Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1863-10-06
Prophecies of tho Ola states.
men.

; turally reflect upon the causes which hav
led to our melancholy condition. Fo
many years past the elements Of civil wal
and disunion had been gradually foment
ing between the North and South until a
last we realized all that our great states
men predicted as the necessary conse
quence Of sectional prejudice and hatred
From the very formation Of the Govern.
ment the dangers incident 10 Republican
system, resting upon popular assent as its
only reliable basis, were foreseen and
pointed out to the generations which have
followed. Had the prophetic voices Of
the fathers been timely needed, the coun-
try would be blessed to-day with peace
and unity. A candid investigation into
the history of the existing troubles will
place the first and chief responsibility up.
on the sectional Abolition party whose
persistent agitation Of the slavery question
inAamed the popular mind to the point of
civil war
GEORGE WASHINGTON, whose wisdom
penetrated, it would seem, all the dangers
likely to threaten our national existence.
uttered, in his Farewell Address, the fol.
lowing warning to his countrymen
my countrymen, frown Indignantly upon
any attempt to ALLEVIATE any portion OF our
country from the rest Beware of sectional
organizations-of arraying the North against
the South, or the South against the North.
IN The end IL toiH QroUe fatal 10 your Hber.
ties
In lo4O, the Abolition party exhibited it.
self for the first time as a thorough political
organization contending for the highest Of
hces in the Government. Its dangerous
designs were not so patent then as now.
yet they were sufficiently unmasked to
justly excite the alarm of our sagacious
patriots WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. a
son of one of the signers of the Declara-
ton of Independence, was President, and.
just before his death, he expressed the fol-
lowing sentiments, as though his eyes rest
ed upon the very period at which we have
arrived:
" am and have been for many years, so
much opposed to slavery, that | will never
live in a slave State But believe the Con
stltution has given no power 10 the General
Government to interfere in this matter. and
that to have slaves, or no slaves, depends
upon the people in each State. But beside
the constitutional objection, l am persuaded
that the obvious tendency of such interference
on the part of the State which have no slaves.
with the property of their fellow citizens Of the
others, is to produce state Of discord and
Jealousy, that toiH in the end prove fatal 10
the Union"
But few men looked with clearer gaze
into the future of the country than AN
DREW JACKSON. The public service which
he performed through many years, COM
blned with that vein of native practical
sense which distinguished him, enabled
him to quickly discern the drift of affairs
and to warn his fellow citizens against the
results of popular dissention. During the
second term of his administration of the
Government, English emmissaries were
sent to America to agitate the slavery
question and finally produce division of
the Union. In view of this, General
JACKSON said in his Farewell Address:
"What have we to gain by divisions and dis
sensions2 Delude not Yourselves with the
hope that the breach, once made, would be
rejoined If the Union is once
severed, the separation will grow wider and
wider, and the controversies which are now
debated and settled in the halls of legislation.
will be tried in the field of battle and deter.
mined by the SOord
In lS45 the venerable Hero of the Her
mitage departed this life, but before his
decease he expressed to friend his opin-
ion OF the character and tendencies of the
Abolition party, whose rapid growth had
already clouded our political horizon with
gloom. lie said:
"Sir, the abolition party is "a disloyal or.
ganlzation. Its pr ecluded love of freedom
means nothing more nor less than cipil par
and dissolution of the Union Honest
men OF all parties should unite to expose
their intentions and arrest their progress
DANIEL WEBSTER was at one time the
favorite statesman of Massachusetts, and,
throughout the country. he was the ac-
knowledged "expounder of the Constitu-
ton" But, instigated by such disunion-
lists as CHARLES SUMNER and WENDELL