The Nevada journal., 1856-09-05

The Condition Of the Country and of Parties
Familiarity with danger, while it un-
doubtcdly promotes courage, is also apt
to breed want of caution, and a crimi-
nal indifference to evils that are real and
apparent. The man who has often
stood in the jaws of death, and has often
escaped, imagines that he bears a charm
ed life, and from utter recklessness, falls
victim to some stroke, which ordinary
prudence could have easily and honora-
bly, avoided. And most especially are
We disposed to be needless of dangers
which have been long hanging over us,
and against which we have been fre
quently warned. We are apt to think
that because they came not yesterday,
they Will not come tomorrow, and when
We are the least watchful, the cloud
bursts, and the storm is upon us. The
great nations, which, during the progress
of history, have fallen from grandeur to
degradation, were all finally ruined by
the very causes that had long before
been pointed out by their law-givers and
sages.
After the government of the
United States had presented itself to
the world, as the embodiment cf great
nationality, it soon became apparent
that there was great danger of its unity
being destroyed by the different inter-
ests and opinions existing in different
parts Of the Confederacy. The great
men of the country endeavored to guard
against this evil by every means that
could be employed. Every insinuation
against the integrity Of the Union was
Indignantly frowned down by the mass
Of the people from all sections, and the
man who dared to breathe thought of
dissolution, was branded at once as
traitor. On several occasions, during
the history of the country, the storm of
sectional excitement has ragged SO furi
ouslv, that the wreck of the national
government seemed imminent and inev-
table. But patriots of all parties-men
Of weight in the eyes Of the nation
united their wisdom, and averted the
catastrophe.
So often, however, has this been the
case-and so often, too, have false
alarms been raised-tlat majority of
the people seem now to think that the
Union is indistructible, and that all fears
upon the subject are foolish and unfound-
ed. Men talk glibbly and fippantly
about letting the Union slide and
about the relative strength Of a north
ern and southern republic, and there
are none to rebuke them. A quarter of
century ago, when Daniel Webster,
at the close of his celebrated reply to
Hayne, in the Senate of the United
States, pronounced that plendid apostro-
phe to the Union, which will be familiar
to school-5oys thousand years hence, it
met with an enthusiastic response from
the whole American people, and the
little band of Carolina secessionists
shrank back abashed and ashamed. If
Daniel Webster were alive, and should
he pronounce those glorious sentiments
again to-day, how many are there who
would apply to him the epithet of Union
Sarcr, as one of derision and scorn. And
yet what has caused the changel Is
the national sentiment stronger among
our peoplea Have the causes which
produced sectional difficulties been re-
moved! Have we slavery no longer
amongst us-or do people all agree that
it is right, or that it is wrong? Or, on
the other hand, has the Union become
less sacred in our eyes, and have
we commenced to look upon it, not as
the greatest political good, but as a Sc
condary consideration
That the Union should be sacredly
guarded, and the national spirit cherish
ed and kept bright in our affections, is
proposition which we take for granted.
A denial of it is treason, and we will not
argue with traitors. And is it not ap-
parent to every man who does not shut
his eyes to the painful truth, that the
bands which hold us together as one
people, are fastly becoming unloosed,
and that the national sentiment is rapid
ly dying out in the great heart of the
nation! The little cloud, which in the
early days of the Republicans not big
ger than a mans hand, has grown until
it darkens the whole heavens, and
now wbila +ba Iipb.n;nor, ,-o Ao.b;n,,