The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-02-17

government, and founded on it the military
despotism they have set up within the juris
diction of the United States, with the vowed I
purpose of superseding its authority, what
friend of the Union, what friend of free gov
ernment can hesitate.to strike down that sys-
tenn which endangers both :? The plea that
slavery is a local institution, not to be dealt
with by Federal authority, was universally
admitted to be true till that institution en-
gendered rebellion which, by an admission
equally universal, seriously imperils the ex-
istence of the National Government. 1t
tue of the right of self-defense, common alike
to Governments and individuals, under such
circumstances it could not destroy its ene-
mics. 1t is absurd to consider the war now
raging as one meant to draw line between
conterminous nationalities. It is war in the
bosom of one nationality, of people of the
same race and language, on an area bounded
by the lakes, the ocean, the Gulf, and the
tributary streams that unite and insulate and
mark it as The domain of one great Govern
ment. 1t is a war OF principle and dominion.
If the dynasty founded on the slave system
triumphs, it will give law to the continent
If it fails, as fail it must, unless the tendency
of the age becomes inverted, there is an end
to slavery among civilized nations. What a
humiliating contrast is presented for the new
world in the attempt of Jefferson Davis and
his coadjuter rebels striving to fetter their
| poorer and more ignorant fellow citizens IN
the chains of their four millions of negro
slaves; while the Autocrat of the Russias
proclaims the freedom of forty millions of
1 serfs, delivering them from the yoke of a
naughty nobility and his own right of seign-
iory, aud establishing them as freehoders!
Our would-be nobility of slave creation has
thrown down the gage of battle for the slave
system against the free system of government
When the batteries at Charleston poured their
hot shot into the fortress built, and armed and
manned by the nation, to protect tLat city
from foreign invasion, under which it had
| twice fallen, it signifed a war of fire and
sword against the nationality founded by our
forefathers, to secure the liberties for which
our countrymen fought and conquered. The
! Democracy of the North rose as one man with
the Republicans, in whose hands the elections
had placed the Administration, to defend the
nocracy then saw the conflict, in which this
actinvolved the country, in its true aspect
) Every step in its progress proves that it is q
war waged for military supremacy on the side
: of the assailants-fort the liberty and nation.
ality it secures on the other. Fereign king,
! and emperors are invoked to join with ths
}, conspirators in making a wreck of the Repub
!. lie. and share in the dvantages to be derivet
j from its ruin. Pirates, bearing the1fag Of the
] rebellion, and fitted out under the auspices o
wealthy spectators, looking for remunera
7 ton in the plunder of our commerce, dis
grace the civilization of the age by robberie
f and confagrations on the high seas. In sucl
: a war-a war for freedom on one side, an,
: slavery on the other-ne permanent peac
t can be patched up. To endure, there mus
t be submission to the Government as consti
e tutedb by our fathers, or asi would be consti
e tuted by Mr.. Davis and his military adhe
!, rents. Any compromise or partition treat,
: would give but breathing spell for fresl
e preparations for renewed struggle.
May we not hope, as there is no escap
: from an issue thus forced upon us, that tn
Democracy of the North will, as at tn
) threshold of the war, be found with the grea
majority of the constituency of the loya
States zealously battling for the right, whic
every patriot, of whatever party, holds to
with the Governments of the Union 1t ha
taken the stand that the extinction of tn
. slave institution is essential to save the Unio
. and perpetuate the Government which it-hs
Il rut in jeopardy. The armies of the Unio
. fight to make prisoner of this. giant of tn
u war Or the side of our adversaries. Ono
= withdrawn from them, he takes from ther
the motives and the means of continuing th
. conflict.
!. The partisan who may thwart the brav
men that risk their lives in battling for cor
= summation'a patriotic and humane, vii
: on the return of the MANNED veterans to the
! homes,i covered with laurels and honorabl
: sears, hide his diminished head in obscurit
: forever sali j't.ioH f5Fsl Il i'es
s. 3a In contests of opinion, between parties, th
"a utmost virulence of expression is soon forgi,
is en- and forgotten. But when war strikes til
fe country, the man who withholds support I
10 the soldiers who offer their lives in its ds
# fense, disables their efforts by words or ac
T. favoribg the cause eff the enemy, never re
!. covers its confidence What was the fate (
Y the public men who took sides with Englan
ar in the war of the revolution or that of 1872
Re The political convulsion of 1798-99 enc
n ing in the election of Mr.. Jefferson, was cha
y acterized by more bitterness, with a part
o frenzy more intense, than when blood flowe
in battles on the field. But the i'll spirit var
> ished like the specter of a mornings dreaI
e when Mr.. Jefferson rose to the nations chi,
ar honor, and the country was relieved of th
yI apprehensions of the loss of the selectio
+ made by the people. The struggle had bee
ii on one side to consolidate the Federal powe
e and by construction give it the tone and ter
n dency Of the British Government; on til
ic other to assert States rights and popular soy
4. ereignty by strict adherence to the republics
y model presented in the Constitution. Thi
b fairly construed embraced the opinions {
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