The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-07-30
Grafton OF tho Hon. J. w. mnisr.

pressions of patriotism called forth by threats
which had been maden certain quarters against
| the integrity of our Union. Among these pa
triotic declarations, the following extract from
an Grafton delivered at Morristown, New Jer-
sey, by the Hon. JACOB w. MILLER, of the
United States Senate, will bear favorable
comparison
"From the day of its birth to this hour the Con-
Stituton has fulfilled the purposes for which II was
created; il has secured union, established justice,
ensured domestic nquilty provided for the COM
mon defence, promoted the general welfare, and
secured the blessings of liberty. Under its invig
Grating and triumphant sway the nation has grown
from feeble infancy into the full strength of hardy
manhood; from the thirteen Confederated Colonies,
with but three millions of inhabitants, TO thirty
one independent States, with more than twenty
five millions Of citizens; from limited territory
| upon the Atlantic coast to n broad continent eK-
tending to the Pacific; from the small beginnings
of interior trade and domestic traffic, to national
commerce wide as the and extended as the
world Amidst all the trials and struggles Of our
nations life, the bitter strfes of party, the plot
tings of domestic treason. and the open attacks of
foreign enemies, in peace and in war in adversely
and in prosperity. the Constitution has met every
emergency and conquered every difficulty, 80 that
| the Union is at this moment stronger and more
perfect than il the seventeenth day of Sep
| TENDER, 1887. Yet we are told that these noble
and well tried institutions are in danger OF sudden
destruction and final disastrous ruin. Men talk as
fppantly of the dissolution of the Union as OF the
breaking up of petty corporations. May God for
| give them, for they know not what they say. To
| guard your minds against all such attempts to
weaken your faith in the Union. will quote por-
ton of the Farewell Address of Washington 1t is
of infinite moment that you should properly esti-
mate the immense value of your National Union to
your collective and individual happiness; that you
should cherish cordial, habtual, and immovable
| attachment; accustoming yourselves to think and
speak of il as the palladium of your political safety
and prosperity; watching for its preservation with
jealous anxiety; discountenanoing whatever may
suggest even a suspicion that it in any spent be
abandoned; and Indignantly frown upon the first
datonng of epery attempt to ALLEVIATE any portion of
country from the rest, to enfeebe the sacred
ties which now link together the various parts.
| To imagine catastrophe disastrous the sud
den overthrow Of the American Government is
wellnigh treason; indeed it comes within the com
mon law descriptive of that crime, which Black
stone defines to be When man doth compass
| imagine the death of our Lord the King
| 81 will not say that those who continu-
ally comprising the Government with wordy
threats of violence horrfying their maginations
| with the dsunion of the Union, may be legally
chargeabe with the desire TO bring about the death
of our king, the Constitution. Yet they are justly
chargeable with that moral treason which disturbs
the confidence and undermines the allegiance of
loyal people in the safety and stability Of their gov
eminent Let not be moved by the cry of fanatics,
nor alarmed at the threats of secessionists; they
are the angry words which vainly howl about
the battlements, and spend their fury upon the I'M
shaken towers of political fortress Politicians
may fret and fume; State Conventions may resolve
and re-resove, and Congress itself become the
arena of fearful agtations, but above and around,
rs in mighty amphitheatre, in undisturbed and
undismayed majesty stands the American people,
with steady eye and giant hand, overlooking all
and governing all; and wo! wo! to the man, and
destruction to the State, that attempts to resist
their supreme authority
"As long a majority of the States and people
remain loyal to the Constitution, and steadfasty
maintain the laws passed by and under its sane
tion the Union s and must be secure, for, be it
membered, that the Constitution is the USioN, and
when men therefore talk of the dissolution of the
Union, they mean destruction to the Constitution
Secession ia rank heresy in government, without
law or gospel for its support. II is cowardy re-
bellion, hiding itself under State authority, and
seeking to escape the higher law of the Constiu
ton under of State independence. 1t for
gets that the Constitution overrues the local SOW
ereignty, and binds each citizen in allegiance to
the Union. As firm and insurmountable bar
rer the path of the secessonists stands the
broad and lofty pyramids of national power; they
mel Their go round it; their only advance
must be upon its ruins-their only success through
its annhaton.
elf in an hour of phrenzy of CONFUSION. any
State should break away from the central power
of our political system and become fugitive from
the Constitution, she would hardly be worth re-
claiming, for che could carry off with her neither
honor glory.
''In asserting the power of the American people
to maintain the integrity of the Union, we must
not forget that. Joined with this power are dangers
to be encountered and duties to be performed. Su-
preme power, even in the hands of intelligent peo-
pie, and guarded by written constitution, may
be perverted by the wicked passions of man into
an engine of oppression. In a country like our
own, divided it is by sectional interests and con-
tiicting State institutions where the business and
pursuits varied the climate and as wide as
acontinent, much patience and wisdom are required
in the administration of the General Government,
and nothing less than that deep paternal feeling and
high national sentiment which led to the forma-
ton of the Union can preserve its peace and har-
mony. But if mutual distrust is to take the
place of social conf ience, if the sectional is to
supplant the national interest, if the love of State
is to absorb the love of country, and the Amer
lean people are to be divided into as many
clans as there points to the compass, each con-
tending for their own local advantages, then, in
deed, will come the dark day of dissolution, and
our glorious temple of Liberty and Union will be
torn down by ruthless hands struggling with gree
dy selfshness for the spos Of its ruins. But why
disturb minds with gloomy forebodings? The
threatening clouds which lately darkened our pc
litical horizon breaking away, the winds are
lulled the harsh roaring of the thunder ia soften
ing into faint and distant nutterings. From the
North and from the South, from mountain and
valley, by steam and by telegraph, in speech and
in print, comes the American sentiment proclaim
ing in almost the same terms in which 1t ordained
the Constituton-We, the people, declare the Union
shall be preserved. You, my fellow citizens, will
respond to the national feeling with true and sym