The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-10-07
THE ROAD TO PEACE AND
Il

The only possible way to stop this war and
to restore the Union of the States, is to ADOPT
the policy of Mr.. Jefferson and the republi-
can leaders in l798-1800 The Federalists
or Capsolidationists were put in power, and
having gotten Up . war against the French
Republic, they took advantage of the morbid
excitement and apprehension OF the popular
mind to set up a central despotism, something
like the present one, that should override the
States and reduce them to mere provinces, as
originally contemplated by the leading FEEDER
al chiefs. True, Mr.. Adams never dreamed
CT .uch a thing as "Old Abe's" dwar power"
or ete setting aside law, Constitution, haJeas
corpus and all the other safeguards of liberty
that men have batt!ed for for the last five
hundred years, but perhaps was really the
more dangerous man for this very resaon.-
He sought, by legal enactment and judicial
construction, to change the character of our
system, and instead OF a mere Federal agency,
confined to a few well-defned objects, to trans-
form it into a consolidated and oyershadowing
centralism OF imperialism, in which the great,
vital, and liberty preserving principle of self
government and local Independence should
wither and die. 1t was in view of this dan
ger that Mr.. Jefferson suggested to the leading
Republicans in Congress to resign their posi-
tions and enter the service of t@eir. several
and thai ayviec was 5uPt f6ffuwcd.
Instead Of a feeble fight against the "Presi-
dent and his friends" in Congress, the able
and popular. leaders from New York, Penn
s~ylvanfa and especially Virginia, resigned,
went home, entered the State Legislatures,
and made these the popular foci for al oppo-
sition that two years later overwhelmed the
centralists, and, as Mr.. Jefferson expressed it,
restored the government 20 the Republican
track" This is a government of the States,
and whenever administered otherwise, it is.
for the time being, revolutionized, and the
only possible way to restore it to it's true posi-
ton, dignity and usefulness, is through the
action of the individual States. Eighty years
ago Massachusetts was the only free negro
State but, enc by one, she has corrupted and
perverted seventeen other States, and with
their aid boldly usurpsthe common govern
ment to force fourteen slavc-negro States to
adopt her notions OF negroes. These States
simply murder their negroes in the vain effor>
to make them live out the life of the white
man ; but could they force their lHnaeies on
the South, they would destroy both races, and
renders society itself impossible. The States,
by such a monstrous lunacy, sece-
ded, that rs; each State individually, and of
itself, fell back on the great law of selEprcs
and refused to be destroyed to please
Massachusetts. &cs In view of this state OF
things. how apparent the wisdom of Mr.. JEFF
ferson's tactics. suppose the cppnsitl9n to the
"anti-slavery" party carry the six great cen
trail northern States this fall, and thus show
their brethren of the South their desire to re.
store the central government to its true func-
tons, then a corresponding feeling will doubt
less soon be manifest in the great southern
States, Tennessee, Virginia, North
aud Arkansas, while Missouri, Mary
land and Kentucky, from necessity as well as
will take the same position. The
great heart of the old Union thus restored to
soundness, New England and the, cotton States
might still carry on the war withou. hurting
any body very much but the monstrous folly
Of fthe war for the Union" would then be go
apparent, even to Abolition ~lunatics them
selves, that it would soon collapse, even if Old
Abe were re elected President by Congress.