The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1860-03-13

al States vet even there il viii advance Ike Al
,rrny with banners, winning the favor oil TIE I
whole people, and /, viii be armed with the na-
tional confidence and support, when 1t shall be
found the only party that defends and maintains :
the integrity OF the Union.
Those who seek to awake the terrors Oh ci--
union seem TO NE to have too hastily considered
the conditions under which they are TO MAKE
their attempt. Who believes that a Republican
Aduini.,ration and Congress could practice tyr
anpy under a Constitution which interposeS so
many checks as ours? Yet that tyranny must
not only be practiced, but must be intoierao!e,
and there must be no remaining hope for constr
tu.ional relief before forcible resistance can LnI
ground to stand upon anywhere.
The people of the United States, acting IL
conformity with the Constitution, are the So
preme tribunal to try and determine all political
Issues They are as competent 10 decide the
issue of tomorrow a. they have been heretofore
TO decide he issues OF other days. They can
reconsider hereafter and reverse, IT need be, NE
Judgment they shall pronounce to-day, a. they
have more than once reconsidered ana re'eFFeH
their judgments in former times. IL needs no
revolution 10 correct any error, or prevent any /
danger. under any circumstances.
Nor i any new or special cause for revolution |
likely 10 occur under Republican Admih!5tr'-
tion. We are engaged in no new TRANSACTION,
M, even in "A new dispute. Our fathers under |
,oo,, - Great work for themselves, for US, and for
our succcssors-to erect a free and Federal EN-
nire whose arches shall span the North Amerl- !
can continent, and reflect the rays OF the sun
throughout his whole passage from one 10 the
other of the great oceans. They erected thir-
teen OF it, columns all at once These are stand
| ing now, the admiration Of mankind. Their sue
cessors added twenty more; even we who are
In 1rl pfnvqtaI
,xentv and all these are AZ firm and steadfast az
the first thirteen; and more will Vet be necessary
when we shall have rested from our lahors.-
Some among Us prefer for these columns com
poste material; others the pure white mar'le
| Our fathers and our Predecessors dt"reh ~ the
same war, and on the same point. What exc
crations should We not AL unite in prcnrunclnE
| ON any statesman who heretofore, from mere DIS
appointment and disgust at being overruied IN
his choice Of materials, for any column then 10
be quarried, should have laid violent hanG' on
the imperfect structure. and brought 1t down '"
the earth, there to remain wreck, instead ot
citadel of a worlds best hopes.
Il remain now in the opinion have uniformly
4 expressed here and elsewhere, that these hasty
threats of Disunion are 80 unnatural that they
, will find no hand to execute them. We are OF
/. one race language liberty, and faith; engaged,
indeed, in varied industry; but even that INDUS
try, so diversified, brings Us into more intimate
relation with each other than any other people,
! however homogeneous, and though living under
, a consolidated Government, ever main;a'3"d
We languish throughout if one Joint OF our
Federal frame Is smitten; while It "a certain
that part discovered must perish. You may
refine as you please about the Structure ut tn"
Government, and say that 1t Is II compact, ana
) that n breach by one OF the states or ny Con
1 i L. L.. ..fa.Fs :
A bers from allegiance, and that the States may
t separate when they have. or fancy they have
q cause for war. But once try to sUbvert H. and
n YOU will find that it i a Government OF the
whole peoplc--a4 individuals, a. well rs com
n pact of States; that every individual member o
=; the body polite j. conscious of his interest and
v power in it, and knows that he viii be helpless
: powerlcss and hopeless, when it shall have gone
d down Mankind have natural right, a naura
:, instinct, and n natural capacity for seli-govcrlI
a ment; and when, as here, they are sufficiently
/ ripened by culture they will and must have sell
l. government, and no ether. The trainers ct ou
e Constitution, with wisdom that surpassed al
y previous understanding among men, adapted i
h He strangely, blindly misundcrstands the ar.ato
e my of the great system, who thinks that its onl,
d bonds, or even its strongest ligamcntS, are Tia
&c written compact of the multiplied and thorough
:, lly ramifed roads and thorouChtares OF trade
d commerce and social intercourse. These are
Is strong, indeed, but its choicest instruments o
;; cohesion-those which render it inseparable an'
d ndvsible--are the millions CT fbrcs of millions
1t of contentcd, happy human hearts, binding b.
l. their affections, their ambition and their bcs
d hopes equally the high and the low, the rich an'
l. the poor, the wise and unwisc, the learned ant
&c the untutOred even the good AMI the bad, to
Government, the first, the last and the only suc
s. one that has ever existed, which takes equa
r heed always of their wants, their wishes an'
lie their opinions; and appeals to them all individ
m ualy, once in year, or in two years. or at ieas
% in four years for their expressed consent and ~
y newal, without which IL must cease. No, e
1t where you will, end to what class YOU may, viii
T. commissions for your fatal service in one hand
d ana your bounty counted by the hundred or tht
J. thousand pieces Of silver in the other, thou
sand resistcrs viii rise up for every recruit yo'
IS can engage. On the banks equally OF the 81
rs Lawrence and the Rio Grandc, on the Atlantic
% and the Pacific coasts, on the shores OF the Gul
y of Mexico and in the dcs of the Rocky Noun
d tains, among the fishermen Of the banks OF New
y ioundland, the wcavers and spinners OF Massa
&c chusettes, the stevedOres of New York th,
d miners OF Pennsylvania, Pixies Peak and Cali
fornia, the wheat-growers of Indiana, the cotton
a and the sugar planters on the Mississippi anon:
J, the voluntary citizens from every other land no
e less than the native born, the Christian and th'
Is jew, amoag the Indians on the prairics, the con
e tumlcious Morrnons in the Desert the Africans
u free, the Africans in bondage, the inmates @
Hospitals and Almshouses, and even the Grimm
e ais in the Penitentiaries, rcheagse the story o
lie your wrongs and their own never so eloquent,
: and never so mournfully, and appeal to them I,
n rise. They will ask you, as this all?" "Ar,
you more just than Washington, wiser thar
u Hamilton, more humane than Jefferson? What
n new form of Government or of Union have YOU
d the power to establish, or even the cunning &c
h devise, that will be more Just, more safe more free
, more gentle, more beneficent, or more glorious
I, than this:" And by these simple interrogatores
a you will be silenced and COMPOUNDED
Mr.. President, We are perpetually forget
e ting this subtle and complex, vet obvious
It and natural, mechanism of our Cons,itu.
!, hon; and because we DO forget it, are
i continually wondering how it is that a Con
p fcdcracy of 80 or more States, covering regions
so vast, and regulating interests so various OF
> many millions OF men, constituted and cond
i toned so dversely, works right on. We are
b continually looking to see it stop and stand STILL
1 and full suddenly into pieces. But, in truth, il
!, will not stop; it cannot stop; it was not made
to stop, but TO keep in motion--in motion al
, ways and without force. For my own part, as
e this wonderful machine, when it had newly como
l from the hands of it, almost divine inventors
c was the admiration of my earlier years, although
5 it was then but impertectly known abroad, SC
now, when it forms the central figure in the
. economy of the worlds civilization, and the best