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the great States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois, from the conspirators.

[FROM THE NEW YORK HERALD, August 17, 1855.]

"In the history of American politics, there is to be found no such menace to the institutions of the country, as now threaten their early and complete overthrow. The first act of the conspirators is to place the Union of the States in complete subordination to Anti-slavery. The effort is to force on the country the organization of parties bounded by the free and the slave States, and to carry their points by the numerical majorities of the North; to subvert the Constitution—to raise the power of such majorities into omnipotent control, and then to plead the same in justification of their acts.

"It is a war upon the institutions of the South—a war upon slavery, and a war upon the Union, to effect the objects they have in view.”

[FROM THE NEW YORK HERALD, NOVEMBER 18, 1855.]

"The distinctive Seward abolition party is essential disunion. It is based on principles whose tendency is, and whose effect must be, the destruction of the government and all its interests-its commerce, its railroads, its manufactures, its mechanic arts, its telegraphs, its moral power, and, above all, its position before the world as the representative of liberal ideas and popular rights. These are the sacrifices required of the American people to give effect to the Eutopian policy of Mr. Seward to his mad crusade against the Constitution, with a view of effecting his antislavery purposes.

"The question comes home to existing party subdivisions with peculiar force: Can a citizen of the United Statesan American-occupy any other ground than that of hostility to the Seward movement, and do his duty to his country? That movement looks to a dissolution of the Union as a means to an end. Those, then, who regard facts, and not forms, must see that in reality there can be but two parties in this country-those who support the government, and those who seek its overthrow. The abolitionists occupy one of these extremes; the hards, the softs, the Americans, the whigs, in truth, occupy the other.

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"It is manifest, indeed, that the public mind is gradually, but certainly, approaching this one great issue. natural, and, indeed, inevitable, that it should be so; because it involves all the highest interests of the people, and in every sense must be regarded as the superior question of the day. In reaching it, individuals are required

to pass the severe ordeal of putting their prejudices in subjection to their reason and their patriotism.

"Those who, without exactly knowing why, have come to regard the institution of slavery as a hateful sacrifice of the rights of man; those who have been taught to believe, that in the organization of the government, the slaveholders have secured undue advantages-in short, those who have stood upon the extreme North, and have listened only to partisan appeals and misrepresentations, in regard to affairs in the South, and have imbibed strong prejudices against the men and the local institutions of that section of our common Union, must make up their minds to see, hear, and give effect, to the truth, or consent to an early overthrow of the Union. The government cannot exist in the midst of so much error. It must fall by the weight of falsehood and misrepresentation; because these point directly to hostilities and civil war!"

[FROM THE HERALD, OCTOBER, 1860.]

"Put this republican party into the White House, and before it can be ousted it may compass the control of every department of the federal government. Then, the republican doctrine of negro equality would be apt to assume a shape so revolting as to 'precipitate the South into a revolution,' the terrible consequences of which would defy all human calculations. And so, for the sake of the Union, and the peace of the Union, the suffrages of all Northern men devoted to the Union should be cast in the way best adapted to defeat Lincoln, whose election will be an anti-slavery triumph which may drive the South out of the Union.'

These warnings were regarded, when uttered, as mere alarms, intended to frighten the people, and lead them into the support of the Democratic party. We were all called, in derision, "Union-savers," and told that the South could not be forced into secession. The power of majorities was invoked, with an avowed purpose to provincialize the slave States! It was said, at the great mass meeting at Portland, in 1855, that the North must be educated, instructed, and, if need be, forced into Abolitionism-must be taught to condemn and despise the immoralities of the Federal Constitution!

It was these treasonable and emphatic declarations, in connection with previous acts, that led thoughtful men to the conclusion that the government of the Union was about to be sacrificed, and a new government created by the traitors, in its place. This has been accomplished, at a

cost of men and blood, which no human power could have foreseen. As a work of slaughter, it is without parallel and beyond the means of explanation, except on the basis that slaughter is its policy and its triumph. It ordained a Revolution in the North, and has created a counter Revolution. It has conquered the North, and seeks the conquest of the South.

It is said there is no disease without a remedy. This maxim of medical science ought to be true when applied to political affairs. Where, then, is the specific for the frightful malady which has, dethroned the reason and prostrated the body of the American nation? The future keeps its own secrets; the power of prophecy is not given to man, in such times as these. The mariner cannot take observations in the midst of the storm. We must, then, rely alone on the inborn freedom and bravery of the people of the States, to beat back the strong hand of power, which is now suspended over us. That this will be no easy work, we are admonished, by the fact that the people have armed the tyrants, not only by the sanction of legal forms, but placed the sword and the purse of the nation in their hands! Nine hundred millions of dollars have just been voted to them by a venal legislature. A million and a quarter of men have been sent to them by the States. All that men and money can do, to build up a central despotism, has been done; all that pride, insolence and tyranny can do, to make the people feel the power of that despotism, has been done by the existing administration. Every leading committee of the Senate is presided over by a New England man. Every measure of either House is dictated by New England men. The Army is controlled in all its appointments; the Executive Department is governed in all its details; the people are ruled over in all the various relations of life, by New England men. We have a Puritan system of politics, of police, of laws, of government, of everything. It is New England that governs New York, Ohio, and the great States of the Valley of the Mississippi! This Autocrat of Fanaticism is not satisfied to rule our political interests, but seeks to be our moral and religious instructor.

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If these views are correct, they suggest an Armistice to the belligerents as the first great step in the way of reconciliation. The proclamation of such a measure would be received with intense joy throughout the country. would suspend the agency of armies in the management of our political affairs, and restore the councils of peace and the influence of reason and patriotism, the only legitimate authority known to the institutions and habits of the American people.

DISCOURSE;

ON

THE EVILS AND THE END

OF

Ꮃ Ꭺ Ꭱ .
W A R

BY THOMAS WILLIAMS,

PROVIDENCE:

ALFRED ANTHONY, STEAM PRINTER.

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