The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-07-30

from the hands of their masters, anc
daily call on God to quickly increas,
their power, hat they may be enabled
to commence their work in public, which
they are now carrying or in the deaG
of night, like other thieves.
The Infamous and villainous practices
which 1 have seen promulgated here
have determined me to act against them
and I would caution all honest men tt
look before they leap. There are a
great many members of that party who
have Joined them, not knowing of theil
yillainous intentions, and there are 9th
er men who have never yet voted with
them, who intend to vote for them this
fall. To those L would say stop-stoE
and think, for every vote that is polled
for that party is virtually a vote for the
dissolution of the Union. For slavery
will grow under persecution, and the
hostile movements of the fanatical Abo-
litionists only infame and make the sit.
uation of the slaves worse, and their
masters more determined. We have
no more right to say tie South shall
abolish slavery than they have to say
the North shall build a railroad to the
moon.
There is no party here in Oberlin but
the Abolition party, and ! will give you
a specimen of their arbitrary authority.
A day or two before the Fourth of July
the town council met and passed regu-
~lations for the government of the people
on that day. They said that owing to
the state Of things in Kansas, the peo-
pie had no right to celebrate the Fourth
in the North, but commanded that the
Gag should be raised on the morning of
the Fourth half way up the staff, as a
token of mourning, and that in Oberlin
the day should be devoted to fasting
and prayer, and that any person dis
charging firearms, or making any mani
festations of Joy on the Fourth of July,
in the streets Of Oberlin, should be fined
five dollars. Not even would they per-
nit the little boys to shoot off fire crack
ers.
And for me, who have been in the
habit of seeing the Fourth of July held
as a day of rejoicing, to see all the priv
ilege of merry making wrcsted from US,
and the nations flag waving halfway
up the staff, and hear the long faced
hypocrites praying to God 1.-THE same
God who assisted oar forefqthers to gain
the independence and liberty we now
enjoy,l to assist them in carrying out
their designs in the Territories of the
United states, or else to crush the Union
and sever the North from the South.
In Obcrlin everything during the day
wore the appearance characterization. Ev-
erything was dull, and no one dare speak
in favor of the trainers of the Declara-
ton of Independence.
Here is a specimen of their prayers,
which is as nearly as 1 can remember,
as follows:
90! God, VIC know that there is in
this land a host of wicked nen, but we
ask that Thou wilt spare the country,
not for their sakes, but for ours, your
chosen children. 0, God we pray that
Thou wilt curse the STAKEHOLDER in all
his undertakings, confound all hiE plans
and spread terror, horror and dlsmay
throughout the entire South. Curse,
o, Cod, we ask Thee, with a lightning
curse, all the Democrats in the Uuion /;
may they in an especial manner feel the
weight of Thy great displeasure. We
entreat Thee, o Lord, to go to Wash
ington and kill Frank Pierce; show him
no mercy, but strike him down also in
your righteous wrath remember and
punish with direful wrath Cass, Douglas
and TConbs, let not one Of those villains
escape. We ask Thee, o Lcrl, to af-
Aiot every pro-slavery man i'll kan e
with the leprosy or small pox and may
they, after feeling the pains of a thou
sand deaths, be tumbled headlong into
He'll, without q trial, there to feel ten
thousand strokes On their bare backs,
daily inflicted by each a d every Que Of
the slaves in the United States. Our
Heavenly Father, we ask Thee to
strengthen US in our resolves TO make
Kansas u free State at the peril of the
Union; we ask Thee to iutcrpose Thy
mighty hand in our behalf and help us
to shiyor the Union into atoms rather
than to concede to the Southern demons,
in the form of slave drivers, one inch of
the disputed territory. Aud, finally, 0
Lord, we pray that Thou wilt curse all
parties {by whateyer name they may be
called9 except the Abolitionists of the
North, except those men who would
ieopardize the sab,ty of the Union for
the safety of the slave"
I do not say this is literal, word for
word, just as they pray it, but it is the
substance of it; and this prayer was
prayed in Oberlin on the fourth of July
more than one hundred times"