issue embraces more than the fate of the United States. It presents to the whole family of uiw the question whether a Constitutional Republic or Democracy —a government of the people by the same peo ple, can or cannot maintain its territorial in tegrity against its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control the administration according to the organic law in any case, can always, upon the pre tences made in the case or on any other pre tence, brtak up their government and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask, Is there in all Repub lics this inherent and fatal weakness ? Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence ? So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out tbe war power of the govern ment, and so to resist the force employed for its destruction, by lorce for its preserva tion. The call was made and the response of the country was most gratifying—surpass ing in unanimity and spirit, the most san guine expectations. Yet none of the States commonly called Slave States, except Delaware, gave a tegi ment, through regular State organizations. A few regiments have been organized within some others of those States by individual enterprise, and received into the government service. Of course, the seceded States so called, and to which Texas had been joined about the time ot the inauguration, gave no troops to the cause of the Union. The Bor der States so called were not uniform in their action, some of them being almost for the Union, while in others, as Virginia and North Carolina. Tennessee and Arkansas, the Union sentiment was nearly repressed and silenced. The course taken in Virginia was the most remarkable, perhaps the most important.— A convention elected by the people of that State to consider this very question of dis rupting the Federal Union, was in session at the capital of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell. To this body the people had chosen a large majority of professed Union men. Al most immediately after the fall of Sumter, many members of their majority went over to the original disunion majority, and with them adopted an ordinance for withdrawing the State from the Union. Whether this change was wi ought by their great approval of the assault upon Sumter, or the great resentment at the gov ernment's r: sistance to that assault, is not definitely known. Although they submitted the oidmance, for ratification, to a vote of the people, to be taken on a day, then some what more than a month distant, th-> Con vention and the Legislatures, which was al so in session at the saute time and place, with leading members of the State, not members of either, immediately commenced acting as if tbe State were already out of the Union. They pushed their military preparations vigorously forward all over the State. They seized the United States Ar mory at Harper's Ferry and the Navy Yard at, Gosport, near Norfolk. They received, perhaps invited, into their State large bodies of troops with their warlike appointments, from the so called Seceded States. They formally entered into a treaty of temporary alliance and co operation with the so called Confederate States, and sent members to their Congress at Montgomery, and finally they permitted the insurrectionary Govern ment to be transferred to their C.pi.tal at Richmond. The people of Virginia have 'bus allowed this giant insurrection to make its nest with in her border, and this government has no choice left but to deal with it whe e it finds it, and it has the less regret, as the loyal citizens have in due form claimed its protec tion. These loyal citizens, this government is bound to recoguize and protect as befog Virginia. In the Border States, so called, in fact the Middle States, there are those who favor a pol'cy which they call armed neutrality that is, an arming of those States to prevent the Union forces passing one way or the dis union the other over their soil. This would he disunion completed, figuratively speaking. ! It would be the building of an impassable wall along the lin of separation, and yet not quite an impassable one ; for under the j guise of neutrality, it would tie the handsof the Union men. and freely pass supplies from among them to the insurrectionists, which it could not do as au open enemy. At a stroke it would take all the trouble off the hands of secession, except only what proceeds from the external blockade. It would do for the disunionists, that which of all things tbey most desire—feed them well and give them disunion without a struggle of their own.— It recognizes no fidelity to the Constitution, no obligation to maintain the Union, and while very many who have favored it are doubtless loyal, it is, nevertheless, very in jurious in effect. Recurrfog to the action of the Government, it may be stated that at once a call was made for 75.000 miHtia, and rapidly follow ing this, a proclamation was issued for clos ing the ports of the insurrectionary districts by proceedings in the nature of a blockade. So far all was believed to be strictly legal. At this point the insurrectionists announc ed their purpose to enter upon the practice of privateering. were made for volunteers to serve three years unless sooner discharged, and also for large additions to the regular army and navy. These measures, whether strictly legal or n6t, were ventured upon under what ap peared to be a popular demand and a public necessity, trusting then as now that Con gress would readily ratify them. It is be