The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-02-21
pohtital.
THE COUNCIL OF TEN.

ABOUT five hundred years ago fear
full and mysterious tribunal bearing this
name was established in the republic OF
Venice. 1t gradually acquired despotic
control over the government and the
people. Its deliberations and its ac-
tions were alike enveloped in the pro-
foundest secrecy. Its meetings were
held in secret; it received denunciations
against the most virtuous and patriotic
citizens in secret, and in secret it con-
Quoted its victims, in silence and in
gloom, to sudden and mysterious death.
1t required, sentenced, and punished
according to what it called "reason of
State" The public eye never penetra-
ted its mysteries; the accused was rare
ly heard he was never confronted with
witnesses; the condemnation was secret
as the inquiry, and the punishment un-
divulged like both. This tribunal grad
ually acquired control of every branch
of the government, and exercised des-
potic power over every question. It
annulled at pleasure all DEGREES, degra-
ded members from their offices, and
even disposed and put to death the
Chief Magistrate. It was an object
alike of terror and .detestation to those
whom it oppressed under the pretext of
protecting their rights. And yet its
diabolical cunning prolonged its exist
ence until the genius of Napoleon pros
trated it in the dust, with SO many 9TH
er relics of cruelty and intolerance.
People of New Hampshire there
exists at this moment among you a
Council Of Ten, as fearful and as preg
nant with danger to yosr liberties as
was that of Venice to her oppressed
citizens. You have been accustomed,
in the bounty of your hearts, to look
upon this republic as beyond danger
In company with your fellow-citizens of
other States, you have successfully re-
sisted foreign Intervention, and repelled
with triumph the conquering legions
of the most arrogant nation on the earth.
You have advanced your triumphant
banners to that proud city which Cortez
gloried in adding to the Spanish empire.
You have scattered the seeds of civili-
zation throughout realms before untrod-
den by any human footsteps but those
of tho Indian. You have seen your
population advancing, your wealth in
creasing, and your country teeming with
the fruits of physical and intellectual
labor. And you fondly think that you
are safe; that each of you and your
children are, for long years, to have a
share in government the very breath
of whose nostrils is freedom of oppinion
-oDe of whose cardinal docterines is an
open and fearless avowel of principles !;
and you are proud that you live under a
constitution which permits you to re-
ward intelligence and uprightness by
selecting for your public trust those
amorg you who are marked by s1ch
qualities.
But be not deceived The sceptre
is even now passing from your grasp,
and will be irrecoverably lost unless you
trample in the dust the traitors who are
clutching at it with all the despair of
disappointed ambition. An unholy Ca
bal of ffth-rate pettifogging lawyers,
mouldy political hacks, and Mammon-
seeking persons, are seeking to wind
the coils of the serpent around you, and
to strangie you in its embrace. The
grand council of know-nothings have
sworn by the only god they Worship
that is, misunderstanding hatred to
political freedom and popular suprem-
acy. These decayed aristocrats, these
shameless bigots, these raving political
banditti, these utterly desperate trait
ors to the country that gave them
birth, are organizing scheme whose
details would strike terror into your
hearts, if fully disclosed They have
combined to destroy every institution
that stands In their way, aud TO pros
trate every Institution that stands in
their way, and to PROSTATE every man
who will not do their bidding. Every
town has its branch of the conspiracy.
Secret signs and passwords and mum
meries are used to impress the imagina-
ton, and unlawful oaths are administer
ed, binding the unhappy members to
subject themselves like slaves and vas
sails to the dictation of this terrible oil
garchy. Meanwhile the Council Of
Ten, the controlling power of this infa-
nous conspiracy, squats In its noisome
retreat like toad sweltering in its own
venom, or bloated spider spinning its
WGD over LuC OLdb0. IL ScuOS IOEbA lLS
decrecs to its bond-slaves. Pros
trate," it says, "this man for he has
too much education Destroy that one
he is too intelligent Ruin your best
friend, for he has too much independ-
ence ~ And with the spectacle before
it of triumphant tyranny and bigotry in
Massachusetts, it confidently expects
like victory over the freemen of New.
Hampshire But you had better write
your names in characters of blood upon
your thresholds and escape with your
wives and children to some far country
by the light of your burning houses,
than chrouch to this insolent oligarchy
Why would you live here when life has
lost all that is worth living for; when
you may be'stabbed by an assassin in
the back, or slain by an unseen arrow
from him you supposed your dearest
friend? Are you content to crawl out
1T twilight like birds of evil omen, to |
creep into blind alleys, to hover around |
the back "slums of your cities and |
villages, to start at every passing tree
lest some honest man should see you, |
TO move with mufled face and steal |
thy step, and double upon your tracks
as if you were "a thief with the officers |
of justice in pursuit of you, and with |
his sickening conciousness of shame to
yrope your way to the den where such |
herd, and with trembling hand |
give the mystic siginal which admits you
into this community of sin And when |
you are admitted, and the door of pan
1emonium is closed. are you content to !