Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-02-14

tnaJ Guy upon ClNH WdI, IfOih WuiCh VIZ
make the following extract:
From the day that American citizens
meet as hostile armies to decide 10y trial
of battle any question Of political orso-
cial nature, peace and tranquility, public
and private, have fled our borders forever.
From the field, where the soldier has
done his murderous word, the deadly
spirit which animated that work will be
carried into all the ways Of civil life to
rankle there an incurable poison evermo ore
Let but one battle in a war of this char
scter be fought, and the die is cast-then
life in any part of this once happy land
would BEL burden and curse to all save
Southern FIRE eaters. The turbulent elias
ses in the upper and lower strata of So
ciety might still live and riot here them
to whom the devil has impaired his own
indominitablc ambition, and mgued with
his conviction that to rule in he'll is better
than to serve in heaven, would find this
distracted country more than profitable;
but honest men-men who love peace
who love their frecCom-who know that
order is the first law of heaven, aud that
society without law and order, and with
out the respect due to enlightenment and
conservative public opinion, is worse than
the savage state--would flee its shores
and take refuge in any, even the worst
Gespotism of the old world. For consid-
er what must follow on the heels of these
dogs Of civil war The worst has not
been seen when the fields Of the laborcr
are trampled by the hoofs of the warhorse,
and his cottage given to the flames, amid
which the bodies Of his violated wife
daughter or mother are consumed. The
worst has not been seen when the infuria-
ted soldier of one section shall meet his
equally infatuated brother from different
section, and, though they twinned at a
birth, to grapple in the fierce tug Of war,
and yield not until one or both is with tho
dead No, nor will the worst be seer
when, as necessary result Of protracteo
civil strife, all the arts OF peace decay
when there is no sound of hammer in tn,
shop or wheel in the mill, when the fence
less fields are barren, when warehouses
are empty, and unladened ships are rot
ting at the wharves; when ruins incumbel
the streets Of once prosperous cities, an,
when gaunt multitudes of amine-stIickei
wretches wander up and down the land
clamoring for bread and threatening
bloody work if they get it not. Worse
worse, q thousand times worse than al
this, are the moral effects left in a nation
mind and heart as the thrice accursed leg
acies of civil war; the socia. family feud
that become hereditary, like disease; ha
treds that burn in the blood from genera
ton to generation.
And depend upon it, our civil-strife
will furnish the chroniclers of after time
with materials as heroic, and inlinitel,
more appalling, than anything found il
the experience of the famed Houses o
York and Lancaster. When this grea
contest shall have been decided, so far a
steel and shot can decide it, then will be
gin the battle that must be handed dow
cherished bcquest from sire to son. I he
the scene Of strife will change. 1t will b
no longer the tented fed-no longer tn
savannas of the South--the green hi
of New England or the broad prairies c
the West---but that battle to be fougl
with pen and speech, and look, implement
all of keener edge than any sword blad,
will be wagcd every. where. In the draw
ing-room, in the counting house, on Il
street, in crowded halls of debate, in Il
theater and on change, in car and boa
on land and sea, and, "worse than worst
around the private board, and at the 81
cred hearth of home.
Aud remember, pray you, that whe
this civil war time comes, the strife wi
not be between united North and un
ted South; fearful as such war would /
we might come out from it and have son
hope in the future. But the man is
fool who thinks it possible, in the eve,
of actual hostllities resulting in bloo'
shed, to unite the people of either sectic
in hearty opposition 10 the other. that ca
not be done, for the North will have i
allies in the South, and the South wi
have it's allies in tho North. You ha,
heard it already proclaimed abroad th,
when the day to fight comes, the fields
battle will not DO on the other side
Mason and Dixon's line, although the
will be fighting enough there too, but Il
iiercest, the most relentless, the most 81
tanical and brutal battles will be fougl
nearer our homes; here in the streets
New York and brooklyn. there in BoSto
and at the base Of the granite column G
Bunker Hill. In every hamlet aud vi
lage throughout tho North must this d
mon Of discord leave his bloody trail.
Let me tell you what you may expo
then. You will see on some holy Sa
bath evening an infuriated mob surgir
up against the doors Of some crowd,
church; there will be in that mob not o
ly the dregs Of the lawlcss classes, b
well dressed and apparently respectful
citizens, but they will all be animated
one fell spirit, and they viii batter {
doors Of the sacred temple, they W
trample over the heads ofscreaming wo,
en- and panic stricken men, they will sea
the pulpit and dragging from his no
upon the sacred place the man Of Go
they will stop the flow of his eoluen
and wit by hanging him from the hor
of his own altar An hour win pass a,
the police having failed to restore ord,
the soldiers will come. with the Mayor
their head, aud the mob will bo III
down like rabid dogs; there viii be bio
upon the pulpit stairs, blood upon I
torn lPayps nf tho Rihlo and Isalu, hn,