The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-08-12


spirit of Christian Q ,arity.
He who goes through the world with his
self ghouteous head in the clouds, unwilling
or unable to see his own conspicuous deform
| tiles, while waging war of exterminatior
against the crimes and follies of others, is
being offensive to God and man. Shall we a
! Government continue through all time t,
exhibit this miserable spectacle to the DISCUS
and derision of impartial mankind or shall VI
not rather endeayor to train the public min(
back into the channels of even handed justice
and restore the administration of our affairs t.
the equal and benignant precepts of the ia
theirs Let us first settle honestly with our
lselyes, and purge our national councils o
4 tbos, offences aQatftk6 the InstfIutfons of thi
I Repuhlic, wf1ich-we seek to punish in others
and then we may confidently invoke the arm
of a Just Cod in aid of our efforts to rcstor,
national unity and peace. Let US make ope,
atonement for the bloody drama enacted b,
red handed fanaticism on the soil of Virginia
| in 1859, in pursuance of the teachings of
now dominant political party. It is, doubtless
| easy and convenient now, to forget that public
honors were paid in every State in the North
to the memory of those who fired the first CUR
| in the mortal strife which is now raging. Blu
these facts are locked and bolted in the vaults
| of the inexorable past, there awaiting the ust
which postsrity will make of them. And thai
abrupt chasm in the mountains which bind to
gether different sections, that gaping rent II
the design of nature, that broken ridge at Har
per's Ferry, win hold place in the history oi
the great civil war in America, as forerun,
ner and prophecy. The raven ahas croaked
the hoarse and boding notes of war and disas.
ter to the cause of the Union from It's fata
battlements in every stage of the unnatural
and revolving tragedy which there enacted its
first scense.o .o5sill sd5 rs saii1 lara offs ra
Shall we turn away frightened on this occa
sion from the appalling spectres which the
hand of truth summons from the bosom of the
past Do we dread to gaze steadily and
earnestly at inpefishable facts which underlie
this great convulsioD, and rock this continent
and the world, to day, like an uneasy giant i'm
prisoned beneath the volcanic noun tain II
we do, we are not worthy to aspire to the con.
troll Of a nations welfare. = IF we do we would
be found incompetent tothe task of correcting
those e,ils which we deplore.
One more leaf allow me turn in this chap
ter of disobedience toslaw, as the cause of our
national humiliation and snffering Sectional
hostility to the Constitution eliminated. after
years of storm and discussion, in the elevation
OF man to the Chief Magistracy of the ma
ton, whose claims upon his party to that dis
tinction, consisted in his revolutionary princi-
PIES | appeal to the spirit of truth; and de-
mand that the American people shall deal sin l.
cerely with themselves. The President of the
United States, a brief space prior to his cleo
ton, announced To his follow
the deliberate result of his reflections and ex-
perience, that the whcle domestic economy of
the States, the whole frame work of the intern
al policy of the Government must undergo a
stupendous change, or the Union must submit
to overthrow. He was not content with tie
Constitution. Over the graves of cur ances-
tors he reviled their, wisdom and sought to
weaken public confidence in the result of their
Iabors, and to bring into disrepute the Gov
ernment as they made it These Northern
States, these granite hills, these smiling plains,
this constellation,,of New England States, clus-
tering around the cold, bright North star,
were all to take back to their bosoms that sys
tenn of slavery which they had long since ex-
PEELED or else, on the other hand, the land of
cotton and of cana was to revolutionize its So
cial and Industrial system in obedience to the
distant and ungracious demands of the North,
or in the event of the failure of both these
startling prositions, then the American Union
was to 'sfall like Lucifer, the bright son of the
morning, never to hope again." This was the
logic of the President of the United States.
and with these views unretracted, he entered
upon the duties of his high Office. He was
not content with the Constitution. States pIrt
slave and part. free. moved in harmony and
fraternity under its control. No discotdant,
jarring sounds issued from their respec i've or
bits The law of their political gravitation
was perfect. It was the rcsultof ages of ex-
perience, wisdom and suffering, applied with
.matchless skill to our peculiar interests as
nation. But he was not content with the Con-
sttution, 1t, had weathered many storm ),
and vindicated its power to meet all the de-
mands ofYour unexampled growth. 1t was as
elastic as our far reaching boundaries, and as
contracted as the smallest right of the hum
blest citizen. It had listened to the voice of
the cannon in time of war; and proved itself
sufficient for every military necessity The
Union was the child of its fostering love. 1t
nursed its infancy, and shielded its gigantic
manhood from every ,sssault.I But disregard
ing its sacred origin, overlooking its beautiful
workmanship, blind to its mighty achievements
in behalf of union, liberty, and human pro
gress, and seeing nothing but what appeared
to them as defect, the party now in power
boldly proclaimed, BY their support of Mr..
Lincoln, the necessity for its change or its
:. / here aver, that in the whole range of his
tory no contest short of actual armed revolt
was, ever twaged in more open and avowed con-
tempt and Defiance of existing institutions, and
of fundamental organic law, than. the politi-
cal contest which triumphed in the ascendency
Of the present Administrator, To what p-in-
ciple or department. of the government was
obedience paid by the deciples of this destruc
tive school Of politics 2. Was, it to the Con-
5stitution itself? They had a his her law than
it on the subject Of slavery, which gave them
he liberty Of, disobedience to civil magistrates
Was it to the legislation Of Congress They
brought it also to be tried at the bar of fanat
cism,, c,i and found it repugnant to some thin and
shadowy dogma existing in the realms of an
impracticable trancendentalism it too was re
jected with that cool disdain or u, that hot indig
/ Was it TO the Bible, the rock Of ages, towel
F of truth, the lighthouse Of wisdom and mercy
shining forever over the, stormy waters Die
they Weld it their obedience as the foundation
of all civil government? Not so. ttoo wa
| hror,ohf to the standard of preconceiyed anl