lieved that nothing has been done boyond the Constitutional competency of Congress. Soon after the first call for militia it was considered a duty to authorize the command ing general, in proper cases,according to his discretion, to suspend the priviledge of the writ of habeas corpus, of in other words to arrest and detain, without resort to the ordi nary processes and form of law, such indi viduals as he might deem dangerous to the public .safety. This authority has purpose ly been exceiciseil but very sparingly. Nev ertheless, the legality anil propriety of what has been done under it are questioned, and tike attention of the country has been called to the proposition that one who is sworn to take care that the laws be faithfully executed should not himself violate theui. Of course some consideration was given to the ques tions of power and propriety before this mat ter was acted on. The whole of the laws which were required to be faithfully executed, were being resis ted, and failing of execution in nearly one third of the States. Must they be allowed to tinnally fail of execution, even if it had been perfectly clear, that by the use of the means necessary to their execution, some single law made in such extreme tenderness of the citizens' liberty, that practically it relieves more of the guilty than of the inno cent, should to a very limited extent, be violated. To state the question more directly, are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the Government itself to go to pieces lest that one be violated ? Even in such a case would not the official oath be broken off if the Governmont should be overthrown, when it was believed that disregarding the single law would tend to preserve it i But it was not believed that this question was presented It was not believed that any law was violated. The provision of the Constttutien that the priviledge of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion orinvasion public safety may require it, is eqivalent to provision that such priviledge may be suspended when in cases of rebellion or in vasion the public safety does rt quire i.— It was decided that we have a case of rebel lion. and that the public safety does require the quallified suspension of the privilege of the writ which was authorized to be made. Now, it is insisted that Congress, and not the Executive, is vested with this power.— But the Constitution itself is silent as o which or who is to exercise the power, and as the provision was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed that the framers of the instrument intended that in every case the danger should run its course untill Congress could be called togeth er, the assembling of which might be pre sented. as was intended in this case by the rebellion. No more extended argument is now offered, as an oppmton at some length will probably be presented by the Attorney General. Whether there shall be any legis. lation upon the subject, and if any what, is submitted entirely to the better judgement of Congress. The forebearange of this Government had been so extraordinary and so long continued as to lead some foreign nations to shape their actions as if thoy supposed the early destruction of our National Union was pos sible. While this on discoveiy gave the Executive some concern.; he is now happy to say that the sovereignity and rights of the United States ape now everywhere prac tically respected by foreign powers, and a general sytn athy with theoountry is mani fested throughout the world. The reports of the Secretaries of the Treasury, War and the Navy will give the information in detail deemed necessary and convenient for your deliberation and action while the Executive and all the Departments will stand ready to supply commissnns, in to communicate new facts, considered im portant for you to know. It is now recommended that yon g ; ve the legal means for n aking the contest a short and a decisive one: that ynu place at the control ot the G jvern uent, for the work, at least 400,000 men, a>d §4OO 000 00(k J'hat number of mm is about one-tenth of those if proper ages within the regions', where ap parently, all are willing to engage, and the sum less than a twenty-third part of the money value ovyied by the men whif seem ready to devote (lie whole, A debt of $600,000 000 now is a less sum rer bead than was the debt of our reyolurion when we came out of that struggle, and the money value in the country now boars even a greeater proportion to what it was then, than dees the population. Surely each man has as strong a motive now to preserve our liberties as each-had thtirto establish them A right result at this time will be worth more to the world that* ten tiroes the men and ten times the money. The evidence reaching us from the country,leaves no doubt that the material for the work is abundant and that it needs only the hand of 1 gisia tion to give it legal sanction, and the hand of the executive to give it practical shape and efficiency. One oi'the greatest perplexi'ies of the Gov emmer.t is to avoit^receiving troops faster than it can provide for them. In a word, the people will save their G >v ernment, if the Government itsilf will do its part only ind fierently well. It might seem at first thought, to be of little difference whether the present movement at the South be called secession or rebellion. The tnov era, however, weli understand the d ff-rence. At the beginning they knew they could nev er raise their treason to any respectable mag nitude by