Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-03-17

lenVe to the combat was always the war
crv of victory. But, il it she'll prove 9th.
erwise. then the world will all the sooner know
that every party in this country must stand
on Union ground that the American peo-
pie will sustain no party that is not capa.
ble of making sacrifice Of its ambition
on the altar Of the country that although
party may have never so much of pres
tige, and never such traditional merit yet,
if it be lacking IN the one virtue of loyalty
to the Union, all its advantages will be un-
availing and then obnoxious as through
long-cherished and obstinate prejudices, the
Republican party is in the capital States,
yet even there it will advance like an army
with banners, winning the favor Of the
whole people, and it will be armed with
the national confidence and support, when
it shall be found the only party that de-
feuds and maintains the integrity of the
Union.
Those who seek to awaken tho terrors
of diSunon seem to me to have too hastily
considered the conditions under which they
arc to make their attempt Who believes
that a Republican administration and Con-
greSs could practice tyranny under Con-
stitntion which interposes so many checks
as ours Yet that tyranny must not only
be practSed, but must be intcerable, and
there must be no remaining hope for consti-
tutional relief, before forcible resistance
can Hnd ground to stand on anywhere
The people of the United States, acting
iu conformity with tie Constitution, are
the supreme tribunal to try and determine
all political issues They are as competent
to decide the issues of to-day as they have
been heretofore to decide the issues Of 9th
er days. They can reconsider hereafter,
and reverse if need be, the Judgment they
shall pronounce to-day, as they have more
than once rcconsidered and reversed their
judgments in former times. 1t needs no
revolution to correct any error, or prevent
any danger, under any circumstances.
Norris any new or special cause for revo-
luton likely to occur under Republican
administration. We are engaged in no
new transaction not even in new dispute.
Our fathers undertook great work for them
| selves, for us, and for our Succcssors-to
erect free and Federal empire, whose
arches shall span the North American con-
tinent, and reflect the rays of the sun
throughout his whole passage from the one
to the other of the great oceans. They
erected thirteen of its columns all at once.
These are standing now, the admiration OF
mankind Their successors added twenty
more even we who are here have shaped
and elevated three of that twenty and all
these are as firm and sleadfaSt as the first
thirteen and more will yet be necessary
when we shall have rested from our laborS.
Some among us prefer for these columns a
composite material others, the pure willie
marble. Our fathers and our predecessors
differed in the same way, and on the same
point. What eXecrations should we not
all unite in pronouncing on any statesman
who heretofore, from mere disappointment
and disgust at being overruled in his choice
Of materials for any new column then to
be quarred, should have laid violent hands
on the imperfect structure and brought it
down to the earth, there to remain wreck,
instead of a citadel of worlds best hopes
/ remain now in the opinion have uni
formly expressed here and elsewhere, that
these hasty threats of disunion are SO un-
natural that they will find no hand to exc
cute them. We are of one race, one Ian.
guage, liberty, and faith /; engaged, indeed,
in varied industry but even that industry,
so diversified, brings us into more intimate
relations with each other than any other
people, however homogeneous, and though
living under q consolidated Government,
ever maintained We languish through
out, if one joint of our Federal frame is
smitten while it is certain that part dis
severed must perish. You may refine as
you please about the structure of the Gov
ernment, and say that it is compact, and
that breach, by one of the States or by
Congress, of any one article, absolves all
the members from allegiance, and that the
States may separate when they have, or
fancy they have, cause for war. But once
try TO subvert it, and you will find that it
is a Government Of the whole people-as
individuals, as well as q compact Of States;
that every individual member Of the body
polite is conscious Of his interest and pow
er in it, and knows that he will be helpless,
powerless, hopeless, when it shall have gone
down. Mankind have natural right,
natural instinct, and a natural capacity for
self-government and when, as here, they
are efficiently ripened by culture, they
will and must have selfgovernment, and no
other. The trainers of onr Constitution.
with wis lom that surpassed all previous
understanding among men, adapted it to
these inherent elements of hnman nature
He strangely, blindy misunderstands the
anatomy of tile great system who thinks
that its only bonds, or even its strongest
ligaments, are the written compact or even
the multiplied and thoroughly ramiGed
roads and thoroughfaFes of trade, commerce,
and social intercourse. These are strong
indeed, but its chiefest instruments of CO.
hesion-those which render it inseparabIe
and indiyisible--are the millions Of libreS of
millions of contented, happy human hearts,
binding by their affections, their ambitions,
and their best hopes equally tue high and
the low, the rich and the poor, the wise and
unwise, the learned and the untutored, even
the good and the bad, to Government |
the first tbs last, and the only such one
that has ever existed, which takes equal
heed always Of their wants, their wishes. |
and their opinions aud appeals to them
ALL individually, once in year, or in two
years, or at least in four years, for their ex-
pressed consent and renewal, without which