The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1863-02-04

line to the Ohio River, or from Manhattan
to the Canadas..-
|. And now, sii, Is there any difference of
race here SO radical as to forbid reunion?
I do otrefer Ito the negro race, styled
now, in unctious official phrase, by the
President, Americans of African de-
scent" Certainly sir, there are two white
races in the United States, both from the
same common stock; and yet so distinct
one Of them so peculiar they devel
op different forms of civilization, and
might belong, almost, to different types of
mankind. But the boundary Of these two
races is not at all marked by the line which
divides the slaveholding from the non
slaveholding States. IF race is to be the
geographical limit Of disunion, then Ma
SON and Dixon's can never be the line.
Next, sir, do not the causes which, in
the beginning, impelled to union still ex
| ist in their utmost force and extent? What
were they?
| First, the common descent-and there
fore consanguinity--of the great mass of
the people from the Anglo-Saxon stock.
Had the Canadas been settled originally
by the English, they would doubtless have
followed the fortunes Of the thirteen col
onies. Next, common language, one of
the strongest Of the ligaments which bind
a people. Had we been contiguous to
Great Britain, either the causes which led
Ito the separation would have never existed
or else been speedily remoyed or, after
ward we would long since have been re-
united as equals, and with all the rights
of EngIishmen. And along with these
were similar, at least not essentially dis
similar, manners, habits, laws, religion
aud institutions of all kinds, except one.
The common defense was another power
ful incentive, and is named in the Consti-
tuition as one among the objects of the
more perfect Union" of 1887. Stronger
lyet than all these, perhaps, but made up
of all OF them, was a common interest
Variety of climate and soil, and therefore
of production, implying also extent Of
country, is not an element of separation.
but, added to eontguity, becomes part
of the Ggament of interest, and is one of
its toughest strands. Variety of produc-
ftiens is the parent of the earliest COM
mefce and trade; and these, in their full
development, are, as between foreign ma
ions,9 hostages for peace; and between
States and peo:.le united, they are the
| frmest bonds of Union But, after all,
the strongest of the many original impell-
ing causes to the Union, was the securing
of domestic. tranquility. The statesmen
tof 1877 well knew that between thirteen
independent but contiguous States, with
bout a natural boundary, and with nothing
\ to separate them except the machinery of
similar governments, there must be a per-
petual, in fact, an ''irrepressible conflict !"
of jurisdiction and interest, which, there
being no other common arbiter, could only
be terminated by the conflict of the swerd.
And the statesmen of 1862 ought to know
! that two or more confederate governments,
made up,of similar States, having no uatu-
Eral boundary either, and separated only
| by different governments, can not endure
1 long together in peace, unless one or more
of them be either too pusillanimous for
rivalry, or too insignificant to provoke it,
or too weak to resist aggression.
These, sir, along with the establishment
of justice, and the Securing of the general
welfare, and of the blessings of liberty to
/ themselves and their posterity, made up
the causessand motives which impelled our
fathers to the Union at first.
And now, sir, what one Of them is want
ing? What one diminished? On the con
trary, many of them are stronger to-day
than in the beginning. Migration and in
termarriage have strengthened the ties of
consonguinity. Commerce, trade and pro-
duction have immensely multiplied. Cot
l ton, almost unknown here in 1857, is now
the chiefproduct and export of the coun-
try. 1t has. set in motion three-fourths of
the spindles of New England, and given
employment, directly er remotely; ::to full
halt the shipping, trade and commerce of
the United tat Mots than that, cotton
has kept the psa,e betw, ei England and
America for thIty years; and had the
people ofthe North been as wise and
practical as the statesmen of Great Bri-
/ tain, it would have maintained Union and
peace here. But we are being taught, in
our first century and at our own cost, the
lessons which England learned through
the long and bloody experience of eight
/ hundred years. We shall be wiser next
time. Let not cotton be king, but peace
maker, and inherit the blessing.
/ A common interest, then, still remains
4 tous. And Union for the common defense
at the end of this war, taxed, indebted
i Impoverished, cxhausted;.as both sections
must be, and with foreign fleets and armies
around us, will be fifty fold more essential
than ever before And finally, sir, with
Tout Union our domestic tranquility must
forever remains unsettled. Ii it can not
be maintained within the Union, how then
outside of it, without an exodus or colon
lization of the people of5one section or the
other to- ~ distant country? Sir, repeat
that two. governments interlinked and
bound together every way by physical and
social. ligaments; can not exist in peace
ilwithaut a acommon arbiter. Will treaties
4 bind usa What better treaty than the
] lConstitution? What more solemn, more
tdurable? Shall We settle our disputes
then, by arbitrationa and dcompromise? Sir,
let us arDitrate and compromise now, inside
of the Union. Certainly it will be quite
as easy
! And now, sir, to all these original causes
and motives which impelled to union al
\