Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-01-18
GEN. eAsS TEsTIMoNY-HIs ESTIMATE OF
"FANATICISM."

GEN. GAss TESTIMONIALS ESTIMATE OF
''FANATICISM."
Senator Clingman, in his disunion speech on
Monday, quoted the remark made by Gen.
Cass in conversation in 1856 :-"They say
Kansas created this excitement; butte hundred
Kansas bills could not have produced it.
These people mean to liberate your slaves
You may not think they are fanatics, but the
misfortune is they are ignorant fanatics" 10
what people Gen. Cass applied the remark is
not clearly stated. Mr.. CGngman applies it
without reservation to the masses of the free
states. Other representatives of pro-slavery
eminent have not been willing to accept even
The apology of ignorance; but assume that
the fanaticism of the north is an intelligent and
mali CANT demon, which it is sacriege to name
without cursing- They agree, however, with
Mr.. Cass in. the fact, while they differ from
him in regard to the quality, of our fanaticism,
1t is undoubtedly true that multitudes of
northern men whose sympathies are on the
right side, and who really believe that the gov
ernment is debased and degraded by its COM
plicity with oppression, have been confused
by the din and clamor which has been raised
against us, and half believe that all political ac-
ton contemplating new policy, is revolution
airy and destructive, and is to be discouraged
by every means at their command.
n the outset and beginning of all great
NOV ements, rash, imprudent, transcendental
persons take advantage of popular feeling and
rush into unnecessary perils without any prop
er calculation of results. Sometimes, if they
are engaged in good and just causes, they are
important agents in the work of reform, and
deserve to be judged with frankness and dis
elimination. In other cases, if they are not
under the impulse OF moral convictions, nor
re strained by sincere and well-regulated re-
gard for truth, they are the marplots of the
work into which they thrust themselves, and
deserve to be disowned and denounced by the
prudent multitude who are seeking out sure
and peaceful way of victory. In either case,
fanaticism cannot be organized. 1t is not gre
garious in its nature, and its nature cannot be
changed. Crowds of people may be imposed
upun, and induced to engage in wild enter
prises for the sake of apparent gain; but the
imposition is temporary, and the master-tanat-
les reap bitter harvest of penalties for the
part which they take in it. But neither the
one kind of fanatcism nor the other fourishes
among thinking and intelligent people, who
believe in the efficacy of reason an instru-
m entality of progress, who are maintained by
industrial and commercial pursuits-each man
and each family for themselves-which are
dependent for their chief prosperity on just
governments and the prevalence of public or
der and peace. This denunciation of fanati-
cism against such people is simply an absur-
dity. Regard for their self respect forbids
that they should engage in any skirmish of
epithets beyond this. The statement of Gen.
Cass. if indeed it was not fabricated for the
occasion, may charitably stand as an example
of the marvellous obliquity into which men
m ay wander who have fallen behind the light
and purpose of their times.
The organized political sentiment of the
free states, SO far as it relates to public affairs
is to-day, the only defensive, protective, con
servative force upon which the hopes of the
country can safely rest The men who have
undertaken to familiarize the public mind with
Disunion, did not take their lessons of political
wisdom from the Republican party. 1t stands
before the country to-day with an undefiled
record-the only political party which is unit
ed in defence of the Union, and of liberty in
the Union. In Difference to the sentiments
prevailing in other sections it has hesitated to
plant itself OH the valid ground that slavery
has no rights beyond the jurisdiction of local
law. But even if it were not so and if it had
demanded from the beginning that the inefia-
Bile disgrace of slave hunting should be exter-
minated in every free state in the Republic,
the party whose champions have been suffered
to advocate disunion and civil war without re-
Duke could not have had cause for complaint.
The question of personal liberty, like other
questions of domestic and state concern has
been left to the ordinary processes of legisla.
ton, and in the credit of whatever has been
done, or left undone, the party itself has had
no share.
The rapid approach of the presidential cleo
stion, gives to these speculations an interest
peculiar to the time. Will the Republican
party be turned from its wise and conservative
purposes for the sake of appeasing the frenzy
of men who are hostile to it or will it abide
firmly by its principles, and await the just
Judgment Of events The result cannot be
very doubtful. In the probable event of sue
cess, the only confusion would fall upon those
who have encouraged hostility and treason to
the existing government. And they will be
glad to escape with such punishment as Jeffer-
son administered to his excited opponents up
on his first election to the presidency. "If
there be any among us" said he, "who would
wish to dissolve this union, or change its re-
publican form, let them stand undisturbed as
monuments of the safety with which error of
opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left
free to combat it p
MUDsrLE DEMocRAcY.--Whent the slave.
holders first began to intimate that poor white
laborers ought to be reduced to the condition
of chattel slavery, it was well nigh impossible
to believe they we're seriously in earnest. But
they actually mean it; this southern notion is
A.. oI4.... Al.