Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-03-24
onrls.lsnl,y ana ps,rlotl.m.


government VIII SOOu WI VI tub very eHuS
for which It was instituted There must
be wisdom, reflection, and right feeling, and
machinery is only means Of exciting or of
exercising them There could be no -four
if there were no mill But what is a mill
worth without wheat to grind
No political results can be Of any per-
manent value which are gained by mere
management - which represent, not the
sober thoughts and moral convictions Of
the citizen, but the dexlerity and trick of
the adroit party-master. Every great po-
litical campaign, like that now advancing
upon us, should begin and proceed upon
sObriety of Judgment, and convictions bas-
ed upon intelligence. 1t is the duty Of
every Christian citizens to see to it that |
every voter in the land has the materials |
of truth before him And now is the time |
to act for the spread of that information !
which is indispensable to stable political
advance. Victories gained by mere excite
ment are like the bon6res that celebrate
them, mere transient flashes of light maxi
ing haste again to darkness. But the ad-
vance Of community in sound political
PRINCIPLES, in sentiment of Justice and
feeling of real sober regard for the public
! good. is like the advance of summer, which,
when it once touches our hemisphere, never
leaves it until its harvests are ripened, its
fruits matured, and its whole munifcence
perfected and garnered.
Let every Christian citizen consider
whether he is doing his part in the great
struggle that has now begun, for the unity
of states, and the stability of Federal Gov
ernment on the basis of Justice and Liber-
ty. God has blessed him in no ordinary
degree who is permitted to engage in the
evolution Of principles and the settlement
4 of policy, which is not second in impor-
tance to the very inauguration of the Gov
ernment
In such period, political indifference is
an immortality No man can be guiltless
who lends himself to wrong, or who neg
lects to give his whole influence to the right.
We make these suggestions just now be.
cause this is the seed-time not only of the
year, but of our political harvest. We
must aim at political harvest by the SOW
ing of right seed, in right places, rightly
prepared. Where are the seed sewers
Where are the men who have been for
years groaniug at the corruption of public
affairs Are you doing anything to remedy
it? Are you reasoning, circulating facts
7 and arguments addressed to mems sober
judgments?
D Where are the men who have, in public
) and secret, amented before God the wick
= edness of the times Now that the Pro-
violence Of God has brought around the
+ day and the means for the correction Of
+ such evils, are you securing the answer to
t your prayers by appropriate activity =? -
What must be thought of men who are hot
in the closet but cold at the ballot-box p
who are bold in lamentations over evil, but
] shy of practical reformatons
Now is the time for Work. The grass
s is springing under your feet F.; the leaves
are coming forth over your head Let
there be printed line circulated for every
: blade of grass, and page for every leaf
This is work for everybody. For men, fol
y workmen, for women, for youths The
> diffusion of knowledge is everybody'S bust
ness.
God has plowed the times in which We
: live, that men might cast good seed into
the burrows and in due season public or
der, regulated liberty, and impartial jus
tice shall reward your labor hundred fold
3 We shall have feeling enough by-and by
0 We shall have zeal in over.measure. We
+. shall have too much work then, when work
yields but little-after mems preiudices are
excited, their pride committed, a d The
: passions inhamed We must anticipate
and appeal to their reason before it is cloud
ed, and to their conscience before it is com
r mitted.
n There has never been any difficulty il
: rousing up the whole community, in pas
days, when great parties were arrayed
against each other upon questions of fsca
reform, financial schemes, banks, tariffs, anC
: such like questions of mere policy. Blu
It now the questions before US are those o
fundamental political principles. We ar,
called again to discuss and TO vote upor
the very principles for which our father
Is endured war, and gained victories. W,
/ are 10 give validity and authority to mora
principles which underie all equitable so
10 ceties or, to see them defeated through
our neglect. There is silent corruption
L going on which threatens to change tn
e very blood of our government. Anothe
ten years like the last ten, and our Court
will have silently revolutionized our Con
+ stitution Judicial Construction is purg
% ing our law of liberty, and putting an iroT
= rod into the hands of onr Constitution, will
!, which TO crush that very sanctity of human
4 4 right for whose protection it was ordained
4 The Supreme Court Of the United State
is an enemy of liberty, and the friend o
bondage. And, like great heart, it i
n sending out despotic blood through ever,
artery of the Government. Our evil is des
perate, our danger critical. If taken now
may be overcome If deferred, it will, by
and-by, demand hundred-fold exertion, o
else defy all effort. The slave-trade i
opened, and volcanic Africa again stream
lava upon our shores. The Court is pre-
pairing the way step by step, for the supre
macy Of slavery in every part Of this con
tinent. Already shameless merchants ant
renegade Christians, in New York, are pc
titiOning the Legislature to make this stat
a highway for slaves to travel.
Men are found at this late day deliber
stely asking that it may be legal and saf
for masters to bring slaves here ! This i