Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1863-01-31

atterward. Hence | would hasten peace
now, to-day, by every honorable appliance,
Are there physical causes, which render
reunion impr acticabe I None. Where
other causes do not control, rivers unite
but mountains, deserts, and great bodies
of water--occant disociabieS---separat a
people. Vast forests originally, aud the
lakes now, also divide us-now very
widely or wholly-from the Canadas, =,
though we speak the same language, and
are similar in manners, laws, and insti-
tutions. Our chief navigable rivers run
from North to South Most of our bays
and arms ofthe sea take the same direc-
ton. So do our ranges of mountains
Natural causes all tend to Union, except
as between the Pacific coast and the coun-
try east of the Rocky mountains to the
Atlantic. 1t is "manifcst destiny. -
Union is empire. Hence, hitherto we
have continually extended our territory,
and the Union with is, South and West.
The Louisiana purchase, Florida, and
Texas all attest it. We passed desert
and forest, and scaled even the Rocky
mountains, to extend the Union to the
Pacific. Sir, there is ne natural bound-
ary between the North and the South,
and no line of latitude upon which to
separate; and ir ever line of longitude
shall be established, it will be east of the
Mississippi valley. The Alleghanies are
no longer barrier. Highways ascend
them everywhere, and the railroad now
climbs their submits and spans their.
charms, or penetrates their rockiest sides
The electric telegraps follows, and, stretch.
ing its connecting wires along the clouds,
there mingles its vocal !ightnings wi!h the
fires of heaven.
But if disunionists in the East will force
a separation Of any Of these States, and
a boundary purely conventional, is at last
to be marked out, it must and it will be
either from Lake Erie upon the shortest
line to the Ohio river, or from Manhattan
to the Canadas.
And, now, sir, is there any difference
OF race here, so radical as to forbid re-
union do not refer to the negre race,
styled now, in unctous official phrase by
the President, "Americans of African
descent 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-that
they develop different forms of civilation,
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-save. holding States. If race is
to be the geographical limit of disunion,
then Mason and Dixon's can never be the
line.
Next, sir, do not the causes which, in
the beginning, impelled to Union still
exist in their utmost force and extent
What were they
First, the common 6escent--and there
fore consanguinity-of the great mass of
the people from the Ang Saxon stock.
Had the Canadas been settled originally
by the English, they would doubtless
have followed the fortunes Of the thirteen
colonies. Next, a common language,
one of the strongest of the ligaments
which bind people. Had we been con-
tiguous to Great Britain. either the causes
which led to separation would have
never existed, or else been speedily re-
moved; or, afterwards, we would long
since have been reunited as equals and
with all the rights of Englishmen. And
along with these we've similal, at least not
ESSENTIALLY dissimilar, manners, habits,
laws religion, and institutionsof all kinds,
except one. The common defense was
another powerful incentive, and is named
| in the Constitution as one among the
| nhian.c Of ha Hp,n parlant nj ~
1887. Stronger yet than all these, per-
haps, but made up of all Of them, was
common interest. Variety of climate and
soil, and therefore of production, imply.
ing also extent of country, is not an ele-
ment of separation, but, added to contig.
nifty, becomes q part of the ligament of
interest, and is one ofits toughest strands.
Variety OF production is the parent of The
earliest commerce and trade; and these,
in their full development, are, as be-
tween foreign nations, hostages for peace
and between States and people united,
they are the frmest bonds OF Union.-
But, after all, the strongest of the many
original impelling causes to the Union,
was the securing of domestic tranquility.
The statesmen of 1887 well knew that
between thirteen independent but contig.
uous States without a natural boundary,
and with nothing to separate them except
the machinery of similar governments,
there must be perpetual, in fact an sir
reprcssible conflict" Of jurisdiction and
Iinterests, which, there being no other
common arbiter, could only be terminal.
ed by the conflict Of the sword. And the
statesmen of 1862 ought to know that
two or more confederate governments,
made up of similar States, having no
natural boundary either, and separated
only by different governments, cannot
endure long together in peace, unless one
Or more Of them be either too pusillan,
nous fr rivalry, or too Insignificant to
provoke it, o"itoo weak to resist aggres.
sion,
These, sir, along with the establish.
ment ofjustce, and the securing of the
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