The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1861-07-31


the national domain has stretched
away to the Pacific, and that oonstel-
alton which announced our birth as a
people has expanded from thirteeu to
| thirty-four stars, ell, until recently,
moving nndisturbed and nndimmed in
| their otba of light and grandeur The
rights of no State have been invaded;
i 40 mans property has heen despoiled;
no mau's liberty abridged, no mans
life oppressively jeopardised by the
action of this Government. Under
its benign influences the rills of pub.
lie and private property have swelled
into ri7ulets and from rivlets into riv-
ers ever trimming in their fullness,
and everywh here, aud at all periods of
its history, its ministrationa have fall.
en- as gently on the people of tie Uni
ted States as do the dews on Sum-
mer's night on the flowers and grass of
the gardens and fields.
Whence, then, this revolution.
ary outbreak Whence the secret
spring Of this gigantic conspiracy,
which, like some huge boa, had com.
pietely coiled itself around the limbs
and body of the Republic, before a
single hand was lifted to resist it 7
Strange, and indeed startling as the
announcement must appear when 1t
falls upon the ears of the next gener-
alton, the national tragedy in whose
shadow we stand tonight. has come
upon us because, in November last,
John G. Breckenridge was not elected
President Of the United States, AMI
Abraham Lincoln was. This is the
wbole story. Aud | would pray nov
TO k0ow on Whist was John G. Brock
inridge fed that he has grown SO
great, that Republic foun led by
Washington, and cemented bv the
best blood that ever conrsed IN human
veins, is to be oVerthrown because,
forsooth, he cannot be lts President ?
Had he been chosen, We well know
that We should not have heard Of this
rebellion, for the lever with which It is
being moved would have been want
ing to the hands Of the conspirators.
Even after bis defeat, could it have
been guaranteed, beyond oil perad-
venture, that Jefferson Davis, or some
other kindred spirit. would be the
successor IF Mr.. Lincoln, ! presume
We hazard nothing In assuming that
this attrocious movement against the
Government would not have been set
on foot. So much for the principle
involved in It. This great crime,
then, with which we are graphing,
sprang from that +" sin hy which the
angels fell "-an ADMINISTERED and prof
ligats anbitiou~-an ambition that
"wonld rather reign in hell than serve
| in heaven"~-that would rather rule
supreg-eIy over shaft cred fragment
Of the Republic than run the chances
Of sharing with others the honors Of
the whole
The conspirators of the South read
in the election of Mr.. Lincoln deela-
ration that the Democratic party had
been Frustrated, if not finally Destroy
cd, by the selfish intrigues and corup.
tions Of its leaders; thce read, too,
that the vicious, emaciatei. and spa.
ined hobby Of the Slavery agitation,
on which they had SO often rode into
power, could no longer carry them
beyond given geographical line of
our territory, and that in truth this fac.
tious and reasonable agitation, on
which 50 many Of them had grown
great By debauchlng and denationaI.
izing the mind of people naturally
generous and patriotic. had run It's
course, and hence that from the na-
tional disgust for this aemagoging,
and from the inexorable law of pop.
nlation, the time had come when al
those who had no other political cap
ital than this would have to prepare
for retirement to private life, SO fal
at least as the highest officers of the
country were concerned. Under the
influence of these grim discourage,
ments, they resolved to comsumate al
once-what our political history show:
to rave been with them a iong-cher.
ished purpose-the dismemberment O.
the Government. they said to them.
selves: Since we can no longer
monopolize the great Offices of ths
Republic as we have been accustomed
to do, We will destroy it, and build
upon its ruins an empire that shall be
ell our own, and whose spoils neither
the North nor the East nor the West
shall share With us.' Deplorable and
humiliating as this certainly is, it Il
bnt a rehearsal Of the sad, sad story
Of the past. We had, indeed, sup.
posed that under our Christian civil
ization we had reached point In hui.
man progress, when republic could