Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-07-11


Moral questions produce the most important,
enduring and desperate excitement which agiiates
society. Since Christ was crucifed the world has
witnessed revolution after revolution simply in the
assertion Of moral distractions; governments have
been overthrown and nations swallowed up in the
vortex of their own fanaticism. It is not moral
truth, but the belief of men which is te source of
this, and it matters little whether it be heather
mythology or achristian' faith, whether it refers
to Jupiter or Christ, whether it involves Vestal
Or Pope, whether it is the frenzy of Joan, of
Arc, or the pious indignation ofa Luther, whether
it be the stern reformation of Cromwell or the
humbuggery Of a witch, the same, wild. dsorderly
and ferocious excesses are enacted. And for the
excessive agitation of-a moral idea our IN couu-
try affords an example Of the most bitter and in
structiye character. These religious or moral ex-
cesscs take no note Demonstrations laws or history
but pursue with zeal and cruelty the shadows of
millennium which is inconsistent with the Provi-
dencc of God and the progress of society.
In later days there have been two classes of
people in the United States OF the most marked
and diverse characteristics. The one agitating
an impracticable MORAL idea, and the other cult
waiting the most desperate proofs OF the correctness
of an immoral institution, and pitting themselves
against each other, the country has been blazing
with the frenzy and curses Of the respective parties
like lightnings from q gathering tempest, while
intermediate between the two portion of the peo-
pie have made the question subservient to the his
tory and the constitution OF the country.
If we 90 South we come upon class who
for century have been accustomed to an
arbitrary rule over an unfortunate race with
all the supreme authority of the most perfect
tyranny in the world, with, perhaps, the con-
sciousness of moral wrong in their midst,
their impatience is correspondiugly acute and
reta,iativc You find the hereditary lord of
the black race armed with his knife, his pistol
and his whip patroling his institution of slaves
ry, ,exceedinglyjealou ofinterference,a and with
the recklessness of q standardization, ready
to shoot or be shot, to cut or be carved, and
cracking his whip with gusto and flourish
about the ears and bodies of his chattels,n mot to
be found in any worse degree in the world ex-
ceptn the precincts of the criminal enclosres
outside of society. You find him hospitable,
reckless and irreligious and thoroughly i'm
bued with the idea that the institution of slave
ry is the foundation and support of Southern
prosperity, and intermingled with every fibro
of their local interests. He points to the his
tory of mankind and of Gods chosen people
as justification of tho institution, and rely
ing upon the reserved rights OF the States,
and the history of the formation of the Un-
ion, he bristles in dangerous accoutram ents
fol the defence OF Ills SectlOn.
If We come North, we find a class who are
particularly interested in other peoples af-
fairs, and who examine with prying and
supercritical nIccty, the finest shade of moral
ideas. Meddlesome and avaricious they have
wormed their way in among the Southern
people interfering with their slaves and making
money out ofthe masters sliberality--b believing
that what cannot be reconciled with the
most acute moral distinctions is unfit to he
tolcrated; and if constitutions are in the
way, or even scripture, the whole country is
stunned with the din of their moral outcry, for
moral constitution, moral bible, and moral
God to suit their ideas of morality. In for
mer days dabbling in the blood Of witch craft
and trafficking in negroes, they now run to the
extreme len2th in believing in unadulterated
holiness, in teraing down the temple of libci-
ty, in making an anti-slavery 5edam of the
church, and under the pretenco OF heavens
morality breathing discord among the people
and danger with the buplic counsels. Be.
tween those two extremes then must exist the
most rancorous hostility. Strife, threatnings,
elimination, ,and disunion on both sides has
been the order Of the day until the South be-
coming inaamed under the impulses of ambi-
tiol leaders have been goaded away into re-
belion against the government which had
never done them single injustice. And if
there had been no conservative element in
the nation, a mutual agrement-mutual in
in hate between the fire eater and abo-
litionist would have inaugurated a series
of dispnions and separate governments and
calamities, changing our democracy into
petty monarchries, wasting and demoralizing
our population, destroying our commerce
and making our harbors a desert, waste of
sunshine and wave, our country asolitudc,
our cities ruin, our citizens slaves, our
temples throYn down, Gods worship q
u mockcry, and our shores strewn with
the ruins of o nation's shipping the hiding
places of frcbooters and pirates. But con.
servative element in the Union stood fast
by he Constitution and the laws, protecting
right, putting down wrong, and for the cure
of evil, relying upon that change in moral
sentiment which is the true theory of all ret
ormation. But the South headIong towards
ruin have plunged the government into this
disatrous war without reason for their con.
duct, except the continued and perverse per.
secution of Northern abolitionism which is a
just cause of private quarrel, but not public
ruin. This is the whole cause of the war,
and is it not too trifling for men to notice
for moment, or for moment to be inhu-
enced by it and to forget the allegiance and
venervation VIC owe our country and ancestors.
o, hades of the dead what indignity cannot
the living thrust upon the patliot. o, spirit
OF the heroes and herones of Indian butch.
cry and Hessian brutality what tears may not
mankind shed over ''the bloodiest picture in
the book of time," when the sneer of the
traitor is your only epitaph. O, thou insul-
ted W arren gore breasted on Bunker Hill. D,
thou young immortal Ellsworth. o, thou
two martyrs first honored in the bloody sac
rafces upon your country altar, rise from
your untimely graves and confront these
Gorgon eyed apologists for treason and ex-
hibit to them the dread picture of q stigma
tized character in future history! j 81
If, then, history affords no precedent for the
South; if they are without justification or
excuse in their violated allegiance to the gov
eminent; ifthey are guilty of treason, who
talks OF peaceable secession, Of non coercion.
The thief says don't coerce me into prison
and the murderer says don't coerce me upon
the gallows! but nevertheless they are coerced
for the purpose ofprotecting society, but
when larger number guilty of treason say