The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1856-09-02
THE DAILY UNION
pIsuNroN- WHAT Is TIT

Below we publish an extract from the late mastery lat
ter Of the Hon s. s. Marshall Of Illinois, TO bis constitu
ents In view of the fearful crisis which has just past
it is well to have before minds faint idea Of
what dsunion No man, believe can realize in
all its terron what disunon would be yet one
close his eyes to the danger Of its approach who not
wlfully blind to all truth and reason;
The time when patriots with great propriety
fused 10 calculate the value Of the Union. Now q
sderation Of it Is forced upon Under its benign in
nuences our growth and prosperity have been extraor
binary and unparalleled EVERY year Of its duration has
teemed with fresh proof Of its utility and its blessings
and with II our prospects in the future all that the
heart of desire. But patriot who has read
the history of the past look the prospect of dsunion
in the face without a shudder of soulsckenng horror
Those who believe that these States separate peacefully
and without boodshed and civil war; have given very lit
tie consideration to the history Of III sepa-
rate ii will be because feelings of hatred have been
gendered which inconsistent with state of peace
cannot keep the under the high and holy
tons of the bonds made for us by our revolutionary
thers what hope is there for when those bonds
broken up and destroyed And what will be the result
of that into which we must be precipitated2 The
history of the past teaches many important lessons
this point but will here refer to but one.
1.-THE people of the German States two and half
turtles ago were living in peace and prosperity under
confederated government similar to- but not perfect as
ours. They had slave institutions upon which dema-
gogues could base their agitation to destroy the harmony
that existed but bigotry supplied its place Instead Of
keeping religion and politics separate and distinct and
leaving every to worship his God according the die
ates of his conscience they drew the sword and
gagged in of the longest and boodest Of which
have any record to determine whether the Catholic
the Protestant religion should be in the ascendant Father
against and against father brother in deadly
hict with brother issue which God alone or
ought to determine this unhappy people engaged in whole
sale butchey for the period Of thirty long years. They
fought until the waters Of their mighty rivers Grim
soned with their blood. They fought until whole gen.
GRAFTON swept from the face Of the earth and still
their children found marching the fields of car
mage In their madness and insanity they fought
after they had forgotten the original of
and Catholic and Protestant at last found side
by side fighting against Catholic and Protestant They
fought until even the genius of desolaon sickened
at the sight, and wept the barren hills and
depopuated plains of once happy land. Religion and
education abandoned and forgotten and this proud
nation was changed into miserable rabble. Twohirds
OF the entire nation persisted in this In Saxony
alone 100000 destroyed within two years. All
the evils of political treachery of religious anatcsm of
the apacy of aspiring adventures and of the brutality
of the soldery let loose the people, Driven from
hearth and home in eternal terror Of the soldiers and
without instruction, what could be expected from the
growing generation but sordd cowardce and the shame
less immortality which they had learned from the army
Even the last remains of political freedom persisted in the
war; since all classes pundered and their strength
exhausted The early civilization of Germany had retro
graded into barbarism. Famine ragged in all its horrd
forms Children devoured by parents and parents
by children. Women engaged in mortal conflict with
each other to secure the starving infant for meal Many
tore bodies from their graves sought the pits where
horsekers threw their for the carbon All the
of the country completely exhausted that
even the wild beasts of the forests deprived of their
cusomed food found lying about exhausted and dy
ing Germany even to this day. has not fully recovered
from the effects of that dreadful war.
Such picture of the scenes which mad fanacsm
would drive ussuch the feast for which are invited to
abandon present happy condition What guarantee
hope have that the civil into which these trait
would drive will be less bloody, less devastating
than that OF Germany If the descendants of the Puritan
and the descendants of the Cavalier our country ever
draw the sword each other and throw away the scab
bard the boodest page of history yet to be recorded
Neither is formed for subsection and be the con-
queror only when the other is exterminaed feel conf
dent my friends that you at least will take no part in
fastening this catastrophe"