Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1863-01-23

only by different forms of labor and, with
consummate but most guilty sagacity, il seiz-.
ed upon the question of slavery as the surest
and most powerful fundamentally by which
10 separate the West from tie South, aud
bind her wholly TO the North Encouraged
every way from abroad by those who were
jealous Of our prosperity and greatness, and
who knew the secret of our strength, it pro-
claimed the 'irrepressibls conAief between
slave labor and free labor It taught the peo.
pie Of the North TO forget their duty and their
interests and aided by the artificial ligaments
and influences which money and enterprise
had created between the seaboard and the
Northwest, it persuaded the people of that
section, also, to yield up every tie which binds
them 70 the great Valley Of the Mississippi,
and to join their political fortunes especially,
wholly with the East 1t tresisted the Fugitive
Slave Law, and demanded the exclusion Of
slavery from all the Territories and from this
District, and clamored against the admission
of any more slave States into the Union. II
organized a sectional anti-slaVery party, and
thus drew to its aid as well political ambition
and interest as fanaticism; and after twenty
two years Of incessant and vehement agita.
tion, it obtained possession finally, and upon
that issue Of the Federal Government and of
every State Government North and West.
And to-day, we are in the midst Of the great
est, most cruel, most destructive civil war
ever waged But two years, sir, of blood and
debt and taxation and incipient commercial
ruin are teaching the people of the West, and,
trust, Of the North, also, the folly and mad
ness Of this crusade against African slavery,
and the wisdom and necessity of union of
the States, as our fathers made it, "part slave
and part free"
What then, sir, with so many causes i'm
pelliAg to reunion; keeps us apart to-day
Hate, passion, antagoism, revenge, all heated
seven times hotter by war. Sir, these, while
they last, are the most powerful of all motives
with people, and with the individual man
but fortunately they are the least durable.
They hold a divided sway in the same bosoms
with the nobler qualities of love, justice, rea-
son, placabilty, and, except when at their
hight, are weaker, than the sense of interest
and always, in States at least, give way to II
last. No Statesman who yields himself up to
them can govern wisely or well and no State
whose policy is controlled by them can either
prosper or endure. But war is both their of.
spring and their rialiment, and while it lasts, all
other motives are subordinate. The virtues
OF peace can not flourish can not even find
development in the midst of fighting and
this civil war keeps in motion the centrifugal
forces ofthc Union, and gives to them increas-
ed strength and activity every day. But such
and so many and powerful, in my judgment,
are the cementing or centripetal agencies i'm.
pelling US together that nothing but perpetual
war and strife can keep us always divided.
Sir, do not underestimate the power of the
prejudices of section, or, what is much stronger
of race. Prejudice is colder, and therefore,
more durable then the passions of hate and
revenge, or the spirit of antagonism But,
as have already said, its. boundary in the
United States is not Mason and Dixon's line
The long standing mutual jealousies Of New
England and the South do NOT r-'-- --''s ,row
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