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


The National Intelligencer, of the LIST inst,
contains an able and carefully written article
on the subject of the Union of the States
After referring in appropriate terms of com
mendaton to the manner in which the dele.
gates to the National " hig Convention led of
the series ofresolutions adopted by them, with
one declaring their reverence for the Con.
stitution Of the United States and their un.
alterable attachment to the National Union, "
the editors of the Intelligencer disclaim any
intention ''to assume the character or play
the part Of alamrmists." The Republic has
already, in their opinion, safely weathered SO
many dangerous crisis, that they have ceased
ito have their apprehensions unduly aroused
by such periodical threatnings, the auguries
more often of croaking politicians, disaPPoin'
ted in their hopes than the well grounded
fears of an intelligent patriotism"
The course adopted by the ultra Deinocra.
cy is referred to and deprecated in calm, con-
siderate, firm, but respectful language. The
venerable editors of the Intelligencer do not
believe that Mr.. Buchanan himself would
either countenance or tolerate snch ntempe-
rate threats on the part Of his friends.
After comparing efforts to promote disun-
ion to the act Of the "wise" man in the chill
dren's story book who sawed off from the
trunk of the oak the very limb upon which
his ladder was resting, and thus tumbled to
the ground with the branch he had discovered,
the lntelligencer publishes series OF extracts
from the leading Democratic journals at the
South advocating dissolution of the Confed
eracy, in the event ofFremont's election, and
closes with the following eloquent tribute tc
the value Of the Union, and to its preserva
ton as q national necessity:
"The Union, then, is older than the forma
ton of the Constitution in 1887, older than
the Articles of Confederation signed in l77S
older than the first Continental Congress o.
l774, older than the Convention of the nine
Colonies assembled in 1853 to protest against
the stamp act, older Il an the Albany Con
gress of 1854, older than any or all OF these
because, in substance, underlying from the
first the very existence of a people possessing
a common lineage, speaking the same tongue
sharing in the same hopes and encompassed
by the same dangers. The Union is all he'll
loom of the ADgo-American race, and as such
worthy to be called possession foreverP II
is native Of our soil, older even than the
civil freedom of which it now forms the sur
est pledge and guarantee. 1t is not SO much
part of our political life as the very seat and
core of our national existence.
"Custom is mans nurse Woe then to them
Who lay irreverent hands upon his old
House furniture the dear inheritance,
From his forefathers. For time consecrates
And what is gray with age becomes religion.
If. then, the causes which rendered the es
Establishment of National Union not only
practicable but natural, and II the object:
which made its formation civil necessity still
survive in all their vigor, why is 1T that the
ear is stunned and the heart panied in these
latter days with threats of dissoJution!-
Simply because, in spite of these influences
and these objects, there are those who, in,pur
suit of ON ideal good, are willing not only to
relax their grasp on present political blessings
but to renounce the hereditary spirit Of ami
ty and cancellation which. with all their nat
ural advantages, is indispensable to the pence
full and harmonious working OF our complex
political system. The Union can be pre-
served in its beauty and its symmetry only
by the observance, on the part of the North
and of the South, OF the same mutual justice
not only to each others virtues, but forbear
ance toward each others faults, which char
acterized the early days of the Republic, and
perfected the work of the Revolutionary Fla
theirs in that capstone and yet foundation o
our political edifce, the Constitution OF thu
! United States"