The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-08-27

that the friendships of these states, sis.
ters but rivals, sovereign each, with q
unreasoning and impatient philantrophy
or whatever else have turned to hate or
eoldness the fraternal blood, and queanch-
ed the spirit of national life at its source;
with whom the union of the slave states
and free states under the actual consti-
tuition is q curse, a hindrance, a reproach;
with those of course our view of our
duty and the reason of it, are stumb-
ling block er.a foof;rhnece. 70 such
you cam 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 prizs it as we
prize it: who regard it as We do, not
merely as a vast instrumentality for the
protection of our commerce and nayiga-
tion; and for achieving power, eminence
and name among the sovereigns of the
earth, but as means of improving the
material lot, and elevating the moral
and mental nature, and eDsuriDg the
personal happiness of the millions of
many distant generations; if there are
those who think thus justly of it-aud
yet hug the fatal delusion that, because
it is good, it is necessarily immortal;
that it will thrive without care; that
anything created by mans will is above
or stronger than his will that because
the reason and virtues Of our age of rea-
son and virtue could build it, the pas
sions and stimnlations of day of phren-
zy cannot pull it down; if such there
are among you, to them address your
selves with all the earDestness 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 proclaim
ed. If such minds and hearts are
reached, all is safe But how specious
and how manifold are the sophisms by
which they are courted!
They hear and they read much ridi-
eule of those who fear that geographi.
cal party does eudanger the Union. But
can they forget that our greatest, wisest,
and most hopeful stetesmen have always
felt, and have all, in one form or anoth,
/ er, left on record their own fear of such
party? The judgments of Washing.
ton, Madison. Clay, Webster, on the
dangers of the American Union-are
they worth nothing to a conscientious
love of it? What they dreaded as q
remote and improbable Contingency
that against which they cautioned, aE
! they thought, distant generations-that
they were SO happy as to die without
seeing-is upon US. And yet some men
would have us go on laughing and sing
ing, like the traveller in the satire, with
! his pockets empty, at a present peril
the mere apprehension of which, as Q
distant and bare possibility, could sad.
den the heart of the Father of his Coun.
try, and dictate the grave and grand
warning of the Farewell Address
They hear men say that such party
ought not to endanger the Union; that,
although it happened to be formed with.
in one geographical section, and confined
exclusively to it; although its end aim
is to rally that section against the other
on question of morals, policy and feel.
ing, on which the two differ eternally
and unappeasably; although from the
nature of its origin and objects, no mar
in the section outside can possibly join
it, or accept Office under it without i'm
fanny at home; although, therefore, it j.
stupendous organization, practically tc
take power and honor, and full share
of the government, from our whole fami
ly of states, and bestow them, substanti
| ally, all upon the antsgonistic family
| although the doctrine of human rights
| which it gathers out of the Declaration
| of Independenoe-that passionate and
| eloquent manifesto of revolutionary
| war-and adopts as its fundamental
ideas, announce to any southern appre-
heEsion a crusade of government against
slavery, far without and beyond Kansas;
although the spirit and tendency of its
| eleetioneeriDg appeals, as a whole, in
prose and verse, the leading articles o.
its papers, and speeches of its orators
are to excite contempt and hate, or fea,
of our eutire geographical section, and
hate or dread or contempt is the natural
impression it all leaves on the northern
mind and heart; yet, that nobody any
where ought to be frightened; that the
majority must govern, and that the north
is majority; that it is ten to one no
thing will happen that, if worst comes
to worst the south knows it is wholly te
blame, and needs the Union more thar
we do, and will be quiet accordingly.
But do they who hold this language
forget that the question is not what
ought to endanger the Union, but what
| will do it? Is it man as he ought to be,
or man as he is. that We must live with
or live alone =? In appreeiating the inHu,
ences which may disturb political sys.
tenn, and especially one like ours, do you
make no all l,wance for passion, for pride
fer in6rmity, for the burning sense oi
even imaginary wrong? Do you assume
that all men, or all masses Of men in all
sections, uniformly obey reason; and
uniformly wisely see and calmly seek
their true interests Were on earth is
such FOOLS paradise as that to be
found ? Conceding to the people of the
fifteen States the ordinary and average
human nature, its good and its evil, its
weakness and its strength, I for one,
dare not say that the triumph of such a
party ought not to be expected natural
ly and probably to disunite the States.
With my undoubting convictions, 1
know that it would be folly and immor-
ality in me to wish it. Certainly there
are in all sections and in all states those
who love the Union, under the actual
Constitution, as Washington did, as Jay,
Hamilton and Madison did; jackson,
as Clay. as Webster loved it. Such
even is the hereditary and the habitual
sentiment of the American heart. But
he has read life and books to little pur-
pose who has not learned that I" bosom