Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1860-12-06
Are we goin. to Fishts

lis no longer doubtful. Probably no
single delegate has been or will be chosen
to that Convention who is not an avowed
secessiopists. 1t is expected that the act
of secession will be perfected on the Sec
ond day of the Convention, and that not a
single vote will be cast or voice raised
against it.
What thena
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louis
lana, Florida, Texas and Arkansas-(with
South Carolina) the eight Cotton States
are confidently expected to follow
Some of them will probably do so, but not
without desperate struggle. The Un-
ion has warm friends in each of these States,
and among them is Sam Houston, Cover
nor of Texas. Threatening demonstra-
tions have been and will be made to in
duce him to call the Legislature to meet in
extra session for the purpose of calling a
Convention; but we think they will have
to hang him up until he is black in the
face before they will force him to do so.
All the rest of the Cotton States have
Fire Eating Governors, who will readily
call their Legislatures: indeed most of
them have already done so. We shall
not anticipate the result, thong we shall
await it with intense anxiety.
If South Carolina shall be left to stand
alone, we think she must ultimately re-
cede. Her people, we are aware, do not
think so; but single State will not be
permitted to break up the Union. We do
not talk to subdue her; we only say that
her position as seeding and quasi and
independent State in the heart of a Fed
raj Union will be anomalous and untenable.
She may maintain it for little while, but
ultimately be constrained to return to her
normal condition as a member of the Con-
federacy.
But if the Cotton States generally unite
with her in seeding, we insist that they
cannot be prevneted, and that the attempt
must not be made. Five million of Peo-
pie, more than half of the dominant race,
of whom at least Half Million are able
and willing to shoulder muskets, can nev-
er be subdued while fighting around and
over their own hearlhstones. If they
could be, they would no longer be equal
members of the Union, but conquered de-
Tendencies. Suppose they could be over
come and their military forces destroyed
what then! Can you compel them to send
members to Congress? Can you make them
accept Federal offices? Can you prevent
their tarring and feathering those who do ?
If not, how idle to talk of subduing them.
As to all that is so well said of the duty
of remaining in the Union and submitting
to its constitutional authority, &c, DC, we
concur in it most heartily: but suppose
they won't-what do you propose to do
about it? Webster and Marshall and
Story have reasoned well-the Federal flag
represents Government, not mere
league I'VE are in many respects one nation,
from the ST. John to the Rio Grande; but
the genius of our institutins is essentially
republican, and averse to the employment
of military force to fasten one section OF
our confederacy TO the other. If eight
States having Five Millions of People
choose to separte from US, they can not
be permanently Withheld from so doing by
Fedral cannon.
We speak thus explicitly, because, next
to the danger that the South will presume
on the readiness of the North to concede
much rather than allow the Union to be
dissolved, we deprecate the irritation which
threats or apprehepsicns of force are certain
to produce. "We can whip you" "Try
it T-such are the foolish banters in which
most scenes of human carnage have their
origin. The secessionists are everywhere
appealing to their courage and pride of
the South, on the assumption that they
are about to lock horn with the North in a
life-and- death struggle. He who stands
for the Union is held up to the odium as a
submissionist-one who lacks the requisite
valor or faith to stand up the rights Of his
section. "Do you so fear the prowess and
''powef of the North that you dare not
stand up for the rights of the Southl" is
virtually asked.
How this must operate, in a region
where to be accounted croward is to be
universally despised ard spit upon, we need
not say. We propose to wrest this potent
engine from the disunionists by saying
frankly to the Slave States: "If you choose
to leave the Union, leave it; but let US
have no quarrel about it. 1fyou think it
a curse to you and an unfair advantage to
US, repudiate it, and see if you are not
mistaken, Ifyou are better by yourselves,
and God speed you for our part, we have
done very well with you, and are quite
willing to keep along with you, but if the
association is irksome to you, we have too
much self-respect to insist on its continu
ance. We have lived by our industry
thus far, and hope to do so still, even
though you left u.s."
They who think to slave over the widen
ing chasm between the Free and the Cot
ton States are utterly unaware of the Sc
riousness of the matter at issue. We are
congdent that the Fire-eaters, instead of
being in any degree pleased by prom
ise Of the North to evince greater zeal and
diligence in catching runaway slaves, would
rather feel insulted by it. Lincoln's cleo
tion, we must repeat, was not the cause of
the secession movement, but only seized as
affording a favorable opportunity for bring
ing it to issue. The South-especially
South Carolina-is poor. deeply in debt,
and with faint propects of improvement.
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