East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1862-02-04
EAST SAGINAW, MICHIGAN, FEBRUARY Y a. 1862.

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stolen land, or stolen ships. or stoleI
money, than they are bound TO demanc
the same .recompense for stolen slaves.
There had been. since the days c
Washington, men among us who wer'
opposed to the Federal Union, IThes,
| men had from time to time sought powel
and place, and finding the principles o
the Democratic party most popular, they
had generally been attached to thai
party. The favorite scheme OF these
men, existing from generation to genera
tion, was the establishment Of Southern
fgoveruInent. Washington had them in
his mind as early as 1896, when he called
on the couptry to frown upon every at.
tempt to ALLEVIATE any portion Of ouI
country from the rest, or to enfeeblc the
sacred ties which now link together the
various parts" and he added solemn
warning against such geographical dis
crilninat;ons Of parties as would he indi.
Gated BY the names Of Northern and
Southern, Eastern and Westsra. Without
pausing here to trace the various evi-
dences OF the constant presence of these
men in the nation, and their occasional
demonstrations, il is sufficient to say
that in later years they became numerous
and strong. But convention after con-
vention, aud public meeting after public
meeting, failed in producing any sensible
effect in favor of their mad schemes, or
in moving the great bodyof the Southern
people to their views. The South was
wholly and heartily attached to the
Union, loved it, defended it, prayed for
its perpetuity. The heart Of the South
was right, and there was no hope for the
new government plan, until there arose
at the North a party of men whose
avowed objects were the overthrow OF
the institution Of slavery, which was the
child Of the Constitution. Right or
wrong, that institution was in every
Southern home, was the foundation of
property, the support Of millions of de-
pendents aud of owners. Abolitionists
might have attacked the institution with
their maledictions and produce no effect.
They did furnish some fuel with which
the new government men kindled fame
in South Carolina, but those men were
powerless still. At length, however,
Northern States began to joinin the ell
nifty to the institution. They passed
personal liberty bills, with the avowed
object of hindering, if not defeating, the
operation of the Constitution of the
United States. Those bills were pro-
nounced, as in Massachusetts, unconstitu
tional, by the highest opinions in the
North and South, but the Northern zeal
OTIS were reckless of the consequences.
Rapidly, with rapidity almost unpar
alleled, the disunionists OF the South in
creased their forces and grew in strength.
The statesmen, the fathers, the few noble
men who remained to us from an age of
great men, besought the North to pause.
The an;i-slavery raid was fierce and ur-
compromising. If aslave escaped to the
North, anti.slavery mobs defended him
and rescued him from the officers OF the
Constitution. If an anti-slavery fanatic
led murderous attack ON Virginia homes
and was hung as be deserved, anti slavery
newspapers praised him as martyr, and
anti-slavery men sang songs to his mem
ory. If the Supreme Court of the United
States enunciated decision under the
Constitution which favored the rights of
slavery, Northern fanaticism denounced
the court, refused to abide by its const-
tutiunal law, and boldly threatened to
reorganize the court SO that it should
hereafter decide as anti-slavery men
,aI a
All this, byno means, justified rebellion
at the South. No, but this madness of
the North placed in the hands OF the dis.
union men of the South precisely the
weapons they wanted. They made it the
call to organize Southern party. They
rallied around them many of the best aud
noblest men of the South, who really be-
lieved that this Northern anti.slavery
element would come into their homes
and devoar their substance, while it freed
their slaves. ,..,.,i ..,-4.h
In the midst of this terrible excite
ment, an excitement on which patriots
and calm men looked with awe and hor-
rible forebodings, the Republican party
came into existence and strobe rapidly to
power. Its leaders were unscrupulous
men, who sought political success at any
cost The anti-slsvery excitement was a
capital political ally. The marriage was
formed. Men who were in the party aud
were not abolitio1ists, could not precisely
understand where they were, or what
they were. The orators of the party,
on platforms, howled their deGnnciations
Of slavery to catch the anti-slavery vote.
The newspapers Of Che party reiterated
the anti-slavcry cries, charging the slave
holders with all crimes and shames, "the'
sum Of villainies I" but the party as a
party never endorsed any Of these fanat-
lcal propositions, and claimed to DO free
from them. 'i har 10 'eo
The object Of the Southern disunionist,
the fear of Washington aud Of all the
patriots down to the lately honored dead
Of Kentucky and Massachusetts,, was
realized. A sectional party was formed,
aud its triumph was the excuse for m
other sectional party to plunge into re
bellion against the Government. While
we stood shouting to the North that they
were putting into the hands Of the