Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1858-08-05
THE UNION.

In all times of sectional excitement, there
have not been wanting inveterate croakers
who have raised a false alarm, and predicted
the dissolution of our glorious Union. We
are at a loss to know how to treat such char.
acters. That they are mentally and morally
should be put into straight jackets and sent to
the Lunatic Asylum, or be permitted to blow
out their superauous gas and vent their spleen,
until they are self-cured of their malady, is a
question not easy to decide. We think, how
ever, that the latter course of treatment
would be the best. They belong to the old
Shays school Of politics, and have imbibed
some portion of that abominable virus which
so grievously affected Benedict Arnold; and
it is well for our country that they have Meth
er the spirit nor the courage of that old, in
v~eterate traitor. Talk of the dissolution of
the Unionl Why, you might just as we'll IN
dertake to predict the disruption and dismem-
berment of the Allegheny Mountainsl The
majority of the people Of this country are too
intelligent-too well acquainted with the laws,
and genius, and spirit, and institutions of their
country, to be alarmed by every bug-bear that
pseudo-politicians may chance to get up. In
the strong and emphatic language of cold
Hickory" d" Our Union must and shall be pre-
served" Every President who is solemnly
inaugurated at Washington, binds himself
with an indissoluble oath to sustain the Union.
Our grand National Constitution requires it.
Every American freeman, on his being admit
ted to the privilege of an %elector, is sworn
under the most responsible solemnities to sup
port that Constitution, the laws of his native
State, and the union of all the confederated
States.E |And it would require stronger argu-
ments than any opponent can bring to bear
on this subject, to convince us, that our fel-
low countrymen are SO deprayed, so lost to all
sense of honor and moral rectitude, as to
perjure themselves and join with the disaffect-
Gu in7avurylug our glorious Union. NO, no,
gentlemen, whatever sectional differences may
transiently spring up in various parts of the
country, Of this one great truth we are abb
solutely certain, that they can no more affect
the stability and permanency of the Union.
than a little growing thunder in the atmos-
phere can affect the light of the sun, or the
barking and baying of a little whiffet can ex-
tinguish the lustre of the moon. Union for
everl one and indissolublel
One great fault with the present age is,
that our would-be reformers are too hasty and
impetuous in striving to carry out their prin-
ciples. "Rome was not built in a day" For
a period of 400 years, the Old Saxons of Eng
land were enslaVed by the Norman French.
1t was not until Magma ChartG was granted
by King John, of England, in 1908, that the
principles of Civil Freedom were at all under
stoodss by our ancestors. For many centuries
slavery has prevailed in Russia, among her
white serfs, in a form ten times more aggrav-
ating than the slavery of the Africans at the
South. All emancipations of the human race
have been of very slow but sure growth.
Gods chosen people, the Children of Israel,
suffered a most grieTous bondage of 400
years, under the tyranny Of the Pharaohs in
Egypt. We are not among those who are in
favor of Slavery; but SO far as our acquaint-
ance with History extends, we are iuclined to
believe that men must be willing to wait
Gods appointed time, for the emancipation of
the whoe human race from bondage. There
must be a fitness, an adaptedness, a qualifca-
ton, on the part of the ignorant and stupid
masses, before they can fully appreciate the
blessings of civil and religious freedom-be-
fore they can understand the true principles
of self-government-before they can sustain
themselves and the institutions under which
they live. We are, therefore, in favor of
gradual emancipation, not by %compulsion, but
by moral s~uasion, by q solemn conviction of
duty, wherein shall consist the only meritori
GUS circumstances connected with it.