Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1861-07-31


sainst the Government would not have beer
set on foot. So much for the principle in.
vowed in ii. This great crime, then, with
which we are graphing, sprang from that sssn
py which the angels fell''-an unmastered and
pfodIgate ambition-an ambition that 'swould
rather reign in hell than serve in heaven
lhat would rather rule Supremcly over shat
tered fragment of the Republic than run the
chances of sharing with others the honorS OF
| the whole.
| The consprators of the South read in the
election of Mr.. Lincoln a declaration that the
democratic party has been prostrated, if not
| nnally destroyed, by the selfish intrigues and
corruptions of its leaders they read too that
the vicious, emaciated, and spawned hobby of
the Slavery agitation, on which they had so
often rode into power, could no longer carry
them beyond given geographical line of our
territory, and that in truth this factious and
treasonable agitation, on which many of
them had grown great by debauching and de-
nationalzing tie mind of people naturally
generous and patriotic, had run its course, and
hence that from the national disgust for this
demagoging, and from the inexorable law of
population, the time had come when all those
VINO had no other political capital than this
would have to prepare for retirement to .pri-
Vate life, so far at least as the highest offices
OF the country were concerned. Under the
influence of these grim discouragements, they
resolved to conSummate at once-what our
political history shows to have been with them
long cherished purpoSe-the dismember-
ment of the Government. They said to them
selves: .Since we can no longer monopolize
the great offices of the Republic as we have
been accustomed to do, we will destroy it, and
build upon its ruins an empire that shall be
all our own, and whose spoils neither the
North nor the East nor the West shall share
with us.'' DeplOrable and humiliating as this
certainty is, it is but rehearsal Of the sad !,
sad story of the past. We had, indeed, sup
posed that under our Christian civilization we
had reached point in human progress, when
a republic could exist without having its life
sought by its own offspring; but the Catalines
OF the South have proved that we were mis-
taken. Let no man imagine that baeause this
rebellion has been made by men renowned in
our civil and military history, that it is there
fore the less guilty or the less courageously to
be resisted. 1t is precisely this class of men
who have subverted the best governments that
have ever existed. The purest spirits that
have lived in the tide of times, the noblest
institutions that have arisen to bless our race,
have found among those in whom they had
most honored, men wicked enough, either Sc
cret.y to betray them unto death, or openly
to seek their overthrow by lawless violence.
The repub lie OF England had its Monk the
republic of France had its Bonaparte the re-
public of Rome had its Caesar and its Cataline,
and the Savior of the world had his Judas l.
scariot. 1t cannot be necessary that should
declare to you, for you know them well, who
they are whose parricidal swords are now un-
sheathed against the republic of the United
States. Their names are inscribed upon a
scroll OF infamy that can never perish. The
most distinguished of them were educated by
the charity OF the Government on which they
are now making war. For long years they
were fed from its table, and clothed from its
wardrobe, and had their brows garlanded by
its honors. They are the ungrateful sons of
a fond mother who dandled them upon her
knee, who lavished upon them the gushing
love of her noble and devoted nature, and
who nurtured them from the very bosom of
her life and now, in the frenzied excesses of
a licentious and baffied ambition, they are
stabbing at that bosom with the ferocty with
which the tiger springs upon his prey. The
President of the United States is herocaly
and patriotically struggling to battle the ma
chinations of these most wicked men. l have |
unbounded qualification in knowing that be |
has the courage to look traitors in the face,
and that, in discharging the duties of his |
great office, he takes no counsel of his fears |
He is entitled TO the jealous support OF the |
whole country, and, may not add without |
offense, that he will receive the support of all
who justly appreciate the boundleSs blessings |
of our free institutions
If this rebellion succeeds it will involve ne |
.
the division of our territory, the permanent |
disruption of the Republic. 1t must rapidly |
dry up the sources of our material prosperity, |
and year by year shall grow more impover-
shed, more and more revolutionary, enfeebled,
and debased. Each returning election will |
bring with it grounds for new civil connections,
and traitors, prepared to strike at the country
that has rejected their claims to power, will |
spring up on every side. Disunion once begun
will go and on indefinitely, and under the
influence Of the fatal doctrine of Secession
not only will States secede from States, but
counties will secede from States also, and towns
and cities from counties, until universal
lrchy will be consummated in each individual
who can make good his position by force of
arms: claiming the right to defy the power of
the Government. Thus we should have
brought back to us the days OF the robber Bar
ons with their moated castles and marauding
'etainers. This doctrine, when analyzed, is
simply declaration that no physical force
shall ever be employed in executing the laws
Or uphoiding the Government, and Govern
nent into whose practical administration such
principle has been introduced, could no more
continue to exist than a man could live with
IN angered cobra in his bosom. lfyou would
Know what are the legitimate fruits of Seces-
ion, look at Virginia and Tennessee, which
lave so lately given themselves up to the en-
,race Of this monster. There the schools are
'SoSAtSN, suS Nouh 10 VI JuoeiSO SioSCo, puuifC |
md private credit destroyed commerce an
debts repudiated confiscations
md spoliations everywhere prevailing; every
.heek blanched with fear, and every heart
rozen with despair and all over that desola-
ed land the hand of infnrlated passion and
;rime is waving, with vulture's scream for
,loOd, the sword of civil war. And this is the
erred to Kentucky.
But am not here to discuss this proposition
o-night. / wish solmnly, to declare before
'ou and the world that am for this Union