The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-12-26


were firm, with few engagements for Liverpool and
London.
The vital Question or the Day-Great
Union Speech Of Gov. Wise.
From our special reporter at Richmond we
have received the graphic report, which we
publish this morning, of the great Union speech
Of Governor Wise in said city, to the two hun
bred Southern medical students who lately eva-
cuated Philadelphia and returned to the south
side Of Mason & Dixon's line, on account of
the menacing aspects of the present slavery
agitation. The speech in question is the most
remarkable Of any speech of any Southern man
evoked by this terrible sectional disturbance.
We all remember that Governor Wise, in
1856, threatened, in the event Of Fremont's
election, to march Southern army upon
Washington to seize the treasure and archives
of the federal government, and to march of
with them, and set up an Independent Southern
coHfederacy. But now mark the revolution
which these stirring times upon this very ques-
ton Of disunion have brought upon the refec-
tive mind of Governor Wise. Now he declares
that instead of fighting to get out of the Union,
he is prepared to fight to maintain the Union;
that if any are to be driven out, it shall be
those who seek to drive him out; that he
agrees with General Jackson, that ''the Union
shall be preserved" and by force of arms if
necessary. This is good. 1t has the ring Of
the genuine silver. The great mass of the
people, North and South, will cordially re-
spond to such sentiments
The prominent idea of Union thus suggested
by Governor Wise deserves to be written in
letters of gold. 1t is thus, that instead of
permitting our revolutionary Northern aboli-
tionists and our reckless Southern secessionists
to drive the South out of the Union, these two
classes of sectional disturbers Of the public
peace should themselves be driven out or put
down. Why should they remain in the Union
If they can no longer endure ii? Let the aboli-
tionists and their republican instructors in the
tricks of abolition treason clear out to Canada
and take up their quarters among the fugitive
slave colonies Of that region, where they will
be in their most congenial society. On the
other hand, let our Southern salamanders, who
will not be satisfied with anything but fire and
sword, "bombs, guns, drums and batteries"
pack off to Mexico, where they will find plenty
Of that sort Of employment, Thus the peace Of
the Union will be restored, as the peace of
great public meeting is often secured by the
removal of few belligerent rowdies. One
thing is certain: these sectional agitators of
disunion, North and South, must be silenced or
put out, or they win hurry the country head
long into all the horrors of dissolution, anar-
chy and civil war. Every government broken
to pieces by intestine disorders has been ruined
through the intrigues and conspiracies of a few
ambitious and reckless disorganizers.
But there is another very suggestive view
of the subject taken by Governor Wise,
and one which, for some time past, our
statesmen and public journalists have some
what overlooked. We refer to the malign in
luence of Old England in behalf of the dis
ruption Of this great confederacy. Upon this
point, Gov. Wise, we think, very truly says that
" the real root Of the disease is the foreign in
fuence of Great Britain !" that our external
commerce, our exports and imports and the
constant intercourse between New England and
Old England, beget sympathy between them,
prejudicial to that state Of harmony and good
will which should be the paramount law between
the North and the South. Upon this question
there can be no dispute. It is the interest," and
is therefore the policy, Of England to encourage
the dissolution Of this powerful confederacy.
Her naval and commercial supremacy, and even
her manufactures, must in the course Of events,
and at no distant day, be overshadowed, and
to great extent absorbed, by these progressive
United States, If they keep together. Break
them up, and we reduce them to the chronic
revolutionary disorders of Mexico and the
States of South America, and England will be
the gamer in commerce and manufactures, in
proportion to our losses and our necessiuss
We thus recognise the force Of this opinion
of Gov. Wise, that the real root of this disease
OF Northern abolitionism Is the foreign influ-
cnce Of Great Britain. In this connection his
illusions to Canada as the house of refuge for
such abolition conspiracies as that of John
Brown, for the overthrow of our Southern in
situations and Southern society, and the
Union ITSELF afford hint which the
government at Washington might pro-
htably take into consideration. The