The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-08-12

weighed country, home, ancestral graves, al
| in the balance against liberty and found them
| light as empty air. How Insignificant tG
them in that hour secmad all the wars of oc-
cupation and possession which from the begin
| ming of time have defaced this beautiful earth
and destroyed the image of Ged! As time
| and its interests and pleasures recede and dis
appear from the eye OF the dying Christian
and Heave.-, and its glories magnify them
selves to his awakening senses, SO to the Pill
grims on the face oc the waters, the love oi
liberty rose with such effulgence in theii
minds, that all else became obscured like the
stars hiding their dimipished light before the
sun of monday That little speck alone. on
the desolate bosom of the great deep, animated
and impelled, however, by a principle iaae-
structible matter, eternal, and of equal Or
igin with the human soul, before whose breath
thrones are blasted and empires fall PROSTATE
potent as the elements themselves and tri
umphing over them in search of new theateI
OF glory, has ever been to my mind lesson
Tor the American statesman. Though free
commonwealth be no larger than the deck OF
a ship, cut off from either shore, yet under
God it is power and light in the midst OF
the earth, The voice ofthe Messiah cries out
to US from the foun tains of inspiration :"Wbat
shall it profit man if he gain the whole world
and lose his own soul ?'' A voice, too, comes
up from the toHbs of dead republics of former
ages, saving to the American people: s.What
shall it profit you if you maintain by the sword
your extensive possession and lose your own
liberties z" No rather country on board the
Mayfowcr again, rather the narrow limits of
Plymouth rock, rather the original boundaries
of the old thirteen Colonies, with the undis-
turbed enjoyment of constitutional liberty,
than the possession of all the lands on which
ha n of y
strained caprice and unbridled will Of ore
man for my government. "Compared to the
breach of our Constitution" says Edward Liv-
ingston, "and the establishment of arbitrary
power, every other topic is trifling arguments
of9conyenience sink into nothing; the preser.
yation of wealth, the increase of commerce,
however weighty on other occasions, here lose
their importance, when the fundamental prin-
ciples of freedom are in danger" 5i2li -
Will is be said that my observations on this
point have no sufficient facts for their support?
With it be contended that there is nothing in
the current history of the day to warrant a
well grounded apprehension that American
liberty is in danger Must l prove by argu-
onstrate that the night follows the day This
servile cry of call is well" in the face of the
unbounded exercise of lawless power, leads to
but one result, as inevitable as mathematical
science reaches its conclusions. The fawning
courtier who, from the bare motives of promo-
ton and sgain, seconds with the voice and
smile of annrobatiun every encroachmant- ON.
the rights OF the people, Is the most danger
Gus instrument by which popular governments
have been overthrow in all ages of the world.
He seeks to lull the people into false sense
of security, and at the same time invites the
daring usurper to boldly bound over every
barrier. A celebrated foreigner thus fairly
describes the manner in which this class OBJ
tain erninence and favor with corrupt aud
designing Executive aao il s5lfz.lg -.
ts:One makes fortune because he can cringe,
another because he can lie; this man because
he seasonably dishonors himself J; that because
he betrays his friend but the surest means
to me unit as high as Alberoni, is to offer, like
him, ,..ragouts of mushrooms to the Duke of
Vendorne--and there a;e Vendornes every
where. They who are called great have gen
orally no other fscendary over us but what
our weakness permits them, orwhat our mean
ness gives them" siib3as9at 0 le5I.lsls7a
The class here portrayed is unfortunately
formidable at this time in the control of pab-
lie sentiment. By it, every warming voice in
behalf Of the supremacy Of the Constitution
and the rights Of the citizen under it, is a.
once clamorously denounced as evidence OF
hostility to the Government. Its peculiar
province is to paint to the public eye the dis
pensers of patronage as incapable of errors, in
faliible, without, spot or blemish, and subject
to none of the infrmities of sinful flesh. The
disciples of this school of political Magdalens
have the extraordinary faculty Of transforming
the most 'strocious crimes, ON the part of those
who hold the Keys of wealth and position, in
to the most resplendent virtues. 70 them the
murder of innocent men and woman, by slow
torture, in loathsome prison houses, is simply
evidence Of devotion to the cause Of the Union,
if committed by those who load their abject
partizans with the infamous wages of their
adulatioii The plunder of the public Treas
ury, the wholesale robbery of the fruits of the
labor of honest people finds with them the
ready and ample Justification, if their own
palms are enriched with a portion of the spells.
Imbecility is converted into statesmanship,
brutality into Jealous patriotism, and the de-
feats of inferior paItisan Generals into grand
and conclusive victories. In the press, in the
pulpit, in the forum, and at the hustings, they
now invite the open and audacious approaches es
of complete despotism, and proclaim in ad-
vance the submission of the couutrymen OF
Warren and. Hancock in the East, and of
jackson and Clay in the West. That such
betrayers of popular liberty and constitutional
government shall aim their poisoned shafts of
mel who announces the near. approach Of fatal
danger is to be expected, but should not 81
lence theovoice of patriotic duty. They are
in the service of. their master. A passionate
exclamation of Henry IL in the hearing Of
his obsequieus minions turned them into as
sassins and stained the altar of God with the
blood of Thomas Booklet. In like manner
this country now swarms with those whose
feet are swift to carry out, in defiance OF al
law, human and divine, the aobscurely hinted
wishes, the half disclosed views of an Admin
istration which avous no restraints except iti
own will ,sllfiea9 Z. Xt1esa iot feilefHh p
Look with me for few moments over tn.
intolerable events which have marked the con
duct of those now in chief authority since
their accession to power, and which call in i'm
peratiye tones--in tones not to be denied, fo
reform or for revolution. I come frc m th.
broad, free plains Of the West I coms from