Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-01-31

Men in divinely organized bodies-the
family, the church and the nation-are as
truly under Gods law, with all conse-
quent duties and responsibilities Of such
organic life, as is the individual and iso
lated man.
The individual, the family, the church,
and the nation are sometimes as truly e
pluribus unum that they verge into an
indivisible oneness. Therefore, the
"Watchman of Israeli is sometimes re.
quired 'to hear the word at Gods mouth
and embrace His warning interests, civil,
as well as religious.
To-day; for the first time in ministry
of more than quarter of a hundred years
| speak in the pulpit of our mingled civil
and religious interests, as connected with
the subject of SLAVERY.
The dissolution Of the Union Of these
United States, wiM It's untold woes, is
imminent!
The supposed necessity for this disso,
luton is based in misconception by the
South as to the true feeling of the North
The cause of that misconception is long
continued, unwise, illegal and immoral ut
terance and measures for tie abolition Of
slaDery, under tie joint leadership of an Ill
informed Christianity and the grossest inf
deity.
The origination and the intense activi.
ties in the procedure has been contin ed
to very few. A larger number have
been brought within the eddying whirl Of
their error, and made giddy, unstable and
erroneous, in greater or lesser degrees, by
their influence. The South has taken
this clamor which the few have emitted
from the press, or the political, popular
and religious assembly, as the utterance
OF our million masses.
When this storm sweeps the face of the
ocean, lifting up its waters, dashing wild
ly, wave against wave, to the unknowing
or to the specifically observing, old ocean
seems in one billowy movement, even tc
its lowest depths. 1t is notso. 1t is al
on the surface. Deep down in the hear
of that glorious sea there is great calm
Among Northern millions there has beer
SO profound q calm, amid unwise, untrue
and unjustifiable utterances of the surfac,
people, in Church and State; that tn,
South has been led into momentous error
But if the South believes that the feel
ings of the North are hostile to them
recklessly set upon the destruction of thei
domestic institutions, however erroneous
that belief may be, it must operate will
all the force Of truth, until corrected.
1t is my duty to "warn" you to-day
that the South believes that the North il
so pervaded with irreconcieably hostil
feeling to them, on account of their sys
tenn of slavery or involuntary servitudc
that it is essential to their peace and safet,
that the Union should be dissolved, b.
the consequences to themselves or other
what they may.
1t is my duty further to say, that how
ever erroneous may be this belief of the
South, it is not without greatly plausible
support both from Northern utterance ant
from Northern silence. The utterance ha
been of the few The silence has been o
the many. The utterance has been in
spirit and in ways never to be sanctioned
| py ooi III Ills hOiiHeoS VI tHuu III III
thoughtfulness. The silence has not beer
"giving consent" but induced by the bit
terest experience "grapes and figs" ar
not TO be gathered from, The thorns ana
Mistles" Of A6olitionist discussions!
Under these circumstances, as "hearin,
the word from Gods mouth" "warn'
you to-day that to escape from the 'swor
which is coming upon our land" this 81
lence should be broken, so far as to say t
our Southern brethren and fellow-citizen
that the living mass of the North, under
lying Church and State affiliate neither i
sentiment nor in practice with the few.
The subject of slavery. the nucleu
around which the exigencies and dutie
of the hour gather, is beset with very es
pecial difficulties.
1t is difficult to speak in the ear Of free
men, and say that there is any form {
servitude, or any condition of providen
tial circumstances, which justifies its tol
Grafton, flor any purpose or for any pc
riod without being regarded as false
human liberty. 1t is difficult to spea
before Christian men and declare tina