Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-02-14
Extract


Permit me to present to You one other Sc
rcs Of reflections, which, although III some
sort outside of the particular subject, are ma
turallv suggested by it. We, in the East,
have suffered ourselves to be alarmed. or to
imagine that we are alarmed, like children
Ly ghost-stories. at the idea of the encroach-
mcnt of the South on the rights of the
North: and So. while pottering over petty
projects IF resistance to this bugbear, we ac-
tuallv engage in systematic aggressions on
the rights of the South, having once already
deliberately undertaken and attempted to
impose on the Union a sectional northern adj
min>trat"n bv means of a secession North
crn Convention and sectional northern votes:
! and in the continuous prosecution az the
same idea, ab>urdly throwing away still
much time and labor. which might better be
employed in thoughts on the general adj
vanccment and honor of the Union. be-
lieye something of this folly may have found
its way along the Connecticut River into the
State of Ohio. We here on this side of the
Alleghanies seem to forget that We, old
States though We be-, are no longer the whole
Union. but only narrow strip of it along
the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. And you,
YOU are not the North nor the South, but
the West: and that in this immense West,
extending from the Lake Of the Woods to the
Gulf of Mexico there is indssoluble unity
of interests. by reason of your common rcla-
ton To- the Mississippi. The upper States OF
the Mississippi can no more separate from
the lower ones. or the lower ones from the
upper ones. than the river itself can be cut
otf in mid-cuurSc All questions Of the rela-
tive forms Of lahor-all socialistic questions
are but transitory bubbles on the surface
compared with the momentum and material
force of this great fact. Passion or preju-
dice in Maine. and the sense of intolerable
: wrung in Georgia, might separate them but
not So easily Ohio. Indiana, Illinois, and
Missouri from Louisiana. And, ~ the cen
trail States of New York, Pennsylvania, and
! Virginia are Mississippi States as well as
Atlantic States. 81 they also are tied together
by tn same bonds Of association, which at
;ach Ohio to Kentucky, Illinois 10 Tennessee,
Iowa to Arkansas, and Louisiana to Mime
sofia Let sectional agitators tear asunder
/ that lirament if they can. | think they will
find the task Il hard one. That cord of
union which the hand Of God has made to
penetrate through and through the very vital
substance of the United States, the hand OF
man is impotent to sever.
I. II the United States were consolidated,
instead Of federal governmental the
American States were no longer States OF the
the American Union, but departments or
provinces of an imperial American that
! case, the deterInnate and eager attempts OF
II part Ia eacroach upon and take away the
rights of part-ot the northern depart
mcntS, for instance, To- Cypress the southern
such an attempt would afford 10 the latter
| good and efficient cause Of revolt, insurrec-
! ton, revolution, To- the end OF dividing the
common empire and converting il into two
empires. Just rs our fathers for the same rea
son subdiy ded the British Empire. BY still
more cogent reason, if-constituted as We
now are. not n consolidated empire, but a
confederation of sovereign Statcs-any part
Of the American States proceed, through fed
cral action, consideratcly and perseveringly
to violate the constitutional rights Of any 9th
cr part. The latter would seem TO have good
and sufficient cause to revolt To ALLURE the yiO-
/ lated constitution and either by consent orby |
/ revolutionary force to depart from the Union
! | do not know how that can be disputed. |
! do not see with what reason anybody ut
| ~
BODY at the South, when the latter, in the
! case supposed of Systematically and persis- !
tently unjust and unconstitutional federal !
violation Of the rights of his State, declares
! that he will not have the present Union on
! such terms, but will rather. and by force If
necessary. seek Ia constitute another AMI !
separate Union. though but Il secondary and
I inferior one Which of us. North or South,
would not say and do the same in similar
circumstances ! confess To have made
! such II declaration myself III the Congress OF
thr United States. many years ago. on occa-
sion of tn" supposed or hypothetical case OF
the attempt of tie South TO force Its particu
| lar social system Oh the North | would
rcitrratr the same declaration now, III the
! same supposed ease OF course, could not
! condemn the uttcrancr of the same scnt |
/ ment by any statesman of the South. on the
/ hypothesis OF the attempt of the North 10
/ force its particular social system on the
/ South. Ii il absurd for Us in the North to
! assume. as wc are prone to do. that we have
/ all possible rights Of attack and of defence,
| and that the South has no possible rights
! either of defence o. attack. Certain it is
/ that we in the State of Massachusetts, have.
on occasion, spoken the same language of
/ contingent separation, secession and dis
union. rs ,lecisivcly and loudly as it was ever
pronounced III the State of South Carolina
! These are hypothetical questions, indeed, of
quite conceivable occurrence az between the |
! States on the shores OF the Atlantic. assoca-
ted geographically only by the waters of the
sea- which associated us Just as much with !
our old mother country itself and are in no
sense whatever material tie or bond Of ma
tural conjunction. That the world sees in
very numerous examples.
How different j. your condition in the ba
sin Of the Mississippi and the Missouri
The great river ties you together in such
natural community Of reciprocal interests as
to preclude the idea of deliberate and persis-
tent attacks on one anothcr's rights under !
the Union. VIII the upper States Of the
Mississippi suffer themselves to be deluded |
and he drviIcl hy the wild-goose chase after
social-tic chimcraS. into earnest aggression
on the federal rights of the lower States, to
the sure and Obvious result of the erection of
another and Il hostile American Union, to
hold the mouths Of the Mississippi, and stop
the lifc-breath and blood circulation Of these |.
upper States? Never. If such contin- |
gencv were imaginable. that. in the basin of
the Mississippi, wolld hay" 10 be Il question
| Of colg"eSt, nothing less: and the time is far