The national Republican., 1860-12-28

Il
ly any form of property which is not threatened
with ruinous depreciation, while many forms of
property are trembling on the brink Of total
extinction. Business in numerous departments
is already visited with paralysis and this paral.
ysis is only the foreuner Of DEATH If the dis.
ease is not arrested. 1t is in vain that we
delude ourselves with the idea that we can safely
rid ourselves of few querulous partners by
letting them go. If we could have bond of
fate that the mischief would stop where its
limits are now defined, we might acquiesce,
with regret, to be sure, but without serious
alarm. But not only can we have no such Sc.
curity, but no such hope. With the loss of
single stone, the arch tumbles to the ground.
The withdrawal Of part Of the States destroys
the cohesion of all that remain. A Northern
and Southern Confederacy are equally chi.
meras, and the permitted secession of South
Carolina is the signal Of catastrophe which
will leave scarcely any two States in political
combination.
The only thing which is possible, short of
the anarchy of Mexico, is the Republic, one and
indvsible. The public Judgment stunned by
the rapid march Of great events, hesitates and
vacillates as yet, but the conclusion to which
it will arrive is inevitable. Nothing, not even
civil war, can be so ruinous to mems interests
as the dissolution Of the Union. l repeat it,
the Republic, one and indivisibe, at all costs,
even of such II struggle as that by which France
made those words good against La Vendee,
if there is no other escape for us from the hor.
rors of disunion, will be the rally cry of the
country. The alternative is terrible, but we
cannot escape the necessities Of our position.
No mans property, no mans liberty, no mans
life, is safe, if we do not maintain the Govern.
ment of our country. We cannot elude dan.
ger by running away from it. We must con.
front it.
Thank God If the danger is great, the re.
sources of defence are still greater, and the in.
dications multiply that the bow of promise will
soon span the vault Of the heavens, now black
ened by the storm cloud. We never really
knew how strong the Union was, until this mo.
ment of fierce assault. The main body of the
South is as true as steel. The great States
upon the Chesapeake, the Ohio, and the Mis-.
souri,, containing more than four millions of
people, may be indulgent to erring sisters, but,
in the end, they will be governed by patriotism
and enlightened selfnterest
Kentucky which, two generations ago. made
the acquisition of the mouth of the Mississippi
the well.understood condition of her own ad.
herence to the Union, and which, in 1914, sent
down her rinemen, famous in history and song,
to the defence of New Orleans, will not yield
her free outlets either to the Ocean or the Cult
Missouri, hopeful Of central empire, and with
the reality of it not far distant, will not sink
patiently to the condition of dismem bered and
| isolated province. On this side of the noun.
tains, Virginia and Maryland are loyal to the
core to Government, located upon their own
majestic Potomac, identified with the renown of
their ancestors, and essential to all their pres.
cnt interests. II, for a moment, suspicion has
attached to the "mother of States and states.
men," from the language of men, who making
good their individual escape from the overthrow
of the heresy of 1882, have availed themselves
of an ndulgent amnesty and popular forgetful
ness to creep into high places, the suspicion is
allayed by the assurances Of that crowd of cti-
zens, who come up here, day by day, to protest
their devotion to institutions which Virginia
herself, more than any other State, gave to the
country.
Even in that portion of the South which now
seems to be disloyal, there is ground to hope
that reason will yet prevail over passion. Sc
cession cannot be successful if at all, without
civil war, and civil war will be followed BY the
extinction, utter and in blood, of negro slavery
upon this continent. Such solution of that
question will be gratifying to fanaticism in
America and in Europe; but wise men will
recoil from it with unspeakable horror. 1t is
not the language of menace, to point out the
inevitable results of conduct, and it is not the
part of brave men to maintain a useless strug-
gle with fate. The courage of the horse, rush.
ing into the battle, Of which he knows not the
perils, is not fit object of emulation by ration
al men. That is a strange confusion of ideas,
which esteems it cowardice for men to regard
consequences, in actions which involve all the
interests of themselves and of their children.
GNot only will the disloyalty which exists,
| ,,alI tn t;ma an5 raNantinp hut tho nra,apt a ~
tent of it is enormously exaggerated Even in
South Carolina, it is a safe conclusion, from the
hot haste with which matters have been pushed
on, that the managers of the disunion movemen,
had no oufdence that the deliberate jhdgmen,
of that State was on their side. Theatrical eff
feet and surprise have been the instruments
relied upon, aided, where necessary, by actua
terror and intimidation. The resignation o.
Federal officials and of Senators Chestnut and
Hammond, the raising of Palmetto flags, anG
military professions, were concerted and con
trived to stun and bewilder the public mind
while Legislative unanimity was secured by the
threat that dissenting members should bt
sumniarily dealt ruth" And even down t.
the present moment, the consprators feel Sc
little secure of the sober support of the people
that the retiring Governor Of South Carolins
declares that the delay of even a single week
} in the proclamation of secession by the State
/ Convention, will be fatal to the enterprise
Such hot haste assures us of the existence o
an opposition at home, only needing the sup
, port of the national force, to coerce an acqui
escence in an eventual accommodation.
The Union, let us hope, will be preserved
without struggle, but, at all events, it will bt
t preserved. The emergency will call out the quail
ties and inspire the conduct which will carr,
the country through the danger, great as it un
, doubtedly is. Firmness in repressing treason
and conciiation in harmonizing the sound Gle
I ments against the conspirators are both needed
and in an equal degree. 1t will not be per
) mitted, that what is really contest between
the Government and the old notification o
ohal ho ol ..I.