The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-04-13
COUNTY. OHIO. WEDNESDAY MORNING. APRIL 49,. 1864

election, and apparently with little care for
! the evil consequences which mig result
they proceeded to accomplish the great pur-
pose in which they were all united, of taking
the Federal Government into their hands =
And when they had accomplished their object
and the well founded fears of their opponents
that secession would follow was realized, ma
ny of their politicians and the leaders of. The
abolition press received and published the
news of that secession and commented upon it
with II the coolness of men who realize the
foreseen result of a process which they. haze
/ deliberately applied The New York Tribune,
the great nouthpiece of eastern abelitionism,
the Cincinnati Commercial and the Ohio State
Journal, two leading abolition papers in my
State were in favor .ofsubmitting to secession
/ probably for the reason that they regarded
It as a natural result of the success they had
helped to achieve.
1t will be seen from the foregoing history
Eof events what was the cause. of the war; that
it was not slavery as established by law, but
/ that anti-slavery as a political element combi-
ming for one bad purpose ell the incongrueus
recusants to the Constitution who, Ike fhe
followers of Lucifer, were ready to rebel
against any Government they could not con-
troll aad acting upon pretendedly humane pol
icy of abolition, which is really subversive of
| " W
the war. It begct secession and secession
involved war; therefore it is the prime cause
of both evils
As in these degenerate days repentance OF
| sin is decidedly out of fashion with the party
in power, and as the worst of republican sin
ners when rebuked by a Democrat, are won't
to resort to counter accusation, and cry out Sc
cessionist. eopperhead, etc., Ideem it prudent,
| by way of selfErotection, to declare my views
upon this subject of secession. am not as
liberal toward the doctrine rs the President
seems to have been when, as Representative
of his district in the State of Illinois, he made
speech on this floor in which, while COM
menting upon the right of the subjects of
| Governmental throw off their allegiance and
establish new Government to suit their In
clinations, he said
"Any people, anywhere, being inclined
| and having the power, have the right to rise
up and shake off the existing Government
and form new one that suits them better
This is a most valuable--a most sacred right
| Ia right which, We hope and believe Is TO
| liberate the world Nor is this right confded
to cases in which the whole people oe an ex-
isting Government may choose to exercise it.
| Any portion of such people that can, mag
revolutionize and make their own of so much
territory as they .inhabit- More than this, a
psgiority of any portion of such people may
rcvoiutionize; putting down minority inter
mingled with or near about them who may
oppose their movements" !"
This view of the President carries the doc
trine of revolution eonsid erably further than
Democrats are willing to go. That nation
of people or province under the oppression
of wicked Government may, in the opinion
of the world and before God, be justified in
restoring to revolution for the purpose of
L
But that forcible revolution is the uneendI.
tional right of portion of a nation or the de-
pendency of nation, to be exercised at their
mere pleasure, do not believe. The justifi-
cation of the American Revolution which re-
suited in our national independence was not
put upon any such ground. Secession I be-
lieye to be no more nor less than revolution
In the American sense of the term, it is the
exercise of what is claimed to be the reserved
ght of State in the Federal Union TO with
draw itself from the Confederacy whenever
| the people of such State may elect to do so
with or without any other reason than their
desire for complete Independence. l do not
admit the existence of any such right, ner as
sent tosits assumption. l regard the General
Government of the United States in its sphere
as a unit, as verify such as the government of
State, and that all the people of the States
owe it allegiance which it is not at their OPP
tion to revoke.
But let us consider how this doctrine of the
member from Illinois would apply to given
state of circumstances. Let it be supposed
that he afterwards, in the process of events,
become President of the United States, and as
such officer, in violation of his official obliga
tiors, has assumed to dfsfranchise, crush and
punish, without law or right, the citizens of
"a State, thus manifesting by his acts an inten-
tion to employ tyrannicaly the powers which
were given to him for an entirely different
purpose, in forcibly suppressing the laws of
State which protects its citizens. This state
Of circumstances would, according to his doc
trine, authorize not only the State, but an in
terested portion of the people of a State, to
revolutionize and overthrow his administration,
and if necessary, to infict upon him the sam g
banishment which he had unlaufully inflicted
upon others In government like ours,
whose administrators elective at short in
tervals, would invoke the forbearance of the
people till the ballot-box could besappealed to
for. redress; bat if any tyrant should under
take to interfere with that sacred dispenser of
the peoples will, he would deserve to be swept
from the face of the earth by an injured and
betrayed community. In such extremity men
may be justified in exercising the ulterior right
which they hold from God.
In contemplating this subject recognize
two crimes, and the relation between them
first, the melting crime of invasive Abolition
ism and second, the induced and consequent
crime of secession. They who by their own
wrongs have contributed to the latter crime
should expect by divine law to share in its
punishment. They are not, I say again, as
we'll entitled to compleia of the deed as are
those who at all times have adjured both the
incentives and crime.
We of the conservative school cannot pa
tiently listen when we told that the policy
of restoring the Union upon its original princi
Piles is merely ridiculous. We know, as ex-
perience has proved, that it needs nothing
but the honest fcalty of the people, which
every Government requires, to sustain the pol
icy of the President and the prcdominating
party in shaping the results of military con-
quests. We have no faith in the proposed
new system. We demand the restoration of
the Union we demand it because it Is our