East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1863-08-19
A Lesson from History.

/ IL Will, Hcreuitcr, De inhrNel Una
so intelligent a people as the peopl,
10f YrhssacKufsoctts ana 81 Ne5,w England
could be led on by radical leaders, tc
the extent they have been, in the sup
port Of positions which cannot be JUS
titled either by reason or common
sense, and which certainly violates the
whole law of our polity. The consol
idation idea expressed by Senator
Sumner in his resolutions the anal.
gamation idea just uttered by Wendell
Phillips, and the subjugation idea Just
put forth as finality by Solicitor Viii.
ting, may be said to be the Ultima
Thule of the radicals. 1t only needs
to add the revolutionary mode now
boldly proposed by the radicals OF
Missouri, or the way to get at the EN-
bodiment or these ideas, TO make the
system and the road to anarchy COM
plete. How is it possible that, with
the common school teachings, with the
fact that the voters here are men who
can read, and ought TO know what the
Red Republicans of 1s4S come to in
France, or what their prototypes, the
Jacobins, came to in 1889, the radical
leaders have contrived to obtain such
hold on the people? p?
Our own revolution supplies an il
lustration how people may become
thoroughly united in bad cause
Every intelligent American knows the
judgment which such minds as
Brougham and Sir James Macintosh
and Buckle, and indeed the liberal
world, have given as to the intrinsic
justice of the American question as
against the English of 1776; and a
rigid inquiry would demonstrate, we
think that those who write of this
question TO day, do not show that
grand grasp of it, that such minds as
Franklin and Luther Martin had, as
it were, by inttution-the solid evil
dence of which appears in the record
of their work. The reasonings they
put forth to justify their every step,
seem demonstration itself; they are
as apt now as they were then that
is, if it be truth that mankind arc
endowed with capacity TO take care OF
themselves, and that Providence did
not set apart set of despots to rule
them by virtue of blood attributes,
and if there be anything in freedom
as an idea. The great minds i'll Eng
land also laid bare the utter rotten
nesss of the Tory cause in manner
that seems prophetic, showing on that
side rare appreciation of the error
and evil, if not full appreciation OF
abstract right, as Americans had it.
And yet this reason amounted to
nothing. England was united in sup
port of the Tory cause. Nobody
doubts tl,v G..t Of union. One Of the
recent statements of this fact is that
of DR.. Somerville, who, in his mem.
oirs published within year or two
says: "There does not perhaps oc.
eur in the annals of Britain a single
instance of a war more popular at its
commencement than that which fatally
took place between Great Britain and
her colonies. These contemporary
memoirs first appeared in 1861. LORD
Rockingham, i'll letter TO Burke, dat
ed 1873, printed in ls4i, says: "The
violent measures towards America are
fairly adopted and countenanced by @
majority of individuals of all ranks
professions or occupations in thi:
country"
AS modern British enquiries see the
great fact of well nigh unanimity il
the support of monstrous cause o.
error, they ask, in the words of Pro.
fessor Smythe Qritish) chow are sucl
events to be explained ? What demon
of folly got possession of our councils
Where were our statesmen ~ The
reply is, the statesmen were alive a
work speaking, writing and pleading
Let British words describe British ap
probation of reason "Men like Mr.
Burke, who drew their reasoning'
from philosophical principles of gen
eral nature, were not comprehendec
or were disregarded, while the mos
commonplace declaimer was applaud
ed, and decided the different issues o
the dispute" Hence the insignifican
minoritics in Parliament and the over
whelming voice of the community sus
tanning the Tories.
The fact is that the tools of tn,
Ministry and the contract hunters
kept up bold, persistent and Jealous
system of Misrepresentation and false
hood for years. The people were de
ceived by it; they, as a letter OF DC
tober, l775, says, were made to be
lieve that "every attempt to counterac
the measures of the administration
tended to establish anarchy and con
fusion" Burke says (lT7G) the or,
raised as TO the ministers was, "tha
their hands mast be strengthened ,rith til
most mreS9red confidence" The cours,
of the men, like Burke, who knew the,
had the right, was noble. 81 canno
think" Burke wrote to the Duke o
Richmond, "the people at large ar
wholly to blame; for if they were, i
is. to no purpose to blame them. Fo
Gods sake, my dear Lord, endeavo
to mend them;" he wrote much in th'
same strain and his method of mend
ing was the diffusion of political truth
but passion proved too strong, an'
error triumphed.
Perhaps the monster fallacy of th'
radicals to-day as to the United State
is not much unlike the monster fallac,
Of the Tories in tile times of Georg'
III, as to the old thirteen colonies
namely: centralization--a claim b,
Parliament to legislate for the colonies
lin all cases whatsoever. This is Jus
what Sumner, Whiting and Philip
propose for the North as to the South
They propose to treat etgh millions o
the people as provincials. They pro
pose to make for them their loca
laws They propose to say what mel
shall compose the community in whicl