For this they are ready to contest the possession of the mouth of the Mississippi, and the control of the Gulf of Mexico, by force of arms. They are thus ready to prosecute hostilities upon important and vital interests of the Free States in behalf of Slavery and for the interests of Slavery. In a word, to make war for Slavery, because, if it were not for Slavery we would have no secession, and we would have no war. Destroy Slavery and you destroy secession, and you end war. The Charleston Mercury is ready to fight.
All revolutions are blunders.
They are never intended. The huge blunder now marring the counsels of the Government of the United States seems to be that the Union can be maintained by violence and war, and that South Carolina can be cowed by demonstrations of military coercion. Every step taken in this direction only widens the gulf between the Northern and the Southern States, and drives the Southern States more speedily together into a Southern Confederacy. That military fools, like General Scott, who think the highest wisdom consists in the bloodiest fighting, should counsel the military possession of the bay of Charleston by the Government of the United States, is what might be expected. Thousands, and tens of thousands, longing for a Southern Confederacy, with an eternal separation from the people of the North, will hail him as their detested but most efficient deliverer.