The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1865-08-10

now present living traces oftbc diver
sity ofthc races ofmen, which in course
OF time have come together in it. This
variety shows itself under different
aspects, with features more or less
marked. Sometimes it is a complete
separation Of idjOms, Of local tradi-
tions, of political sentiments, and a
sort Of instructive enmity distin-
gushing from the great national mass
the population Of a few small districts;
and sometimes q mere difference Of
dialect or even Of accent. marks, tho
more feebly, the limit Of the settle
ments ofraces of men, once thorough,
ly distinct and hostile to each other
If fifteen centuries of common gov
ernment and political Union have
not been able to obliteratc the distinc.
tions and even the 'iusLinctive enmi.
ty' OF races which were physiologi-
cally similar, wbat encouragement
have we that success will attehd a
forced political fusion ofbitterly hostile
races from the antipodes Of the human
family?
The process by which even the
comparative unity of the English peo-
pie was achieved, is described by the
same philosophic historian. whom l
have quoted, near the close Of his
great work, as ''complete amalga-
ton" ofthe Norman and Saxon idioms
and "a MIXTURE of the two races"
which it took four centuries Of san.
culinary war to accomplish.
Just stepping as we are from the
battlefield OH which the descendants
Of common ancestry, 70 little remov-
ed from us that we can literally reach
back. our hands to grasp those of our
common sires, have waged the most
tremendous and terrible of wars, it
does not become us to argue that peace
full discussions will quietly settle diff
ferences WHICH in former times were
settled by the sword; but the memory
of the almost present as well as of the
remote past calls upon us to build our
polity solidly upon principles which
experience as well as reason prove to
be durable, and more than ever to a.
void deluding ourselves with the cry of
"peace, peace, when there is no peace!'
AS, during those weary years of war,
l have pondered this problem in the
intervals of strife or by the camp fire
at night, | have been more and more
impelIed to the belief that the only ba-
sis of permanent nationality is to be
found in complete homogenity of the
people, of manners and of laws. The
rapid fusion of the races Of Western
Europe as they have met upon our
shores, has secured the former of
these requisites, and the Yankee race
q adopt the epithet as an honorable
one) marked as it is with salient char
acteristics, is so complete an amalga-
nation of all families from the eastern
boundary of Germany to the western
coast of Ireland, that there are few of
us in whose veins are not mixed the
blood of several. But this unhappy
race ofwhich we are speaking does not
amalgamate with the rest. 1t is en-
tircly immatcrial to discuss why it is
, so; the fact no one can deny; nor can it
be denied that its salvation or its de-
J struction will surely be worked out in
its family isolation.
, Because therc could be no real unity
of people between the Southern whites
and Southern blacks, it seems mani.
fest TO me that there could be no po-
litical unity, but rather strife for the
mastery, in which the one or the other
: would go to the wall.
, The struggle tor supremacy would
, be direct and immediate, and | see ne
, hope whatever that the weaker race
would not be reduced to hopeless sub
lection, or utterly destroyed. There
: is no reason to suppose that Missouri
t border ruflianism could never be re
S pcated on new fields, and the strif;
5 once inaugurated the merciless wal
: would continue as long as the obnoX
. ious race had an existence. You have
expressed your anticipation of such q
r result in one state of the case, how il
/ it that you do not see that direct
f struggle for power at the ballet-bos
would make the contest more deadly
. 1 hold that there is great philosophiC
. truth in the words OF Guizot, in sum
9 ming up the eight centuries of blood
: shed out of which the French emerged
into nationality from the petty races
: and tribes. He says In the life of ma
q tions, that union which is exterior anc
. visible, the unity of name and of gov
J, ernment, although important, is by ne
0 means the first Importance, tho mos
, real, or that which makes indeed one
t nation. There is unity which il
f deeper and moro powerful: it is tha
S which results not merely from identi
ty of government and Of destiny, bu
f from the homogenity ofsocial elements
o from the likeness of institutions, o
9 manners, ofideas, of tastes of tongues
s the unity which resided in the mer
J. themselves whom society assemblies
}. and not in the forms Of their associa
q tions; in short, that moral unity Qunit
j. moraie) which is far more importan
}, than political unity, and which is th'
r only solid foundation for the latter"
o l have watched with deep interes
i the educational effect Of the war upol
u our army, and assure you that willis
+ our white soldiers have uniformly ant
quickly learned 10 appreciate the fac
}. that the existence of our free Govern
l. ment could only bo preserved by tn
If destruction of the system of slavery