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Show 28 DESPOTlSl\1: arguments and reasons in its favor, we should sustam it; not for it~clf; for in itself, it is neither good nor bad. It rna y be either, as circumstances arc. 'Vhat are these reasons and arguments in favor of the Union 1. Briefly these; that the Union serves to protect us against aggressions from abroad, and civil war at home; that it is the be:st guarantee of our independence and our freedom. But suppose this same Union to be made the pretext for a violent interference with our dearest rights1 Suppose that tmder pretence of preserving the Union, we are to be deprived of the liberty of the press, the liberty of discussion, the liberty of thought,-nay more, the liberty of feeling, the right . of sympathy with those who suffer 'J Suppose this Union requires to be cemented wil11 blood, and that we are called upon to surrender up the noblest of our sons and daughters to be tortured to death by southern whips, for the grievous sin of having denounced despotism with the generous emphasis of frecdom1 Are we ready to bow thus submissively before the grim and bloody shrine of this political Moloch 1 Arc we prepared to make these sacrifices 1 When the thing has changed its nature, what though it still rc· tain its former namc1 rrhongh it be called a Union, what is it but a base subjection, a n1iscrablc servitude? Some eighty years ago, we had a Union with Great Britain, a Union that had lusted for near two centuncs, a cherished Union, the recollection of which kindled a glow in every American bosom; not a fraternal Union merely, but closer yet, maternal, filial. That connection had many things to recommend it. It sustained our weakness; it brightened our obscurity; it made us partakers in the renown of Britain, and part and parcel of a great nation. What curses, eighty years ago, would have blighted the parricide, who should have gone about to sever that connection, so dear, so beneficial! The mother country, not satisfi ed with the affection of her daughter, sought to abuse her power, and IN AMERICA. 29 to extort a tribute. But were all the advantages of our Union with Britain to be given up, merely to - avoid the payment of a paltry tax on tea 1 Were all the calamities of civil war to be hazarded, all the miseries of a hostile invasion, intrigues with foreign powers, and their dangerous interference, public debts, standing armies, the risk of anarchy, and of military usurpation 1 Yes, all, said our fathers, all is to be risked, rather than surrender our pecuniary independence, rather than become tributary to a British parliament ; rather than be taxed at the pleasure of the mother country. A Union upon such terms is a mockery; it is not the Union we have loved and cherished. We scorn it, and we spurn it. So our fathers said. And when it is undertaken to deprive us not of our money,-which, for the sake of peace, we might be willing to part with,-but of that whose value money cannot estimate; when it is attempted to shut out from us the atmosphere, the essential life-breath of liberty; when it is sought to gag our free mouths, to forbid and stop the beating of our free hearts; to subdue us by penal statutes into a servile torpidity, and an obsequious silence, shall we hesttate one moment to repel this impudent effort of despotism, because, if we refuse to submit, it will endanger the Union 1 Perish the Union· let it ten times perish, from the moment it becomes i~consistcnt with humanity and with freedom ! Should South Carolina declare that war, for which, as she asserts, she has such Ia w ful cause, and march an army northward to enforce silence at the point of the bayonet, the sons of those men who fought at Lexington and Bunker Hill, will perhaps know how to repel the Invaders; and those states which furnished soldiers generals, _anns and money, to re-conquor Carolina fran~ Con;w~lhs and_Rawdon, will bo able, peradventure, to vm_dt.cate thetr own liberties against any force which Carohman despots may be able to send against them. In tins matter, let us learn a lesson from these very 3'1. |