Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-03-02

here to dwell on any evidences of different
temper in the south; but we shall be content
with expressing our belief that hostility thai Is
not designedly provoked, and that cannot pI ,'p
voko retaliation, is an anomaly mar mus nus,
traced to casual excitements, WIich ea. 80;
nernatnate attenuation. A canvass for presl
dental election, in some respects aoe,,.
tant perhaps. than any since IoUV' nag IeCen.
lv ha.rnn rho House of Representatives vas
to no organ;zed by a majority, WINE no party
corId csst more than plurality OF votes Inc
vloom of the late tragedy IN virginia fes.eu
on the Capitol from the day "hch congress
assembled. While the TWO eieat poilue .
,,ort;as were peacefully, lawfully, and consttu-
tt;oranv though zealously, conducting the
LOT national issue between free labor and
aniraI labor for the territories to its proper So
Iniion. through the trials of the ballot operat-
ing directly OF indirectly, on the various de-
nartnents eff the government, a band OF excep-
tional men, contemptuous equally Of that great
question and of the parties Of the controversy,
and impatient of the constitutional system
which confines the citizens of every state to
political action by suffrage in organized parties
within their own borders, inspired by an en-
thusiasm peculiar to themselves, and exasper-
ated by grievances and wrongs that some of
them had suffered by inroads OF armed propa-
gandists of slavery in Kansas, unlawful as their
own retaliation was, attempted to subVert
slavery in Virginia by conspiracy, ambush, IN
vasion, and force. The method we have adopt
ed of appealing to the reason and Judgment
of the people, to be pronounced by suffrage, is
the only one by which free government can
be maintained anywhere, and the only one as
yet devised which is in harmony with the
Christian religion While generous and char
liable natures will probably concede that John
Brown and his associates acted on earnest
though fatally erroneous convictions, yet all
good citizens will nevertheless agree, that this
attempt to execute an unlawful purpose in Vir-
ginia by invasion, involving serylle war, was
an act of sedition and treason, and criminal IN
lust the extent that it affected the public peace,
was destructive of human happiness and
human life. 1t is a painful reflection that,
after so long an experience OF the benet-
cent working of our system as we have
enjoyed. we have had these new illus
trations in Kansas and Virginia of the ex-
istence among us of class of men so mis-
guided and SO desperate as to seek to enforce
their peculiar principles by the sword, drawing
after it need for the further illustration, by
their punishment, of that great moral truth,
especially applicable in a republic, that they
who take up the sword as a weapon of con-
troversy shall perish by the sword. In the
latter case, the lamented deaths OF so many
citizens, slain from an ambush and by surprise
innocent victims of frenzy kindled without
their agency, in far distant fires-the deaths
even of the offenders themselves, pitiabie, al
though necessary and just, because they acted
under delirium which blinded their judgment
to the real nature of their criminal enterprise
the alarm and CONSERVATION naturally awak-
ened throughout the country, exciting for the
moment the fear that our whole system, with
all its securities for life and liberty, was COM
q. oFN n .grat M
because continually aggravated by new Chi
meras to which the great leading event lent
an air of probability; surely all these
constituted a sum of public misery which
ought to have satisfied the most morbid appe-
tite for social horrors But, as in the case of
the gunpowder plot, and the Salem witchcraft,
and the New York colonial negro plot, so now;
the original actors were swiftly followed by
another and kindred class who sought to pro-
long and widen the public distress by attempt
ing to direct the indignation which it had ex-
cited against parties guiltless equally Of COM
plicity and of sympathy with the offenders.
Posterity will decide in all the recent cases
where political responsibility for public disas-
tiers must fall and posterity will give little
heed to our instructions. 1t was not until the
gloomy reign of Domitian had ended, and lib
erty and virtue had found assured refuge under
the sway of the midcr Nerva, that the histo-
rian arose whose narrative of that period of
tyranny and terror has been accepted by man.
kind. The Republican party being thus vindi-
Gated against the charge of hostility to the
south, which has been offered in excuse for the
menaces of unconstitutional resistance in the
event of its success, feel well assured that it
will sustain me in meeting them in the spirit
of the defender of the English commonwealth
''Surely they that shall boast do to be free
nation, and having the power shall not also have the
whether be the supreme subordinate may please
their fancy with ridiculous and painted freedom, fit to
cozen babies, but indeed under tyranny and serv
tude are wanting that power which is the ro9t ana
land which God hath given them, members of family
in their home and free Inheritance. Without which
natural and essential power of free nation, though
bearing high their heads they can in due esteem, be
thought better than slaves and vassas born in the
government, though not illegal ntolerabe, hangs
them lordly scourge, not as free government"
The republican party knows, as the whole
country will ultimately come to understand,
that the noblest objects of national lite must
PERISH if that life itself shall be lost and there
fore it will accept the issue rendered. 1t will
take up the word Union, which others are SO
willing to renounce, and combining it with
that other glorious thought, Liberty, which
has been its inspiration SO long, it will move
firmly onward, with the motto inscribed on its
banner, "UNIoN and LIBERTY, come what
may, in victory as in defeat, in power as out 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. Will the democratic party
take up the assault? The menaces of disunion
are made, though not in its name, yet in its
behalf 1t must avow or disavow them. Its
silence, thus far is portentous but is not alarm
ing. The effect of the intmation, if success
full, would be to continue the rule of the dem.
ocratic party, though a minority, by terror.
1t certainly ought to need no more than this
to secure the success Of the Republican party.
IT, indeed, the time has come when the
democratic party must rule by terror, instead
of ruling through conceded public conf
dence, then it is quite certain that it cam
not be dismissed from power too soon. Rul-
ing on that odious principle, it could not
long save either the constitution or public
liberty. But l shall not believe the dem
ocratic party will consent to stand in this DO.
slton, though it does, through the action of
Its representatives, seem to cover and sustain
those who threaten disunion | know the de-
mocracy of the north. know them now in
their waning strength. do not know pos
sibe dlsunionist among them all. / believe
they will be as faithful to the Union now as
they were in the bygone days when their ranks
were full and their challenge to the combat was
always the war-cry of victory. But, if it shall
prove otherwise, then the world will all the
sooner know that every party in this country
must stand on Union ground; that the Amer
lean people will sustain no party that is not
capable of making sacrifice of its ambition
on the altar of the country; that, although
aparty may have never much of prestige, and
never such traditional merit yet if be lacking in
the virtue of loyalty to the Union all its advan-
tages will be unavailing; and then obnoxious as
through long-cherished and obstinate prejudices,
the republican party is in the capital states vet
even there il viii advance like an army with ban
ners winning the favor of the whole people, and it
will he armed with the national cnnfdanca nd eup-