Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-25

mises. We are called on, in the name of
patriotism, to remember that the Constitu-
tion of our country was a compromise. I'M
fortunately it was; and to day we reap the
harvest of such seed; to-day we may read,
unless Secession has robbed us of self
possession, that those who begin with the
compromise of Principle have given them
selves to the tolls of glittering, bright
eyed, golden. scaled serpent, which must
inevitably crush them at last. See, before
you, Americansl the consequences of COM
promise proposed and accepted, in the weak
ness, dissolution and death whereinto the
nation is plunged from the graceful eddies
and whirls of compromised
Now let us turn into the past and consider
an instance and lesson of another kind; an
instance of compromise proposed and
rejected, and the consequences of the same.
Here is the compromise proposed:
The Devil taketh him into an exceeding
high mountain, and showeth him all the
Kingdoms of the world and the glory of
them; and saith unite him all these things
will give thee if thou wilt fall down and
worship me "
Ard here is the compromise rejected:
"fhen said Jesus Get thee behind me
Satan.'n 3
And finally here are the consequences
when the Devil leaveth hun, and behold
angels came and ministered uuto him"
MY friends, II is only in crystals that one
sees plainly, any mingled substance which
is interior. You can not see a speck of dirt
IN the heart of pebble, but you can see it
clearly in the heart of a pure crystal. 1t is
SO with the evil at the heart of this country.
The wrongs which for ages lay unobserved
in the stony heart of absoutism and iguo-
rance, preserved now in the center of a Re.
public, discolor all the rays shining through
it. Our faith and courage in these times,
will be in proportion to our realization of
the fact that our failure is sign not of
weakness so much as of strength Were
the age meaner its claim would not be, as It
is now, beyond the ordinary satisfaction of
circumstances Had the evils which afflict
us tongue, it would say: "Surely you
have grown very Sophisticated and fastidi.
Gus. Read your school-hisrories over again,
and see what age was exempt from injustice
and violence, war and slavery. Are you
not making in this generation a great deal
of noise over evils that your ancestors sat
very quietly under2h Certainly we are. We
stand upon our advantage as proudly as did
the young Goethe, of whom it is related that,
when six years old he plagued his mother
with questions as to whether the stars would
perform for him all that according to some
fortune teller, they had promised at his
birth. "Why,p said the mother, must YOU
have the assistance of the stars, when other
people get on very well without To this
the terrible child replied: :" But am not to
be satisfied with what does for other peOplen
SO the humblestman in Ohristendom to-day
puts his foot upon. such a Government as
Jesus and Paul rested quietly under; SO the
poorest American is too high to be satisfied
with what suits an Austrian. Centuries of
and Snnshiua OF TOD h.
vineyard of God, where nations of men
climb 10 clusters. Therefore, although the
country was never so disturbed before in its
immediate interests, it was never SO high as
now. This sundering of q great Confed-
eracy--this panic, fallen upon all our ma.
terial intert sts-tbis division Of the large
Church bodies-ali testify gloriously now
large price young nation is willing to
pay for principle. Never more ftly could
1t be called chosen people of God than
now, when it says, "Yes, we are ready to
press out even into forty-years Wilderness
following the guiding Pillar of Liberty,
whether 1t turn to us its fiery or its clouded
side !" May we not even call it the Messias
OF Nations, as it stands out in the wilder
ness, hungry as ever for wealth and plenty,
but obeying the spirit which leads it 10 the
trial of its faith in justice and liberty2
This Is no metaphor, my brothers it is q
momentous reality. America is to-day in
The, wilderness Of temptation, aud beside US
is the tempter
Up into the mountain the tempter leads
us-the exceeding high mountain of our ma
tional greatness and pride. From that apex,
ready 10 crumble under our feet how keeuly
the Kingdoms of this world and their glories
strike the senses On one side, the king
dom of political unity; on another, the
kingdom of cotton; near by, the realms of
trade and there, the kingdom of ecclesias-
tical power. The tempter never slumbsrs
so long as God is awake. "What is it," he
whispers, that divides your nation2 what
is 1t that prevents cotton from crystallizing
to diamonds for your treasury? what is it
that hangs the auction-fiag from the win
dows of trade what is it that sunders ev-
cry Church, 1t is your hatred of African
Slavery. II is your love of freedom. Only
give over these; only consent to the fetter
on the limbs of the black man; and see, all
these Kingdoms are yours, with all their
glories See, the nation is one again: the
Golfer is full. The Church's wounds are
healed so soon as Northern and Southern
Christians consent to kneel around a com
mon altar, there to eat the broken body and
drink the shed blood of the African race.
All these shall be yours, says the tempter, if
only ye will turn from the shrine of Liberty
and worship Slavery; and you may call
your idol patriotism, union, concession,
other fine name you please"
/ hold in my hand pamphlet which |
| learn is having considerable circulation in
this city and State, entitled The Union
| H0lO Shall At be Reconstructed and Saved?
a Letter TO the Public, by Sabin Hough, of
! Cincinnati, Ohio. l intend to allude to it to
some extent, because it is the only publica'
ton l have ever seen which embodies in one
| expression every mean and evil thing that
was ever said to persuade men to surrender
| manhood and cOnsecrate the mselYes to lnjust'
| ice. A writer in Milwaukee. has said that
| he can not conceive how it could have been
| written, except under some infatuatiOn from
the Devil; and l freely admit that 1t is the
| first strong argument | have ever met with
for the personal existence Of that celebrated
| potentate, whose existence l have long
thought mythical.
Aswe gather from this letter its author is
| reverend. OF course he is. He is native
| of New England, and has lived always in the
! free States. OF course, again. Then he IS
| a minister of the New Church and editor OF
its organ in the West he brings US new
revelation from behind the vail. His God is
a vast man; of whom Ouffee is charcoal
| sketch. He is one who, when finding man
fallen among thieves, stripped and wounded
like the robbed and wTonged slave, for ex
ample, believes that the OIL and wine poured
in should be such a comforting doctrine
about robbers and wounds in general, that
the man should crave few more sta6s for
i'the good of truth" doubt not that if a
hunted slave stood at his door, his huuanest
impulses drugged by something he thinks
religion, would lead him to console the fugi-
tive with copy of this pamphlet and return
him 10 the master, who would represent the
Ieeeptivity of good"
The pamphlet reviews several OF the
alleged causes of the trouble that is now
upon the laud, and sets them Que by one
aside. The personal liberty bills OF the
North have done much mischief In engen,
deIing hostile feelings; but they are small
part of the evil. How curious, by the way
il il, that SO few hit on the Only true way o