Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1860 — H. W. Beecher on the Presidential Canvass. [ARTICLE]

H. W. Beecher on the Presidential Canvass.

[From the New York Indep»ndent.

Duty tor TnE Day.—We are not disposed to undervalue political machinery, any more than the machinery of government, states, or churches But if there be nothing but machinery, government will soon fail of the very ends for which it was instituted. There must be wisdom, reflection, und right feeling, and machinery is only a means of e - citing or of exercising them. There could be no flour if there were no mill. But what is a mill worth without wheat to grind? No political results can be of any permanent value which are gained by mere management—whicn represent, not the sober thoughts and moral convictions of the citizen. but the dext rity and trick of the adroit party-master. Every great political campaign, like that now advancing upon us. should begin and proceed upon sobriety of judgment and convictions based .upon intelligence. It is the duty of every Chrretian, citizen to see to it that every voter in the land has the materials of truth before him; and now is the time to act for the spread of that information which i* indispensib’e to stable political advance. Victories gained by mere excitement are like the bon-fres that celebrate them—mere transient, flashes of light, making haste again to darkness. But the advance of a community in sound political principles; in a sentiment of justice and a feeling of real sober regard for the public good, is like the advance of summer, which, when it once touches our hemisphere, never leaves it until its harvests are ripened, its fruits matured, and its whole munificence perfected and gam-red. Let every Christian citizen consider whether he is doing his part in the great struggle that has now begun, for the unity of States and the stability ot’ the Federal Government on the b sis of Justice and Liberty. God has blessed him in no ordinary degree vrho is pe mitted t<» -ngnge in the evolution of principles and the settlement of n policy which is not second in importance to the very inauguration of the Government. In such a period, political indifference is an immorality! No man can be guiltless who lends himseh to wrong, or who neglects to give his whole influence to the right. We make these suggestions just now because this is the seed-time not only of the year, but of <>ur political harvest. We must aim at a political harvest by the sowing of right aerd, in right places, rightly piepared. Where are the seed-sowers! Where are the men who hare been for years groaning at the corruption of public affairs! Are you doing anything to remedy it! * Are you reasoning, circulating fuc'sand nrgum nfs addressed to men’s sober judgment! Where are the men who have, in public and secret, lamented before God the wicked ness of the times! Now that the Providence of God haa brought around the day and the means for the correction of euch evils, are you securing the answer to your prayers by appropriate activity! What must ba thought of men who are hot in the closet, but cold at the bellot-bo»—rwbo tro bold In lamenta-

tions over evil, but shy in practical reformations! Now is tire time for work. The grass is springing under your f eet; the leaves are Coming forth over your head. Let there be a printed line circulated tor every blade o grass, und a page for every leaf ! This is work for everybody, it' >r men, for workmen, for women, for youths! The diffusion ot knowledge b everybody’s business. God has plowed the times in which we live, that men might cast good seed in**, tire furrows, and in due season public order, regulated liberty, and impartial justice ehall reward your labor a hundred-told. We shall h ;>ve reeling enough by-and-by. We shall have ze>! mi over measure. W>> shall have too much work then, when work yields but little—a'ter men’s pr< judices hiexcited, their pride committed, end tbei. passions inflamed. We must anticipate and appeal to their reason before it is clou ieJ and to their conscience be'ore i'. i». com mined.

There ha; never been nnv difficulty in rou sing up the whole commit rty in past :.,v« where parties were array- d ngninrt e ich other op hi questions of fiscal refor.u, i financial schemas, banks, tariffs, und such like questions o! mere policy. But no? tire questions before us are those of fundamental political principles. We are called again to discuss and to vote upon tire very principles for which our fathers endured war and g ined victories. We are to gr e validity and autho-ity to moral prin-ip're which underlie all equ'tmle socie ics; or to see th°m dele.i’ed through our neglect. There is a siient corruption going on which threaten? to change the very blood of our Government. Another ten years like the last ten, and our Courts will Ireve silertly revolutionized our Constitution. Judicial Construction is purg ing our law of liberty, and putting an iroi. rod into the hand of our Constitution, with which to crush that very sanctity of human right for whose protection it was ordained The Supreme Court of the United States is an enemy oi hherty, and the friend of bondage. And. like a grest heart, it is sending out despotiq blood through every artery of the Government. Our evil is desperate; cur danger critical. If taker, now' it may be overcome If deterred, it will, by-and-oy. demand a h Indred-f >ld exertion, or els - defy ail effort. Tue slave-trade is opened, and volcanic Africa again streams lavs upon our shores. Tire Court is preparing the way. step by step, for the supremacy o! slavery in every part of this continent. Already shameless merchants and renegade Christie #ns, in New York, are petitioning tire Legislature to make this State a highway tor slaves to travel. Men are found at th : s late day deliberately asking that it may be legal and safe for masters to bring their staves here! This is hut a gigantic shadow of advancing evils. There is no time to be lost. By one vi otous campaign we may put these recreant men to shame, turn back ihe tide of evil, inaugurate justice again at the capital, give air to the flame of liberty, and re-illume the Constitution with its original fires. Christian men! God speaks to you by his* providence in words as solemn as those of Sinai, as sacred as those in Gethsemane! •Will ye m-t watch for one hour! "