Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-04-20
sECTIONALISM.

The unluckiest day in the annals of this
country, the day most marked with black,
was that on which the monster of sectional
discord raised its hydra head 1t has Matched
brood of as pestilent fanatics as ever stirred
up strife in any country or in any age. There
is no real occasion for disagreement between
the north and the south. They are portions Of
the same territory. They were settled at or
near the same period. They are of the same
descent and lineage. In their infancy they de-
rived sustenance from the same parent They
we're in colonial subsection to the same power.
They were oppressed by the same government.
They combined against their oppressors as
one band. They fought on the same side in
the same battles. They issued one declaration
of independence, Together they made that
declaration good. They made peace at one
and the same time. They have the same fede-
al Constitution. They 60 by the same name.
That Constitution, by which they bound them
selves together, studiously provides against any
iealousies and conflicts between sections. 1t
discriminates against neither. Itprotects both;
Union where they stood before that Union was
formed-on the platform of perfect equality.
But men have arisen, in these latter times,
who outrage the memories of the fathers OF
the republic, and who disregard the plainest
provisions of that almost sacred instrument
under which we live, by perverting it most
grossly, SO as to make it a bone of contention
between sections, and TO make it the prolific
source of envyings, jealousies, strifes, and en-
mites Had it contained the element of sec.
tionalism bywhich the south could be oppressed,
the south would not have accepted it. Had il
contained the element Of sectionalism by which
the north could have been oppressed, the north
would not have accepted it. Had it disre
garded the sovereignty Of any State, or any
States, or of all the States which formed it, it
would never have been adopted. Had it said
to northern people: you shall not carry your
property into Territories of the United States,
it would have Disseminated against the north.
Had it said to the south: you shall not carry
your slaves into the same Territories, it would
have Disseminated against the south, and the
section Disseminated against would never have
come into the Union.
But sickly sentimentalists, slip-shod schol-
ars, crazy fanatics, reckless agitators, and sell
fish politicians, have banded together in an
unholy crusade against the only complete
charter of human rights and State rights that
the world can boast of. They would put into
that instrument things that its authors not
only did not design, but which they studiously
guarded against, just as wicked men have sought
to add to the Bible things that would mar its
whole character and consistency. The Const-
tuition was intended to be uniform; they would
make it partial. 1t was intended to be Just;
they would make it unjust. 1t was intended to
be equal; they would make it unequal. 1t was
intended to protect the rights of property; they
would make it destroy those rights. 1t was in
tended to insure domestic peace and TRANQUIL
lily; they would make it the fruitful parent Of
discord, strife, and contention. Failing to carry
out these their iniquitous purposes under the
cover of the Constitution, they would not scru-
pie to lay their sacrilegious hands on that sacred
instrument and tear it into thousand frag.
ments. They prefer the spread of abolitionism
to the perpetuity Of the Constitution. They
would make the mere change Of the residence
Of slace sufficient cause for destroying the
great fabric reared by the hands of revolu.
tionary patriots and sages.