East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1859-12-22


/, upon all who love the country, and cheris
: the Union, and desire the continuance o
} those blessings which we have till latel
: enjoyed under the constitution transmit
5 ted to us by our fathers, and which I re
, gard as the noblest work of political wis
/ dom ever achieved, to meet as one mar
f and take counsel for its preservation. ]
/ is this feeling that has brought me her
to day. [Applause.]
, twill probably be said, sir, that thos
who entertain views like these exagger
ate the gravity of the crisis. wish
could think So But fear it is not We
who exaggerate, but those who differ from
us that greatly-and soon, / fear it vii
be, fatally-underratc the oninous signs
of the times. fear, sir, that they arr
generally misled by the one.sided view:
exclusively presented by the party press
and those who rely upon the party press
exclusively for their Impressions, and that
they are dangerously ignorant ofthe state
Of opinion aud feeling in the other great
section of the country. ! greatly fear
that the mass Of the community, long &C.
customed to treat all alarm for the sta
bility of the Union as groundless, all pro-
fessed anxiety for its preservation as in
sincere, or, if sincere, the result Of ner-
vous timidity, have untitled themselves
to measure the extent and the urgency of
the existing danger. II is my own delib-
crate conviction, formed from some OPP
portuuities Of personal observation, and
from friendly correspondence with other
parts of the country (though | carry on
none of a political nature,) that we are
on the very verge of convulsion which
will shake the Union to its foundation;
and that few more steps forward in the
direction in which affairs have moved for
few years past will bring us to the ca
tastrophe.
have heard it urged on former oc-
casions of pubic alarm that it must be
groundless because business roes on as
usual, and the theatres are open, and
stocks keep up. Sir, these appearances
may all be delusive. The great social
machine moves with momentum that
cannot be suddenly stopped. The ordin-
airy operations of business went OH in
France, in the revolution of 1889, till
the annihilation of the circulating medi-
um put stop to everything that re-.
quired its use. The theatres and all the
other places Of public amusement were
crowded to madness in the Reign of Ter
ror. The French stocks never stood bet
ter than they did in Paris on the 2lst of
February, 1s4S, On the Oath of that
month Louis Philippe was flying in dis
guise from his capital the Tuileries were
sacked, and the oldest monarchy in Eu.
rope had ceased to exist.
/ hold it to be time then sir, as have
said, for good men and good patriots,
casting aside all mere party considera- /
tions, and postponing at least all ordin-
AIRY political issues, to pause; to look !
steadily in the face the condition of things
to which we are approaching; and to ask
their own consciences whether they can
do nothing to avert the crisis, and bring !
about happier and better state of things. |
l do not ask them to search the past for
topics of reproach or recrimination on
men or parties. We have had enough |
Of chat, and it has contributed materially /
to bring about our present perilous con-
dition. Inall countries where speech and |
the press are free, especially those coun-
tries which by controlling natural causes
fall into two great sections, each possess
ing independent local legislatures and |
centres of opinion and influence, there
will in the lapse of time unavoidably be
action and reaction Of word and deed
Violence of speech or of act, on the one
side, VIII unavoidably produce violence
of speech and act on the other. Each |
new grievance is alternately cause and I
effect; and if, before resorting to healing
connsels we are determined to run over
the dreary catalogue, to see who has been
most to blame, we engage in controv-
ersy in which there is no arbiter, and of |
which there can be no solution. Zap
plause,
But, without reviving the angry or
sorrowful memories Of the past, let me,
in all friendlincss, ask the question, what
has either section to gain by a dissolu-
ton Of the Union, with reference to that
terrible question which threatens to de.
stroy it? | ask patriotic men IN both
sections to run over in their minds the
causes of complaint which they have, or
think they have, in the existing state of
things, and then ask themselves dispas.
siJuatcly whether anything isto begaincd,
to be hoped, by pushing the
present alienation to that fatal bourne
which, as from death, there is no return?
Will the South gain any greater stability
for her social system, any larger entrance
into the vacant public territories? VIII |
the North have effected any one object
which, by men Of any shade Of oppinion,
extreme or moderate, is deemed desirable;
on the contrary, will not every evil she
desires to remedy be confirmed and ar
gravated? [Applause] If this view OF
the subject be correct what can be moro
more suicidal-than to al.
low these deplorable discussions to result
in revolution which will leave two great
sections Of the country in worse con.
lition than it finds them, with reference
10 the very objects for which they allow
themselves to be impellcd to the dreadful
,onsummation? rnatiii7-He Iiai "A
But / shall be told perhaps that all
his is imaginary; that the alarm at the
South is iactitious, or rather groundless
,on;c 60, x,k.ob xkn~o z. Il ,