Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1862-12-26

rebellion, the punishment OF treason, ana
the supremacy Of the Constitution. We
can have real peace only in having
back again the Union as it was The
Uuion as 1t aras. And by that phrase |
do not mean the Union as it had become
during the last thirty years. for during
that period the Union has been on3 con-
tinual threat and preparation for disunlon
We do not want Union in which spec
ious theories of State Sovereignty are
broached and nursed to prepare the way
for disunion. We do not want a UEion
distracted by sectional hates and jealous
les and struggles for supremacy. We do
not want a Union characterized by South
Carolina notifications, and Mississippi
lynchings, and Lacompton Constitutions
and Border wars, and Senate-Hall cudgc-
llngs, and feroc;ous debates, and John
Brown raids. We do not want Union
that is Incompatible with liberty ofspccch
aud thonght We do not want Union
IN a portion of which man, resident or
travelling, cannot speak, nor even private
y cherish, an opinion on moral and social
question without being exposed to imprls-
onment and violent death. We do not
want Union in which portion of the
people shall be laying up arms aud drill
ing solJiery, III evident aud express
preparation for the battles of di5union.
Rather we want the Union as it was dur
ing the first half-century of the Republic,
when the institution Of slavery was ac-
kowlcdecd on all hands, North and South
alike, to be a fatal Inheritance, an injus-
ticc and misfortune, and there was a com
mon hope for the time when it should
cease out of the land when there was no
struggle to give it dominion and extern
sion, and consequently no struggle to pre-
vent it when it was expected and desir-
cd on al! hands that the industrial sys-
tens in the North and the South would
at length be brought into harmony and
uniiormity-a uniformity based on the
great American principle of universal
liberty and equality before the law. The
Union as it vas, then, in the earlier and
better days Of the country, is what we
want as the best, if not the essential, con-
aitior Of peace We should maintain a
conservative position OF mind on thls sub
ject, but it should be a conservatism OF
things in as they were in former day
and not Of things in the pass they have
been brought to amid the new theories OF
these last days. 1t Is a false eoaserva-
tisn, that alheras to later Innovations or
abuses rather than to earlier principles.
| begin to think, or rather | hare late
ly come to taink, that we shall have no
setsiel peace Oh tai5 continent until s!av-
cry is extinct, or has got crippled anI put
in the way Of cxtingnlshment, y year
Or two ago it would have been extreme
raijeaIism to assert this. 1t IS not 50
naw; but sober opinion, not basel on
the principles Of a tanatical philanthropy,
bat on the PalPable Facts OF the day ana
on the exigencics Of cur civil and military
position.
The President, Commandcf-ln-Cn,et
Of our armies, being hard put to 1t to
suppress the rebellion and scatter It's
forces, finds that there are some millions
Of persons called slaves who hy forced la
bor are feeding the eneny's troops
doing their work at home 50 that they
may all 20 to the field, tillins the ground
tor theM, building ioy,iications, making
their roads AMI transporting their sup
plies. Those slaves are not our enemies,
but are probably for the most part at
heart Ioyal to the rishtful government