any name which implies violation of law. They knew their people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in, and reverence for the history and Govern ent of their common as any other civilized and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advance ment utrectly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly, they com menced, by an insidanns debauching of the publ.c mind. Titey invented an ingenious sophi-m which, if co- ceded, was followed by perfectly logical steps through all the inci dents to the complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is that any State of the Union may, consistently with the Na tional Constitution, and therefore lawtu ! ly and peacefully, withdraw from the Union, without the consent of the Union cr of any other State. The little disguise, that the supposed right is to be exercised only for a just cause, because they themselves are to be ihe sole judges of its justice, is too tbin to merit any notice. With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they have been dragging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years, and until at length they have brought many good men to a willingness to take up arms against the Government the day after some assemblage of nnea have enacted the farcical pietence of taking their State out of the Union, who could have been brought to DO such thing the d iy before. Thie sophism d trives much, perhaps the whole of itsctrreiey, from the assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred su premacy pertaining to a state, to eaoh State of our Federal Union. Our States have neither more nor less power than that reserv ed to them in tbo Union by the Constitution, no one of them ever having been a State out of the Union. The original ones passed into the Union even before they east of their Brit ish Colonial dependence, and the new ones each came into the Union directly from a condition of dependence excepting Texas ; and even Texas, in its temporary indepen dence, was never designated a State. The new ones only took the designation of States on coming into the Union ; while that name was first adopted for the old ones in and by the Declaration of Independenoe. Therein the United Colonies were declared to be free and independent States. But even then the object plainly was not their independence of one another, or'of the Union, but directly tha contrary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual aetion, I before, at the time ami afterwards, abun dantly show. T>e express piighting of faith, t> each and all of the original thirteen, in the articles of confederation, two years later, that " the Un'on -hall bp perpetual," is most conclusive. Hciviug never been States, eitn i er in substance or in name outside of the ' Union, whence this magical omnipotence of State Rights asserting a claim ot power to ! lawfully destroy the Union itself? Much is ! said about the Sovereignty, of the States, but the word even if not in the National Consti tution, nor as is beleived in any of the State Constitutions. What is a Sovereignty, in the political sense of the term? H'ould it be far wrong to define it " a political com munity without a political superior ?" Test ed by this, no one of our States except Texas ever was a sovereignty, and even Texas gave up the character on coming, into the Union, by which act she acknowledged the Consti tution of the United States and the laws and treaties of the United States, made in pursu ance of the Constitution, to be for ber the Supreme law of the land The States haye their status in the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against law and by rev olution. The Uoi>n, and not themselves sep arated, procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest or purchase, the Union gave each of them whatever of inde pendone and liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States, and iu fact it created them as S'ates. Originally some de pendent colonies made the Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old depen dence for them and made them States, such as they are : not one of them ever bed a State Constitution independent of the Union. Of course it is not forgotten that all the new States framed tbeir Constitutions before they entered the Union ; nevertheless depen dent upon, and preparatory to coming into the Uni n. Ui questionably the States hsve the pow ers an a rights reserved to them in and by the National Constitution; hut among those, surely, are not included all conceivable pow ers, however mischievous or destructive, but at most such only are known in the world at the time, as Governmental powers, and cer tainly a power to destroy the Government itself had never known as Governmental a merely administrative power. This relative matter of National power and Sta'e Rights as a principle, is no other than the principle of generality and locality. Whatever concern? the whole should ho confided to the wnole, to the G n neral Gov ernment ; while whatever concerns only the State should be left exclusively to the S'ate. This is all there is of original principle about it. Whether the National Constitution, in defining boundaries between the two, has ap plied the principle with exact accuracy, is not to be questioned. We are also I ootid by that defining, without ques ion. What is now comba r ted is the po-inon that Secession is consistent with the Constitution, is lawful and peaceful. It is not contented that there is any express law for if, and nothing should ever tie implied as law which leads to unjust or absurd conseq lenues. The Nation ourtfhiiS-d with money the countries out of which several, f these St.