The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-03-15
when we-shall lave rested 'fro5.n,t7 our laIorss


composite material others, the pure white
marble. Our fathers and our predecessors
differed in'Ihe same way and on the same
point What cxccrations should we not all
unite in pronouncing on any statesman who
heretofore, from mere disappointment and dis
gust at being overruled in his choice climate
reals for any new column then to be quarried,
should have laid violent hands on the imper-
fcrt-structurc and brought it down to the
earth there to remain a wreck, instead of a
citadel of worlds best hopes
| remain now in the opinion | have uni
lornly expressed here and elsewhere, that
| these hastv threats Of dsunion are so unnatu-
raj that they will find no hand to, execute
them. We are.of one race, one. language,
liberty, and faith eagaged, indeed, in varied
industry; but even thatindustrv, so diversi-
fed, lila,.S Us into more intimate relations
with each other than any other people, how
ever rom ,geneous, and though living under a
consolidated Governm; mt, ever maintained:
We languish throughout, if one joint of our
| Federal frame Is smitten; while it is certain
that part discovered must perish You may
Government, and say it is 4 compact, and
that breach, by one of the States Or,y Con-
grcss, ofanv one article absolvesall the mem
bcrS from allegiance, and that the States
may separate when they have, or fancy they
have c;s,lse for war. But once try to subvert
i. and YOU will find that it is a Government
of the whole p@ople-as individuals, as well
as a compact. of States that every individual
member Of the body-politic is conscious OF
his interest andpower in it, and knows that
he will be helpless. pnwerlesS, hopeless, when
it shall have gone down. Mankind have a
natural right, anatural instinct, and a natural
capacity for. seif-governmcnt and-when as
here, they are Acknowledgement by culture.
| they viii and must have self government, and
no other The trainers Of our Constitution,
with wisdom that surpassed all previous
understanding a,nsn@ men, adapted it to
these inherent elements of human nature
He strangely, blindly misunderstands the
/ anatomy of the great system who thinks that
itsOnly bonds, or even its strong rest ligaments
are the writtelrconpact or even the multi
piled and thoroughly ramitied roads and thor
oughfares of trade, commerce, and social in
tercourse. These are strong indeed, but its
chicfcst instruments of cohesion those
which render it inseparabe aHdindivisible---
are the millions of fibres of millions of con-
tented, happy human hearts, binding by their
Affections, slleir ambitions, and their best
homes equally the high and the low, the rich
and the poor, the wise and unwise, the learn
ed AMI the untutored, even the good and the
bad, to Government, the first, the last, and
the only such one that has ever existed,
whieoli takes equal heed always Of THEN
wants, their wishes, and their opinions and
appeals to them all individually, once in a
year, or in tvo years, or at least in four years,
for their expressed consent and renewal
without which. It must cease. No, 60 where
you will, and 10 what class you may, with
commissions for your fatal service in one
hand, and your bounty counted by the hum
dred OF the thousand pieces ofsilver lii the
other, thousand resisters will rise ap for
for every recruit you can engage. On the
banks equally oil the st. Lawrence and of the
:. Rio Grande, on the Atlantic and the Pacific
| coasts, on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico,
and in. the dels Of the Rocky Mountains,
among the fishermen on che banks of New.
f0umdiand, the weavers and spinners Of Mas
sachusetts, the steveloreS of New York,
the miners of Pennsylvania, Pixies Peak, and
California the wheat growers of Indiana, the
cotton and the sugar planters on the Missis-
sippi, among the voluntary citizens from
ev nv other land not less than the native born,
the Christian and the Jew, among the Indi-
ans on the prairies, the contumacious Nor
mons in Dcseret, the African free, the Afri-
cans in bondage, the inmates of hospitals and
almshouses, and even the criminals in the
penitentaries, relearse the story of your
wrongs and their own, never so eloquently
and never so mournfully, and appeal to them
to RISE They will ask you, SIS this all -
Are you more Just than Washington, wiser
/ than Hamilton, more humane than Jetferson?'
"W hat new form Of government Or Of union
/ have you the power to establish, or even the
cunning to devise, that will be more just,
more beneficent, or more glorious than this?'
Aud by these simple interrogatories you will
be senced and confounded. 81 ....... .. ..
Mr., President, we are perpetually forgetting
this subtle and complex, yet obvious and nat
ural mechanism of our Constitution; and be-
cause we do forget it, we are continually
wondering how it is that confederacy O
thirty and more States, covering regions Sc
vast, and regulating interests SO various o.
so many millions of men, constituted aud
! conditioned so d!versely, works right on. We
are continually looking to see it stop and
stand still, or fall suddenly into pieces. But
in truth, it will not stop; It cannot stop i
was made not to stop, but to keep in motion
in motion always, and without force. Fol
my own part, rs this wonderful machine
when it had newly come from the hands o
its almost divine inventors, was the adlnira
ton of my earlier years, although it was Their
but imp4rfectly known abroad, SO now, whel
it forms the central figure in tho economy o
the worlds civilization, and the best sympa
thies of mankind favor its continuance, ey
Epect that it will stand and work right on IN