Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-01-10
MILLERsBURG HOLMES COUNTY OHIO, THURSDAY, JANUAF
Cassius M. Clay on the Secession
Question.

Cassius M. Clay on the Secession
Question.
A letter from Cassius NJ. Clay, dated at
White Hall, KY, Dec. 10th, 1860, was
read at Republican Union meeting in In
dianapolis the other day. Mr.. Clay says:
The threatened dissolution of the Gov
ernment of the United States of America,
takes no rejecting man by surprise.
He saws the cause of this threat is nei-
ther the personal liberty bills of the North,
nor the refusal of the Republican party to
permit slavery to 60 into the territories,
nor the election of Abraham Lincoln TO
the Presidency. He says:
The South knows that Mr.. Lincoln is a
Kentuckyian BY birth, and has Kentucky
born wife, and numerous slaveholding rela-
tives-that he is an old Henry Clay Wbig
"a conservative by temperament, antece-
dents and avowals, and that all the Consti-
tutional rights Of the South aciH be By him
thoroughly protected. In fact, the leading
minds in the secession movement now
abandon this ground of offense.
What, then, is the cause of the disunion
moves 1t is simply desire to rule or
ruin-the old passion in the hearts of our
humanity, which we are told is as old as
the race, and antecedents to it in the devils
OF old.
Now, what shall Republicans do!
They can have peace by acquiescing in
all the demands of the slave power; but it
is peace at the expense of their equality in
the government, and the loss of their Lib
erty! There may be some who, like Esop's
fat dog, will accept the terms; but 1, who,
like his wolf, have not only seen the marks
of, but felt the collar, will part company
here! We can have peace by allowing the
government to 90 into dissolution. Mr..
Lincoln can say in his inaugural, whether
issued from Washington or New York :
"All those States which stand by the Union
come up and take the oath of allegiance
to the Constitution of the United States of
America, and the laws made in pursuance
thereof; and those States which choose
may peaceabv file off to whatever new af-
finities may attract them." But look at
our plains, our mountains, our rivers, our
seas, and say how long would such peace
last! And lastly, we can have peace by
standing on the Constitution, land the
laws of our fathers) as it was, is and shall
be, and making others do the sams-a
peace which will secure us safety at home,
and respect abroad-a peace which will
continue the grandest development Of civ
ilization which the world has ever seen;
and which, l trust, the Providence of God
designs shall be heightened out into the far
centuries, when the sword shall be turned
into the pruning hook, and the lion and the
lamb shall lie down together forever!
But suppose the time has come, when
the justice Of God shall be no longer with
held, and the madness of Slavery she II seek
out its own destruction by dissolution of
the Union-peaceable or forcible-what
then? Shall we give up all as lost! Not at
all. God rules still. If the Cotton States
go-they 60 to ruin sooner or later! The
grain-growing States may stand by US
give up their slaves-double at once their
whole property by the advance of real es-
tate-by immigration and capital from the
free States and foreign nations or, if they
prefer, keep their slaves with the same-or
greater security in the future than in the
past-subjecting their system to our eco
nomical laws, and advancing civilization,
till such times as we shall become homo
geneous nation; and all will still be WELL
But if double madness and folly shall send
them off with the Cotton States-still
would the Federal Union stand, with twen-
ty millions of free hearts and free hands to
defend it at home and abroad against a
world in arms. .....
In such case we would seek by friendly
negotiation with England, the Union of
the Canadas, which would more than COM
pensate us for the loss of the South, and
in turn we would stand the ally of Eng
land in her,contest with foreign Despotism !;
and the two carry on the progress and civ
ilizations of the nations in that Union of
Sympathy, and race, and freedom, which
only now slavery forbids.
l have thus hurriedly, my friends, given
you my thoughts as they arise, without fear
or concealment. Some have said that l
ought 70 be silent.
Having just recovered partly from long
period of pecuniary Embarrassment, brought
on by my devotion to politics fam
lily which now especially demands all my
care-with prospects of place perhaps,
which for quarter of century my prin-
ciples have made impossible-l am iuvok
ed, in the language of prudence to be 81.
lent. Standing in the vanguard of a great
and dangerous movement-I am told that
leaders of revolutions rarely survive them.
l may fall by the hands Of violence-may
be driven into exile-aud suffer poverty,
and die in obscurity. What shall l say
What shall ! do2 I listen-I hear the
voice of conscience-the voice of God-of
the great dead 1.-THE man dies but his
memory lives" "Give me liberty or give
me deathw .......
Well, then, l think old Ben. Wade's
speech in the Senate, is the true ground.
Let US stand with and by him to the end.
1.-THE Constitutiou-tbe Union and Laws