-ve were formed. Is it ju-t that they shall go off without leave and without refunding? The nation paid very large sums—in the aggre gate. I believe, a hundred millious—to re lieve Florida of the Aboriginal tribes. Is it just that she shall now go off without consent or without making any return? The nation is now in debt for money applied to the ben efit of those so called seceded Stares iu com mon with the rest. I- it just either that creditors shall go unpaid, or the remaining S:ates pay the whole? Parr, of the pre-ent national debt was contracted to pay the old debts of Texas. Is it ju-t that sh- shall lcavo an t pav no part of this herselt ? Again, if one State mav secede, so may another, and when a.l shall have seceded, none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors? Did we notify them of this sage view of ours when we borrowed their money? If we now recognise this doc trine by allowing the Seceders to go in peace it is difficult to see what we can do if others choose to go or to exboi t terms upon which 'hey will promise to remain. The Secedtfi insist that our Constitu'im admits of Socession. They have assumed to make a National Constitution of their own. in which of necessity they have either dis carded or retained the right of Secession, as t'i?y insist it exists in nir?. If they have discarded it. thereby admit that on principle it ought not to be in our-- If they have re tained it by their own construction of ours, they show that to be con-istent they mu-t accede from one another whenever tLey shall find if the easiest, way of settling their debts, or effecting any other se'fi-h or unjust object The principle itself is one of dl-integration and upon which the Government can possibly endure. If all tho States save one, should nssert the power to driye that one out ot the Union it is presumed the whole class of seee-dr politicians wou'd at once deny the power, and denounce 'he act as the greatest out rage on State rights. But suppose that precisely the same act,, instead of being called driving the one out should bo called the seceding of the other from that one, it would be exactly what the seceedvr? claim to do, unless, indeed, they make the point that the one, because it is the minority, may lightfully do what the other, because they are a majority, may not right fully do, Ttiese politician- are subtle and profound on the right of minorities p they ere not partial to that power which made the Constitution, aud speaks from the preamble calling itself "the People." If may well be questioned whether there i? to-day a major ity of the legally qualified voters of any State except perhaps South. Carolina, in favor of I disunion. Tnereismuch reason to believe 1 that the union men are the majority in many if Dot every other one of the so called ex ceeded States. As the coDtiary has not been demonstrated in any one of rh n m, it is ven tured to affirm this even 'if Virginia and Tennessee, for the result of an election, held in military camps where the bayonets were all on one side of the question voted upoD, can scarcely be considered a demonstration of the popular sentiment. At such an eieo tion, all that large class who ere not at ouce for the Union and against coercion, would be coerced to vote against the Union. It may be affirmed, without extravagance that the free institutions we enjoy have de veloped the power and improved the condi tion of our whale people. beyond any exam ple in the world. Of this we now have a striking and impressive illuetat on. SJ large an army as the Government has now on foot was never before known, with >ut a single soldier in it but who had taken his place of his own free choice. But more than this. There are many sin gle regiments whose members one and an other possess full practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether useful or elegant is known in the world ; and there is scarcely one from which there could not be selected a Presi ' dent, a Cabinet, a Congress, and perhaps a ! Court abundantly competent to administer | the government itself. Nor do I stpy this is : not true also in the army of our late friends, i now adversaries in this contest. But if it is so, so much better the reason why the Gov ernment which has conferred such benefits j on both tb< m and us should not be broken | ttP- Whoever, in any section, proposes teaban don 6uoh a Gorerntneat, wonld do wolf to ' consider in reference to what principle it is that he does it. What better be is iikely to ; get in its stead. Whether th.- substitute will i give, or be intended, to give, so much good to the perple. There arc some for-had w ings on this subject. Our advercaiies have adopted some declarations of independence in which, unlike the good old one, penned by Jefferson, the omit thev words "all men are created equal-'' Why ? They have i adopted a temporary National Constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by Washington, they omit, "We, the people." and substitute, "We the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." VVhy ? Why this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of men and the authority of the people ? This is essentially a peoples' contest. Ou the side of the Union it is a stiuggle for maintaining, in the world, that form and substance of government, whoee leading ob ject is to elevate the condition of men ; to lift the artificial weights from their should ers ; to clear 6be paths of laudable pursuit for all ; to afford men an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race ot life. Yielding to partial and temporary depnr ures from necessity, :his is the leading ob ject of the Government tor whose exis'eooe ' we contend. j lam most happy to believe that the plain ■ people understand and appreciate this. It is I worthy of note that while in this, the govern j meut's hour ot trial, large numbers of those in the army and navy who have been hou | ored with offices have resigned and proved j false to the hand that had pampered them.