The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1861-06-27

pushed along by the rusn or our own sym
pathles, and by the irresistible march of
events. into an attitude politically neces-
sary but morally dangerous which, how
ever it may be defended by reasons of
state, policy, is hardly to be vindicated as
in harmony essentially with the genius of
Christianity, and its great law of Love-
If such feeling has not yet arisen in any
minds, we may anticipate that it will do
SO, almost as matter of moral necessity !;
and that some who desire to be at the
same time patriots and Christians will feel
themselves seriously troubled and per-
picked by it.
1t will be well, therefore, for all such
persons to 60 back at once to the prima-
ry question with which we started, and
to answer that clearly to their own salts
faction before going further, for this is
the question which underlies the whole
subject, and according to the answer we
give to it will be the subsequent decisions
we arrive at This is a war-if indeed
that name is at all with proprlety to be
given to it-not Of aggression, not of am
bltion, but in literal truth of selfpreserv-
alton. 1t is organized and conducted, on
the part of the Government, for the one
sole purpose of repressing rebellion, and
maintaining and confirming, for all time
to come, our national life and national
unity. 1t has been shown, by the failure
of all other and different agencies to Sc
cure the same end, to be the oaly means
practicable and adequate fer the accom-
plishment Of this. And SO, as last and
an cfectual resort, with sad but austere
and determined purpose, this means has
been adopted and as soon as the end
thus sought has been realized, the war
will cease as matter of course, by It's
own limitation Would this nation then
be justified, would the Government which
leads and represents the nation be justl-
fed, in yielding to the vehement and
deadly assault made upon it, and surren-
dering its life and unity as nation, with
out such resistance? Would it be justl-
fed, in other words, IN allowing its very
being to be sacrificed, when it might have
protected Itself if it would, by calling out
and marshalling Its military array?
! That nations as we'll as persons have
the primary right of self-preservation,
seems plain at first sight. The statement
of the proposition is its complete demon,
stration. They have no other rights
whatever, if they have not this. But
further than this every thoughtful mans
mind must carry him at once. The pre-
servatior of his individual life against the
assault of treacherous malice is a duty
which every man owes to himself, to the
circle of those dependent upon him, to
the whole community of which he is a
member. But if he chooses not to defend
himself, but to allow his life to be destroy
ed by the dagger of the assassin or the
bl1dgeon of the rufian, the loss to socie-
tY, to history, to the world, is compHra
lively slight. The waves of life close
over him again with sad promptnsss,
and hardly blood stain remains on the
surface to mark the spot where he went
down. But the relations of Nation or
ganizcd and placed as oars Is, powerful,
free, intelligent, Christian, with noble
Past, a commanding position, opportunity
to bless the whole world by its influence,
! its relations are with the earth with the
whole inter connected family Of Man
with the ages of the Future, and their
purer civilization; with the glorious eras
of millennium itself. Blot this Nation
out of existence now, allow it to commit
virtual suicide by yielding without suf-
! fcient resistance to the treacherOus ruff
fanism that now strikes with desperate
haste at its life, and the Race would at
once feel the shock Every tribe on
earth would be darkened in its prospects
and hindered on its way toward purity
and peace, by that dire catastrophe. The
crash of that tremendous destruction
would shake the whole frame of Human
Society. The issues of that tremendous
folly, and yet more tremendous crime.
would record themselves in the blurred
and bloodied annals Of each heathen ma
tior now reached by our missions, and Of
each Christian nation now helped and
made hopeful by the great inspirations Of
our example,. This nation suffer itseli
/, to be destroyed, without resistance =
This nation consent to its own murder by
traitorous hands, and SO virtually change
that murder into drear and colossal su
icide? 1t would be not merely to throw
itself against all the purposes of God as
revealed in its history, and against al
the instincts of its own highest wisdom
and most cultivated faith it would be tc
put back the worlds progress by centu
ries, and to suffer deed, and assist it by
the suferance, over which the heavens
might we'll gather in gloom, and beneath
which the solid ribs of the earth might
we'll tremhle and oroan