Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1862-09-04

Take this TO bed with YOU tonight, Srs aud think
about il, dream over it, and let US know how you
feel in the morning"
In these two extracts you have a fair
sample of the designs and spirit of Re-
publican Abolitionists, as recorded by the
distinguished Mr. Helper, and think
you will agree with me in saying, that the
Helper book must have been very odify.
ing reading to the "Ruliians, Outlaws
and Criminals" Of the South. Its be-
nign Influences as a pcacemaker are self
evident. And yet in the face of civil
war growing out of just such exciting
causes as this Helper book, its author was
rewarded by the conservative Mr.. Lincoln
with high diplomatic appointment
Civil war was commenced at Fort Sum
ter. Following the attack upon Fort
Sumter the Presidents proclamation OF
April Is, 1861, was the carly accession
of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee
and Arkansas to the Southern Conicd-
cracy and an unsuccessful attempt OF
Missouri to unite with it.
A gigantic fratlicidal war was thus in
auguratCd, in which is involved as its
grand and absorbing issue, the life of the
Federal Union, and all the hopes and
blessings that are bound up in it, as
the true palladium of American liberty.
With alternate successes and reverses
to the contending sections the war has
now contiucd for sixteen months. a
million of men are in arms-and hun
drcds Of thousands more are demanded
a rapidly increasing national debt OF
nearly one thousand millions of dollars
rest with crushing weight upon the toll.
ing millions Of our lanl, while all the
sad concomitants OF civi war fill the land
with public or private decentralization
sorrow and mourning.
From the commencement of our ma
tional existence until this hour, the ma
ton has known ho darker period than
the present. Its solemn realities and
responsibilities rest heavily upon every
heart. The almost agonizing cry comes
mp daily from the breast Of the people
Is there hope? Shall we yet be saved ?
Shall the glorious institutions of our ia
| Tiers stand, or shall they perish amid tho
blackncss and ashes of civil war? What
shall We do to save them That man i,
unworthy the name Of American citizen
he is less than human, who can mark the
anxious saddeuol faces Of the people, and
hear their hcart-rcnding cries for deliver
ancc, without feeling all the powers Of
his nature stirred with the love of country,
an the resolve to do the utmost to save
this impeliIIed and bleeding country.
Let us bring the effect of this war home
to ourselves, to our own people of this
State and Congressional district. With
the exception Of Fort Wayne, we have
in this Congressional district no large
towns, nor large mechanical or manulac-
turing population. Our people are most
ly farmers, who. by dint of toilsomc la
Dor have opened in the wilderness little
home. With many Of them the steady
toll Of half litime has failed to do more
than gain for them few cultivated acres,
little form house, perhaps an humble
cabin, and the means, scant at beast, Of
roaring and educating a family of children
and the hope Of supporting old age free
from want
While the blessings of benign and
ma:chlcsS government were resting, like
the genial sunshine and the gentle dows OF
Heaven, so kindly that they were hardly
felt, upon all the people and II career oI
national greatness and prosperity, uneX
anpIcd in history, was before them-this
terrible civil war has suddenly burst in
fury upon the land Go through oul
towns and villagcS-go through our ng
ricuItural di,tricts-.go through each farm
house and cabin by the way side--anl
take the census OF the young men whom
this war has called to the field Of battle
In this district alone they can be numbered
| by thousands, many OF whom have left
their homes to die in battle, to puriSh by
diseased or to return marred and manned
and disease for life, or what is far worse
to return moral wrecks Of once virtuou,
youths, destroyed by the corrupting inllu
cnccs ofthc life of camps. How many ,
gray haired man has thus lost son OF
sons, the prop and hope of his declining
| years and now, with his sons lost, hi
property half cultivated and deprecated
grinding taxation staring him in the face
and the leebencss Of old age rapidly com
ing on, the old man AS he sits in his cab
in door at even tide and ponders on tn
sorrows of his country, feels in his hear
Of hearts that the sunshine of his life ha
forever departed, and that his gray hair
must go down in sorrow to the grave
We can too sadly and too trul y say.
$50 many widows and helpless orphans have ou
( battles made
l'hatha our Northern states this day are mourn
crs.'
Why are these things so The hear!
OF the peope are daily asking that qucS
tion. and their audible voice cannot b.
Stillod or silenced. For one, fearless o
slandcr, misrepresentation or dcnuciation
shall ask and answer it before tho peo
/ pie in the fear of truth and in the ligh
of history.
Why are these things so?
Let the politicians and political rulers
who have for years been preaching to the
American pcol le, in the face of all til,
facts to the contrary-of our gloriou,
prosperous history as a Federal Union
that there was and must bean irrcpreSS
lble conflict" between tho slave and free
States of the Union; and that that Unior
"could not permanently endure half slave
and half free and that "a house divided
! against itself cannot stand :" and who
have thus been educating the minds n