The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-02-12

tiith minus 10 lClOcy anu tnelr DOQlcs 10 putre-
faction, and still they are inquiring, what is the
matteri They have coughs and colds, fsvers
and agues, but they are most sadly at a loss to
know the cause.
1t has struck mo that the situation of the
United States at the present moment is not en-
tirely unlike that condition. Our resources and
our credit are being exhausted, our fair fame ia
being withered, our hopes blasted and the keen
est vision cannot discern in the distant future
the day star Of hope, and yet our wisest states
men are looking hither and thither to know
what is the cause Of It..
One assigned this reason, another that, fer the
war, yet the cause of 1t was apparent to all.
One difficulty was that We did not look at this
subject in the light of indipiduai duty7 We
threw the blame en- G Government Where is thatl
What is 1T 1t is what the popular sentiment
makes it, Government is exactly as good as the
people, and no better-as bad, no worse. II is
the consent, will, purpose, of tho people that
gives force, vitality, and energy to the action Of
Government.
The responsibility lies with tho people, and
the Government do Just exactly what the people
want them TO do. Have they sent their armies
to Mexicol Have they bombardsd her cities,
and when the defenceess women and children
Of those cities dsspairing Of help from any earth
y arm, thronged the temples Of the Nest High,
have they sent their Christian bomb shells into
those temples, painting their walls with the
blood Of women and childrenl Who has done
iti-Why, my friends you have done it. When
the time comes when the popular sentiment
shall be so renovated that your taste will not
sustain this, then, and not till then, will these
public exhibitions cease.
lnculcate right opinions and right action !.
This is the remedy.-Passing resolutions will
not answer. What do they amount to When
you send them to South Carolina, what effect
do they produce Just as much as if You had
sent them last years almanac
"Allow me now TO take up the question
which proposed to treat upon.-What produ-
ced this War The answer must be anticipa-
ted by every body. II was Slavery. "Another abb
clifton lecture" says some one. Perhaps so, but
when we learn that slavery at the present mo-
ment is taxing the people beyond all former pre-
cedent, when we know that We are spending
this year nearly three times as much as was
spent in the last war to maintain freedom upon
the seas, in another war TO maintain slavery up
on the land, 10 it not time to speak out know
that there have been prophets upon the noun
sounded the alarm, but the people said, Not yet.
The cloud has extended in dimensions, and set
tied in thick night upon us, and the alarm has
been again sounded but the dull sleepers say, OF
vet. And now the whole horizon is overcast, and
the tempest is about US the moral indignation of
earth, and the judgments Of God come i'm thick
succession upon US, but yet it is not time I;
"Not yet," they say. When will it be time
Where is the moral guage to measure the length,
breadth and depth Of our degradation before II
will be time for US TO wake up. would like
Tor these men to descend TO the bottomless pit,
and see if they can find any guage to measure
be time to wake up and arouse.
"You hear great deal said at the North
about their dough-faced representatives,. You
have got them, true enough, but what is the rea-
son of IL IL is because they have got more
dough-faced constituents behind them. When
the people are right upon this sublect-when
reformation begins in the right place, then, my
friends, YOU will have a right spirit in the rep
resentatives you send. Let me ask you, has
there ever been a time in the history of New
! England, when a Representative could have
gone and stood up faithfully, declared the truth
upon this subject. and been sustained by hii
constituency Has there been time when ths
church itself would have sustained such man
Il
your Representatives because the Representa-
tive is the Representative of the people, and il
/ not the Representative Of something better thai
the people, that fault is found with him."
/ The cause of the war was slavery. Annexa
ton, the first step. Were a man to take NJ
the correspondence of the Government from
lsd3 to lS44, he would suppose the great inter
ests of the country TO be slave-breeding an,
slave-holding. The extension and perpetuatiol
Of slavery was the cause Of the war.
"The Secretary Of State, writing TO MI
Murphy, our Charge in Texas. on Jan. Is, 1874
says, speaking Of slavery:
i "'I will only add, that if Texas should no
be attached to the United States, she canno
maintain that institution ten years, and proba
bly, not half that time" ..
"Thsre was the proposition. IL we only IL
Texas alone; if We attend to our own bushes,
slavery would die out. and liberty would sue
coed in FIVE years. That was the attitude /
which we were placed. There was the Amer
can nation, humble republic, bringing into el
istence the humble announcement, that "a
men are born equal" not content with the Al
nouncsment, Of 1t. but appealing to the God ,
Heaven TO attest the fidelity with which the
made the announcement, and the integrity wit
which they would sustain it and ere that gel
4 Grafton had entirely passed from the stage, "
find il carrying on crusade in foreign land
and stretching out robbsr hands TO take hon
the provinces of sister repubEc, lest the boo
of freedom should be- enjoyed by their bon,
Q men, and the whitening curse Of slavery shou
die out Of their midst That is the positic
; in which our government placed us, and the
u have said this, in no equivocal terms, over al
y over again" .. . .-..
The Secretary of State also declared that Il
establishment Of a Government prohibiting Il
/. existence of slavery there, would be one Of Il
: greatest calamites which could befall the cou
A try. Some of you may say that this does n
!, belong to Massachusetts,. alt may BIO very 60
= talk for your New Hampshire Locofocos, b
y dol. o. i..y.o
!. Of the U nited States and the Executive ha
= declared that that was the policy they followe
= that was the reason they laid down as infuen
j, ing their conduct. And the whole country f.
: lowed, the whole resources Of the country ha
: been pledged; the arms, the men, the forces
: the nation are being employed to-day to car
!, out these very principles and measures. Yo
: Massachusetts, regiment have gone there to ca
:, ry out these doctrines and TO prevent the c
- lamity Of free nation. Our Governme
y pledged themselves that they would not alle
:. il to succeed without the most strenuous e6o
to prevent 1t; and what efforts more strenuo
than sending men to fight the battles Of slay
- ~ and paying their exPenses' My friends,
,e is national policy; and the whole nation q
responsible for it.
70 We are like passengers embarked aboard o
h common ship. If the voyage is prosPero'
II II the gales of heaven blow propitiously up
=. us, we all share in the prosperity and in the hu
piness. But II, on the other hand, storms q
o. disasters overtake us, one ruin will involve
ne all together, and we cannot separate our !
oil one from another. One welfare or one ruin
~ our lot; and common destiny il our inhs
~ lance. ...-.r.t .t..F ,H .sU