Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1856-12-11

1SstSt VI w cot.
Schemes of this nature, fraught with in ;
calculable mischief, and which the consic :
crate sense OF the people has rejected, could
have had countenance in no part of the
country, had they not peen disguised by
suggestions plausible in appearance, acting
upon an excited state of the public mind,
induced by causes temporary in their char
acter and it is to be hoped transient in their
influence. Perfect liberty of association
for political objects and the widess scope
of dis cussion are the received and ordinary
conditions of government in our country.
Our Institutions. framed in the spirit of
confidence, in the intelligence and integrity
of the people, do not forbid citizens, either
individually or associated together, to at
tack by writing, speech, or any other meth
ID short of physical force, the Constitution,
he very existance of The Union. Under
to shelter of this great liberty, and pro-
| tected by the laws and usages of the Gov
eminent they assail, associations have been
formed in some of the States, of individu-
ais who, pretending only to seek to prevent
the spread of the institution of slavery into
the poesent or future inchoate States Of the
Union. are really inhamed with the desire
to change the domestic institutions of ex.
listing States.
To accomplish their objects they dedi-
cate themselves TO the ooious task of depre-
ciating the good organization which stands
in their way. and of calumniaiing with in
discriminate invective, not only the citizens
of particular States with those laws they
find fault, but all others of their fellow ci!i-
zens throughout the country who do not
participate with them in their assaults up
on the Constitution. framed and adopted by
our Fathers. and claiming for the privil-
eyes it has conferred, the steady support
and grateful reverance of their children.
They seek an object which they well
know to be revolutionary one. They are
perfectly aware that the change in the rel
alive condition of the white and black recess
in the slave holding States, which they
would promote, is beyond their lawful au-
thority; and to them it is foreign object,
that it cannot be effected by any peaceful
fundamentally of theirs, that them and
the States of which they are citizens, the
only path to its accomplishment is through
burning cities and ravaged fields, and
slaughtered populations, and all there is
terrible In foreign, complicated with evil
and servile war, and that the first step in
the attempt, is the forcible disruption of a
country embracing in its broad bosom, a
degree of liberty and an amount of individ-
ual and public prosperity to which there
is no parallel in history. and substituting
in its place, hostile governments driven al
once and inevitably into mutual devasta-
ton and fratricidal carnage, Transforming
the now peaceful and felicitous brother.
hood, into vastpermanent camp of armed
men like the rival monarchies Of Europe
and Asia.
Well knowing that such and such only
are the means and the consequences Of
their plans aud purposes, the United States
for civil war. by doing everything in their
power to deprive the Constitution and the
laws of moral authority and to undermine
the fabric of the Union by appeals to pas
sion and sectional prejudice by indoctrin-
ating its people with reciprocal hatred. they
!. endeavor to prepare the people and by ed
ucating them to stand face to face as enc
mics rather than shoulder to shoulder al
friends.
1t is by the agency Of such nnwarranta
the minds of many otherwise good citizens
have been so inf1amed into the passionat,
condemnation of the domestic institutions
f of the South. as at length to pass invisibly
, to almost equally passionate hostility to
wards their fellow citizens of those States
and thus finally to fall into temporary fel
lowship with the avowed and active enc
t mics of the Constitution.
Ardently attached to liberty in the alb
3 stract, they do not stop to consider practi
| cally how the objects they would attain CA
, be accomplished, nor to reflect that even
{ the evil were as great as they deem it, the.
have no remedy to apply. and that it ca
be only aggravated by their violence am
unconstitutional action; a question whicl
I is one of the most difficult of all problem
/ of social Institutions. Political economy
5 craftsmanship, they treat with unreasonin,
/ intemperance Of thought and language. Elk
c tremes beget extremes.
Violent attack from the North finls inev
: liable consequence IN the growth of spir
: it Of angry defiance at the South. Thus
: in the progress of events We had reache'
: the consummation which the voice of tn
: people has now SO pointedly rebuked. c
an attempt of portioion of the States b
: La sectional organization and movement t
= usury the control Of the government @
9 the United States.
e confidently believe that the genera
i body of those who inconsiderately toe
II this fatal step are sincerely attached to IT,
II Constitution and the Union. They woul
J. upon elaboration shrink with uuaffecte
n horror from any conscious act of disunio'
n or civil war: bat they have entered into
i path which leads nowhere unless to civ
l. war and disunion. and which has no othe
: possible outlet. They have proceeded thu
: far IN that direction in consequence of til
/ successive stagesszof their progress havin
% consisted of series of secondary issuel
IF each of which protested to be confine
IS within constitutional and peaceful limit
IS but which attempted indirectly what se
d men were willing to do directiy-that is I
: act progressively against the constitutions
l. rights Of nearly one half of the thirtv on
States.
le In the long series of acts ofindirect ae
I Il q I.