The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1861-08-07

eighty years IL mas maliiiditd the HdtIOnaI HOiof
at home and abroad ant by its proves, its wis
dom, and its justice, has gwen 10 the title OF an
American citizen an elevation among the nations
of the earth which the citizen OF no republic has
enioyed since Rome was mistress of the world.
Under it's administrator the national domain has
stretched away TO the Pacific, and that constel-
lation which announced our birth as people has
expanded from thirteen to thirty-four stars, all,
until recently, moving unGistuIbed and undim-
med In their orbs OF light and grandeur. The
rights of no State have been invaded no mar' =
proper,y has been despoied, no mans liberty
abridged, no mans life oppressively jeOpardzed
by the action of this government. Cnde: lis
benign influences the rills of public and private
prosperity have swelled into riyuets, and from
riyulets into rivers ever brimmng in their full
ness. and everywhere, and at all periods its
ministr ations have fallen as gently Oh the people
of the United States as do the dews Of sum
mer's night on the flowers and grass OF the gar
dens and fields
Whence, then, this revolutionary outbreak I?
Whence she secret spring OF this gigantic con-
spiraey, which, like some huge boa, had com
pletely cooled itself around the limbs and body
of the republic, before a single hand was lifted
TO resist il? Strange and indeed startling as the
annour, ucn- uust appear when il falls upon the
in whose shadow we stand Ia night, has come upon
US. because, III November last, John &. Breckin
ridge was not elected President Of the United
States. and Abraham Lincoln was. That is the
whole story. And would pray now 10 know on
what was John c. BrQckihridge fed that he has
grown SO great, that a republic founded by
Washington and cenented by the best blood
that has ever coursed in human veins is to be
oyerthrown because, lorsoOth, he cannot be its
President? Had he been chosen, We well know
know that we should not have heard of this re-
bellion, for the lever with which it is being mo
we'd would have been wanting to the hands Of
the conspirators. Even after his defeat, could it
have been guaranteed, beyond all peradventure,
that Jefferson Davis or some other kindred spirit
would be the successor of Mr.. Lincoln, pre-
sumo We hazard nothing in assuming that this
atrocous movement against the government
would not have been set on foot. So much for
the principle involved in it. This great crime,
then, with which we are graphing, sprang from
that Z" sin By which the angels iell'-an unmas.
tered and prOfiigate ambtion--an ambition that
would rather reign in he'll than serve in heav-
en"-that would rather rule supreme over shat
tered fragment of the Republic than run the
chances of sharing with others the honOrs of the
whole.
election of Mr.. Lincoln a declaration that the
Democratic party had been prosrated, if not f.
naIy destroyed by the selfish intrgues and cor.
ruptions of its leaders; they read, too, that the
vicious, emacated and spawned hobby Of the
slavery agitation, on which they had SO often
rode into power, could no longer carry them be-
yond a given geographical line of our territory,
and that in truth this factious and treasonable
agitation, Oh which so MANY Of them had grown
great bv debauchinG and denationalizing tn,
mind of people naturally generous and patr
otic, had run its course, and hence, that from
the national disgust for this dcmagogueinS anC
| from the nexOrable law of population, the time
had come when all those who had no other po
| litcsl capital than this, would have 20 prepare
for retirement to private life, so far at least a:
the highest offices of tte country were concern
ed Under the influence of these grim discour
agements they resolved to cOnsummare at one,
what our political history shows to have beer
| with them IL long cherished purp0se--tDe CHS
memberment Of the government. They said t,
themselves: "Since We can no longer monopO
| ze the great Offices of the Republic az We hav,
been accustomed to do, We will destroy it an,
build upon its ruins an empire that syall be al
| our own, and whose spOils neither the North no
the East nor the West shall share with u.s." De
porable and humiliating this certainly is, il j
but rehearsal of the sad, sad story OF the past
We had, indeed, supposed that under our Chris
| tian civilization we had reached point in hu
man progress, when republic cOald exist with
out having its life sought by its own offspring
but the Catiines of the South have proved tha
We were mistaken. Let no man imagine tha
because this rebellion has been made by men re
nowned in our civil and military history, that
is therefore the less guilty or the less courage
ousy to be resisted. 1t is precisely this class G
men who have subverted the best government
that have ever existed. The purests spirits tina
have lived in the tides of time, the noblest inst
tutions that have arisen to bless our race, hav
found among those in whom they had most cor
fided and whom they had most honored, me
wicked enough, either secretly to betray theI
unto death, or openly to seek their overthrow b
lawless violence. The republic of England ha
its Monk; the republic of France had its Bona
parte; the republic Of Rome had its Caesar az
its Catiline, and the Savior of the world had hi
Judas Iscariot. 1t cannot be necessary that
should declare TO you, for you know them wei
who they are whOee paricdal swords are no.
unsheathed against the Republic of the Unite
States. Their names are enrolled upon scrO
of infamy that can never perish. The most di
tinguished of them were educated by the char
ty of the government on which they are no
making war. For long years they were fed fro
its table, and clothed from its wardrobe, and hs
their brOws garlanded by its hOnprs They al
the ungrateful sons of fond mother who dar
; died them upon her knees, lavished upon the
the gushing love of her noble and devoted N
ture, and who nurtured them from the very b.
som of her life and now, in the frenzied exec
ses of licentious and bat1led ambition, they Al
stabbing at that bosom with the ferOcity vii
which the tiger springs upon his prey. I'll
President of the United States is heroically al
patriotcally struggling to battle the machinatol
of these most wicked men. l have unbound,
qualification in knowing ,ha; ne has the couras
to look traitors in the face, and that, in dischs
ging the duties of his great office, he takes
, counsel Of his fears. He is entitled to the ze;
Gus support of the whole country, and may
not add without offence that he will Justly I
: ceive the support Of all who justly apprecia
the bOundless blessings of our free institution
If this rebellion succeeds it will involve nece
rarily the destruction of our nationality, the
vision Of our territory, the permanent disrupt
of the Republic. 1t must rapidly dry up Il
r sources of our material prosperity, and year
year we shall grow more impoverished, more al
more revolutionary, enfeebled and debase
Each returning election will bring whit groun
0 for new civil commotions, and traitors, prepar
e to strike at the country that has rejected ;h.
u claims to power, will spring up on every sic
r Disunion once begun will go on and On indef
e itely. and under the influence Of the fatal DE-
trne Of secession, not only willStates secede frC
e the Union, but counties will secede from States
SO, and towns and cities from counties, until univ
e salanarchy WILDE consummatedin in each individl
It who can make good his position by force of arm