The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-12-21
RAvENNA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2l, 1859

ind postponing at least'all ordinary political
Ssues, to pause, to look steadily 10 the face
he condition Of. things to which we are ap.
preaching and to ask their own consciences
whether they can do nothing to avert the
crisis, and bring about happier and better
state Of things. (Applause.) I do not ask
hem to search the past for topics Of re-
prosch or recrimination on men or parties.
We have bad enough Of that, and /. has con.
tributed materially to bring about our pres.
ent perlous condition. In ell countries
where speech and the press are free, especi-
ally these countries which BY controlling
tural causes fall into two great sections,
each possessing independent local Legisla.
tures aud centres OF opinion and influence,
there will in the lapse of time unavodably
be action and reaction of word and deed
Violence Cf speech or Of act, on the one side,
will unuvoidably produce violence of speech
and of act, on the other. Each new griev-
ance 10 alternately cause and effect and it,,
before resorting to healing counsels, we are
determined to run over the drearY catalogue,
to see who was earliest or who has been most
to blame, we engage in controversy in
which there ia no arbiter and Of which there
can be no solution. But without revving
the angry or sorrowtul memories of the past,
let me, in all friendiness, ask the question
What has either section to gain by dis
solution of the Union, with reference to that
terrible question which threatens to destroy
it l ask patriotic men in both sections to
run over in their minds the causes OF CON.
plant which they have, or think they have,
in the existing state Of things, and then ask
themselves dispassionately whether nything
is to be gained, anything to be hoped, by
pushing the present alienation to that fatal
bourne. from which, ss from death, there ID
no return. Will the South gain any greater
stability for her social syatem, any larger
entrance into the vacant public Territories
Will the North have effected any one object
which by men Of any shade o; opinion, ex'
treme or moderate, is deemed desirable on
the contrary, will not every evil she desires
to remedy be confirmed and aggravated ! Il
this view OF the subject be corre ect, what can
be more unWise-what more suicidal than tc
allow these deplorsble dissensions to result
in a revolution, which will leave two grea
sections Of the country in a worse conditicr
than it finds them with reference to the yer,
objects for which they allow themselves tt
be impeIled to the dreadful contamination
! (Applnuse.) Blu, l shall be told, perhsps
that all this is imaginary-that the alarm al
the South ia Fictitious, or rather groundlest
panic, for which there is no substa ntia cause
fit subj ct for rdicule rather than serious
anxiety. But see no signs of panic in Vir
ginis, except for few hours at Harper'l
Ferry, when in the confusion of the first sur
prise, and in profound ignorance of the ex
te0t of the danger, the community was for q
short time paralyz-d. lam not sure that 0
town of four or FIVE hundred families in this
region, invaded at midnight by . resolute
band OF twenty men, entering the houses o
influential citizens, and hurrying them from
their beds to q stronghold previously occu
pied, and there holding them as hostages-l
am not sure, cir, that an equal panic woult
not be created till the extent OF the DANCE
was measured. Besides, sir, il the panic ha,
been much more extensive than it was, the
panics of great and brave communities ar
no trifes. Burke said he could not franz
an indictment against a whole people ; i
seems to me equally in bad taste at least Il
try to point sneer at a State like Virginia
The French are reputed gallant and wal
like people !; but the letters from the lat
seat Of war tell us, that even after the grea
victory Of Solferino, handful Of Austrians
rtraggIiDg into village, put corps Of tn
French Army-thousands strong-to fligh,
A hundfed and fifty men overturned tn
French monarchy, on the occasion to whic
have already alluded, in 1s4S. When tn
circumstances of the case are tsken int
consideration, / suspect it will be agree
r that any other community in the countr
similarly situated would have been affecte
in the same way. (Applause.) A confli
, of such an unprecedented character, in whie
twelve or fourteen persons on the two sid
are shot down 10 the course Of a few hour
appears to me an event at which levity oug
to stand rebuked, and solemn chill to ia
q upon every right thinking man. | thin
y sir, from the tone of some of the public jou
mails, that we have not made this case O
/ own. Suppose party of desperate, mi
-. guided men, under 9 resolved and fearle
leader, had been organized in Virginia
10 come and establish themselves by steslth
= Springfield, in this State, intending thel
q after possessing themselves at the uneuard
u hour OF midnight of the National Armory,
il tuke advantage Of sumo local cause Of dis
u fection-say the feud between Catholics a
ID Protestants, (Which led to q very deplorat
" occurrence in this vicinity few years az
10 to stir up a social revolution that pixies q
II rifles to arm twenty-five hundred men b
a. been procured by funds raised by extens
,e subscriptions throughout the South-that
o, dead Of Sunday night the work of destr'
y. ton had begun BY shooting down an unar
., ed man, who had refused to join the invadi
n, force that citizens of the first standing w
of seized and imprisoned, three or four 9th
nd killed, and when, on the entire failure Of