The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-03-21

on's death on the eallows. In my Judgment
John Browns execution was just aud proper
; loud and continued applause.) 1t was fit
ting termination to lawless and wicked life
(Applause.) But his blood, and the blood OF
his victims, stain the skirts and rest upon the
souls of the men whose teachings led to this
deplorable result. (Applause.)
The United States contains 25,000,0 900 of
people, inheritors by an illustrious lineage of
the rights and blessings of freedom. Shall
the Constitution, which secures these blessings,
be violated, the Union dissolved, and liberty
receive deadly wound, because three millions
of an inferior race held in ininvoluntarily SER
vitude by men over whom we have no control !?
Shall the stars and stripes, the only emblem of
freedom kissed by the breezes of heaven, be
torn from its standard because it floats over the
cotton fields and sugar plantations of the slave
holders? As well may we of the North be
turned out of the American family, and de-
prived of the. benefits resulting from the fed
eral union, because cruelty and oppression are
not suppressed and eradicated from our portion
OF the country. AS good citizens, as men to
| whom has been entrusted Tor rational use and
unimraired transmission the blessings of free
dom, it is clearly and Enthusiastically our duty
so to act as to secure in the aggregate the
greatest amount of good which flows from free
government, liberal institutions and christian
faith. (Applause.) The man who merges the
enlightened citizen in the partizan reformer,
and sacrifices even the least of those principles
of liberality and justice, which are the bonds
of social and political Union, sinks the man in
the fanatic, and loses sight of the true princi
Piles of human progress Then let the consti-
tuition be observed and supported in all its
parts-let one of the guarantees of that
compact be disregarded, for "whatever link
you strike, tenth or ten thousardth, breaks the
chain alike
To fulfill the destiny of the United States;
and complete the designs of the Almighty, the
Union must be preserved. (Applause.)
The physical condition Of this country, its
vast territorial extent, covering the whole tenn
perate zone, and circling half the globe, its
immense quantity of unoccupied lands, only
waiting for the hand of industry to be CONVEX
ted into farms and gardens, towns and cities,
and filled with the high-minded men that con-
stitute a State,-the circumstances of its
original colonization which favored the intro
duction of men, deeply imbued with the prin-
ciples of civil and religious liberty, the alb
sence Of these political errors and oppressive
forms of government which date back to u !
barbarous age, and repress the noblest instincts
of humanity these conditions indicate that
the United States and the Anglo-Amercah
race have been set apart and corsecrated by a
divine appointment to be the theater and the
agent whereby the great experiment of mans
capacity for self-government may be fairly and
triumphantly tested
If we shall preserve and dedicate the whole
continent and its adjacent islands to the pur-
poses of this magnificent trial, we shall doubt
less act in harmony with heavens design, and
speed the time when the doctrine of equal
rights and universal brotherhood will be every
where recognized, and the United States be
come the Mecca Of mans political pilgrimage. |
The Union VIII not be dissolved. (Applause.) |
The genius of constitutional liberty may, like |
Samson on the bosom of Delilah, slnmber
awhile in the lap of prosperity; but it will
never permit mortal mistress to sever the
cords of confederation, in which its great
strength lies. And VIXEN the startling cry
goes forth, "The Philistines be upon the" it |
will rise in the full possession of its wondrous
powers, and repel the combined assaults OF
bigotry and fanaticism.