The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1861-01-17
Qoljtjcal
IN. Seward on seoesston.

Mr. Seward on Secession.
At the Dinner of the New England
Society Of New York City, on the 22d
ult., Mr.. Seward was present, and made
speech, in which he said:
"And now, fellow citizens, will
speak one word concerning the anomal-
Gus condition Of your afFairs--producod
by the disposition of some of the
American States to sccede from the
Union. 1t has taken the American
people and the world by surprise. Why
has it taken them so by surprise? Only
because it is unwise and unnatural. Il
is wise that all the Republican States of
| this continent should be confederated.
1t is unwise that any Of them should
attempt to separate applause and yet
| it ought not to have taken us by sur
prise Whoever could have imagined
that a machine so complicated, so fast.
so new, so untricd as this cOnfederatcd
system Of Republican States, should be
exempt from the common lot Of States
which have figured in the history of the
world? A more complex system Of po.
/ litjcal government was never devised
never conceived among men. How
strange it is, how unreasonable it is,
that we should be surprised that q pin
may drop out Of this machinery, aud
that the wheels should drag, or that the
| gudgeon shall be worn, until the wheels
themselves shall cease to play with their
regular activity.
= * x Is it strange then,
that this complex system of our Gov
eminent should be found to work after
the lapse of 20 years, a little roughly,
and that it requires that the engineer
should look into the various parts Of
the engine, and see where the gudgeon
| is worn out, and watch that the main
wheel is kept is motion A child can
withdraw a pin from the mightiest en-
/ gine and arrest its motion, and the On
/ gineer cannot see il when it is being
done, butif the engine be rightly de-
visod, and strongly constructed, he has
only to see where the pin has been
withdrawn and replace it, and the en-
gino will go on more vigorously than
ever.
\ - x IS Il Now gentle
men, 1 believe among all the truths,
that whether it is Massachusetts or
South Carolina or whether it is New
York or Louisiana, it will turn out ex-
actly the same way in every casc-that
there is no such thing in the book-no
/ such thing in reasOn-nO such thing ia
| philosophy-no such thing in nature,
as any State existing on the continent
|of North America, long out Of the
United States Of America (Apphuso0
/ Don't believe word of it-L don't be-
/ lieyo it for many reasons-some l have
named-and for one l don't see any
reason given for it, The best reason l
hear, is that some of the people Of the
| Southern States hato us of the free
States very badly, and they say we hate
/ them, and that all love is lost between
us l do not believe a word oft. On
the other hand I do know, for myself
and for you, that batting some differ.
ences Of opinion about advantage, and
about prescription, and about freedom
and slavery, and all that, they are mere
! ly family differences to which We do
not take any outsiders, in any part Of
the world, into our counsels on either
side. There is not q State outside of
the American Union that like half so
we'll as 1 do the State of South Caro-
lima - prolonged APPLAUSE neither
England nor Ireland, nor Scotland, nor
France, nor even Turkey, although
from that country they have sent me
some Arabian horses, while FROM South
Carolina they have sent me nothing but
curses; still like South Carolina better
THAN any Of them. l do not know but