The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1855-10-03
MISCELLANEOUS.
What Washington Said about Union

What Washington Said about Union.
IL is favorite track of krow nothinism
to graLle the language of our revolution .ry
fathers and misapply it to its own uses
Thus the words Of Washington and Jeffer-
son deprecating foreign influence and evi-
IDENTIFY directed against the interference Of
foreign governments in our affairs, are by
an ingenious preversion made to apply to
the immigration Of foreigners, when in
truth no two men Of their day expressed
themselves in more unequivcaI terms of
opposition to the contracted policy OF know
nothingism on that subject. BY naked
forgery, Lafayette who lived and died IN
the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church,
IS held up as prophesying that the greatest
danger to the liberties of this country, was
to be apprehendad from Romi>h priests
But the most successful of these pettu
frauds is that by which the markers of the
Philadelphia platform, sought to forlify
their base idolatry Of tho Union as para
mount 10 the great ends it was intended to
secure, by the honored name of the farther
Of his country.
"The maintenance ofthe Union Of fthese
United States as the paramount POLITICAL
good, or to use the language of Washing
toni" the primary object of patriotic de-
sirc.")
This is the language ofthe Philadelphia
platform. purporting to give the very words
Of Washington's Farewell address. In
that address, after aIluding to the Union
as a (not he) main prop Of liberty and a
main pillar Of independence, he uses the
following language:
"These considerations speak persua.
sive language to every rejecting and yirtu-
Gus mind and exhibit the continuance, OF
the Union as Primary object Of patriotic
desire. Is there doubt whether com
mon government can embrace so large a
spherei Let experience Soive IL. To lis
ten to mere ST eculation in such case were
criminal. We are authorized to hope chat
proper organization Of the whole, with
the auxiliary agency of governments for
the respective subdivisions, will afford
happy issue to the EXPERIMENT. 1t is
well worth full and fair experiment"
At that day, the Cons titution was threat
ened. not by enemies within, but by foes
without. At home, all was peace. Al
most every State was slaveholding, and We
had popu lalion sparse but homogeneous.
Abolition fanaticism, had not reared its
hated head and the chickering's and aggres-
sions oflater times were unknown. The re-
lation Of master and slave was rs sacred in
New York as in Virginia. The insults to
Southern pride, and the spoliation Of South
ern properly, are the growth OF a later pc
Rod, and the hot blood of the South would
have boiled over upon one tther of the
provocation and wrong, that it has since
patiently endured. Even then, when the
Union almost synonyn With the Con
stituton, was so justly dc to al, Wash
inton spoke OF it as an experiment which
experience WAS to solve, and in view Of the
fact that it had so far proved q main prop
Of liberty, and main pillar Of indepen-
dence, AZ one uong the primary objects
Of patriotic desire. ltnever could be with
freemen, the primary object ofpatriotic de-
sire, for il was but an instrument to secure
the great ends Of liberty and independence.
While it secured them, il might he justly
regarded as a primary object of patrioic
desire. 1t was the casket, valuable be-
cause It was fit and safe repository of the
gem Of liberty, but never under the most
favorable circumstances, paraymount in
importance to the precious heritage that
it enclosed. ....
No man better understood ties than
the iIlustrious Southerner whose mortal re
mains repose on the western bank of the
Potomac His sword leapt from its scab-
bard, not to create, but not to dissolve a
Union---a Union to, under which he
had grown up to manhood, and in whose
| service he had won bis earliest military
distinction. The Union which he invok-
ell his countri-men to preserve, WAS
Union Of equality, the outward expression
Of the fratesnal spirit that then reigned
throughout the land. He is no statesman
who expects il to survive these fraternal
spirits that gave It birth. He is no patriot
who holds IL paramount to the rights it
WAS established to protect. The Phla-
delphia platform in imputing To him such
q sentiment, isa libel upon the memory
of one who was the first Of statesmen and
the truest Of patriots
Spirit Of the South