Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1864-04-07


tcrity upon the floor of Congress which they
established? a.?
A special pretcnsc is assumed by the party
in power, as sufficient justification for the
unconstitutional acts of the Administration
in managing the public policy 1t is the pre-
tense that slavery in the States was and is
the culpable cause of the war, and that sla-
very, therefore, must be abolished at all haz-
ards as a condition of peace. 1t is a con-
venient apology for revolutionists. 1t is in
culcated by there press, in these sermons,
and speeches; it is heard in this body and in
the Senate But the falsehood of the asser-
ton is apparent to any man who is willing to
think rightly upon the Subject, 1t might as
reasonably be said that money is the cause
Of robbery, larceny, and many other crimes;
that human existence is the cause of mur-
ders The right of the people of certain
States in slave labor was recognized and
guarcntied by the Constitution. and is so to
has an existence. When this fact was re-
garded we had no civil war or tendency to
war. The free States grew and prospered,
and the slave States kept peace with them
in the onward march of prosperity, dignity,
and empire. The Unprecedented develop
ment, expansion, and prosperity OF the
country under the Government of 1887,
proves that there was no element in its Con
stitution hostile to its dignity, or progress
or pcrpetuity Before it was shattered by
Northern fanatical sectionalism it had ac-
complshed more for the benefit of man
kind than all other existing Governments
in the world 1t needed only the fealty of
its subjects to be immortal.
Sir, / have witnessed the progress of alb
olitionism from the very commencement OF
its career in this country. Long before the
number of its dcvotces had become suffi-
cient to invest it with political influences,
those devotees seemed to exclude from their
thoughts every political consideration ex-
cept the abstract idea that slavery in the
States must be abolished. That one absor-
bng thought governed all their political
action They waited, but not inactively or
vanly, for the time to come when they sho d
be strong enough to induce some party to
secure their additional strength by helping
them to accomplish their object. Meetings
of semi-religious character, consisting of
great numbers were at length held, in
which expert lecturers appealed to the sym
pathics Of the people, giving the most ex.
aggerated and false accounts of slavery and
the cruelty of shareholders, assailing the
| Constitution and Union as works of the
devil vilifying Washington and other pa
triots af his time as man stealers, singing
disunon songs, into which they had degra
ded the sacred hymns by parody, and final
" closing the exciting entertainment witt
prayer to God to aid them in dcstroyin!
the wicked Union, and huryng on, like al
organized band Of showmen, to meet som,
other congregation ready to be tanaticized
l saw tho process, and ! think, the motive
of the absorption of this element of dis
| and trnn hV a and
| full party, which had discovered the efficient
use to which it could be put, and then
saw great portion of the preachers of the
gospel and the congregations over which
they had influence fall down before the
! beast and worship it, | saw it grow strong
enough to grasp the reins of government il
nearly all the non-slaveholding States, ant
then, as before stateh, came legislation il
those States in direct and intentional dero
cation of the known constitutional right
of the people of the slave States. judge
in my own State made decisions against thu
plain letter of the Constitution of the Unite,
! States and the acts of Congress, when tn
! rights Of Southern people We're in question
: | will specify one case only. although
% might others. In the county of Lorraine, a
his fealty to abolition at the expense of n "
: olation Of his official oath, charged gran
jury to pay no attention to any act Of Coz
grcss for the rendition of fugitive slaves, b,
. cause all such acts were unconstitutional an
= void although he knew that the feder
- courts had held them valid. In that way, si
the Northern anti i-slavery men treated tn
compromise of the Constitution on whic
Z the Union was based.
y Relieved of Southern opposition it W;
an easy work for the anti-slavcry party
win the election, and apparently with lit
~ care for the evil consequences which migl
J. result, proceeded to accomplish the grei
$ object in which alone they were all unitet
y of taking the Federal Government int
/ their own hands And when they had a
1t complished their object the well-tounde
= fears Of their opponents that sccessio
y would follow was realized, many of the
II politicians and the leaders of the abolitiC
press received and published the news
II that secession and commented upon it wit
torescen results of process which the
r, have deliberately applied The New Yo,
~ IribuHe, the great mouthpiece of easter
w aboHtionism, the Cincinnati Commercial
and the Ohio State Journal, two leadir
abolition papers in my State We're in fav,
o. of submitting to seccssion, probably for Il
reason that they regarded it as a natural I
suit Of the success they had helped
achieve.
1t will be seen from the foregoing histo
of events what was the cause Of the wal
g that it was not slavery as established
law but that anti-slavery as a political cl
mcnt combining for one bad purpose /
r., the ncongruous recuSants to the Constlt
ton who, like the followers of Lucifer, we
ready to rebel against any government tn,
s. could not control, and acting upon the pr
n tcndedly. humane policy of abolition, whi'
,e re is really subversiye Of law, and rcvolutio
l. ary, was and is the cause of the war.
Ia begot secession and secession involved wal
- therefore, it is the prime cause Of bo
= evils
!. - As in these degenerate days repentance
II sin is decidedly out Of fashion with the pa
! ty in power, and as the worst Republics
" sinners, when rebuked by Il Democrat, a
w wont to resort to n counter accusation, al
- cry out secessionist, coppcrhead, &c: ,
as deem it prudent, by way Of self f-protectio
to declare my views upon the subject OF !
=, cession. | am not as liberal toward Il
n! doctrine as the President seems to have be
i'll when, as Il representative of his district
H. the State of Illinois, he made speech
IN this floor in which, while commenting up,
the right of the subjects of Government
IN throw off their allegiance and establish
n new Government to suit their inclination