The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1863-02-11

Said Mr.. Jefferson, when New England
threatened secession some sixty years ago
"No, let us keep the Yankees to quarrel
with" All, sir, he forgot that quarreling
IS always a hazardous experiment; and,
after some time, the countrymen of Adams
proved themselves too sharp at that work
for the countrymen of Jefferson. But
every day the contest now tends again to
| its natural and original elements. In
many parts of the North-west-I might
add of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New
York city-the prejudice against the
Yankee has always been almost ss bit
ter as in the South. Suppressed for a
little while by the antislayery sentiment
and the war, it threatens now to. break
forth inone of those great but unfortunate
popular uprisings, In the midst of which
reason and justice are for the time utterly
|silenced. Ispeak advisebly; and let New
England heed else she, and the whole
East, too, in their struggle for power, may
learn yet fromths West the same lesson
which civil war taught to Rome, that evul-
CATO inaperii arcane, posse princ3pens abb,
quans Romoe feri. The people of the
West demand peace, and they begin to
more than suspect that New England isin
the way. The storm RACES; and they
believe that she, not slavery, is the cause.
The ship is sore tried; and passengers and
crew are now almost ready to propitiate
the waves by throwing the iliomened pro-
phet overheard. Ia plain English--not
very classic, but most expressive-they
threaten to sset New England out in the
cold" 81
And now, sir, /, who have not a drop
of New England blood in my veins, but
was sborn in Ohio, and am wholly of South
ern ancestry, with slight cross of Pen
nsylvania Scotch Irish, would aword
to the men of the West and the South, in
behalf of New England Sir, some years
ago, insthc midst of high sectional contros
versies, and speaking as Western man,
i said some things harsh of the North
which now, ,sin a more catholic spirit as
United States man, and for the sake of
reunion, would recall. My prejudiees.
indeed upon thes subject are as strong as
any man S; bat in this, the day of great
national humiliation and calamity, Jet the
voice of prejudice be hushed
Sir, they who would exclude New Eng
land in any reconstruction of the Union,
assume that all New Englanders are g Y an
KEGS and Puritans; and that the Puritan
or pragmaticaf element, or type ofscivili-
zation, has always held undisputed sway.
Well, sir. Yankees, certainly, they are in
one sense; and SO to Old England we are
all Yankees, North and South; and to the
South just now, or little while ago, we of
the didfic pr W Vestern Sautes, also, are or
were, Yankees, too. But there IS really
a very large and most liberal and conserva-
tive non Puritan element in the poulation
of New England, which for many years
struggled for the mastery, and sometimes
held it. 1t divided Maine, New Hamp-
shire and Connecticut, and.once controlled
Rhode Island wholly, 1t held the sway
during the Revolution, and at the period
when the Constitution was founded, and
for some years afterward. Mr.. Calhoun
said, andsvery justly, in 1917, that to the
wisdom and enlarged patriotism Of Shsr-
man and Ellsworth on the slavery question
we are indebted for this admirable Gov
ernment; and that, along with Patterson,
of New Jersey, "their names ought to be
engraved on brass, and live forever.
And Mr. Webs or, in 1880, in one Of
| those grand historic word paintings, in
| which he was so great master, said Ol
massachusetts and South Carolina: sHano
in hand they stood around the Admins
tration of Washington, and felt his own
great arm lean on them forsupport.n In.
deed, sir, it was not till some thirty year.
ago that the narrow, presumptuous, inter
meddling and fanatical spirit of the ole
Puritan element. began to reappear in ;
form very much more aggressive and de
structive than at first and threatened tt
obtain absolute mastery in church, ant
school, and State. A little earlier it hat
struggled hard, but the conservative
proved too strong for it; and SO long a
the great statesmen and jurists of tn,
Whig and Democratic parties survived, i
made but small progress, though Johl
4 Quincy Adams gave to it the strength o
his great name. But after their death
broke in as food, and swept away tn
4 last vestige Of the ancient, liberal an,
q tolerating conservatism. Then every form
and development of fanaticism sprang u
in. rank and most luxuriant growth, til
! lAbolitionism, the chief fungus of all
overspread the whole of New Englan,
first, and then the Middle States, and final
i ly every State in the North h-wcst
4 Certainly, sir, the more liberal or non
Puritan element was mainly, Though no
altogether, from the old Puritan stock, o
4 largely crossed with it. But even within
the first ten years after the landing of tn
Pilgrims, more enlarged and toleratin;
civilization was introduced. Rogers Viii
{ liams, not of the May Flower, though
), Puritan himself, and thoroughly imbue,
with all its peculiarities Of cant and cree
and form of worship, seems yet to hav
, had naturally a more. liberal spirit; and
first perhaps of all men, some three o
more years before "the Ark and the Dove
touched the shores of the st. Mary's, i
/. Maryland, taught the sublime doctrine 9
toleration of opinion and practice in rel
t gion. Threatened first with banishmcr
i to England, so as to remove as far q
. possible the infection of his principles;
e and afterward actually banished beyon
|, 1.-THE Jurisdiction of Massachusetts,, b