St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1856-08-30
The Union,

The Union.
We often hear disunion spoken Of
and often see it alluded to in the
public journals. We do not under
stand, however, that any considerable
portion of the people, especially Of the
North, harbor the idea, but on the
contrary the fire-eaters Of the South
and the pro-slavery portion of restless
politicians are the ones who threaten
disunion if those who love freedom
and hate slavery will not allow the
propagandists to have their own way
in usurping the powers of government
and extending the curse over free
country. We advise all who talk
flippantly about dissolving the Union
to read and ponder well the farewell
address of that man Of whom one has
so eloquently said, that Providence
had made him childless that nation
might call him father" We give an
extract:
The unity of government which consti-
tutes you one people, is also ever dear to you.
1t is justly so; for it is main pillar in the ed
ifce of your real independence: the support
of your tranquility at home; your peace
abroad; of your safety, of your prosperity of
that very liberty which you SO highly prize.
But as it is easy to foresee, that from different
oV,A
will be taken, many articles employed, to
weaken in your minds the conviction of this
truth as this is the point in your political for
tress against which the batteries of internal
and external enemies will he most constantly
and actively Though often covertly and insid-
iously) directed, it is of infinite moment that
you properly estimate the immense value of
your national Union to your collective and in
dividual happiness; that you cherish cordial,
habitual, and immovable attachment to it,
accustoming yourselves to think and speak of
it as the palladium of your political safety and
prosperity watching for its preservation with
a jealous anxiety discountenancing whatever
may suggest even q suspicion that it can in
any event be abandoned, and indignantly
frowning upon the first dawning Of every at
tempt to ALLEVIATE any portion Of our country
from the< rest, or to 'enfeeble the sacred ties
which now link together the various parts. -
1t seems that, with prophetic ken,
the great and good Washington fore
saw that there would be efforts to alien
one portion of this confederacy from
the other and, as his last act upon
the public stage, before retiring to the
banks of his own Potomac, he warned
his countryman against those insidi-
GUS attempts" So long as there is
among the American people that re-
spect and love for their common an
cestry SO long as they value that
Constitution, which, given them as a
rich legacy from their fathers, guar
antees and preserves inviolable all
their rights $50 long as they feel they
can dwell safely beneath it's broad
shield, no disunion will be permitted
to take place. The Union will be
dear to them they will stand by it,
and die, if need be, in its defence
but impaired once, in the southern
mind, that feeling of confidence in the
Constitution give them once an OPP
portunity to violate it with impunity /;
let it be understood that it is no long
er shield to protect the people,
whether north or south, from unjust
legislation and you sap the very foun-
dation Of their love for the Union, and
scatter among them the firebrands of
I discord and disunion.
If such gloomy results are to come /;
if, by the agitation of this question
throughout the length and breadth Of
the land, the holy feelings which
should ever animate our bosoms, as
American citizens having one common
origin and common interest, if these
feelings are to be weakened by this
unfortunate question which is agita-
ting us, and has agitated the coun-
try if the light of our glorious insti-
tutions is once put out eve know not
where is the Promethean heat that
can its light relume." Come from
whatever quarter it may, if this Union
is ever to be broken down; if our
common feelings of brotherhood are to
be sundered if we are to be sweptaway
from all we now love, and feeling
of alienation of one portion of the I'm
ion to the other is to be engendered in
the breasts of her citizens, we tell the
man who is the means of aringing
about this disastrous result, be he
who he may, that he will be
"a fixed figure, for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at
New HAMPSHIRE STATE FAIR-The
Directors of the New Hampshire State
Agricultural Society have given no
tice that the next annual fair will be