The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-10-17
DISuNION.

] N 'h"e"tihi men, IaOOrinB TO dissolve Tn
Union, and who, If not headed off at an earl
day' may effect that object of their unhol
ambition. In the lead of this party are tn
South Carolina politicians; Toombs, Steven.
and Mcdonald, of Georgia; jeff. Davis an
Quitman, Of Mississippi; slidell and Soule, c
Louisiana; and Wise and other prominen
Democrats in Virginia. These men are al
ardent supporters of Mr.. Buchanan for tn
Presidency, and some of them have openl
declared that unless he is elected they are il
favor of at once Remembering the Union an
setting up that fatal chimera of Mr.. Calhoun
a great Southern Confsderacy. They so,
openly they are tired of the Union-that the
want to let it side and even 90 go far as t.
express desire that Fremont may be elected
as that event would enable them to carr,
out their desperate purpose. We do no
mean to be understood as asserting that tn
Democratic masses South are in favor of cs
solving the Union, or that they would know
ingly lend their votes to the promotion o
any such object; but we do charge, and W,
do it without the fear of successful contra
diction, that the leaders of the party are la
boring to that end-that they are deceivini
the rank and file, and leading them on, steT
by step, to the precipice, the plunge of which
Will be fatal to all the best interests of the
people of the South, and destructive Of civil
and religious liberty throughout the world
We say the leaders of the party South--bold
bad, ambitious men-are trying to do this ia.
tai thing, and that they are abusing the
minds of their honest followers and mislead.
ing those who have been in the habit of look.
ing up to them for counsel and advice and
insensibly leading them on to CRIME without
parallel since the crucifxion of the Saviour
Of the world. We also say, and no candid
man will deny the assertion, that the leaders
OF the Democratic party South control and
direct the party throughout the Union, and
that the Democratic party North is at this
time powerless to resist or influence them
that, in fact there is no longer Democratic
party North-that it is myth so far as that
section is concerned and belongs to the past.
But will these men succeed We trust and
hope not. We believe that the honest Union.
loving men Of the party South will get their
eyes opened in time to the aim and object of
their leaders, and that when they do they
will at once repudiate both and leave them
to the fate they SO richly merit. Dissolve the
Union-pull down the temple of liberty, and
destroy the glorious structure which the con.
script fathers built and consecrated with
their bloodl Let us see what the people of
the South could gain or hope for by dis
memberment and severance of the present
happy family Of States. Suppose these mad
men should succeed in their object of dissolv-
ing the Union. How would we be benefited :
In the first place,iwe should have frontier of
two thousand miles to fortify and garrison
secondly we have slave population of three
millions to keep in subjeetion-a long line of
seaeoast to defend-with no commercial ma
rins, and no material out of which to make
sailors. Then there must necessarily be
large standing army for years-a standing
army, an instrument as fatal 10 Republic
as the upas to human life-so fatal that no
republic has ever survived one. And then
would come taxation-direct taxation-eat-
ing up the substance Of the people, making
them, indeed, hewers of wood and drawers
OF water, and grinding them as between the
upper and neither milestone. To these add
the probabilities Of civil and servile war,
strife, rapine, bloodshed and death, and yet
we have only faint conception of the evils
that will follow dissolution Of the present
fraternity Of States. And all these evils will
come without one prospective advantage
evils innumerable, but no possible good can
come Of the designs which the leaders Of the
Southern Democracy are now trying to car
ry out. The idea of great Southern Con.
federaey is absurd-let the work of dismsm-
berment commence and no one can tell where
it would stop. The South would be split up
into as many governments as we now have
States, and there would no longer be safety
for property or life. But the subject is too
fearful to contemplate.
Dissolve the Union, and in less than one
month negroes now worth one thousand dol
lars would not sell for five hundred-lands
now worth thirty and forty dollars per acre
would not sell for fve-stooks that.now COM
mand par could not be sold at all, and every
species of property would depreciate. while
taxes would go up. No possible benefit could
flow from dissolution while evils innumera-
BILE must inevitably ensue. And yet in the
face Of all these, we daily hear leaders of
the Democratic party and leading Democrat
ic prints advocating disunion unless they are
permitted to hold on TO power. We not only
hear this, but we see men-a few, it is true
formerly members Of the Wing party, aiding
and abetting them in their foul and damnable
designs against the integrity of the govern.
ment We ask sober rejecting men to
take this matter into their serious con-
sideraton, and say whether it is not time
to get rid of and put down the evil spirits
who are trying to do this fearful thing
who, for the worst purposes, are trying
to destroy the Union, and turn our pres
ent happy country into scenes of anarchy,
war and bloodshed. The opportunity for
driving them out is here-it must be done
now, if done at 1.-The war ofsectons must
be stopped, and it only can be stopped by
defeating both the sectional candidates, and
u