The Placer herald., 1856-10-18

| are erased OF have ldllcIl Ill NHOSc lldiloho'
anthem the old and endeared airs of Eutav
Springs, and the Kings Mountain, and York
town, and those, later, of New Orleans, anC
Buena Vista, and Chapultepec, breathe nc
more TO this duty, to this question, al
Others seem to me to stand for the present
postponed and secondary.
And why Because, according to our
creed, it is only united America which can
peacefully, gradually, safely improve, lift VI
and bless, with all social and personal and
civil blessings, all the races and all the con-
ditions which compose our vast and various
family-it is such an America, only, whose
arm can guard our flag, develope our re-
sources, extend our trade and fill the meas
ures of our glory-and because, according
to our convictions, the triumph Of such a
party puts that Union in danger. That is
my reason. And for YOU, and for me, and
for all of us, in whose regards the Uuion
possesses such value, and to whom fears it
seems menaced by such danger, it is reason
enough Believing the noble ship of State
to be within a half cables length of a lee
shore of rock, in gale of wind our first
business is to put her about, and then crowd
her off into the deep, open sea. That done,
we can regulate the stowage Of her lower
tier of powder, and select her cruising ground
and bring her officers to court martial at our
leisure.
If there are any in Maine-and among the
wings of Maine hope there is not one-but
if there are any in whose hearts strong pas
sions, waiting ambition, jealousy of men or
sections, unreasoning and impatient philan-
thropy, or whatever else have turned to hate
or GOODNESS the fraterna blood and quenched
the spirit of national life at its source-with
whom the Union of slave States and free
States under the actual constitution is a
curse, hinderance, reproach-with those,
of course, our view of our duty and the rea-
son of it, are stumbling block and foolish
ness. To such you can have nothing to say,
and from such you can have nothing to hope
But if there are those again who love the
Union as we love it, and prize it as we prize
it-who regard it as we do, not merely as a
vast nstrumentalitv for the protection of our
commerce and navigation, and for achieving
power, eminenca and names among the SOY
ereigns of the earth, but as a means of i'm
proving the materiol lot, and elevating the
mortal and mental nature, and ensuing the
personal happiness Of the millions of many
distant generations, if there are any who
think thus Justly of it, and hug the fatal de-
lusion that, because it is good, it is necessa-
riIv mportant-that it will thrive without
care-that iything created by mans will is
above or stronger than bis wilI-that because
the reason and virtues of our age of reason
and virtue could build it, the passions and
stimulations Of a day Of frenzy cannot pull
it down--if such there are among you, to
them address yourselves with all the earnest
ness and all the eloquence of men who feel
that some greater interest is at stake and
some mightier cause in hearing than ever yet
tongue has pleaded or trumpet Proclaimed
If such minds and hearts are reached, all is
safe. But how precious and how manifold
are the soplisms by which they are courted /?
They hear and they read much rdicule of
those who fear that geographical party
does endaneer the Union. But can they
forget that our greatest, wisest, and most
hopeful statesmen have always felt, and have
all, in one form or another, left on record
their own fear of such party! The Judge
ments of Washington Madison, Clay, Web
ster, on the dangers of the American Union
are they worth nothing to a conscientious
love of it? What they dread as remote
and impossible contingency-tha against
which they cautioned as they thought, dis
tant generations-that which they were so
happy as to die without seeng-is upon us.
And yet some men would have us 90 on
laughing and singing, like the traveller in the
satire, with his pockets empty, as present
peril, the mere apprehension of which, as a
distant and bare possibility, could sadden
the heart of the father of his country, and
dictate the grave and grand warning of the
Farewell Address.
They hear men say that such a party
ought not to endanger the Union; that, al
though it happened to be formed within one
geographical section, and confined exclusive
" to it although its end and aim is to rally
that section against the other on question
of morals, policy and feeling on which the
two differ eternaly and unappeasably; al
though, from the nature of its origin and OBJ
iects, no man in the section outside can pos
siblv Join it or accept Office under it without
infamy at home although, therefore, it is q
stupendous organization, practically to take
power and honor, and full share Of the GOV
ernment, from our whole family of States
and bestow them, substantially, all upon the
antagonist family; although the doctrines o
human rights, which it gathers out of the
Declaration Of independence, that passion
ate and eloquent manifesto of a revolution
ary war-and adopts as its fundamental ideas
announce to any southern apprehension a
crusade of government against slavery, fa
without and beyond Kansas although The
spirit and tendency Of its electionering ap
peals, as whole, in prose and verse, the lead
ing articles Of its papers and the speeches o
its orators, are to excite contempt and hate
or fear of our entire geographical section
and hate, or dread, or contempt, is the natu