Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-08-03
WHOLE NUMBER 6O6.

/
kets and Enfield rifles For still the moral
of that irst fable in our old Webster's
Spelling Book holds good--"If soft words
and gentle means will not prevail, the wick
ed must be dealt with in moro severe
manner" Alas that it should have devolv-
ed on our country togive most striking ex.
ample of this truth ! Heaven grant that
VIC may never need another.
A great battle implies great mistake
perhaps more than one. The war into
which the American Republic have been
forced by some Of its own refractory mem.
bers springs from two grave errors-tbe
/ first an assumption that the U. S. are not
one nation combined for external ends sole
ly-such another gigantic anarchy as Vol
luro forchly pronounced the Germanic
Empire. All acts, the appeals, the public
| documents, Of the Southern Confederacv
que'Iy assume the correctness Of this theo.
ry.treat their pretended secession as though
u were precisely like the withdrawal of
L rance from Russia from the Holy Alliance
Of 1915 20, and affect to wonder why Lin.
coin and his myrmidons will not let them
alone That the little band of inveterate
Nulfcrs should talk in this way need not
occasion surprise they probably have some
sort of half-belief founded in thirty years
reiteration, that this is the true theory of
Uuion but how eau this excuse live.long
Wings like Summers aud Goggin of Virgin
10, Badger and Morehead of North Carroll.
no, Stephens and Toombs OF Georgia, Con-
rad aud kenner of Louisiana, John Bell and
Zollicoffer Of Tennessee ? How can steady
followers Of jackson, who shouted approval
OF his Proclamation against South Carolina.
GRAINED with the broadest Nationalsm. the
| preparatory dcnials Of the right of Secession.
even affect to regard as fundamental and
| self evident the Calhoun doctrines which
they have always hitherto secuted as the
most barefuced perversion of the CouStitu.
lion The lifelong Calhonntes may be
honest these new lights cannot be.
They simply launced upon tide which
they felt that they must ride or be engnf.
ed by. Their Disunionism is not based,
on conviction nor replete with noble daring
it is the fruit Of cowardice and greed
of cowardice that shrnks from mnh
violence and ambition that perfers self to
country.
But far deeper and more fatal misop.
prehension is that of Northern character by
Southern Chivalry. The typical Southron,
accustomed from childhood to brawls in
which deadly weapons ore at once employ
ed, and taught to regard readiness to
fight duels as the touchstone of gentle breed
ing sentiment, can imagine no other reason
than cowardice for declining 10 wash out on
insult in the blood of its author. When a
Northern Senator, bludgeoned to DEATHS
door for words spoken in debate, turns with
loathiDg from the miscreant who thus man.
glcd him, and disdainsa dissent to bis level
whether to wnylay or to challenge him, the
Southron can imagine no impulse to this
forbearance but pusanimity. Hence the
all but universal deluSion among the ignor-
ant masses of the Slave States that the Fed
eral government might be defed aud
the Union broken up with impunity-
for the North (they 6lindly assumed) could
not be kicked into a resentment of insult or
injury. The bleeding head of Sumner has
lured more men to ultimately graves than
any false light ever raised to draw deluded
seamcn upon treacherous sands or roaring
breakers.
Yes, for our impcriled country there is,
there can be no deiverance from her deadly
foes but through battles If in the Provi-
denre of God she is doomed to disruption
aud ruin, it is not fit that.her winding-shect
be bloody as the covering of her cradle.
From high hearts the lfe-current flowed
freely to bear her up to place among the
nations Of the earth, and hearts as noble
stand ready to give their last drop to up
bold her in that proud position, or 10 digni-
fly her fall TO have succumbed tamely,
abjcctly, to nsolent treason would have been
busencSs--impotence- suicide to be strick.
en- down while manfully struggling against
it eau at the worst be but misfortune, such
as may befall the noblest and worthiest.
Ifit be decreed that this country shall pass
through the valley of humiliation, let her
preserve at least her own Sell-respect The
greatest nations have encountered over
whclming defeats, and risen stronger and
worthier from the momentarily stunning
blow they have touched the earth like
Ans @us ouly to rebound from it moro sin
ewy aud sturdy than before. Rome saw
with calm self-coufdence Breunus in her
Capitol aud Hannibal at her gates, yet was
mighter thereafter than ever before. A
nauou'S greatness is gauged by the souls OF
her people-HindoSian with over hundred
millions is inferior to Switzerland with bat
a handful If the spirit that burned in the
breasts of our Revolutionary fathers--which
tracked with their blood the frozen roads
of New Jersy and irradiated with their un-
trained yalor the field of Saratoga--be still
living 10 their sons, the Nation eaUlot die.
And if the soul be gone, what matters the
deserted body Ifcorruption aud sensuali-
ty. greed aud sin, have made this land
whiIeued sepucher, fair and goodly without
but hollow and loathsome within, let usnot
hope to escape the fate of all that has been
weighed in the balance aud found want.
ing, ..
But the American Republic cannot die.
Tried aud torn it may bet is-for it has
at times been tempted to forget that its
were laid in everlasting right
eousness and that its cornerstone is the
Inalienable Rights Of Man-of erery man
But it must be, despite its grieyous faults,
that its Proyidential mission is not yet com
it It's still longer to be Pha-
ros of the nations, not a wreck TO warn
them from the sunken rocks which impaled
IL IL must he that the A llMerciful