Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-17


The sooner all thought of coercing Sc
ceding State is abandoned, the sooner will
roth parties come to reason. Considerations
Of right and justice and Of the consequences
are all set aside when force intervenes or is
threatened. In State affairs any cause is
just against force. Then the cry is, "0ur
country, right or wrong" This Govern
ment has no more right to bold its States by
force than Austria has to hold its provinces.
We do not pretend that considerations of
safety and defense may not justify govern
ment in establishing and maintaining its
boundaries by power. That has been done
from time immemorial, but it is nothing but
the right of the strong over the weak.
Before this Government can claim a right
to coerce a State to remain in it, it must
show that it is vital to its national existence.
In that case the right of the strong to sac
rifice the weak to its own safety may be re-
sorted to. But no such case can be made
out in any secession that is threatened now.
The difficulties in the details Of a separation
are not insurmountable. If this North
American Continent was so created that but
one nation can safely occupy it, it was badly
nut together; and we know on very good
authority that it was well made. 1t is Just
as susceptible of division as Europe. And if
with our vaunted achievements in local self
government, we can not adapt ourselves to
such divisions as exist in other countries, we
have seme thing to learn, and ought to set
bout it.
But, force in this, as in all other cases,
should be looked upon as the last resource,
instead of being regarded as matter of
course, and as the first resort against a con-
tumacious State. The merits of the case are
never considered while the war lasts. To
discuss them, then, is treason on either side
The party which first resorts to violence
shows want of confidence in the justness
of its cause. Suppose Mr.. Buchanan were to
give way to the attacks of the Douglas and
some of the Republican press, upon his mac
tivity and should send Federal army into
South Carolina, as be did into Kansas, to
suppress any symptoms of rebellion, and
disperse any representative body which un-
dertook to initiate measures to set up an in
dependent government just as an army dis
persed the Kansas State Legislature. All
considerations of justice policy and consti-
tutional obligation would be at once set
aside.
From position in which she has no case
at all, South Carolina would have one which,
ifit did not place her in the right, would
place the Federal Government in the wrong,
and would rally the whole South to her aid.
E This is just what South Carolina needs to
develop her vaporing into a Southern Con-
federacy. This is what makes her so anx-
ious that the Federal Government should
coerce her Immediately. She is standing
with chip on her shoulder, aching for the
Federal authorities to knock it off. She is
perfectly conscious that she has no case. Her
list of complaints against the North only
makes her ridiculous. She has not mem
toned single grievance that she suffers.
Her talk of secession because of Northern
legislation against the Fugitive Slave-law,
when her slaves are beyond reach of free
State, and when Maryland, Virginia,
Kentucky and Missouri, in contact
with free States, are for the Union,
is as absurd as her remedy, which
would sacrifice the Northern slave States to
her whims. This is why she wants coercion
applied Immediately. That would make
a case for her. Without that it will die of
its own weight in six weeks. Her politi-
clans will do all in their power to provoke it
at once, before the people of the South can
express themselves. An attack by the Fed
eral troops would have the same effect upon
the South that tie attack of the British upon
the Minute-men at Lexington, had upon the
Colonies. 1t would make her cause the cause
of the South. If Mr.. Buchanan should de-
sire to play the traitor in this affair, as some
of the more violent of the Douglas papers
charge, he could not do it so effectively in
any other way, as by sending Federal troops
into Charleston and furnishing opportunities
for collision between them and the citizens