Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-06-23
For the Daily State Sentinel.
A Few Thoughts upon the Present
Condition of Public Affairs.
SHELBYvILLE, June 10, 1862.

SHELBYvILLE, June ~, 1867.
Dr.. JAMES s. ATHoS-Dear Sirs Prior to
1850 both the Wing and Democratic parties de-
nounced the Abolitionists-both predicted the
disruption OF the Union if public sentiment was
deprayed by abolitionism. To secure power and
patronage the Wings and Abolitionists affiliated.
The abolition became the dominant element of
the Republican party; these idealogists sought to
realize their Utopian scheme for the perfectibility
Of human institutions and to break the letters of
the black race. Their battle CRY was, "War
against slavery" Itevoked its counterpart-bat.
tie cry of "War for slavery" The irrepressihle
conflict was begun. 1t eliminated in the pres
ent war. The prophetic warnings of Washing
ton, Jackson, Clay, and Webster were forgotten;
their salutary counsels to cultivate fraternal re
latiOns were lost in bitter denunciatioDs; toler-
ance, charity, and love were not invoked, but the
equally potent demons of hate and discord. The
executive scepter was thrust into the hands of one
of these obnoxious agitators. A wise statesman
foresees results, and adapts his means to his ends.
Either this wise craftsmanship was wanting OF
the logical deduction must be that the war was
braved as a result. My condemnation of the
fire eaters South is equally emphatic. The guilt
of men who would make a pandemonium of Par
adise, who substitute treason for loyalty, perjury
for fidelity, peace for war, chaos and anarchy for
law and order, is aggravated indeed. To crush
the rebellion is a sacred duty to humanity, to civil
liberty, nay, to the very culprits themselves, who
have imperiled their liberties by their rash rebel
lion.
Democrats are as prodigal of their blood as
Republicans-as much filled with the "diUine 0f
fatus" of patriotism. But fusion is asked. Is
fusion the correct means of perpetuating Repuo
lican rule as coniscation is the disguise form of
AboIitionismI As a penalty for crime it seems
just, and will find a sanction, which as mere Alb
olitionism it would not.
Medical men who treat a disease aim to remove
its exciting cause. If Abolitionism is the cause,
it has been intensified in its hatred, and instead
of disarming the fears of the South for this their
favorite institution, it has abolished slavery in
the District of Columbia, invited and recon-
mended it in the States, suspended the efficacy of
the fugitive slave law. Are these measures cal
culated to exasperate the South, or a guaranty
that the extirpation of slavery is not to be one of
its results?
And do we, with the lessons of Hayti and st.
Domingo before US. desire emancipation? To
the slave his shackles mean work; his freedom,
immunity from it. When intoxicated with his
new born liberty he riots in sensuality, vice and
idleness; and the South, which now blooms with
wealth, will be a desert and waste. Even now
hordes of these imbeciles are paupers on the
Government, and the burthens of white tax pay
ers are aggravated to furnish rations to these
Abolition pets.
If a Democrat dare to question that power
which destroys the liberty of the press by the
expression of public journals, or the '~'Iettres du
cachet, . by which men are imprisoned in our po-
litical bastiles, some petty dupe of Abolitionism
cries "Secessionistl"
The unjust, iniquitous, partial and odious ia
riff and tax bill thrusts upon the West the most
Of this enormous war debt. One hundred mill
ions is to be raised to protect or enrich the peck
cts of manufacturers, under this absurd dogma
that the cheaper we buy the more impoverished
we become, and the equally luminous one that if
our imports exceed our exports-in other words,
if the streams of wealth we receive are greater
than those We part with, we are becoming poor,
as a nation, only equalled by that obsolete but
now revived cry that national debt is a national
blessing. Under the benign influence of this Ia
riff policy, whilst our commodities have dwarfed
in value, large profits and fat prices have reward
ed the factories East.
Ii the war, its mountain of debt, the paralysis
of commerce, and all peaceful pursuits conse-
quent upon Republican rule, be arguments for its
continuance; if embezzlement on a gigantic
scale, robbing the Government Of the sinews of
war, is a title of confidence; if the fruits of our
labor are to swell the profits of the merchant
princes of the East-if despotic interference with
the liberty of press and persons are desirable, then
fuse. But If the conservatism, as contradis-
tinguiShed from the fanaticism of abOlitiOnists.
gives better hope that our deluded brethren of
the South will be lured back, and if all
history shows that a generous victor who
guarantees the customs and rights of the
conquered, holds by a surer tenure than where
hate and bloody prescriptions cancelled laws and
an armed %soldiery, the power will be vested in
to Democratic hands.
Whilst the election of Lincoln was no sufficient
cause for this wicked rebellion, the fact is patent
that the Abolitionists are very inimical to the
South; and some hope may well be built of a re-
turn to friendly relations by the restoration of the
Democratic party that has always struggled to
adhere to the compromises of the Constitution
and stood as a break water against the aggressive
policy of the AbolItionists. And the overthrow
of that policy which has disturbed and destroyed
the peace of the country is, in my opinion, the
harbinger of peace and harmony, and | do not
see why the sacrifice or abandonment of long
cherished principles is In any degree ~incompata-
bic with a prosecution of the war to a victorious
conclusion. 1t the abolition is the dominant ele-
ment of the Republican party, by a fusion we be
come the abettors of their policy when merged in
the party. L do not write as a party man. No
one breaks its letters sooner than / do where the
party is wrong. Yours, W. NJ. McCARTY.