Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1854-07-17
What is Treason!

Aheie IL. sfaQltlOn OF q secret Conyen-
ton once held at Hartford by certain citi-
zens OF New England. The real object of
the assembly has never been clearly divul-
ged, but this fact has been made the bug
bear by the South, and the term "Hart-
ford Conventionist," has been the synonym
of traitor and the people of the North
have blindly joined in the cry, and hunted
down the Hartford Conyentionists. Now
annually, for the last quarter of a century,
meetings have been held in the South to
discuss not the, value of the Union, but
how soon the already pronounced worth
less bond should be cast aside. There are
speeches uttered, and resolutions passed,
which, for open and high-handed treason.
would make the most wildly imagined
horrors of the Hartford Conventionists sink
INTO obscurlty: yet the members of these
cabals go nnseathed, receive rich Federal
offices, and are patriots, because treason in,
the South Is interpreted as triumph Of
the Union and the Constitution.
But recently Convention was held at
Nashville; it was called as rally of the
slave States, and was avowed to meet to
| prepare for Dissolution. Mississippi and
South Carolina officially declared their
sympathy with the object, and every south
western slave State had sympathetic rep
Eesentatives. The conclusion of the Con
vontion was, that Disunion was a good
thing, a necessary thing, and in the minds
Of the controllers Of public opinion of the
South had already taken place; but that
its proclamation and consequent acts must
be deferred to a future time. Yet no Nor
them paper hos pursued with denunciation
the Nashville Con7entionists; most Of its
active members are now honored servants
OF the Federal Government; and its SYM
pathizers are foremost in their denunciations
of The few Northern men who have the corl-
rage and intellect to maintain their indivi-
duality.
What is the cause of this ingenious dis
tinction against the men of the North p
Is real treason a monopoly of the South
Look for moment at some of the most
honored men. There is De Bow Of the
Census Department, the Abby Folsom of
the South, who has for years poured out
in all sorts of speeches and writings, that
possess all the malevolence and bitterness
Of the widest northern fanatic" but pos
ess nothing else; he is elevated to the re-
sponsible office he now holds, without a
murmer against his Disunion sentiments,
his treason-encouraging publications; he is
a Southern man, and with him treason is
loyalty to the Union and the Constitution.
Soule is Minister to Spain, but while the
Compromise measures were before Con
gress, and after they had matured into
laws, Soule as United States Senator went
through the South, applying the incendia-
ry torch of Disunion, with zeal that
sinks the most vehement abolitionists of
the North into obscurity. He denounced
the free States, their people and their in
stitutions, with violence that seemed to
partake of insanity; he gloated over the,
to him, immediate prospect of the forma-
ton Of a Southern Republic" and for no
other reason than because it was good
thing in itself. Yet this active official
traitor escapes ali censure, and is honored
with what is to the people of the North
the most important diplomatic appoint
ment in the gift Of the Government.
Jefferson Davis is Secretary of War;
So rank indeed is his avowed hatred to the
Union that be resigned his seat in the u
nited States Senate, preparatory to appea-
ring as one Of the leaders in the formation
of ''Mr. Calhoun's Southern Republic" In
speech at Natchez, Miss, he spoke of the
contemplated Disiinion, and, with all the
explanatory eloquence he is master of, in
cited rebellion against the Federal author
tiles. Over his own signature he declared
himself in favor of EARNED resistance and
instruction" rather than slavish submis-
sion to the Federal laws, 1.-THE Compromise
measures,) and suggested the establish
ment in the South of manufactures of
arms and ammunition, as the most efficient
preparation for the final alternative-Sep-
aration. Col. Davis counseled with Gen.
Quitman, and Endorsed that gentlemans
Secession message, and sympathized with
Quitmans confederates in their refusal to
raise the stars and stripes over the State
Capitol of Mississippi.
SouIe finds his home in France, and cod
apply the knife to the throat of his adopt
ed country, without committing matricide;
but Davis, educated at the expense of the
nation, hero of Buena Vista, and yet,
while suffering from the unhealed wounds
obtained in that bloody but glorious field,
he was organizing treason in the State of
Mississippi and counseling armed resistance
to the Federal Government. There can
not be any love for the Union in his COM
position, for the struggle Of the brave who
fell at Angostura and in his sight in de-
Tense Of the stars and stripes, could not en-
dear that ensign to his memory and sane
tify its mission to his heart-a moral de
graduation that finds no parallel in history.
And yet the hireling presses Of Washing
ton and the slaves of party everywhere,
raise their voices against the people of Bos-
ton, because they felt deep, soul-stricken
horror at the scenes enacted among them
in the capture of Burns, while they have
not word Of condemnation for the men of
the South who love Disunion because Of
itself, and are only using the strong arm
of the North to fortify their position by
Selling Nebraska, Cuba and Mexico, and