Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1862-04-03
The Danger that is Casting ITS
Dark shadow Before us.

lnS uaNSel utlOIc us III tnlS country,
rejecting men have anticipated and dread.
Ell from the beginning of our present
contest 1t is this, as expressed by an
acute English writer, that in protracted
civil war parties almost invariably end
by taking more extreme ground than they
began with. The history Of nearly every
long civil war affords at once an illustra.
tion and proof of the truth OF the re-
mark
Nearly year ago we engaged in
war Tor the sole purpose, as expressed in
the President s proclamation for three
months volunteers, of dispensing con.
spiracies seeking to obstruct and prevent
the execution of the laws of the United
States. 1t was confidently predicted by
some high in official station, that tho
object woul be accomplished in sixty,
or at furthest in ninety days. But al
most twelve months have gone by, and
the end is not gained yet. AS the war
is heightened out, the feelings of sectional
hate are intensified on both sides.
We have gained Of late succession
Of triumphs over the rebels and driven
them from the border and from the coast
further and further into the interior
The p ospect is that we shall soon be
able to overrun and hold the country in
which rebellion has been predominant.
But AS the tide of war turns in our favor,
the inevitable question comes up, and
den auds a soluticn--what use shall be
made Of our victories, or in other words,
how shall we deal with the districts which
1 1 n I. IL
grasp Of the rebel faction?
Keeping in mind the avowed purpose
for which we entered into the war, this
question would seem of easy solution
In that view, the only answer that can
be given is, that wherever and whenever
the rebel conspiraces are broken up and
dispersed, and the authority of the Fed
cral Constitution and laws are enforced
and maintained, the object of the war on
our part is attained, and the people
should be left to re. construct or re estab-
lish their respective State and municipal
governments as they were before the re-
b lion begun.
But this does not suit class OF men
who profossedly range themselves on the
Union side, but are really seeking the
overthrow of the Union. They are the
extreme men at the North, who are not
satisfied with the dispersion of the rebel
combinations and conspiracies, and the
enforcement o the laws. They do not
want the Union saved. They are for
destroying it, and are for building up
new Government. We have sample
of these extremists, who are every day
becoming bolder and more numerous, in
Mr. Bingham, Of Ohio, who argued in a
speech in Congress, delivered on the 18th
instant, that the socalled seeded States
had of themselves withdrawn from the
Union and were reduced to the condition
of territories. If this be true, then the
secessonists have accomplished, or rather
had accomplished their object year ago.
and we have been fighting for a mere
shadow-for just nothing at all. The
Union, according to Mr.. Bingham's rea-
soning, was dissolved by the passage Of
the ordinances Of secession beyond recall,
and all we of the remaining States had
to do, was to acknowledge such disolu
ton, and act upon it. We should have
gone to work Immediately and formed a
new Constitution and Government, in
stead of pretending to act under the old
ones, and have made the war one for mere
conquest, and not for the maintenance of
the Union.
Mr. Bingham is Republican, and one
of class likely to b., come, if not al
ready, dominant in that party, as repre-
sented in Congress and out of it. Ex-
trcme men like him. whom many Repub-
,, licans would. year ago, have hardly
treated with common politeness, are now
in high favor with that party and its
representative men. They are not yet
all quite ready, though great portion Of
them are, to say that Bingham, Sumner.
Phillips, etc, are precisely right; yet
from President Lincoln downward to the
c drummer up of a Republican or Fusion
township caucus, we hear it intimated =,
: with wise. prophetic shake Of the head
= that this extreme doctrine of the real
G dissolution of the Union by the rebellion
> in the extinguishment Of State Govern
3 ments, State constitutions and State laws,
g may be the one upon which the Federal
!, Government, if the war continues much
q longer may be compelled to act.
AS specimen and apt illustration ol
u this, take the Journa! of this city. Of
y yesterday morning, March Oath. That
:, paper contains Mr.. Bingham's speech to
II which we have alluded 1t produces, il
o an editorial, sound and conclusive argu
J. ments against MIR. Bngham's position
l. that certain States have taken themselv
$ out of the Union, and broken it up, anC
&c are no more to be regarded as States
'e But what does oil this logic amount t.
y in the eyes of the readers of the Journal
, when the editor in the last paragraph o
Ia his article says: "There may BE-" mari
II the words "there MAY BE, in tn
ar coming events that are now casting thei
'd shadows before, a NECESSITY for
OF resort to the THEORY THAT MIR
OF BINGHAM HAS ADVANCED"
s. The Journal is gently sucking in an
ne administering Geographically the posi-
tion that is beginning to pervade the Who'll
Republican and Fusion body The pal
ty is to be educated and is being las
n educated to the extreme point of Abo
r. lition Disrnion heresy. In fact, it
at evident that nany of is leaders an
n. teachers are prepared to go far beyon
ll anyt hing the most RAMPANT Abolitionist