The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1860-03-13

,orrectaess of this dark picture 80 lar as 'he
Southern groups upon the canvass are concern
ed, but must be INDUCED in the opinion that l
can pronounce as accurately concerning 'ne
Northern or Republican representatives mere as
any one. | know their public hannts and their
n,iva,e WAYS. We are not hostile Republic, {
or representatives OF one. We confer together,
but only az the organs of every party do, anu
mus, do in political system which obliges US 10
act sometimes "a partisans, while IT requires Us
always 10 be patriots and statesmen. Il :
Differences Of opinion, even on the subject oi
Slavery with US are POLITICAL not social, or per
sonal differences. There is not one dIsunloni5'
or disloyalst among us all We are altogether
unconscious OF any process oi dissolution gong
on amoag or around us. We nave never peeh
more patient, and never loved the representa-
tiyes of other sections more than now. We bear
the same testimony for the people around Us
here. who, though in the very center where the
bolt of disunion must fall first and be most lear
full in It's effects seem never less disturbed thah
now. We bear the same testimony Tor all the
districts and States We represent Inc people
of the North are not enemies, but friends anu
brethren Of the South faithful and true as IN the
DAYS when death has dealt his arrows proiiiiscu
ousIy arnOng them on common battle helds Oh
Freedom.
We will not suffer ourselves here to owen on
any evidences Of a different temper III the SCUM
but we shall be content with expressing our oG
lief that hostility that il not designediy pro'oheu
and that cannot provoke retaliation, rs al anoiii'
ally that must be traced To casual eAei'eio"'S'
which cannot perpetuate alienation.
A canvas for a Presidential election, IN some
respects more important, perhaps, than any since
1900. has recently begun The House Oh hep
resentatiyes was to be organized by majority,
while no party could cast more than piuraiity
of votes The gloom Of the late tragedy in Nlr-
GINA rested on the Capitol from the day when
Congress assembled While the two great po-
ltical parties were peacefully, lawfully, and con-
additionally, though zeaousiy, conducting 'he
great national issue between Tree LABOR ahu cap'
tai labor for the Territories to ITS proper soiu-
ton. though the trials OF the ballot, operating III
rectly or indirectly on the various departments
of the Government, band of exceptional men,
COMBINATIONS equally of that great question and
of the parties To the controversy, ana il'pa''eh'
of the constitutional system which confines the
citizens Of every State To political acton by SUI
frage i'm organized parties within their own Dor
ders inspired by an enthusiasm peculiar TO thein-
selves, and exasperated by grievances and wrongs
that some OF them had suffered by Inroads Oh
armed propagandsts Of Slavery in Kansas, I'M
lawful as their own retaliation was attempted 10
subvert Slavery in Virginia by conspiracy, am
bush, invasion, and force. The method we nave
adopted, for appealing to the reason and JUG
ment Of the people, to be pronounced by sui
frage, is the only one bv which free government
can be maintained anywhere, and the only one
a vet devised which is in harmony with the
sprit Of Christian religion. While generous and
charitable natures will probably concede that
John Brown and his associates acted on earn
est though fatally erroneous convictions, yet an
good citizens will nevertheless agree that this
attempt to execute an unlawful purpose IN Nir'
Rinia by invasion, involving servile war, was on
act Of sedition and treason, and criminal to just
the extent that it affected the public peace, anc
was destructive of human happiness and human
hfe
Il is a painful reflection that, after so long al
experience of the benefccnt working OF our sys
tenn as we have enjoyed, we have had these new
illustrations in Kansas and Virginia Of the exist
ence among us Of u class OF men so misguided
and 50 desperate as to seek to enforce their pc
culiar principles by the sword, drawing after 1t
need for the further illustration by their punish
ment Of that great moral truth, especially appli
cable in republic, that they who take up the
sword as a weapon of controversy shall perish b.
tho sword. In the latter case the iainch'o'
deaths of so many citizens slain from an ambush
and BY surprise-a the more lamentable becaus
they were Innocent victims of a frenzy kinde'
without their agency, in far distant hres-th
deaths even of the offenders themselves, pitiabe
although necessary and just, because they acte'
under deiiriu",, which blinded their Judgment
to the real motive OF their criminal enterprise
the alarm and CONSERVATION naturally awakened
throughout the country, exciting tor the momeh
the fear that our whole SYSTEM with all It's sec'i
rites for life and liberty, was coming TO an EN-
"A fear none the more cndurab!c because conti
ually aggravated by new chimcras to which tn
L. of
surely all these constituted a sum OF public ms
cry which ought to have satisfied the most NOR
bid appetite tor social horrors. But, as in tn
case Of the gun-powder plot, and the Saler
witchcraft, and the New York colonial neSr
plot, so now; the original actors were swift
seSOllowed by another and kindred class, who souSi
to prolong and widen the public distress, by at
tempting TO direct the indignation which it ha
excited against parties gutless equally of com
plicity and of sympathy with the offenders.
Posterity must decide in all the recent case
where political responsibility for public disaster
must fall; and posterity must give little heed
our instructions. Ii was not until the gloom
reign Of Domtian had ended, and liberty AM
virtue had found assured refuge under the swa
of the milder Nerva, that the historian arOs
whose narrative of that period of tyranny am
terror has been accepted by mankind.
The Republican party being thus vindicate
against the charge OF hostility TO the South
which has been offered in excuse for the menac
Of unconstitutional resistance in the event OF 1t
success feel well assured that it will sustain IN
in meeting them in the spirit Of the defender @
the English Commonwealth
"surcly they that shall boast DO to he a fee
nation and having the power shall not also have III
courage, TO remove constonaliy every Governor whe
er he 10 the supeme subordinate, may please thel
fancy With ridiculous and painted freedom, III 20 coz.
bah but, indeed, under tyranny and servitude a
wanting that power which the root and source OF a.
liberty, To dispoe a; AMI economic in the land whic
God hath gwen them members of family in their
home and free inheritance; without which natural an
essential poser Of free nation, though bearing hig
their heads they in due esteem be thought no bet
than slaves and yasss born in the tenure and
patton Of another inheritiug lord whose government
though not Illegal or ino,erable. bangs on them rs
lordiy scourye, not a. a free government"
The Republican party knows, "a the Who'll,
country will ultimately come TO understand, tina
the noblest objects OF national LIE must perish
if that life itself shall be lost, and therefore i
will accept the issue rendered. IL will take w
the word Union, which others are SO willing t,
renounce, and, combining it with that other glo
rious thought, Liberty, which has been its nspi
ration 50 long, it will move firmly onward, will
the motto Inscribed Or lis banner, "CNIoN ans
LIBERTY, come what may in victory as in defeat
in power as cut of power, now and forever"
If the Republican party maintain the Union
who and what party is to assail it? Only the
Democratic party, for there is no other. vii
the Democratic party, take up the assault: The
menaces OF disunon are made, though no; in its
name, yet in lis behalf II must avow or disa-
vow them. Its silence, thus far, is portentous