Year: 1862

unfortunately, among many elemenIS OF
good and greatness, fanaticism emigrated TO
this country. From time to time, it has played
Its part in marring tha record of civil and re-
ligious liberty in American history. 1t has,
from time to time, sent forth various heretical
dogmas of politics. 1t has asserted higher
law, above the Constitution itself 1t has in
recent memorable words sought to do in the
name of God what could not be done in the
name of the Constitution.


1t finally found employment fatal to the
peace of the country in political abolition.
The North had rid itself of the incubus OF
slavery. The North was as responsible for
slavery in the South, as the South itself is.
But fanaticism became offended with Southern
slavery; and overlooking home evils and home
reforms, it devoted itself to the discussion OF
the evils of African slavery, clamoring against
its criminality and urging its abolition. 1t
disregarded the Constitution, and denounced
its guarantees of the rights of slavery as a
compact of sin and shame. Many of its
teachers openly advocated disunion; and
many more proclaimed an irrepressible con-
hict between the domestic systems of the
North and the South, arguing that the State 8
of the Union must become all free or all slave.


These dangerous and revolutionary doc
trines have always been combatted by the
Democratic party. The Democracy has no
apology to make for Southern slavery. We
regard it as great social evil But we re-
gard it as misfortune, not crime. The
crime is in the presence of the African race
upon the continent. This is a crime of the
past, not of the present. And even in the
past, it was less the crime of the South, than
OF those who grew rich in the slave trade, and
who new clamor for the abolition of slavery
which they themselves planted. We hold
this country to be the possession of the white
race, and this Government TO be instituted by
white men for white men. We commisserate
the condition of the slave; but we are unwil-
ling TO violate the Constitution in his behalf,
o. to disturb society by emancipating four
millions of an inferior race in land possessed
by superior race. 1t is the sin of history
that the African race is here; once here in
great numbers, the proper condition of the
African was subsection in some form to the
white. Equality was impossible. Nature has
made social equality impossible without fatally
SHINING against her laws, and without social
equality political equality is impossible. Ma
ture never placed the races together; when
brought together, the servitude of the inferior
is the best condition for both races; a necessary
evil resulting from the violation Of natural
law in bringing them together.


But fanaticism did not so see it. Fanaticism
al the North, unembarrassed by the presence
of slavery, did not see slavery as a necessary
evil, but only as an abstract wrong. 1t conld
make no allowance for the condition of the
South, and had no liberation for the compro-
misses of the Constitution, or the safeguards
which it extended to the institutions of the
South


For long time the abolition party was a
weak political minority; but it was from the
beginning an energetic and dangerous apostle
of unconstitutional doctrines, and of sectional
jealousies and distrusts.


As long ago as 1887, the warrior statesman,
Andrew jackson, in his Farewell Address,
warned us against it. He quoted the warn
ings of Washington, and said:


"The lessons contained in this invaluable
legacy of Washington to his countrymen,
should be cherished in the heart of every cit
izen to the latest generation, and perhaps at
no period of time could they be more usefully
remembered than at the present moment.
For when we look upon the scenes which are
passing around US, and dwell upon the pages
OF his parting address, his paternal counsels
would seem to be not merely the offspring of
wisdom and foresight, but the voice of proph-
ecy, foretelling events, and warning us of the
evil to come. The Federal
Constitution was then regarded by him as an
experiment. The trial has
been made. 1t succeeded beyond the proud
est hopes of those who framed it. Every
quarter of this widely extended nation has
felt its blessings, and shared in the general
ole D.,
amid this general prosperity and splendid sue
cess, the dangers of which he warned us, are
becoming every day more evident, and the
signs of evil are sufficiently apparent to AVA
ken the deepest anxiety in the bosom of the
patriot. We now behold systematic efforts
publicly made to sow the seeds of discord be-
tween different parts of the United States,
and to place party divisions directly upon
geographical distinctions; to excite the South
against the North and the North against the
South, and to force into the controversy the
most delicate and excited topics, upon which
it is impossible that large portion of the
Union can ever speak without strong emo
tons. Appeals, too, are constantly made to
sectional interests, and the
possible dissolution of the Union has at length
become an ordinary and familiar subject of
discussion.


Has the warning voice of Washington
been forgotten, or have designs already been
formed to sever the nation? =
Mutual suspicious and reproaches may in time
create mutual hostility; and artful and design
ing men will always be found who are ready
to foment these fatal divisions, and to infame
the natural jealousies of different sections of
the country Delude not YOUR

selves into the belief that breach once made
may be afterwards repaired. If the Union
is once severed, the line of separation will
grow wider and wider, and the controversies
which are now debated and settled in the
halls of legislation, will be tried in the fields
of battle, and determined by the sword.
The Constitution cannot be MAIN
tanned, nor the Union preserved, In opposition
to public feeling, by the mere exertion of the
coerciye powers confded to the General Gov
ernment. The foundations must be laid in
the affections of the people; in the security it
gives to life, liberty, character and property
in every quarter Of the country; and in the
fraternal attachment which the citizens Of the
several States bear to one another, as MEM
bers of one political family mutually contrib
uting to promote the happiness of each other.
Hence the citizens OF every State should
studiously avoid everything calculated Ito
wound the sensibility or offend the just pride
of the people of other States; and they should
frown upon any proceedings within their own
borders likely to disturb the tranquility of
their political brethren in other portions of
the Union. Each State has the
unquestionable right to regulate its own in
ternal concerns, according to its own pleasure.
. And all efforts on the part Of