Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-01-14

perohance some Territories should be shut
out from the conquest Of slavery.
In vain we seek in the United States for a
nationality striving to regain its independence.
Not only has independence been nowhere
assailed, but there is absolutely no trace of a
separate nationality. Nowhere, perhaps, is
there more thorough national homogeniety.
| North and South the race is the same; faith
language, history, and, we boldly add, inter
ests are all the same. All these States have
struggled together, suffered together, and tri-
umphed together. Their glories, their de-
feats, are common. Their Constitution sprung
from the free consent of all, all pledged
themselves alike to remain faithful to its obi
cations.
This pledge is no empty word with which
caprice may idly sport. Among the inven.
tons of our epoch there is none more extra,
ordinary than the right of secession. Those
who discovered it will no doubt teach US
where it should stop. If each section has a
right Of secession from the country as a
whole, why not each State right of seees
sion from such section? 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 right
of secession from the town?
The truth is that, but for slavery, the South
would not talk of its suppressed independ
| ence, nor of the right of secession. Slavery
| has brought the two sections to strife. The
extinction of slavery will restore unity. The
| North and the South will some day wonder
that they could have failed to appreciate the
most complete and homogeneous of nation
| alities.
a last resort remains. That we here may
not see the great struggle on the subject OF
slavery, an attempt is made to present the
struggle as one of domination.
But this latter struggle is the very life OF
tree countries. 1t is not surprising that the
North and the South each strove actively.
energetically, noisily for the triumph of their
candidate and policy. But when one of them,
losing the battle of the ballot, plunges with
out hesitation into another kind of battle :
when it resists, arms in hand, the result of a
| regular election; when on the very day that
1t ceases to rule it tears into fragments the
common country, it is guilty of crime for
| which it is difficult to imagine an excuse.
u.-lou will crush the revolt, gentlemen
You will succeed-such is our belief-in re-
| establishing the Union. 1t will emerge from
the bloody trial stronger, more free, more
worthy of the noble destiny 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 demonstrated
| to US, and by irrefutable argument, that YOU
would be always and of necessity defeated
that you would never know how to handle a
musket; that recruiting would become i'm
! practicable; that your finances would be ex-
hausted; that your loans would not be taken:
that you would become bankrupt that riots
would ravage your cities; that your Govern
ment would be overthrown? You have given
to all these oracles the simplest and best an
swer You will reply in the same manner to
those who assert that the establishment of
the Union is impossible
What seems really impossible is not to re-
store the Union. Where draw the line be-
tween the North and South How maintain
between them a state of peace, or even of
+ truce? How shall slavery and liberty live
side by side? How, moreover, restrain the
South from European protectorates, and by
what means arrest the frightful consequences
of such protectorates? Geographically, NOR
ally, politically, separation would create an
unnatural situation, 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 to you. 1t is not that we
overlook the difficulties which still remain
for you to overcome they are great, greater
perhaps than we imagine. War has its vicis-
STUDIES, and you may perhaps be yet called
upon to pass through periods of il-fortune
Yet one fact always remains, and shows on
which side the final triumph will be found,
supposing that there be no foreign interven-
ton. THE flag of the Union has noag for taUo
gears reeUer paused IN its adyaace 1t floats TO-
day over the soil Of every revolted State
without exception. The South has had its gic-
tories-t has never gained an inch of ground.
The North has had its deteots-it has meier fall
en- back. Master to-day of the entire course
OF the Mississippi, master of the Border
States and of Louisiana, all that remains is
to stl1e the revolt in the narrow territory
where it first burst forth and back TO which
it has been driven. We believe that you
will succeed in this; for Europe, the only
hope of the South, seems now little DISPOSED
to 81 We her aid.
In short, the rebellion is already reduced to
such narrow proportions that should it ever
become distinct confederation, accepted as
such from WEAKNESS Of war, the Confederacy
thus created will not be born with the func-
tlons OF life Neither European recognition
nor your own could give it serious chance
of duration. 1t would end in a return to YOU.
But we delight to believe the re establishment
OF the Union less distant And, in the pres
with joy, permit US, as your friends, to offer
you some sincere advice The dangers of
victory, you are aware, are not less than those
Oh the combat. We give you, therefore, our
loyal, frank opinion, sure that in the main it
will agree with your own, and feeling also,
that these communications between us have
an aim more serious than a simple exchange
of words of sympathy.
We hold it to be of the first Importance
that the cause of the war shall not survive the
war; that your real foe, slavery, shall not re-
main upon the field. We have often asked
ourselves these last three years why God
permitted the prolongation of this bloody
struggle. Vas 1t not that the real issue might
present itself NTH perfect clearness? Conquer
ing earlier, the Federal Government would,
perhaps, have been led to make concessions,
to enter anew upon the fatal path of COM
promise. To-day, all eyes, not willingly blind,
see clearly. The New York riot, breaking out
at an appointed day to aid tue invasion Of Lee,
and falling instantly mpom the negro in a uay to
s1aow to every acitaess Of its coaoarog erocity at
kind Of spirit animated certain friends Of the
4South-the New York riot was supreme
warning to your country. Your line of action
is clearly traced So long as anything of sIa-
very remains, there will be a cause of antag-
onism to the bosom of the Union. There
must be no longer any question Of slavery
1t must be so ordered and settled as never to
return. An amendment to the Constitution
to this end must be proposed and adopted be-
fore the return Of the States.
The condition of the free blacks must also
be seured against the iniquities which they
have so long endured. No more plans of col
onization abroad, no more disabling laws, no
more inequality. Those whom you have arm
ed, who fought so bravely before the walls of