The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1869-04-01
The American Future.

For eight years past, the American
people, under the lead of a wild and
iunatic faction, have striven their utmost
to commit national suicide, and were
we an old people, with the traditions
aud the long catalogue Of national sins
Of England, Austria, &c, national de-
struction would be inevitable.
Nations are but aggregates of indi-
viduals-they have their birth, child
hood, adolescence, manhood, old age
and death, not that the latter is always
necessity, for nation based on the
principles OF Democracy, like that Gre
ated by the men of 1776, need never
die, though it may contract in dimen-
sions, or become limited in power. In
these eight years we have destroyed a
million Of lives, and most likely, ,blighted
or demoralized another million, and
wasted ,at least, half of the entire wealth
produced since the first settlement of
the Colonies. There is no parallel to
this in listory-the Crusades of the
middle ages and the terrible wars grow
ing out Of the French Revolution APP
proximated it as regards the waste of
human life, but there is no resemblance
or even approach in the wastes of prop
erty. But this waste of life and prop
erty, stupendous and unparalleled as it
was, might rapidly be recovered from,
if the system of the fathers were res
tored and the Constitution untouched.
1t would simply be a reduction in the
national vitality, to be rapidly recover
ed by immigration, and that new i'm
pulse Of energy always succeeding i'll
ness in youthful subjects. But here is
the calamity: We are in the hands of
madmen that will not permit restoration,
and in vain and monstrous effort to
create "New Nation, 'Ithey will, and
must of necessity, destroy the remaining
vitality, for reconstruction is in con-
flict with nature and forever impossible.
But to understand this momentous and
awful truth, a few brief sentences are
necessary.
The Union, the system created by
the men of l776, is simply this--a Union
of self governing States composed Of rhite
people. We have a minor race, 4 do
mestic element (negroes), in our midst,
with much of the nature and wants of
lads from twelve TO fifteen, and who
were provided for by the several States
according to their nature and wants,
and these negroes, by enabling us to
open and cultivate the vast region south
Of the Potomac, and still more, by rem
dering those who owned their Service
the reliable defenders Of the interests
Of labor and the champions of Democ-
racy, this negro element may be truly
said to be the corner stone of our Re-
publican system, and the greatest bless
ing Providence ever conferred on any
people. In domestic condition, that
did not and could not disturb the po-
litical system, this minor race, these
subordinate negroes, fulfilled an essen
tial role in our American civilization,
while compared with any other portion
of their race, their condition was SO
vastly benefcent and happy, that no
language can fifty express it, But Eu-
ropeans, ignorant of the nature of ne
groes, fancy them "colored," :" or BLACK
white men, and therefore the laws
adapted to the negro they have termed
"slavery," and their writers, speakers,
&C., as we'll as theV dupes and tools
among ourselves, have utterly dsluded
and bewildered "the whole civilized
world" on this, in itself, perfectly sim
pie subject. The American who, with
the negro before him, calls him "col-
ored" man, is fool or worse, a traitor
to Democracy; and the American who