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

md that the States may separate when
hey have. or fancy they have, cause for
var. But once try to subvert it. and you
ill find that it is a government Of the
Y hole pe0ple-as individuals, as we'll asa
OF States: that every individual
member Of tie body polite - conscious OF
ms interest and power ia 1t, add kuows
hat he will be helpless, when it shall have
gone down.
Mankind have a natural right, natural
instinct, and natural capacity for self
government; and when, as here, they are
sufficiently ripened by culture, they will
and must have self government, and no
other. The trainers of our Constitution.
with wisdom that surpassed all previous
among men, adapIed il 10
these inherent elements of human nature
He strangely, blindly misundersiands the
anatomy of the great system. who thinks
that its only bOuds, or even its strongest
ligaments, are the written compact or even
the multiplied and throughly ramified roads
and thoroughfares Of trade, commerce aud
social intercourse. These are stroug, in
deed, but its chiefest instruments Of cohesi-
on those which render il inseparable and
indivisible-are the millions of fibres Of
millions of cOntented, happy human hearts.
binding by their affections their ambitions
and their best hopes equally the high and
the low, the rich and the poor, the wise snd
the unwise, the learned aud the untutored,
even the good and the bad, 10 government
the first, the last. and the only such one
that has even existed, which takes equal
heed always Of their wants, their wishes
and their opinions aud appeals TO them all,
individually, once in s year, or in two
years, or at least in four years. for their ex-
II must cease No, 90 where You will, and
TO what class you may, with commissions
| for your fatal service in one hand and yonr
bounty counted by the hundred or the
thousand pieces OF silyes in the other,
thousand resisters will rise up for every re-
cruit you can engage. On the banks equal.
| ly of the 81. Lawrence and Of the Rio
Grande, on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts,
on the shores OF the Gulf OF Mexico and IN
the dells OF the Rocky Mountains, among
The fishermen on the banks of NewfOund
and. the weavers and spinners of Massa-
chusetts, the stevedores Of New York, the
miners of Pennsylvania, Pixies Peak and
California, the wheat growers Of Indiana.
the cotton and the sugar planters Cd the
Mississippi, among the voluntary citizens
from every other land not less than the ma
Two born, the Christian and the Jew, among
the Indians on the prairies, the contumaci-
Gus MOrmons in the Desert, the Africans
| free, the Africans IN bondage, the inmates
Of Hospitals and almhouses, and even the
criminals in the penitentiaries, rehearse the
story OF your wrongs and their own, never
so elOquently aud never so mournfu ly, and
appeal TO them TO rise They will ask you
els this alif" Are you more Just than
/ Washington, wiser than Hamilton, more
/ humane than JeffersoD2" "What new form
of government or of Union have you the
power to establish, or even the cunning TO
.levise, that will be more Just, more safe,
more free more benihcent, more glorious
than thisI' And by these simple interro-
gatOries you will be silenced aud contour
ded. Mr.. President, We are perpetuallY
forgetting this subtle and complex, yet OBJ
vicus and natural mechanism Of our consti
tuition. and because we do forget il, We are
continually wondering how il Is that con
federacy of thirty and more States, cover
} ing regions so vast, and regulating interests
) SO various of so many millions of men, con
: stiuted and conditioned so diversely, works
| right on. We are continually looking to
J zee it stop and stand still, or fall suddenly
into pieces. But, in truth, it will not stop;
7 1t cannot stop; it was made not to stop, but
to keep in motion-in motion always, and
/
? wonderful machine, when il had newly
como from the hands of its almost divine in
T ventors. was the admiration of my earlier
; years, although il was then but inperfectly
known abroad. so now, when il forms the
: central figure In the economy of the wei Ids
r civilization, and the best sympathios OF
r mankind favor It's continuance, | expect that
= it will stand and work right on, until men
shall fear its failure no more than we APP
; prehend that the SUI will cease 10 hold It's
eternal place in the heavens Nevertheless.
} | do not expect to see this purely popular
; though majestic system, alwsys working or
unattended by the presence and exhibition
of hnman temper and human passions -
That would be to expect to enjoy rewards
J benefits, aud blessings, without labor, care.
and watchfulness,-an expectation contrary
; to divine appointment These are the dis
} cIplIne Of the American citizen, and be must
lnure himself toit. When, as now, greal
PoIcy fastened upon this country, through
Its doubts and fears. confirmed by its habis
] and strengthened by personal interests and
| ambitions, Is TO be relaxed and changed in
order that the nation may have its Just and
ltura AMI free developments, then. indeed
he winds of controversy are let loose
| up n Cs from all points of the political COM
pass; we see objects and men only through
mazea, nists, and doubtful and lurid lights:
the earth seems 10 be heaving under our
feet, and the pillars OF the noble fabric that
protects us, to be trembling before our eyes
But the appointed end of all this agitation
comes at last, and always seasonably: the
tumults of the people subside; the country
becomes calm once more; and then We find
that only our senses have been disturbed
} and that they have betrayed US. The earth
is firm as always before, and the wonderful
structure, for whose safety we have feared
so anxioGsly, now more firmly fixed than
ever, s''ll stands unmoved, enduring, and
immovable.