American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-01-20


gled together, suffered together, triumph
ed together Their glories, their defeats,
are common. Their Constitution sprung
from the free consent of all all pledged
themselves alike to remain faithful to its
obligations.
This pledgeis no empty word with which
caprice may idly sport. Among the in
ventions of our epoch there is none more
extraordinary than the right Of secession.
Those who discovered it will no doubt
teach us where it should stop. If each
section has the right of secession from the
Country as whole, why not each State
right of secession from such section p
Why not each County right of secession
from the State Why not each town a
right of secession from the County,
Why not each citizen a right of secession
from the town?
The truth is that, but for Slavery, the
South would not talk of its suppressed in
dependence, nor of the right of secession.
Slavery has brought the two sections to
strife. The extinction of Slavery will re-
store Unity. The North and the South
will some day wonder that they could have
failed to appreciate the most complete and
homogeneous of nationalities.
A last resort remains. That we may
not here see the great struggle on the sub
ject of Slavery, an attempt is made to pre-
sent the struggle as one for domination.
But this latter struggle is the very life
of free countries. 1t is not surprising
that the North and the South strove active
ly, cnergctically, noisily, for the triumph
of their candidate and policy. But when
one of them, losing the battle of the bal
OF, plunges without hesitation int o'anoth-
ther kind of battle; when it resists, arms
in hand, the result of a regular election ;
when on the very day that it ceases to rule
it tears into fragments the common coun-
ltry, it is guilty of a crime for which it is
difficult to imagine an excuse.
II. You will crush the revolt, gentle
men. You viii succeed-such is our be-
lief-in reestablshing the Union. twill
emerge from the bloody trial stronger,
more free, more worthy of the noble des-
tinyy to which God summons it.
1t has been demonstrated to us, it is
true, that the re-establishment of the Union
was impossible but was it not also dem
onsrated to us, and by irrefutable argu-
ment, that you would be always and of
necessity defeated that you would nev-
er know how to handle musket that re-
cruiting would become impracticable !;
that your finances would be exhausted ;
that your loans would not be taken; that
you would become bankrupt; that riots
would ravagc your cities; that your Gov
ernment would be overthrown. You have
given to all these oracles the simplest and
best answer. You will reply in the same
manner to those who assert that the rees-
tablishment Of the Union is impossible
What seems really impossible is not to
restore the Union. Where draw the line
between North and South How main
tain between them state of Peace, or
even of truce? How shall Slavery and
Liberty live side by side ? How, more
over, RESTRAIN the South from European
protectorates, and by what means arrest
the frightful consequences of such pro-
tectorates !? Geographically, morally, po-
litically, separation would create an un-
natural situation; a situation violent and
hazardous where each would live, arms in
hand, waiting for the hour of conflict.
We have full faith, gentlemen, that
such trial will be spared you. tits not
that we overlook the difficulties which
still remain for you to overcome; they are
great, greater perhaps than we imagine
War has its vicissitudes, and you may per-
haps be called upon to pass through peri
ods of ill-fortune. Yet one fact always
remains, and shows on which side the f.
nal triumph will be found, supposing that
there be no foreign intervention. The
flag of the Union has now, for two years,
never paused in its advance. 1t floats to-
day over the soil of every revolted State
without exception. The South has had its
victories It has never gained an inch of
ground. The North has had its defeats ;
it has never fallen back Master to-day
of the entire course of the Mississippi,
master of the Border States and of Lou
isiana, all that remains is to stife the re-
volt in the narrow territory where it first
burst forth and back which it has been
driven. We believe that you will sue
ceed in this the only hope of the South,
seems now little disposed to give her aid
Concluded next week.