North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1863-05-20

They could change, modify, abrogate; and
If The institutions under which We live are
to be changed or altered, in Gods name let
1T be done 10y voluntary consent--not by the
bloody processes ofwar made by us or against
us--or, what is still worse, by the subtle in
fluence of Executive or legislative usurpation
And why not 2 ask the question sorrow
fully, not reproachfuly, nor defantly, for I
| have no room for such emotion in saddened
heart. Why not2' No other reason can be
given than that it implies q confession of
weakness in the face of an enemy and of the
wOrld--an abandonment of strength in a
strong government. FeIow-citizens, depend
upon it, it is this idea of strong government
-this faith in an idea which has destroyed
US. Had the government never gone beyond
the limits OF consent-haj it rejected, as did
It's founders, the heresy of coercion, as appli-
ed to any State or combination of States it
would have been far stronger in the true ele-
ments Of Republican power than it is now in
all tie panoply and parade of war; l never
hear Of this idea OF power and strength with
oui recalling an illustration which fiction and
romance afford. You haze all read Scotts
great epic Of Wayerly aud remember it's ca
tastrophe ,swhere the heroine is found working
her brothers shroud, and she is told, by vay
ofsuPport and consolation, that she must re-
ly upon her strength of mind to bear up
against her misery, the conVulsye agonized
cry is, All, there. 1t is-there is busy
devil at my heart that whispers tho it is
madness to listen to it, that it is that very
strength on which prided myself has murder
cd my brother" And gentlemen, | tell you.
and | beg you to mediate on what say, that
it is this idea Of strength and military power
in government which was never meant to
have any except by State concession against
foreign enemies, which has broken this gov
ernment down or changed it into the military
neutralized despotism which it threatens
to be. OurFonly chance of rescue is in the
mode have vcntured to suggest State action
by Conventions within the forms of the Con-
stitution, and, in the interval at least, proyis-
ionaI peace,
But if neither national Convention for
what Is left, nor a recognition of what is left,
nor recognition of what is gone from US, no
even pause be tolera abIe-what then re-
mains War, persevcring and protracted
war, with success at any cost and sacrifice, and
conquest and sutjugation.
Nay, not only suIjugstion, but extermina-
tion-and in saying this I do not speak with
out evidence, and adduce it if for no other
reason than to ask you to brand with deep
detestaton the men and the organs which fur
ni>h it. In one of the papers of this city you
will find card Of the negro Frederick Doug
lass, calling for black volunteers in Philadel :
phia to be used in promoting seryile iusur-
rection in the South and in sermon or dis
course by New England clergy yman-who is
now rather pet in the social and feminine
and semi-femnine circles of this afflicted city
| find passage which will simply read,
leaving yon to make the comment which its
devilish atrocity demands:
This war, is no longer a war in defence
Of the Union, the Constitution. and the en-
forcement of the laws it is war to be car
ried on no longer with the aim of re-estab-
fishing the Union and the Constitution with
all their old compromises. God means not
to let us off off with any half. way work. I
am now convinced, and consider it the most
humane, the most economical and the most
States -manlike policy now to take tie most
radical ground possible, to assume that this
is war of the subjugation or the ertermina-
ton ofal persons who wish to maintain thief
slave power, war to get rid of slavery and
slave holders, whether it be constitutional or
not.',
And within few days, at the LOYAL
League, in Chestnut street another itinerant
preacher said, amid applause:
I'VE know they speak the truth when
they say that the negro Stays everything in
his reach when he rises in insurrection, We
all have learned the history of st. Domingo,
and it would be terrible TO have st. Domin-
~ hi"So"NAN SuoNISA upOh Jul oOIL' Dub JIlO
President had declared this military neces-
sity, and if blood must flow we must not
dread the consequence. Blood must flow n
this war
" But SO impressed am I with the greatness
of the interest engaged In this rebellion and
its suppression so satisfied of the inconceiva-
BILE Importance of the struggle that opens up
before us in the dispersion of this rebellion,
that, speak it meaningly, and as a Christian,
deliberately and calmly, that would see ev
cry avoman and child In the South perish
rather than the Southern Confederacy should
succeed in attaining the objects of its leaders"
[Applauss. ....
Now Of this, can only say that I wonder
any Philadelphia gentleman, afte rapplauding
such speech as this, could 60 home and look
at one of his own sleepinp Children without a