The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-06-18
The Poison OF ssces.ion.

The Poison of Secession.
''The poi son [of seoesson] has spread further
than probably even its disseminators dream DIN
fnitely further than the Northern people believe"
[Savannah Republican.
The above is from paper not easily alarm
ed, but uniformly cool and dspassionate, sound
and able, and we fear, therefore, that there is
TOO much reason for the remark. The same
paper, speaking of the resolutions lately adopted
by the Hamburg meeting, says:
"That meeting has acted like many other late
ones that have been impressed with the ''sober
second thought" through the agency of impend-
ing danger. They resolved upon resistance to the
Compromise measures, but were opposed to sepa-
rate action by Carolina alone. They decided that
a dissolution Of the Union was necessary and pro-
per; but that, though the time for it has already
arrived. Carolina ought not TO act singly They
regard the South having one destiny, and depre-
cate dissolution of the ties which bind the South
together; but phen the other Southern STATES gipe
assurance of their readiness 10 dissolre their union
NTH the Northern States, their hearts oiH leap, and
their uoices join in hearty TO the joyful lid
ings
"And this is moderate opinion in South Carolina!
Those proceedings hailed, even by some Union
presses in Georgia, as though they were step in
the right direction. Upon this basis new opinion
is forming on the other side of the river, and new
papers are being established. The Union OF these
States is a practical curse and peoples minds
must be busted in getting rid Of it, not at the mo-
mcnt, but in the speedest and most sffectual man
ner. Here, in Georgia, there are thousands who
respond with their whole heart and soul to these
lu toll ther
danger These scditious voices meet with
prompt and cordial response from fanatics at the
North but we arc told that the friends of stable
and firm Union have cause Of apprehension.
Everywhere extremes the most rash meet and
embrace each other, and yet the world goes az
hopefully as ever. contentipg itself with distant
and careless glance at the form and pressure of
things."
The secessionists are evidently playing an
adroit game in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
and Tennessee; where, finding the people OPP
posed to secession, they have fallen back upon
ground which they suppose less Objectionable.
In these States all of them, except the most
rabid sire EATERS" profess the warmest at
tachment to the Union, while they are plotting
its destruction, and manifest extreme hostility
to the North, without discriminating between
those who stand by the adjustment measures
and those who assail them. At this, however,
we ought not to be surprised. since they them
selves denounce these measures in detail,
though they express willingness to abide by
them as whole.
This is an insidious course, and one against
which we deem it prudent to warn the true
friends of the Union and the Compromise
everywhere. The success of every man, in
any one Of the States we have mentioned, who
is not out and out, openly and undisguisedly, a
Union man, will be hailed by the disunionists
as victory in favor Of ultimate or immediate
secession, and will give courage and spirit to
the plotters of mischief both at the North and
at the South; for everywhere they are equally
the enemies of the Constitution, and would
exult in its destruction.
We trust that the true friends of the Union
will be ON their guard, and not suffer them
! selves to be entieed from the support of such
as are well-tried Union men by the syIen cry
of eve are all friends of the Union;" nor be
deceived into the belief that Democracy and
".Soaahern Rights" are one and the same thing.
If the above abstract of the Hamburg reso-
lutions express the moderate opinions in South
Carolina, what must be those of an ultra cast?
We are confident, however, that much sounder
opinions than these are held by no inconsider-
able number of citizens Of that State, and more
attachment felt for the Union than is observa-
BILE in the proceedings of the Hamburg meeting.