Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1863-05-21
MILIERSBURG, OHIO, THURSDAY MORNING. MAY d. 1863


the sentimental, the undisciplined, the
passionate, it aspircd to popular control
and revolutionary distinction. But TO
that end it must become religious It
was ready for the occasion. 1t appealed
accordingly to the moral sense now JOS.
tied from popularity. 1t appealed to
Scripture, now twisted by improved yer.
sions, arbitrary criticisms and fanatic
commentaries from its literal, direct and
scientific meanings, till it was made as
subservient aud obscure as Delphic or
acle--the very Scripture which it had be-
fore denounced as hostile to its ideas, or
or had disparaged as unworthy OF com.
petion with its higher law. And it even
clothed itself in the robes Of sancty and
kept its Sabbaths. Is assumed control,
exclusively, Of the religious press. 1t
assended the platform and the pulpit
1t figured at universities. 1t dispensed,
Gu coMedra, the oracles of the new divin-
ity, and imprecated the wrath OF heaven
upon all who refused fealty and homage
To the same end, also, it must be polit-
ical. 1t affected the we'll being OF the
State. 1t studied intrigue and finessc.-
1t became an expert. 1t mastered all the
chicane Of wires, caucuses ond Conven-
tions. 1t calculated its forces. 1t discip.
lined its ranks. 1t found the balance of
power, and then sold itself to the progress
sive party. The price was the Govern
ment of the country. The object was
the dissolution Of the Union, and then
the introduction of its New Jerusalem
returning Messiah-Church and State
Misunderstanding and priest imperson-
ated in an Independent or Tribune.
We have seen with what Shylock
savageness it has insistsd on the bond
We have seen how tamely the constituted
keeper Of our liberties has consented to
the sacrifice.
Such is the moral record Of Abolition
ism brought down to the date of the
Presidents proclamations. 1t has been
but imperfectly understood. Hence our
confusions. Wise and learned civilians
have left it too much out of their reckon
ing Of our public difficulties and dangers,
because it is moral and therefore not on
the line of their professional pursuits
But that is to be fact, dishon orable to his.
tory, and dangerous to the Church and
State. 1t is to heal the hurt of the daugh
ter Of she people slightly, and perpetuate
and war. The moral 9ues-
tion which divides us is supreme, sound
philosophy, no comprehensive judgement
where it is not so installed, and all judg-
ment will be unjust without it. Aboli
tionism stands out historically, the active,
practical cause of all our trobles. With
out it the other existing cause would have
been OF no effect 1t was manifesly SO
when it began to figure in the halls of
Congress. 1t has been SO in all our sub
sequent discussions, which have filed the
land with strife. 1t was manifestly so in
its alliance with miscalculating politi-
clans in the Fremont campaign, and more
decisively in their demonstration at Chi
cago. 1t was so not less remarkably in
its appropriation of religious men, and
the conventions of equally miscalculating
of the churches. Many
of these good and patriotic citizens, lay
and clerical, meant not what they did
Their eyes were holden. We blame
them not for bad intentions, but bad
mistake. On the stormy sea of politics,
and in the clouds of speculations and ro
nance, they had lost their reckoning
They were blinded by old prejudices Of
sect and party.
They needed not those great men who
died uttering the voice of remonstrance
and warning. They preceived rot that
the true conservatism had been obliged
by the new idolatry to change its resi-
dence--that party names were no longer
significant of things-and that our issues
must be changed. They understood not
that American liberty had lost its bal
ance; that they who should thenceforth
follow its mimic watch cry would, with
out miracle, fall into confusion, and
probably opea the way for a bloody des-
potism that would lord it over the herit-
age of God. They had no. studied that
subtle power--a power of the air which,
by its apparent subserviency actually
ruled them, and still claims to be their
master. 1t has, indeed. it's hold upon
them. 1t insists ruthlessly upon the
bond. 1t will have it, for its pressure
bears along the rulers ofthe people, and
with it, the life blood OF the Church and
State, tif another Daniel come not to
Judgment, or if Faneuil Hall introduce
not an era Of deliverance, and reverse the
Judgment of Altoona and the capital.
So we make good our case. Aboli-
tionism is at fault. 1t is false and wrong.
1t obliterates the old paths. 1t puts its
heels on constitutional relations. 1t sun
ders what God bimself has united, and
unites what God has sundered. 1t would
subvert the Government of the country.
which is of God, and "whoso resisteth
the power ressteth the ordnance Of God, "
and all the worse for attempting to keep
it. And it is madness, though there is
method in it. What for should we com
NIT this wrong
What for should we violate our plighted
faith? What for should we reject the
dictated of religion, the usage of civilized
and Christian life, the claims of humani-
ty, the providencial enlargement of su-
perior races, and doom, as we necessarily
must, an Inferior, imbecile and dependent
race, which God has committed to our
trust, to condition worse than slavery
to a lingering, miserable and hopeless
death
What for should we affect to change
the spots of the leopard, or the skin of