Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-12-08
WHOLE NUMBER 572.

~ is proclaimed alike by the voice OF Nature
and by that of Heaven.
Absolutsts cannot comprehend that q
people may be at the same time governed
and free. That there is--or ct least was
a state Of nature wherein every man did as
he liked, unless some stronger man com.
msnded and compelled him to do otherwise
IA time when t af M
'wnd In TIC woods the noble savage rAn'-- y,
they realize and admit but that genuine
Liberty should coexist with Property, Art,
Civilization, Refinement, Luxury, they can
not conceive. For how shall men enact
laws to curb their own appetites, restrlcs
their own pleasure, and doom themselves 10
starve and freeze within sight of bursting
granaTies and plethoric warehouses AS
well suppose the unclaimed tiger to play
gently with the calf, or the wolf to serve
faithfully as watchdog Of the shepherds
flock s
The eayil is not unnatural, but facts dis.
pose Of it. Switzerland has long enough
shown that a republic need not be an olgar-
chy that Slavey is not the true corner
stone Of the temple Of liberty but that
Liberty and Order, Freedom and Govern
ment, are perfectly compatible, aud that the
broadest aud firmest basis Of state Is a
generous and cordial recognition Of tbs
equal rights of all.
For the keystone arch Of Constitutional
liberty is general perception and assertion
that whatever is done by the legal majority
in republic is, In very practical sense,
| the act and deed Of ALL The citizen to day
acts upon bis conviction that particular
candidate ought not to be chosen President
or Governor, for reasons which to bis mind
are conclusive. He acts and votes In per-
feet sincerity aud in full accord with bis
convictions. But the candidate so opposed
Is nevertheless elected and now his rela-
tion to the community is radically changed.
he is no longer the candidate of a party, the
representative of an interest, the embod-
ment Of platform: be Is the chief magis.
trate of people, and as such must be re.
! garded 7and, ,obeyed. 1t is an essential condi-
tion of the political fabric that shelters and
protects US all that he should be. Next
year, next cycle, be may be again candi-
date, and as a candidate may be opposed by
thousands who yield him oil requisite obedi-
ence and respect as ruler. And thus
a true republic, however democratic, is ons
Of the very strongest political fabrics. be-
cause so broadly based. Let its elected
chief be regarded but as the head of his
party, and oil tumbles into South America
or Mexican couvulsion and anarchy. Re-
gard him as the constitutional and rightfnl
ruler, not merely of those who voted for
him, but those who voted against him as
well, and all is peace and security.
The imminent peril of the American
Union to-day inheres in the danger that
those who have just achieved a great aud
benefcent triumph either will not realize
or will not trust in this vital truth.
Abraham Lincoln is the rightful. constitu-
tional President not Of those States that
voted for him merely, but of oil the people
of the United States. On the 4th of March
next, he will be just as much President and
entitled TO obedience in South Carolina as
in Vermont, in Texas as in Minnesota. he
is to be throughout the Union respected
and obeyed as President because be has
been elected to that post, and because this
election makes such obedience every citizens
duty, and every good citizens pleasure. To
| tamper with the spirit of rebellion is to pan
der to it to seek to placate it is to retreat
! before it and invite it 10 pursue. Mr. Lin-
coins diguifed il not Indignant refusal to
plead at its bar, his 6xed purposes only
when be may speak at once with propriety
and with authority, is among the many
proofs of his fitness for the high station to
which the People have called him.
None Of those who are now engineering
the disunion conspiracy profess either anx-
iety to hear from him, or interest 10 what
he may utter. They almost universally
treat his election as the opportunity merely,
4 - Il. -.
sion None of them speak as though even
the most abject supplications from the FREQ
states the most unqualified protestations
that they herefter eviuce great alacrity la
slave catching, would avail. The original
/ hearty diSunioniSts want to establish Mill
tary Republic on the Spartan model--a re-
public based on Slavery, upholding and
prosecuting the African Slaye-Trade, aud
making war on Mexico and Central Ameri.
ca for new provinces to exhaust, as well as
fomeutiug innumerable petty wars in Afri-
ca whereby to procure the black saVages
] wherewith to exhaust them. Hence the
leading Dsunionists look with dsfavOr
on the very sympathies expressed for their
movement by the more northerly Slave
States they do not want negro-breeding
| States IN their new cotton confederacy, lest
their darling scheme Of reopening wide the
dood-gates of diabolism on the African
coast should be embarrassed if not defcat.
ed. Were every Slave State ready to So
cede with them tomorrow, they would re-
gret the accession of Virginia and her less
merciful sisters as clog on their enterprise,
a dalnper on their cause.
Let it be everywhere thundered, then.
that the present and fearful peril of the re-
publican cause Compromise -that conces-
sions to save the Union are themselves the
source of the greatest danger to the Union.
No State but South Carulina really wanta
to leave the Union but dozen States
will GLADLY make her contumacy lever
whereby to move the North from It's upright
position. Let Virginia believe that, by
threatening to dissolve the Union, she may
frighten the Free States into waiver Of
4 further resistance TO Slavery Extension,
anL she will make the demand, declaring
that refusal will send her into the seceS-
| sion camp and, having presented that nj
t;u.afn,., tla nrida of cODsiStency will con-