— Not one common soldier or common sailor ;is known to have' des-rfed his fiag. Great honor is doe to those officers who remained true, despite the example of their traitorous associates. But the greatest honor and the I most important fact of ail, is the unanimous , firmness of the common soldiers and common I sailors. To the last man so far as known, they have successfully resisted the traitor ous efforts of those whose commands but an hour before they obeyed as absolute law.— This is the patriotic instinct ot a plain peo ple. They understand without an argument that the destroying of the Government which was made by Washington, means no good to them. Our popular G .vernment has often ; been called an experiment. Two points in ; it our people have already settled. The suo i cessful estab'iehing and the successful ad j ministering of it One snli remains. Its , Bucces-fal ni'itntainance against a forinida : blo interna! muiiipt to overthrow it. It is i for them to demonstrate to the world, that | thus* who can fairly carry an election can ■ also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the ! rightful and peaseful successors of bullets and that wheu ballots have fairly i,a 1 Oon l stitutionally decided, there can be i.o suc cessful appeal back to bullets, that there can i be-no successfgl appeal except to ballots themselves at sncoeding elections. Such I will be a great lesson of peaee, teaching men | what they cannot take by an election, neith— i er can they take it hy war ; teaching all the : folly of being the beginners of the war. Lest there he some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as to what is to be the 1 course of the Government towards the South | em Stales alter the rebellion shall have been | suppressed, the Ex cutive deems it proper to j say it will be his purpose then, as ever, to he i guided by the Constitution and the laws, and that lie probably will have no differ*nt understanding of the powers and duties of the Fedetal Govern*ent, relatively to the rights of the States and the people under the Cons'irution then rxpre.-spd in the Inau Ural Addiess, He desires to preserve the Gov ernment that it may he ad ministered to all as tt was administered hy the men who made it. Loyal citizens everywhere have the right to claim tb s of tneir Government, and the Gov., ernment has no rig' t to withhold < are also luwtul and obli gatory. 1 was with the deepest regret that tl e Executive found the duty of employing the war power in defence of the Government for | ced upon him. He could but perform this j duty or surrender the existence nf the Gov j eminent. No compromise by public ser | vants could in this ease be a cure. Not that 1 compromise are not often proper, but that no popular movement can long survive tu i marked precedent. That those who carry ! an election can only save the Government i from immediate disruption, by giving up the I main p'.-iot, upon which the people gave the I election. The people themselves, and pot their servants can safely reverse their own deliberate decision*. As a private citizen, the Executive could not have consented that these institutions shall perish much less would be in betrayal ot so vast and so sacred a trust as these free people had confided to him. He felt that ha had no ruoral right to shrink i nor even to court the chances of his own life 'in wh.-.t might follow. In full view of his i great responsibility, he has so far done what Ihe bad deemed his duty. You will now, | uecordiug to your own judgement, perform i yours. lie sincerely hopes that your views Bnd your actions may so accord with his as : to assure all faithful citizens who have dis turbed ic their rights of a certain and speedy restoration to them under the Constitution and the laws. And having thus chosen our course with out guile and pure purpose, lat us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. JCLT, stb, 1861. Skirmish with Gov. Wise's Body Guard- Gov. Wise reported Mortallv Wounded- FORTY REBELS KILLED. CINCINNATI. July 7. —A special dispatch to the Commercial from Pnmeroy, Ohio states that Col. Norion with 150 men had just re" turned from an expedition into Virginia, du ring which they captured four horses, six teen head of cattle, and two mules from the rebels. Gov. Wise, with a body guard of fifty men under Captain Patton, had been fired at by the native Virginians near Sessonville and l Wise and Patton were supposed to be mor tally wounded. Forty of the guard are alga J said to be killed. Sessonville is in Kanawha j county about twenty five miles from the Ohio river. j The report is undoubtedly true in sub stance. hut the wounding of Wise and Pat ton needs confirmation. J. M. Mc- n.—Owing to the length of the President's Message your communica tion has been crowded out this week. We I will, however, give it room in oar next week's paper.