Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1860-02-07

NO. Y liz
questions are questions of political character
which never can be permanently settled in
free governments, except through representa-
tive bodies, and then in accordance with the
public conscience.
The question of slavery, as it relates to the
nation, falls under these general considerations
in remarkable manner. Thus, in the first
place, slavery was almost universal, and the
slave States the immense majority at the form
alton of the Federal Constitution. Now the
slave States are in a minority, their whole pop
ulation is minority, and that minority, both Of
States and people, is steadily becoming rea-
lively weaker. In the second place, there has
occurred a prodgious change in the value of
slaves aud of the product of their labor, as well
as in the state of public opinion on the subject
of slavery itself. At the formation of the Fed
eral Constitution there was no particular hos
tility to slavery in one section above another,
and no particular zeal for its extension and its
perpetuity in any section. But at present the
great majority in most of the slave States zeal
ously desire both the extension and the perpetu-
ity of slavery, and the almost unanimous popu-
lation of them regard it as SO completely invol-
we'd in the very fabric of society that no inter-
ference with it from without can be endured;
while the great mass of the people of the North
consider the institution positively evil, and an
immense party amongst them is organized on the
conviction that the interests of the free States
and of the white race are jeoparded by the
claims of the slave States, and their alleged con-
troll of tie Federal Government in the interests
of slavery-the repression if not the total ex-
tinction of which is what the South understands
them as seeking.
Nnyu Looking a tho fnaftpr IL this liOLt and
rejecting all pretexts, the solitary condition
which can satisfy the North is that the South
should claim nothing under the Constitution
which that Constitution, fairly interpreted, did
not always secure to her. And the solitary
condition which can satisfy the vital necessities
of every slave State is, that the Constitution
shall be so interpreted, and the Government so
administered, that it shall enjoy thesa peace,
security and equality of rights in the Union
which it would enjoy if were free State
What seems to me clear at present is, that no
such violation of either of these conditions has
yet occurred as to justify either party in pro-
ceeding to such extremities as would be iustifi-
able if had occurred. And it is equally clear
that the apprehension of an impending violation
of the rights of either party cannot justify sny
irregular, much less any extreme proceeding,
any further than may be necessary and efectual
to prevent that impending violation. Moreover,
the highest and most enduring interests of all
parties conspire with their sacred obligations,
binding them to act with mutual justice, good
faith and forbearance. But suppose the. domi-
nant party at the North to have already violat-
ed beyond endurance the solitary condition with
which the safety of the South allows her to be
satisfied; even then, it is the furthest possible
from being true that the secession of a portion
of the slave States, or tho disruption of the u
Mon on the slave line, is necessary, wise, or
even an allowable alternative. 1t is true the
States are sovereign States. But it is equally
true that the nation is a nation--the American
people people, Great nations cannot suddenly
disappear, like cloud of insects; nor do pow
erful nationalities fade n day, like the flower
of the grass 1t took the Roman Empire
thousand years to die; and the Hebrew nation
ality has survived through all the possible for
tune of four thousand years.
To rend nation in twain is a far more terri
BILE procedure than for nation to recover itself
by an internal struggle. Nothing can be more
certain than that slavery cannot be perpetuated
on this continent by means of the rending OF
this nation. With single nationality like Ours
internal struggles, no matter how often they
may occur, can never be greatly protracted and
can never fatally arrest the progress of society;
but in precisely sucE a case as ours, the perma-
nent rending OF the nation Is catastrophe, the
progress of which promises nothing so assuredly
as the mutual dissolution of both the parts, and
the end of which can produce nothing more Ger
tanly than the total defeat of the avowed OBJ
iect of its preparation. The firm determination
of every portion of the Union to maintain its
rights within the Union, under every extremity,
would soon put an end to all necessity for any
portion of it to elect between terrible means Of
doing so. 1t is the holding in reserve of this
idea of rending the nation, it is the weakening
of the idea of our glorious nationality that gl9es
vigor, if not existence, to so many ideas that
can escape being traitorous only by denying
that we are people or have any nationality
In the restoration of that great idea there IL a
moral force competent to save the country "
ordinary means, even in such q crisis as this;
or, if there is not, there is practical force Ia e
competent to save the country by arms whene'
| er law is silent and arms are the only RENE
1t is horrible to reflect that the children of til,
Revolution might be obliged TO shed each q,
er's blood How much more horrible to ST.
it in such manner that oceans of it could nev
er restore what we had destroyed, while evs.v
drop of it would be an eternal testimony agaIlst
our folly!
For my part am not ashamed to confess The
depth OF my love for my whole country and ,he
mingled sorrow and Indignation with which 4
witness every attempt to weaken amongst tho
people the sense or what We owe TO the mother
of US all. No people ever did anything glorious
who did not believe in GoD, who were not fa cb-
full to oaths, and who did not love their country.
When | reflect on what God has already done
for US, and already done by US for his own glory
and for the advancement of the human race
when | consider what our position and our in
fuence amongst the nations OF the earth must
be when we become hundred millions; when
try to appreciate the necessity of just such
Power on earth, and the majesty of its be af-
cent and irresistible exercise, my very heart
throbs with overpowing JOY and exultation tast
such destiny is reserved for my people, tha'
such refuge and Inheritance is kept in t'ga
for man. | thank God continually that the dust
of nv ancestors mingles with this soil; that II
hands of my kindred have labored on these ST.
lime monuments; that the valor of my frie ads
was part of the cost by which all has been
secured; and that the lot of the Inheritance Of
my posterity appertans to such land and To
such people, AS for the South, taken in its
widest sense, God has cast my lot there, and I
have been loyal to her; all the more loyal, that
have been neither blind to her errors nor igno-
rant of her perils AS for Kentucky, if have
left undone anything could have done for her
honor, her interest, or her glory, she knows how
ioyfully would redeem that lack of service
But still love my country still / am sn Amer
ican citizen. And deny, with uplitted hands,
the right of any Court, any President, auy Con-
Co., O..