Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1860-03-15

even ~e who ore here have shaped and
elevated three OF that twenty, and al. these
are as firm aud as steadfast as the frat thir.
teen; and more will yet be necessary when
we shall have rested from our lsbors. Some
among US prefer Tor these columns o cons
posite mater al; others the pure white mar.
BILE. Our fathers and our predecessors dit
fered in the same way. and on the same
point. What execrations should we not all
unite in %pronouncing on airy s,atesnarf who
heretofore, from more disappointment and
disgust at being ovsrruled in his choice Of
materials for any new column then to be
quurried, should have laid violent hands on
the imperfect structure and brought il down
to the earth, there to remain a wreck, in
stead Of q citadel Of a worlds best hopes!
remain now in the opinion 7 have uui-
formly expressed here aud elsewhere, that
these has'y threats Of disunivn are 50 IN.
natural that they will find no hand to exc.
cute them. We are Of one race, language,
liberty. and faith; engaged, indeed, in var.
led industry; bu; even that industry, so
diversified, brings us into more intimate
relations with each other than any other
people, however homogeneous, and though
living under a consolidated Government,
ever maintained. We languish throughout
il one joint Of pr Federal frame is smitte n;
while it IL certain that a part disse sere6
mus, perish. You NAV refine as you please
about the structure OF the Government, and
say that il is a compact, and that a breach
by ne 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 wnr. But once try to subvert IL, and you
will ind that il Is a Government Of the
whole pee plc--as individuals, as well as a
compact of States; that every individual
member Of tie body polite is conscious Of
his interest and power in it, and knows that
he will be helpless, .powerless, hopeless
when 1t shall have gone down. Mankind
have a natural right, q natural instinct, and
a natural capacity for self-government; and
when, as here, they are sufficiently r%ipened
by culture, they will and must have self.
!, government, uad no other. The trainers o.
oui Constitution, with q wisdom that sur.
passed all previous understanding among
men, adapted it to these inherent element II
Of human nature. He strangely, blindly
misunderstands the anatomy of the grea'
system, who thinks that its only bonds, Of
even its strongest ligaments, are the writer
compact, or even the multiplied ant
thoroughly ramified roads and thoroughfarei
nf trade, and social intercourse
These ave strong, indeed, but its chic fes
instrum ents of cohesien-those which rem
der it inseparable and indlvisible-arc the
millions of fbers Of millions of contented
happy human hearts, binding by their afTec
lions, their ambitions and their best hopes
equally the high and the low, the rich ant
the poor, the wise and unwise, and learned
and the untutcred, even tho good and the
bad, to a Government, the first, the last ant
the only such one that has ever existed
which takes equal heed always of theil
wants, their wishes and their opinions; ont
appeals to them all. individually, once in q
year, or in two years, or at least in foul
years, for their expressed consent and re.
newal, without which it must cease. No
60 where you will, and to what class you
may, with commissions for your fatal ser,
vice in one hand, and your bounty counte ed
by the hundred or the thousand pieces o
silver In the other, a thousand reslsters viii
rise up for every recruit you can engage,
On the banks equally Of the ST.. Lawrence
and of the Rio Grande, on the Atlantic and
the Pacific COASTS, on the shores of the Gull
of Mexico and in the dells of the Rocky
Mountains. among the fishermen on the
banks Of Newfoundland, the weavers and
spinners OF Massachusetts,, the s,evedores,
of New York, the miners Of Pennsylva nia,
Pixies Peak and California, the wheat.
growers of Indiana, the cotton and the sugar
planters on tho Mississippi, among the
voluntary citizens from every other land not
less thu n the native born, the Christian and
the Jew, among the Indians on the p~rairies,
the contumacious Mormons in Deseret, the
Africans free, the Africans in bondage, the
inmates of hospitals and alms.houses, and
even the criminals in the penitentaries, re.
hearse the story of your wrongs and their
own never so eloquently and never SC
mournfu ", and appeal to them to rise,
They will ask you, rs this alp Are 20,
more just than Washington, wiser thar
Hamilton, more humane than Jefferdon?
What new torn of government or of union
have you the power to estsb lish, or even the
cunning to devise, that will be more Just
more safe, more free, more gentle, mort
beneficient. or more glorious than thisr Ant
by these simple in%ierrogatories you will b,
silenced and ronfounded,
Mr.. President, we are perpetual.y forget
ting this subtle and complex, yet obvious
and natural, mechanism of our Constitution
and because we do forget 1t, wa are contin
ually wondering how It is that a Confed
eracy Of thirty and more States. covering
regions so vast, and regulatin ing interests 8,
various Of so many millions Of men. cons,i
tuted and conditioned so diverse'y, work,
right on. We are continually looking Il
see it stop and stand still, or fall student,
into pieces. But, 10 truth, 1t will not stop
II cannot stop; il was not made to stop. bul
to keep in motion-in mutinn always, an,
without force. For my own part, as ,hi,
wonderful machine, when 1. had newl
anna from tho handa IF Ia .l.,o,, l;y;n.