North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1862-08-20

| OF THE CONSTITUTION AND UNION IN PENN
| sYLvANIA.
The Democratic State Central Committee
address you upon subjects Of the gravest mo-
ment. The life of our beloved country is in
danger. The nation writhes under the throes
of widespread civil war. All our patriot
ism all our wealth all our physical pow
| ers; all of whatever virtue exists in the Re-
public is invoked, and should be promptly
afforded to save the National Constitution
and the Union of the States from utter over
| throw. "a
Io thcro ponnoy oyl~enian who valaos the
| title of American ctizen-who reyeres the
memory of the men of the Revolnton-Who
| values civil and religious liberty-who ao-
hors anarchy or despotism-or who claims TO
possess a manly, patriotic heart, that is not
prepared to pledge life, fortune, and sacred
honor for his country, in this her hour of
greatest need and peril? None can with
| hold such assurances of a just estimate of
the importance of preserving the existence
of our republican institutions. We approach
you with the full conviction that the hearts
Of the great body of the people Of Pennsyl-
vanla are with their country in this great
crisis of he. destiny that all that is needed
is to be satisfied of a feasible mode of relief
and extrication, and of the most effective or
ganzation to combine all the forces that can
be applied to speedily and efectually yield
| IL, Of ,,nI nd
perity.
To clearly indicate the mode CT relief, it
would appear to be proper to first determine
the cause or causes Of our present difficulties.
Understanding the causes, it would seem to
be in the order of nature that restoration
shou follow upon their removal 1t is not
c mpatble with the practical efficiency of an
address, such as this, to engage in any elab
crate exposition or historical account of the
gradual progress of antecedent causes, that
have at last eliminated in the dreadful re-
suits We now behold. We SHALL therefore,
necessarily be brief, and best discharge our
purpose by statement of facts, which you
will all recognize as correct, and by the as
sertion Of propositions and conclusions which
we maintain, cannot be successfully contro-
verted. The troubles that are now upon US
are those that the fathers of this country
foresaw might arise upon the decay Of patr-
otism, and against which they undertook to
guard by the Constitution of the United
States, ard the establishment thereby Of
what was deemed by thcm-and has, until
gently, proved to be the harmonious ac-
ton of the States and tie Federal Govern
ment--in their defined and just relations TO
each other Washington, in his Farewell!
Address, pointed out these dangers and,
above all, indicated as the evidence of q wan
ing attachment for the Union, and as the
precursor of its fall, the creation of sectional
parties. 1t was in view Of probable efforts
in this direction that he appealed to his
Gountrymen g to Indignantly frown upon the
! first dawning of every attempt to alienate
any portion Of our country from the est, or
TO .nfueble the sacred ties which link togeth-
er the various parts" Had the counttymen
of Washington sufficiently appreciated his
patriotic warning the widespread civil war
that now afflicts us would never have exist
ed but, on the contrary we should, at this
time, under the support which most boun-
tiful Providence is extending to us, be in the
enjoyment of degree Of prosperity and hap
piness 1--WE venture to asser) unequalled in
the history of nations. Most unfortunately,
sectional parties have grown up, begetting
sectional bitterness ard already the title OF
| American citizens begins to pale befCre the
invasive progress Of such titles as Northern
eP and Southerner.
Years ago men in the North, then very
insignificant combiration began to assail our
Constitution and our Union. This faction,
baslng its opposition upon a misguided senti-
mentality in regard to the servtude of the
negro race N the Southern States, and allow
ing that sentimentality TO swallow up all
true fe llngs of patriotism, and all duty as
citizens, boldly proclaimed their hostility TO
the Constitution and The Union, which they
rightly claimed recognized and was pledged
| not to invade the control Of the States respec
lively over the institution of domestic slave
| ry. Disloyal declarations such as " better
no Union at all than Union with slavehold
ers,h became the automatic dictd of this fac
tion, then and now Tin its formidable proper
tions3 best known as Aboitionists. With
out dwelling upon the progress and growth
of this faction, it is too lamentably true and
well known that proclairnilg through its
leaders their chief object to be +" the ulti-
mate extinction Of siaveryy"i it attained to
slaveholdng States became alarmed and be-
gan to form counter combinations to resist
the threatened overthrow of what they claim
ed to be rights that were intended to be sa-