Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-02-15
HOW sHaLL THE uN1oN BE pREsERyED

HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED.
The following article from the Democrat
printed at st. Louis, in the Slave State of
Missouri, we commend to the careful perusal
of our readers:
We are not of those who believe that the
Union is indestructble. Man can destroy
what man has made. He is as efficient in pull
ling down as in building up. The wrecks of
empires and of cities which were their seats
and centres; of systems, politics and sects,
which strew the old world and the old time,
illustrate this position but too clearly. In
deed, we might add that all great benifcient
organisms grow of themselves IN great mea-
sure, are the work of unconscious inspired
effort, while their overthrow or extirpation is
in most cases the work of violence; of an a.
gency wilfully destructive in its designs.
The American Government like any other
great organization, has been of slow growth
1t was not extemporised. 1t did not rise in
glory all of a sudden like Pandemonium. 1t
began with the first colonial settlements; was
consummated by the revolution, and was con-
solidated as it were, by the subsequent war
| with England. The revolution, be it observed.
was merely war of self defence on the part
of the colonies. England began to. put new
constructions on their charters, as the slave
propagandists are now putting on the Consti-
| tuition; the colonies resolved to maintain their
ancient rights, and the consequence was, that
the new attributes claimed by its advocates for
| the crown, were not only denied, but the
crown itself was disowned and cast out fOrev-
er. The struggle was for the preservation of
| immemo1able rights the innOvater and ag-
gressor was overthrown as the domestic inno-
vator and ,aggressor will be overthrown if he
| draws the sword. This WAS the extent of the
revolution. 1t was conservative and not de-
structive it was the vindication OF the just
relations between man and man, and between
1 I A.
lished in the most satisfactory manner the SOW
ereignity of the people. Yet, we believe the
Union can be destroyed in very short space
of time, however strongly we may believe that
the temple would be rebuilt very soon after.
We doubt very much whether the country
could escape civil war if the next President
should be like the incumbent and his prede-
cessor. Four years more of National Demo
cratic rule would inevitably produce revolt
They have had the possession and control of
the government for seven years in succession,
and what, We would ask, is the state of things
| to-day? Disorganization in one branch of the
law-making power, treason in the capital-in
the House, in the Senate, and even in the Ex-
ecutive Departments-treason in the Legisla-
lures and the press of all the sea-board cotton
States, from North Carolina to TeXas-mis-
sionaries of treason, like Memminger, going
about from one State to another with the view
of forming a compact for rebellion. Disunion
is threatened if the majority shall exercise the
right with which they are specially invested
by the Constitution. Men who cannot take
their seats in Congress until they have sworn
to obey the Constitution, utter treason in their
first Senatorial lispings. Now, the question
is, if seven years OF Democratic rule have
done SO much, will not the overt act be reach
ed-will not the traitors pass from theory to
practice, in four years more +? We say, with
solemn earnestness, that a civil war cannot Q
averted if the traitorous party known as the
National Democracy shall be entrusted with
the administration of the Federal Government
for another Presidential term. They are un-
derminng it from within, and conspiring o.
penly with its avowed and malicious foes out
side. They who administer it now, and they
who propose to destroy it, are brother parti-
sans-disunionists by their own confession.
They will tolerate its existence so long as it is
an engine in their hands, and source of emol-
ument and honor; but as soon as it shall ap
pear that they are to be deprived of their
trust, they will destroy it, as general blows
up the fortress which he is unable to hold in
the face of a victorious enemy. These are the
purposes which they avow in the Senate Cham
Der and the Hall of Representatives and yet,
with unparalleled, inyeterate blindness, they
demand to be continued in power. Pledged
enemies of the Government and the Union,
they are vain and rash enough to think that
the people are doltS enough to confde in them
for another term. The old fable of the wolf
asking to be placed as shepherd over the flock
were outdone, if the National Democracy
should be reinstated in power at the next
election. NO It is time 10 put the Govern
ment in the keeping of men who will preserve
| it and exercise its power in the interest, not
of faction and treason, but of patriotism /; who
will cherish the Union instead of mining it
from within, and inviting assaults upon it from
without; who will tolerate the expression of
| all opinion but who will not shrink from the
| duty of Furnishing every reasonable act. The
| prolongation of National Democratic rule
would curse the nation with slave code for
| the Territories, with the repeal of the laws
| prohibiting the African slave trade; and these
| in return would eXasperate the feeling of the
North to such degree, and produce such an
| agitation that the disunionsts would have a
] preteXt with their own people for taking the
final step-the step which they have medta-
| ted taking from the outset. Apart from the
everlasting disgrace which the free States
| would incur by letting the slavery propagan-
| dists triumph over them in the next election,
| there is really no way of averting civil war
no possible way of guarding against the i'm
| pending evil-eXcept by wrestling the powers
and sacred trusts of the nation from the i'm
| piouS hands which now hold them, and using
the one and guarding the other, agreeably to
the maxims delivered and the precedents set
by the fathers of the Republic.
A BROTH OF "a fellow named John
| E. Travis, but who assumed the names of Fer
guson, Hoyt, Waddam, and some half dozen
other aliases, was arrested at West Point, Ste
| phenson county, Illinois, by the Sheriff of
Boone county. on charge of having married
| two women in the latter county. He pretends
| to be ssreturned Californian with untold
| riches, and by his polite and winning manners,
| the SEQUEL shows, made great headway among
fhn lodi SC hoe haa raIio