Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1861-01-03
PHILADELPHIA, Dec l3, 1860.

g G. H. Esq, Atlanta, Ga
nr,p Sts-Your esteemed favor of the lst /
;,st did not reach me until yesterday. You /
sfmnIy reiterate your former convictions that !
Sanfb Carolina would certainly secede, and |
sgain desire me to write you my views. You |
ssv that the secession Of one of the States Of
tba Union is folly determined upon, and that
there is a strong probability that four or i've
more will promptly follow, and you fear that
the bends of neighborhood, of poace, and Of
commerce are in danger of being broken; that
in place of a grand nationality the States cit
lea and local districts Of the country are in
danger of being severed into multitude of
petty, isolated, incoherent and hostile COM
munities
The unity of government thus threatened is
spoken of in the Farewell Address as " the
main pillar in the edifice of our independence
the support of our tranquility ut home, our
peace abroad Of cur safety. of our prosperi
". and of that very liberty which we SO high
" prize" We believe all this in all the full
ness uf its meaning; we reverence the author
itY whence we have the statement; nothing
short of inspiration could strengthen our
faith in it; it has all the force Of necessary
truth il is habit, an instinct IF the Ameri-
can mind. We accept also, with the same re-
lance the further Statement of the Father Of
his country, that ''to the efficacy and perman
ency of cur Union government for the Whole
Is Indispensable. No alliance, however strict,
between the parts can be an adequate substl
tute they must inevitably experience the in
fractions and Interruptions which all alliances
in all time have experienced"
There is 10 doubt, rs you say, an intense
fasiing in some, if not all the cotton states.
ard a separation resolutely determined upon,
which may involve all the consequences cf q
4 IL =
while the alienation continues, disturb ard
distress all portions Of the Union. But be
fore we receive as reality all the evils which
reasoning deduces from such partial or total
dissolution cf the present confederacy, ii is
warth while to calmly reflect and to look at
the improbabilities and impracticabilites
which hang over the threatenings Of such
catastrophe.
In The first p'aca, political institutions are
..-. 4 more nattsr nf caprice or choice.
-.cs.5 individual, securing himself from all
.aGuences and negiecTing ali consequences, can
1 as he ple2ses. for if the risk Of ruin does
MT restrain. there is nothing in the system of
things to govern or control him. But it is
rot so with state or nation. South Carroll
NJ for instance, might resolve upon rigid
aonintercourse with all the states ana nations
whose sentiments are inimical TO her sa7e
Rystem; or Massachusetts, might determine to
use no slaye-grown sugar, tobacco, or cotton;
yet neither Of them cculd possibly maintain
their resolution for any heightened period.
Twice within our memory France has over
turned her monarchy and set up republic
but she could not hold her purpose against
the conditions in which she found herself.
All history teaches that circumstances, ut
their best, are only the free and intelligent
artfcers of work which is not their own.
Never yet did statesman intent upon reVo-
luton know what would be the result Of his
labor. The Cromwellian Parliament never
dreamed that their republic would itself bring
about the restoration Of the Stuarts. The IA
theirs of our Constitution did not foresee that
the territorial question would shiver the Tn
ION, or that tn compromises would not pre-
serve the equality of the slave and free States.
WASHINGTON held the obligations pf the
Federal Constitution jnst as sacred the
Constitution and laws of the several states.
lie looked upon notification and secession
Just as he did upon felony apd treason. The
Constitution" he said, 7" til changed By an
explicit and authentic act of the whole people.
Is sacred obligation upon ALL" He did not
imagine that he was only the head clerk of
partnership to be dissolved by either Of the
parties as freely as it was formed. lie saw
no difference between the allegiance due to
state and that due to the National Union.
The very idea of the power, and the right
OF the people to establish government" he
says, "presupposes the duty of every individ-
ual to obey the established government"
The old thirteen states, before the ConsIi.
tuition was adopted, were net less Jealous or
ass untriendly to each other than they are
now, though they had not been every day of
their existence In a violent i'll temper with
each other. If passion, temporary interest
and policy severed US, we woold never have
had the old confederacy or the present Con-
stitution. In 1920 a compromise of the ter
ritorial question saved the Union, at the very
brink of dissolution. In 1882, notification,
with the substance of secession in it, was first
delayed by the exertioa of the federal force,
and afterwards quieted by a compromise
which left the victory with the refractory par
ty. South Carolina was at that time strongly
sustained by Georgia, Virginia and Alabama.
me possession Of the gore,nment during the
Io7ty gears that these disconte2t9 hare been tes
terln9, as the only thing that prereated eUen
more serious manifestations of the spirit of Sc
ceSslon. Through all this period the extrem-
ISIS have been held in the Union only by
tnose forces and influences, which were not
men are not qow, and never will be, subject |
10 their discretion.
Ihe laws which We make we can alter-the |
Sompacts which we frame we can abolish |
Out those which nature and the order of hu- !
man socIety imposes are not repealable. Re /
Iauons oi business, association md national I
po,Itcs, without orr will, or against it, COM
5'S' quits as close Union of the states as the .