Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1866-01-12


We are entering upon new epoch in our
history. The period of struggle for national
existence is ended, and we have celebrated our
thanksgiving to God for our deliverance. The
war administrations of both Nation and State
have gone by, and we have begun an era of
peace with its new duties and new responsible
ties. We have proven that our Government
was strong enough to resist the most formidable
efforts TO destroy it by force and we are now TO
show whether it has such vitality that it can as
simulate the different elements comprised under
its rule, and harmonize the antagonisms neces-
sarily remaining after SO fierce a strife. For
years all our energies and our resources have
been devoted to the simple duty Of subduing a
great rebellion and what was demanded of us
was undaunted courage and obstinate determine
alton, concentrating our will aud our power up
on the single purpose before us and refusing to
be turned aside for any other object till that
was thoroughly accomplished. Now we have
put off the harness of war; the grand army
which saved the Republic is dsbanded; its vet
Grams have been quietly absorbed into the mass
of their fellow-citizens and all are now intent
ly studying the problem of changing a Union
restored by force, into one whose permauence
shall be guaranteed by mutual good will and
common interests, and be based upon universal
freedom and genuine republicanism. To do
this will demand qualities of head and heart
quite as high as any that have been called into
exercise hitherto, and if we succeed in finding
the solution that we seek we shall prove that
the victories of peace are far greater than those
of war. On the one hand are the dangers of
receiving into full participation of the Govern
ment those who have been stalking everything
upon its overthrow, and upon the other, the OBJ
legations we are under to the whole world to
adhere to those doctrines of democratic liberty
and equality which lie at the foundation of our
system whilst our relations to the unfortunate
African race, whose slavery we have abolished,
E1d whose freedom we are sacredly bound to
protect, come in TO complicate both classes of
difficulties.
Congress and the President are now at work
upon the details of complete restoration ofcivil
government in the States lately rebellious, and
we, in common with the whole country, are
watching their progress with the most earnest
hope that they may speedily agree upon a ma
tional policy which shall thoroughly accord
with the highest interests of the whole land
/ do not regard this a proper time to discuss
specific measures which arc before our federal
legislature and authorities but all our public
acts in our State organizations, as well as in
our National capacity, must be more or less
modified by circumstances shaped by the great
war in which we have been engaged, and it
seems necessary therefore, as a PREPARATION for
every species of public duty, that we should
look with special care at any dangerous tenden-
cies the war may have developed and recall the
the general principles which should guide our
action as servants of the people
It is in the excitement of a great struggle
that the institutions of country are in danger
of change and perhaps no nation has ever pass
ed through such a convulsion as ours and then
returned to the principles of government and
of - Ii IL.
The maxim that revolutions do not go backward
has seemed to have even a wider and deeper
significance than has been popularity given TO
1t. The same law OF progression which has
made the convulsions of mOnarchial govern
meBts tend toward the development of popular
liberty, has in republics too often led to des-
potism Of classes or Of factions, and thence by
easy stages to anarchy aud utter disruption
A victorious majority, flushed with its triumph,
finds it easy TO forget the rights of minorities
and it remains for us to prove whether, in our
day, the old cry of "Woe to the conquered"
may be silenced by truly republican deter
mination to administer the government for the
real advantage of all-the defeated rebels as
well as of the loyal victors.
The war was not waged by US, who remained
faithful to the Government, to subvert any of
the principles of human liberty upon which
that government was based, but to confirm and
establish them. The one great doctrine that
has been settled by the war is that the Nation
al Union caanot and shall not be destroyed by
the action of any of the States composing it
but its continuance, its modification, or its dis
solution shall be determined by the whole peo-
pie acting as one nation under the forms of the
federaliconstitution. The one great social change
which has been determined by the same event, |
Is the abolition OF slavery, the existence of which
was staked upon the success of the rebellion. |
of which it was the cause.
These things have been decided in the dread |
court of last resort for peoples and nations.-
By as much as the shock of armed hosts is
more grand than the intellectual tilt of LAWYERS:
as the God of battles is more awful Judge than |
any earthly court; by SO much does the digni- |
ty of this contest and the finalty of this decis-
ion exceed that fany human tribunal If we
have not been right in pledging our lives and
our fortunes to save our country, then the blood
Of the myriads of heroes who have fallen rests
with murderous guilt upon our SOULS and we
should never consent that the justification or
condemnation of this great people should rest,
now or hereafter, with any bench of Judges,
however learned, especially when each Judge
must determine his own cause since he must
have been Tor or against the country in her
'sruggle' Ihere are some things to which courts
9f law can add no sanction, and a nations ap-
peal to God when it seizes the sword is one of
hem We may, when necessary, try iLdividu-
i traitors, and the people of the United States
will appear as prosecutor, but not as defendant
i tie bar.