Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1862-02-13
slavery the Cause OF the war.

about slavery being the cause OF the war,
and declaring that the way to end the
war is to destroy slavery. Those who
made tho government understood the
slavery question quite as well as we Of
to-day understand it. In fact it was a
government fought for, won and erected
by Shareholders, in which slavery was
acknowledged and sanctioned by the
Union Of the states, and legaized, pro-
tected and fostercd by every individual
State of the Union, except one. The ,
Union of the states was Union for mu-
tual protection and relief, made necessary
by surrounding circumstances, in which
all the states agreed upon certain great
principles for the government Of the whole
and reserved to themselves all the e1-
ments of state sovereignty to regulate
their domestic Institutions in their own
way, and to be sovereign in everything
not inconsistent with the Constitution,
the great compact governing all the states. .
This was the understanding Of those
who formed the Constitution and put the
wheels of government in motion. That
it is what they intended, is declared, in
fact, by every law placed by them upon
the National Statute. by all their acts,
by every feature Of their administration
Of the government. So long as there
were Revolutionary patriots left to direct
the administration and regulate public
opinion by their advice aud counsel all
was well but that time past and the
pesti(erous plaques Of intermeddlng sec
tionalism, and fanatical and bigoed Ab.
olitionsm began to show their hidra
heads, and as they rose tho bonds Of
fraternal brotherhood, joining man and
man, and State and State, in one harmo-
NOUS and devoted Union, began to dis
solve like snow before the rays of the
sun. Patriotism gave way to bigotry,
devotion to the Union was supplanted by
devotion to tho negro, the courts were
insulted, the laws disregarded, tho Con-
stitution Of our fathers denounced as n
covenant with death and league with
hell ;" statesmen and patriots were hurled
from place and position to make roo IN
for those who boasted most of their
aboitionsm. Such men as WEBSTER,
EwlNG. JoHNsoN, CAss, ALLEN, MARCY,
DOUGLAS and hundreds Of other tried and
true men wer sacrificed to make room for
those whose only merit was aboitionism
and whose boast was abuse Of tho South
and southern institutions.
The end Of it all is that tho hands Of
every aboitonist is stained with the
blood Of murdered Union. 1t is alb
oltionism, not slavery, that has brought
these evil days upon US, and the ranks OF
the abolition party are full of as base
traitors to their country as ever God
permitted to breathe and walk upon his
lootstool. We have such all around us,
even here in Holmes county.
We want the government our fathers
made-the old Constitution, the old laws,
the old ties Of brolherly love and affection
the South to the North, the old spirit o
devotion to the Union, the Constitution
and the laws and the old spirit of holy
hatred our fathers had for abolitionsm
sectionalism and all their kindred ism,
that have ragged for the last twenty years
Every word and act Of every loyal citizer
should be for the Union as our father.
made it. In days of peril they did moi
abolish slavery under the pretencc OF SO
curing liberty They established slavery
and tho Union together and there is just
as much sense in saying that tho Union
is the cause Of tho war as in saying that
slavery is the cause Of it.
The laws sanctioning slavery were nc
more the cause of the rebellion than wer,
the laws of Heaven the cause Of Satan
rebellion there. Those Of our people whC
rebellcd against the laws and preached
tho higher law caused tho rebellion
Heaven was just as good aftor Satan left
and we pray that after tho WADEs. SUN
NERs, HALEs, DAvsEs. lANcy, &c., shall
be assigned their proper quarters that
conservative people will administer the
government as it was designed to bc ad-
ministered by those who erected it. ---