Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1861-05-15
Loyalty to the Union .

The words loyal and loyalty are becoming
stereotyped in the current language OF the
day. We speak Of loyal States and ol
the loyalty of the people. These words are de-
rived from French word, signifying law, and
hence, to be loyal is to be obedent to law, OF
devoted and faithful to ones duty and obliga-
tion. A loyal citizen is one who cannot DC
bribed or seduced from his allegiance to the
Constitution and laws Of bis country, aud to
those who are duly appointed to administer them
while acting within the sphere of their consti-
tutional and legal authority.
If there has been any one thing that has dis
tinguished the American people more than any
other, It has been loyalty to their confederated
Union. II was by union Of the colonies that
our independence was achieved. Almost soon
as the revolutionary Struggle was over, the firs'
and most prominent object with the Statesmen
and the people of that day was toperfect thai
union, in order to preserve the independence al
ready gained, and to secure the blessings Of lib
erty to themselves and their posterity. This
darling object was at length accomplished in thu
formation Of the existing National Constitution
which went into operation in 1888.
Next to the Declaration Of Independence
the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which
consolidated the union that had before existed
in crude and immature state, is the most i'm
portant and momentous event in American his
tory. The national sentiment was ftly express
ed in the national motto-"E Pluri6us Unum'
one out Of many-one nation, one govern
ment formed out Of many separate and distinc
soversignties, that had originally united in thu
defence of their liberties, and were now consoli.
dated in permanent union for their mainte-
nance and preservation. From that time for
ward, the American heart has cluDg to the Un
ion as the citadel of its safety and prosperity
What the terms nation and country have beer
to other peoples, the word Union has been to
Americans. 1t has carried with it to the bo-
som of every man, the ideas Of nationality, o
q common interest and common destiny A
man who would deliberately plot the severance
of the Union was, by common consent, consign
ed to the same roll of infamy as BENEDICT AR
MOLD and AARON BURR.
Is this sentiment of loyalty to the Union ex-
tinct in the American bosom /? A few months
ago, a stranger unfamiliar with the holy memo
ries and the undying affections that cluste
around the Ark Of our Union, might have sup
posed, from the seeming Indifference and apatb.
with which the threatened profanation OF tha
Ark was viewed, that the people had forgotten
the noble purposes for which il was reared and
consecrated. But as soon as an aggressive and
hostile hand was raised to jostle the Ark ofouI
Covenant from its place, the unanimity and
zeal with which the mass of the people in a ma
iority of the States rallied to save it from the
unhallowed touch of disloyalty and treason
would have convinced the most skeptical visitor
that the old spirit of loyalty and devotion wal
as warm in the hearts of the present generation
Of Americans as in those Of their ancestors.
We have indubitable evidence that nearly
all the people in majority of the States are
loyal to the Union. We have strong reasons
for believing that large portion, If not ma
jsrity of the citizens in those States, whose
governments have not come forward to maintain
the Union in this crisis, possess the came senti
ment of loyalty in their hearts. ltneeds but
fitting opportunity to be kindled into blaze ol
patriotism. Loyalty to the Union is to be found
in the East and the West, in the North and th'
South; it is like the air or the sunlight, univer
sal, and is destined to save our glorious countr!
from being divided into separate, petty and hos
tile sovereignties.