Grayville Weekly Herald

The American Union.

A few years since to speak of a probable disruption of our political system was to render one liable to suspicion as an enemy to his country, or at least as indifferent to its welfare and happiness. To breathe a doubt of our national stability was to excite either distrust for him who whispered it or pity for his weakness of intellect and ignorance of the self-sustaining powers of a free government. We are not among those who croak over imaginary dangers. We are aware that "the Union in danger" has been a hobby with a certain class of political aspirants within the past few years—that it has been used more for political aggrandizement than patriotic ends. But in this very fact we find one source of real danger which has been provoked by those who have raised the alarm and thrown themselves into a breach of their own creating. It has led to cool calculations, dollar and cent estimates of the value of the Union, and the loss and profit to be respectively derived by different sections from its dissolution. And it has dimmed the memory of the sufferings, toils, blood, and cost of the struggle which gave that Union its existence and its place among nations. The lustre of patriotic, self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of liberty by the men who gave it the pledge of their lives, fortunes and sacred honors, is obscured by the mercenary gleam of the accumulated profit which would enter into the division of this confederacy, and men are not wanting North and South who indulge in blasphemous exultations over prospective advantages which their traitorous hearts promise to sectional interest, and which they hold up as inducements, in some instances, for a disseverance of the Republic. It is proper to note this change in our passing history. We would scrutinize closely and severely all who are giving plausibility even to the suppositions that this temple of freedom must be torn down-that they cannot live as brethren and friends with those whose institutions differ from their own. This Union may be perpetuated, and we believe it will. We believe that the causes of distrust and compliment which have arisen may be removed-that there is honor, honesty and intelligence enough for its preservation. At the same time we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the time of its greatest trial is approaching. Wild senseless and demoniacal as are the appeals of Northern fanatics -traitorous, dishonest and unblushing as are their acts-they have already influenced the halls of legislation. To put them down should be the first political effort and object of every Northern freeman who loves his country, and, without pausing to count its value, regard it as himself, his all; and would defend it as his most sacred inheritance. We have not space to dwell at greater length on this subject at this time, but regarding political Abolitionism as the parent of Disunion, and the most damning, dangerous curse which has afflicted our country, we shall speak of it again and frequently.