Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1861-07-19
The Moral Question.

growing UIt VI Ito having oOCH ~ AN+i0 Ao--N ~
fore the public mind-a feeling which is almost
universal-cannot Withstand the fresh interest
with which the war has invested it. This new
interest reaches across the Atlantic, and agi-
tates both our friends and enemies in the moth
err country, even more than our own people
In illustration of this fact We present the reader
an article our first page, from the n Y.
Post, and solicit a careful perusal We are at
first struck by the singular injustice done by
the British Lord, to our government, and are
ready hastily to impute his remarks to a spirit
of jealousy and hostility relating to this coun-
try, which are known to exist in many Euro
pean circles but little reflection suggests
more charitable views.
flour State Sovereignty & Federal supremacy
doctrines are so abstruse as to actually confuse
the minds of Statesmen and give rise to discus
sions amongst US, we cannet seriously wonder
at the misconceptions relating to the same sub
ject entertained by distinguished foreigners
The oppression and wrong done to millions of
cur fellow bengs, which the British Lord well
com pares to a hell, are matter ofyast moment
which the power of man is impotent to
move, as the human mind is to conceive Of the
missriss and the evils it involves. While all
good msn admit and charge the wrong involved,
and would gladly see SO great blot removed
from our country and humanity, still the best
of men differ relating to what conduct is proper
towards those fearfully guilty men who have
control of it. and who from first regarding it as
necessary evil thrust upon them by their faith
without their agency, have come to idolize,
and laud and worship it, as the very acme of
social, political and moral perfection. 1t should
never be forgotten that hatred to sin ITSELF and
treatment of the offending sinner, are very diff
ferent things: So that We are not to infer that
man approves the SIM simply because he
takes different course in the case from what
we should take. While one man would adopt
non-intsrceurse with Shareholders, ether men
on the whole think it best to treat them as citi-
zsns, SO long as they obey the laws of the coun-
try. Our English neighbor, in the article al
luded to- censures Northern people and the
government, because as against the rebels and
all the slaveholding States, at the present juno
ture of affairs they do not Immediately strike
for the abolition Of Slavery. 1t strikes US that
this Englishman has chosen for US very sum-
mary process recommending the cutting of the
Gordian knot which other men think ought to
be laboriously united. To cultivated mind
having the matter tolerably fully before it, the
subject suggests score of thoughts-such as
whether four millions of slaves would be better
ed in condition by being instantly set free by
eur federal army whether a government
srorn to execute constitution and laws
10 - IL
bellion, to ruthessly set aside and totally VIC
late our whole political fabric whether it be
not infinitely better to maintain the Constitu-
ton and laws we have, and so secure order con-
fessedly mingled with evil and imperfection.
rather than to rush into all the horrors and I'M
certainty of anarchy and revolution which are
involved in the course recommended by the no.
bleman. The abolition of slavery by the gov
ernment except by constitutional means, would
of course break up the Union, being itself
subVsrsion of the basis of the Union.
Europeans should see in the election of the
President a throwing off from the country the
Joke which has long overborne it, and this
should be taken rs the guarantee of what is
certainly to follow, viz the ultimate, although
remote, extinction of the evil When the pre-
penderance of freedom becomes still greater and
finally acquiesced in, as it must ultimately be.
by the South, the government can freely use
chose constitutional means which viii cripple
and destroy the slave power; just as former adj
mlnistrations have basely fostered it. In the
meantime it remains question. how far the
government may couutenance or aid the slave
holder in the wrong inssparable from the insti-
tuition. For ourself we believe it great moral
wrong to have the least agency whatever in
promoting slavery. We cannot doubt that to
aid in preventing a rebellion of slaves against
their masters would be as wrong as to prevent
man IN any case from rising against person
who should attempt to rob or murder him-an
act which would undoubtedly make one aces
sorry to'the crime attempted. We confess in
aollfy to see how an act, in itself wrong. can
be any less SO when done by government than
oy an individual, and we fully believe that
whenever our government aids in holding slaves
under dominion Of their masters or returns a
slave to his master, it descends to a level with
the Pirates and men who bring them from At
rics, VINO kldnap them, and even prostitute, rob
ana murder them! Ws intend never to obey
government in doing anything Of the kind but
rather to so speak and act as to wash orr
hands of all the guilt which attaches to eur GOV
eminent In these respects believing as we do.
t9at IN the highest sense, individuals are not
accountable for the character and acts of tbe
saEernment they live under, ally farther than
saey lend their support and countenance to the
measure IN question-any more than man
supports robbery and murder when he relarss
che wants Of the men who commit these crimes
The support Of the government does no moro
1nvoiss responsibility for all it does than SIM
port OK neighbor, as man, involves supnort
Of all he does, To make any one accountable
he must aid and eountenance the sinful act
Admit that our government aids and counte-
nanees the STAKEHOLDER in GREETINGS hell for mil
hons OF fellow beings: re viii not on that &C.
count repudiate it; because it will not help the
enslaved, nor be better in any way than to
make the best of it as it is, and make il better
as soon as We can. While we should mt do |
evil In any case, whether we will maipt in the /
Relation of subject to government which We /
think does some evil and much more good is |
simply question of policy; as whether it /
will do more good to renounce faalty than to
maintain it all governments ba;no r,o -