Lessons For To-day

mour.J When we look back on the 8th of January, 1815, we are led to study the early history of our country, and we learn something that may abate the seetional pride whieh gives birth to sectional prejudice and hate. These are the seeds f rom which grow treason and civil war. We shall flnd that no section is free from imputations of disloyalty or of inconsistency of conduot. New York for a time would not enter the Union. It distrustcd the power given to the General Government. The doctrine of States' rights liad its origin with us, and, not in Virginia, which at the outset was in favor of a strong central government. Yet in the war of 1812 New York shifted its position and upheld the exertijn of every power claimed by the-Pr j.?ident of the United I States. On the other hand, in the i Northeastern States, which had sup-ported the centralizing doctrines of John Adams, when war harmed their free eommerce upon the oceans, official acts verging upon rebellion marked I their policy. While a foreign enemy was upon our soil, while the walls of the Capítol of our Union were ! ened by the smoke of fires kinctled by the torohes of hostile invaders, open resistance was threatened to drafts to fill the ranks of our armies. These draft riiots were not made by an excited mob acting under a sense of wrong, but were put forth as the calm eonclusions of j men who were then, and whose ríes are now, honored in the communities in which they lived. As choseii representatives of their State they j emnly declare that, " In this whole series ef devices and measures for ' ing men this conveution di.scerns a total disregard for the constitution and a position to viólate its provisión, demanding from the indivichial States ;i firm and decided opposition." At an early day Alexander Hamilton, the great leader of bis party, warned liis ! followers that they were going too far. ! So thoroughly conviuced was he at one time that there was a plan in progress for the separation of the Union that on j June 11, 1804, on the Snnday previous to his death, he said to Col. John j buil, with a look of deep meaning, "Yon ! are going to Boston. You will see tho principal men there. Teil them from ' me, ns my request, for God's sake to Í cease their conversations and ' ings about the separation of the Union. ! It must hang together as long as it can j be made to." It was a distinguished Northern Senator who, at the seat of I Government in 1811, first suggested seeession. He said : "I am conelled to declare it as my delibérate opinión that f this bill passes the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved ; that the States which compose it are free from l tlieir moral obligations, and that as it wil} be the riglit of all so it will be the duty of some to prepare definitely for a separation - amicably if they can, violently if they must." It was a leading Northern State which placed upon its Legislativo records the declaration agaiust the adrúission of Texas, which taught that it dissolved the bonds of the Union, and asserted that no human authority could make it subrrit to that act. Although it did submit the spirit of rebellion was there. Among tlie earliest events in Pennsylvania was the formidable resistancë to the laws of Congress known as the whisky rebellion. This grew to such prpportions that George Washington was forced to cali upon other States to give hini aid. At this period the Southern States were the flrni supporters of the Union. John C. Calhoun was the able Secretary of War who organized its forces and asserted its powers. When we turn to the history of the late civil war we see how time and interest and passions change the position of States - the South waging war upon the General Government and excitiug a Southern rebellion on Northern principies. At the same time some Northern States demanded the very measures they had denouncecl as acts which should be resisted. They poured forth blood and treasure to hold States in the Union whose membership they declared no human power should make them assent to. States that doomed a war unjust in 1812, becanse, among other things, it dostroyed our carrying trade. now demand a policy more destructive to American shipping upon the oceans of j the world than any embargo which could be devisod by the genius of Mr. Jefferson. These changes in the i tions of S tatos are full of warning and full of encourageinent. They teil uk that there will ever bé discontent wherever there are real or faneied wrong; that it should always be the object of political parties and public men to work for the welfare of all parts of (mr Union: that this spirit can alone preserve itsliïe. On the other i hand elmnges from hostility to our Union to its warm support are brought about when the wisdom of our Ciovernment dift'uses prosperity into every section. Unless the spirit of .seetional hate shall li.' stampefl out asa baleful tire we do not know in what (juarter it inay breuk out aud involve us in civil war. The past warns us tbat the spirit of pat riotisni or the spirit of rebcllion have no permanent seats or no flxed forrus for their aesettion. Kindling seotional bate ntthoXurth to-day is moro dangerous to tho peace aud prosperity of our country than the exhaustod pasBiona of rebollion which have burned to ashes at the South. The fact that the principies of clisunion were first put forth at the North is no reason why they sliould not be put down when actcd npon at the South. But this fact shotdd make us more tolerant and give nsfaith that a lovo of union cnn grow up there as it did in sections where disloyalty waa lii-st displayed, and where treasonable sentiments were flrst hatched out. I believo that celebrations of a victory sained for the flag of onr Union by Southern men upon ftoutbern soil ■nill not only promote fraternal feelings, but ly contrast with eventg elsewhere will teaek all the duty of forbearance, of moderation, and of devotion to the interests of every section of our great country. All that teache a knowledge of our history tells us tbat other seotions of the country have virtues was wil aw our owii, and that we have crrors to atone for as well as they. These trutbs make us tolerant and disposed to advance tho interests and welfare of every section of our Union.