Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1860-03-07


,nly as the organs o. every party do, and
must do in political system which obi
yes US TO act sometimes as partissDs, while
/ requires US always to be patriots and
statesman. Differences OF opinion, even
on the subject Of Slavery, with US ale POI
;itical. not social or personal differences.
There is It one diSunionist or disloyalIst
among u all. We are altogether uncon-
scious of any process of dissolution going
on among or around us. We have never
been more patient, and never loved the
OF other sections more, thas
now We bear the same-testinony for the
people around Us here, who, though 10 the 1
very centre where the bolt of disnnion /
must fall first and be most fearful in its ef- /
fects, seem never less disturbed than now. |
We bear the same testimony Ter all the
districts and States We represent The
people Of the North are not enemies, out
friends and brethren OF the South, faithful
aud true as in the days when death has
dealt his arrows promiscuously among
on common battle fields of freedom.
We will not suffer ourselves here to dwell
on any evidences Of different temper in
the South; but we shall be cORtsnt with
expressing our belief that hostility that is
not designedly provoked, and that cannot
provoke retaliation, is N anomaly that
must be traced to casual excItements which
cannot perpetuate alienation.
The Senator said of Mr.. John Brown:
The gloom OF the late tragedy 10 Virgin
Ia rested on the Capitol from the day when
Congress assembled. While thetwo great
political parties were peacefully. lawfully
aud constitutionally, though zealously,
conducting the great national issue be
tween free labor and capital labor for the
Territories to its proper solution, through
the trials of the ballot. operating directly
or indirectly on the various departments OF
the Government, a band Of exceptional
men. contemptuous equally of that great
question and Of the parties TO the contro-
( versy, and impatient of the constitutional
system which confines citizens of every
! State to political action by suffrage ia or
ganized parties within their own borders,
( inspired by an enthusiasm peculiar to
themselves and exasperated by grievances
and wrongs that some of them had suffered
by iuroads Of armed proposandists of Sla
very 10 Kansas, unlawful as their own re
talistion was, attempted to subvert Slave
ry 10 Virginia by conspiracy, ambush, in-
vasIon, and force. The method We have
adopted, of appealing to the reason and
I
by suffrage is the only one which free gov
eminent can be maintained anywhere, and
the only one as yet devised which is in
harmony with the spirit of the Christian
religion.
While generous and charitable natures
will probably concede that Johr Brown
and his associates acted on earnest though
fatally erroneous convictions, yet all good
-. a.
attempt to execute an unlawful purpose
in Virginia, by invasion, involving serviIe
war, was an act of sedition and treason and
criminal TO Just the extent that it affected
, the public peace, and was destructive Il
human happiness and human life 1t is a
painful reflection that, after so long m
experience OF the beneficent working O
our system as we have enj ,yed. we have haC
these new illustration in Kansas anC
! Virginia, of the existence among US of
class OF men so misguided and so desperate
as to seek to enforce theirpeeuliar principle
by the sword, drawing after it a field 70
: the further illustration, their punishment
, of that great moral truth. especially in
: republic, that they who take up the sworC
. as a weapon of controversy shall perish b,
the sword. In the latter case, the lamenLe,
: deaths of so many citizens slain from al
} ambush. and by suTprise-all the NOR
t lamentable because they were innocen
! victims of frenzy kindled without thei
agency, in far distant fires-thQ death
even of the offenders themselves, pitiable
although necessary and just, because the
acted under delirium, which blinded thei
/ judgments to the real nature of thei
} criminal enterprise; the alarm and con
: sternatiou naturally awakened througou
the country, exciting for the moment tn
fear that our whole system, with all il
securities for life andliberty was coming {.
an eDd-a fear none the more endurabl,
/, because continually aggravated by new
, chimeras to which the great leading even
lent air of probability, surely all thes,
r constituted a sum of public misery which
I ought to have satisfied the most morbiC
{ appetite for social horrors. But, as iu tn
case of the gunpowder plot, and the Saleu
4 witchcraft, and the New York colonial ne
| gro plot, so now; the original actors wer
swiftly followed by another and kindred
class, who sought to prolong and wide
the public distress by attempting to direc
the Indignation which it had excited agains
, parties guiltless equally of co implicitly am
Of sympathy with the offenders.
Posterity viii decide in all the recen
cases where political responsibility for pub
lie disasters must fall; nd poster - vii
give little heed to our instructions. 1t wa
; not until the gloomy reign of Dom1rIA
had ended, and liberty aud virtue ha,
found assured refuge under the sway of tn,
milder NERvA, that the historian aros
whose Narrative of that period of tyrann-
and terror has been accepted by mankind
The Senator closed with plea for tn,
Republican party, as the party of the Tn
ion, and a splendid tribute to the self sus.
tanning power of our system of government
He said J.:
The Republican party knows, as tn.
whole country will ultimately come to IN
derstand, that the noblest of national life
must perish. If that life itself shall be lost,
and therefore 1t will except the issue tender
ed. 1t will take up the word Union, which
others are so willing to renounce; aud
combining it with that other gloriou,
thought, Liberty, which has been its in
SEPARATION so long, il will move firmly on
ward, with the motto inscribed on its ban
ner, "USIoS and LIBERTY. come what may
IN victory as in defeat, in power as out o
power. now and forever"
II thC ucpuoiiCdu party UdlutAlD Jnt
Union, who and what party is to assail il,
Only the Democratic party, for there is nc
other. Will the Democratic Party take VI
the assault? The uenaces of Disunion are
made. though not in its name, yet in il.
behalf. 1t must avow or disavow them
Its silence thus far is portentious, but moi
alarming. The effect of the intimidation
if successful. would be to continue the
rule of the Democratic party, though mi
nority, by terror. 1t certainly ought "a
need no mere than this than to secure the
success of the Republican party. If, in
deed, the time has come when the Demo
cratic party must rule by terror, instead OF
ruling through conceded public confidence
then it is quite certain that it cannot be
dismissed from power too soon. Ruling
on that odious principle, it could not long
save either the constitution or public liber
ty. But shall not believe the DemOcra tic
party will consent to stand in this position
though it does, through the action of its
representatives, seem TO cover and sustain
those who threaten disunion. | know the
Democracy Of the North. / know them in
their waning strength. do no know a
possible disunionist among them all.
believe they will be as faithful TO the Uni
on now as they we're in the by gone lays
r