The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1897-11-25


chat vast region should be peopled with
etalwart Mortimer and dcarved into states
1t would hold the dominating power of
The government in the interest of free.
dom. And 80, having every power Of
the government in their hands, they de.
termined to break down the Missouri
compromise line and push slavery up
Into the territories and coming states of
The northwest. But our brave North.
men said No, it shall not be done. Lib
erty in this land shall be universal, and
while it lives slavery shall be sectional
and 80 the contest was waged all through
the fifties. The fight for the freedom or
enslavement OF Kansas and Nebraska
was most determined battle. But lib.
erty triumphed, and they were both ded-
Scated to freedom.
"And when in 1860 Abraham Lincoln
was elected President, and the South
saw that the control of the government
was to pass into the hands of Northern
freemen, then they revolted in their
madness, and traitorously determined
to destroy the government which they
could no longer dominate and to build
in its stead AN empire of slaves, with
slavery as it's corner stone
"This was monstrous proposition for
the middle of the nineteenth century,
and our lovers of liberty all over the
North resolved that it should not be.
And 30 at once the conflict began which
was to test the power of our government
to defend it's own life, and to test the
devotion of our people to the cause OF
human freedom.
"Thus the War of the Rebellion, that
from '6l to '65 menaced the life of the
Republic, came to constitute a chapter
in our military and civic history which
utterly oyershadows, dwarfs and belit
ties all that had gone before. That
great battle of four years was a struggle
of such magnitude, of such bitterness, of
such determined purpose-on the one
side to destroy, and on the other side to
save the great Republic-it was so deep.
ly and cruelty direful in it's character,
and it's results we're go immeasurably
important to the American people and
t. the whole civilized world, and it seems
as ifall our history ,and all that was posi-
bic to us of suffering, of peril, OF disaster
and defeat, of agony and despair, as well
as of courage and hope and triumph and
destiny were crowded into those fearful
years. And yet it came to us so sud
denly and unexpectedly-we we're sout
terly unprepared to meet the causeless
revot-it was so ost of the realms Of
human reason to think that it would
come, that it was many times more dire
full than it could haye been had we
known it was coming. 1t defied credu
ality to believe that such an attack could
come to us from our own brothers, under
our own re OF tree, to despoil our com
mon heritage, to spread the blighting
curse of slavery and supplant the Re
public of Washington by the slave EN-
pire of Jefferson Davis.
"We had indeed put from US the be.
lief that the South would MAKE war up |
on us. 1t was SO unnatural, and we re.
fused to prepare even for defense, lest |
we should fan the fires OF passion and
provoke them to hostilities. We were
on our knees praying God for peace and
brotherhood while they were drilling
and preparing for the conflict. They
had every power of the government in
their hands.
''They had the President, and had iu
spired him to believe and to say that
there was no power in the government
to conserve its life. They had Congress,
where they met the arguments of our
Senators with brutal and cowardly as
sault. They had the Supreme Court,
from whose chief they had just beard
the doctrine OF the Dred Scott decision.
They had the Secretary of War, who
submitted to the seizure of our Southern
forts and arsenals, and OF large quantities
Of arms and army stores. They had the
Secretary of the Navy, who had sent our
little navy to the ends of the earth.
Thay had the Secretary OF Treasury, who
had bankrupted not only the Treasury,
but our credit also. They had control
of the foreign diplomacy, so that they
could misrepresent to the nations the .
spirit and purpose of our American po
litical life and institutions. They had /
the commander in chief of the army | ,
who, like the President, was mainly dis. i
for his age and imbecility ,
They had everything in their own hands,
and they had used all these offices and {
opportunities to plot and organize trea-
son against the republic, even while the
oath of allegiance to the old government
Was unan their snuls And throuuh tho | ,