Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-01-10
Hon. WIN. Alien on Secession
and Coercion.

Hon. WILLIAM ALLEN, for many years
Senator of the United States rom Ohio,
made speech at National Hall, Phila-
delphia, on the 29th Of September, 1856.
The speech the Chllcothe AdvertiSer re-
produces. 1t is emphatically a great
speech-great because it discusses the re-
lation subsisting and that should subsist
between the North and the South, in the
temper and language Of statesman Of
enlarged and just views. There is moth
ing Of the temporizing partisan in it, and
as the following, which we extract from
it, is so applicable to the present condi-
ton Of affairs, we reproduce it, and com
mend it to the consideration Of those who
regard coercion as the infantile panacea
for secession:
81 am not habituatcd to look on the North
and South as rival sections. Let me inform
you Of another thing which p rhaps it will he
thought little bold 10 Ia v down; let me. be-
longing to the stronger side, tel you'll who
live in the Free States-in a powerful Free
Ststs-I who belong to one Of the free States
which form l6 ofthe 81, that notwithstand =
ing our superiority Of power, the free States,
If they had ten of the largest slaveh ldng
together by force. twas marriage contract
Of great and independent sovereignties, and
like marriages founded upoL affection, sense
of right and mutually Of interests from the
great powers that hold the Union together
that sense of right which, whatever may be
said about the frailties of our nature. is at
least powerful element in the American
mind. sense of right, for the love Of right
and profound conviction Of there being, be-
tween the different parts of this confederacy,
mutuality of interest, constitutes the bond,
tue ligament, which holds the Union togeth-
er, and by holding it together, to exhibit to
the world the most powerful, as well as the
most splendid nation on its surface. How
would you hold it together by forcel
Suppose half dozen States, or three or
four, or even ne, chose to 90 out of the I'm
ion, how will you get them ini Imagine the
State OF Pennsylvania, the Keystone in the
arch OF the Union, should for any cause known
to herself however insane, withdraw from the
Republic; environed, as she would be on all
hands, by her late sister members Of the con-
federation, how would you get her backl-
You may say in the old European style OF the
Dragon and the bayonet. Well, suppose a
war should be got up against Pennsylvania
4 thirty against one State--and they environed
her frontier with cannon. covered her mount
/
ry, and slaughtered one half her fathers and
sons, her mothers and her lovely little children
What then! When all this had been done in
order to get her back into the Union, would
the object hav" been accomplished Suppose
she were unable to raise an arm, and was OBJ
iged TO submit to the extension of the FEEDER
al power around her people, where should she
be2 Would she be in the Union as an equal
and an independent State! No, but she
would be in it as conquered province.
say then, that this Government in which a civil
war, rowever it may end, whether the party
representing the Federal Government, or the
opposite party, prove victorious, dissolves the
confederation equally whetee, the victory fall
on the one side or the other. II in combat
the seeding States be victorious, they re-
main out as matter of course. If they be
subsidized, they are brought back, not as free
and independent States, willing % be where
they are, but as conquered provinces, obi ged
to be where they do not want to be. All at
tempts t? induce the people of the North to
believe they have nothing to do but TO bully
the South, are. L trust, doomed to disgrace
iul failure. 1t is not a good business for any,
body to undertake to bully Americans either
North OF South No nation will find it very
profitable investment of its courage to bully
the people of the United States North or
South; but of all bullying in the world, the
bullying of one half OF this nation by the 9TH
er half, is the most to be deplored, because 1t
is the most ridiculous.
The negro recognizes his master as his pro
tector against trouble and all danger. de
recognizes his master as the fit, permanent and
sure source of livelihood throughout the en-
tie year. No soicitude on that score has the
poor negro. lfhe has the misfortune to work
without having the price of his labor counted
out in coin, he has the qualification of know.
ing that he is never in danger of wanting for
bread and meat. Those are greatly mistaken
who suppose that if there was dissolution of
the Union, the North would have nothing to
do bat to call on the negroes to rise and put
down their masters. Not one in five hundred
would rise against their masters. Some of
the strongest defenders ofthe domestic house
mold of the South would be their domestic
servants. There is feeling Of attachment
between master and slave little dreampt of in
the free States, because the Aboltio lists have
continually represented this relation as that
Of tyrart and oppressed"