The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1863-03-19
Per wh.. ar, we.Fighungs

those fundamental problems which un-
derlie all government, personal and ma
tional destiny, the time has come when
We, the American people-the descen-
dants of sires made immortal by their
struggle for Liberty-the free citizens
of our yet Free Land-must forget for
awhile seH and differences, and, to the
best of our ability, discuss and settle
for ourselves and posterity this question,
for shat are we fghsina?
Government is a necessity. Only
fools and crazy people talk about any
considerable number OF the human
family living long together without the
restraints of law. The great question
for as to decide now, lie, what kind of a
government will We have for ourselves
and bequeath 10 our children. Our
fathers fought and died for an ;dea-an
idea, inherent in every human heart,
that "every human heart is human"
that every man ought, and hence, has
q right to be a NAN in the fullest and
grandest sense of the word. And they
were either fools, deserving the con-
tempt and obloqny Of all men Of sense
and candor through all coming time,
or they were the noblest band Of patri-
OTIS that ever unsheathed the sword or
baptized earth with blood.
If they were the former, we have
participated in their guilt and folly suf-
iciently long-let us now our
allegiance to the form of government
that they left us, and 60 back to mon
arehy or a%ristocracy ;--if they were
the latter, we owe to f%uturity the duty
though it cost our blood in rivers
of preserving intact, and doing what
may fall to our generation to be done
toward completing and perfecting the
Temple of Universal Liberty which
they erected at SO great a cost. With
them the subject admitted of no ques-
tion-a free government, a government
in which life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness is guaranteed equally to
all is the ONLY one to which an intelli-
gent people ought TO submit. What
shall zoe say now. having enjoyed these
privileges for eighty years?-that they
are worthless? Is liberty subyersive
of itself? If W. cast it away, what
shall we receive in it's stead W. can
have our choice of two things, we can
select monarchy and be slaves-all of
us-to the one man pooer, and 30 re-
turn to despo,ism and barbarism,-or
we must submit to a might constituted
nobility and institute an aristocracy.
Are we ready to establish caste
among US, beyoud the bounds of which
our children aud our children's chill
dren to the latest generations shall
never pass! trow not. In the Ian.
guage of that arch traitor, Vallandig-
ham, "Have they (we) never studied
history ?" Do We not know that this
secession rebellion is only a legitimate
outgrowth of the conflict of the aristoc-
racy and the democratic elements of
our never united people! What
school boy among us is so ignorant of
the first settlers of the different parts
of these states that he cannot tell you
that aristocratic Adventures settled the
one part, while the oppressed Of the
masses-the people, settled the other.
While the North has grown democratic
with it's growth, the South has, by its
African Slavery, developed the worst
form of aristocracy that the sun shines
upon ; and does any one suppose that
the collision Of these two ideas can be
without war? Nay! nay! nor IL this
all. How stands the verdict of the
past on the question, "What Of a COLI.
sion Of ideas? ?" just this, without an
exception,-onc must die. Dark and
dismal az may be the picture when we
look at the suffering and SORROW atten.
dant upon a war that will accomplish
this result, we should nerve ourselves
for the conflict and like brave men meet
the Issue. 1t is now upon us. We
live in these times-we cannot, if we
would, shift to another generation our
responsibilities. The offspring of Eu.
ropes feudal lords have boldly assaulted
the life Of the only free government on
earth,ea government that has protect
ed them against the assaults of the
whole moral world, and which they
and their European cousin have beef
planning to destroy for the last thirty
years. And that government is ours.
Shall we defend it, or shall we sit idly
by and see it expire under the knife OF
these would be lords, and we become
their servants? Can any n suppose
that they prefer black slaves Il white
ones? We have only to stand idle or
| iOin in tho n1or> crv 70 loerr ,b.;.o..