The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-08-20

ndloo " OuE nOTtaCEu DOuu0dEls u1.
only comfort and confidence is, that
shall not live to see this and 1 envy no
the present generation the glory G
throwing away the fruits of their faith
er's sacrifice of life and fortune, and o
rendering desperate the experiment
which was to decide ultimately whether
man is capable of self government
This treason against human hope will
signalize their epoch in future history
as the counterpart of the model of theil
predecessors.
THos. JEFFERSON"
Mr.. Holmes, of Maine, member O
Congress, addressed jefferson q letter
which drew from him the following re
markable reply:
MONTICELLO, April 90, 1920.
"I thank you, dear sir, for the copy
you have been so kind to send me of the
letter to your constituents on the Mis-
souri, question. 1t is a perfect justifca-
ton to them.
I" I had for a long time ceased to read
newspapers, o. pay attention to any pub
lie affairs. Confident they were in good
hands, and content to be a passenger in
our bark to the shore from which 1 am
not far distant. But this momentous
question, like q fire-ball at night, ava
kened and filed me with terror. 1 con-
sidercd it at once the knell of the Union.
1t is hushed, indeed, for the moment !;
but this is a reprieve only, not a final
sentence. A geographical line. coinci
ding with a marked principle, moral and
political, once conceived and held up to
the angry passions of men, will never be
obliterated aid every new irritation
will mark it deeper and deeper. 1 can
say, with ooncious truth, that there is
no man on earth who would sacrifice
m ore than 1 would to relieve US from
this heavy reproach, in any practicable
way. The c~ession of that kind of prop
erty (for it is so m~isnamedl is a bagatel-
lie which would not cause me a second
thought, if, in that way, a general oman-
cipation and repatriation would be ef-
fected and gradually, and with due sac
riff .es. l think it might be. But as it
is, we have the wolf by the ears, and
can neither hold him nor safely let him
90. Justice is in one scale and self
preservation in the other. Ofone thing
L am certain, that as the passage of the
slaves from one State to another would
not make a slave of q human being who
would not be SO without it, so their diff.
fusion over a greater surface would make
them individually happier, and proper
tionally ficiliate the accomplishment of
their emancipation, by dividing the bur-
then on a greater number of coadjuta-
tors.
"An abstinence, too, from this act of
power, would remo"e the jealousy excl
ted by the undertaking of Congress to
regulate the condition of the different
descriptions of men composing a State.
This certainly is The exclusive right of
the State which nothing in the Consti-
tuition has taken from them, and given
to the General Government. Could
Congress, for example, say, that the non
freemen of Connecticut shall be freemen,
or that they shall not eMigrate to any
other State?
Il regret that I am not to die in the
belief that the useless sacrafce of them
selves by tie generation of 1875, to &C
quire self-govcrumclit and happiness to
their country is to be thrown away by
the unwise aud unworthy passlous of
their SOILS, and that my consolation is to
be that / i've not to weep over it. If
they would but dispassionately weigh
tic blessings they will throw away,
against al abstract primo; pie more likely
to be effected by union than secession,
they would pause before they perpetrate
this dreadful act of suicide on them
and of treason against the hopes
of the world. To yourself, as the faith,
full advocate of the Union, l tender the
offer of my high esteem and respect.
Tuos. JEFFERSON"
He wrote Decenber 20, 1920.
"Nothing has ever presented SO
threatening an aspect as what is called
the Missouri question. The federalis.s,
gut down, and despairing of
ever rising again under wing and tory
names, devised a new one, of slavehold-
ing and non-slayeholding States, which,
while it had u semblance of being NOR
al, was at the ne time geographical,
and calculated to give them assendency
by debauching their old opponents to a
coalition with them. Morally the ques
ton certainly is not, because the renov-
al Of slaves from one State to another,
more than their removal from one
country to another, would never MIKE a
slave Of one human being who would rot
be SO without it. Indeed, il there be
any morality in the question, it is on the
side; because by spreading Them
over Il large surface, their happiness
would be Increased and the burden of
their future liberation lightened by bring
ing a greater number of shoulders un-
der it. However, it seemed to throw
dust into the eyes of the people, and to
fanaticise them, while to the knowing
ones it gave a geographical and prepon-
line to the Potomac and the Ohio,
throwing fourteen States to the North
and East, and ten to the South and
West. With these, therefore, it is
a question of power. But with the geo.
graphical minority it is a question of
for if Congress once goes out
of the Constitution to arrogate the right
of regulating the condition of the inhab-
of the States, its majority may
and probably will, declare that the con-
Of all within the United States
shall be that of freemen; in which case
all the whites south of the Potomac and
the Ohio must evacuate their States,
and most fortunate those who can do it
He wrote December 20, 1920, to La
With US things are going on we'll.
The boisterous sea of liberty, indeed, is
never without a a and that from
N;,.o,-; 70 now ~rollinp towards lie Rut