Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1861-10-23

WINS euiCSidiCS ~ liic leutfai government,
liable TO be called into the service of the
Unica in the way and manner it deems
most advisable, and, if loyal. entitled to
the same protection from the government
as any other class of loyal citizens. No
body can pretend that the federal govern
ment is Obliged, by virtue Of the laws or
usages heretofore existing in the slave
states, TO treat these people as property
Whatever might have been its obligation
before the rebelious acts Of those states !,
that obligation is no longer in force.
SLAVE LABOR, AND FREE LABOR.
The present rebellion proves what
thoughtful and far-sceing men in All see
tons Of the Union have long seen and
said, that the preservation Of the Union,
with the slave system of labor extending
over one-half Of it and the free labor sys-
TEN over the other halt, is, IN the orlinary
course of human affairs, an impossibility.
Senator Seward, or rather Men Herr
Diefenbach, in our Reeiow before him,
was right in saying there is an "repressi-
bic Conflict" between the two systems.-
They cannot longer coexst together in
peace and harmony; there is an irrepres-
sibe tendency in each to exclude the other;
and no possible wisdom or prudence on
the part Of any administration can harmon
lzs their co-existence under one and the
same government You must make your
elections between the systems. and adopt
for the whole country either the slave sys-
TEN or the free-labor system; and the real
significance Of the contest in which we are
now engaged is as to which Of these sys-
TENS shall be the American system.
However homogeneous in race or charac-
ter, HABITS or manners, may be the people
Of a country in the outset, they separate
and grow gradually into two distinct peo-
pies, with almost entirely different ideas,
habits and customs, if one half Of them in
the one section adopt the slavery system,
and the other half, in the other the free
labor system. We haze already in the
United States, Notwithstanding. our com
mon language, the similarity 81 our laws,
and our habitual intercourse, grown almost
into two distinct nations. The Confeder
ates are Americans indeed, fes lhey have
been born and bred on American soil; but
they no longer retain the original Ame.i
can character; while in the free states ba-
ting the alterations Effected by foreign en-
igrat'on, that character is substantially pre-
served. We Of the North are the same
people that made the Revolution, won
American independence, and established
the federal government. This divergence
showed itself even at the time of che Revo-
luton, and it has been growing greater
and greater from the beginning Of the
present century; and if the two systems Of
Labor are continued on American soil.must
still continue to grow greater and greater
till the people Of The two sections grow in
to two absolutely distinct and mutually
hostile nations, no longer capable, but by
the subjugation of one by the other, of
existing under one and the same govern
ment. The Only way this divergence can
he checked, the unity and homogeneous
ness Of the whole American people recoy-
cred and preserved, is by the assimilation
of the labor systems Of the North and the
South.
We of the North cannot and ought not
to accept the labor system OF the South
But the Slave States, by their unproyoked
rebellion, have given us an opportunity of
performing an act Of long delayed justice
to the negro population of the Union, and
Of assimilating the southern labor system
to ours. This assimilation is at the bottom
of the southern rebellion, and the South
has risen in arms against the Union chiefly
for the purpose OF extending her labor sys
TEN over all the free states In doing SO
she gives US the right, in our own seli-de'
fence, to extend our free labor over all the
free states--a right which, but for her re-
bellion, we should moi have had cnder the
constitution.
THE GRAIN OF LIBERTY.
IF this prove disadvantage to the
Southern States, owing to the peculiar
character q their laboring population, they
have no right to complain, for it is q disad-
vantage they have brought upon them
selves. But this viii be- disadvantage
OILY as compared with us Of the North
for it will be better for the South herself to
have her negro popltiadon free hborers
than it is to have thea slaves In count
ing the popolution Of the South, we must |
count not only her white, but also her
black and coored population. The moral,
spiritual and material well -being Of her
four millions OF black and colored people !
must be considered. as well as the moral,
spiritual aud material well-being Of her
eight millions Of whites. These black and
colored people are As much human beings.
whose welfare Is as important and as neces-
sary to be consulted by the statesmen, the
political economist, the moraIist and the
Christian. as that Of any other portion Of
her population; and what they would gain
by their emancipation should be thrown
into the balance against what might be lost
by their former owners. But even the
three huRdred and forty-seyen thousand /
slave proprietors would, ii reality lose moth |
ing, or gain in moral more than they would
lose ID material prosperity. We 90 not
cs.-tI....F c<.o5afV xvosfId. case +