The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-01-30

negotiations between the two governments
ehall have decided which is right on the main
point in dispute.
The Union OF tho Statos-By Force or
Friendship-Whichs
The theory of the black republican party, as
openly expressed and advocated by Hickman,
Webb, Wilson and others, is, that no matter
whether their ideas are congenial to other por-
lions Of the country or not, if they can get
possession of the federal government they will
use force to compel the South to stay in the
Union.
This brings before the people of this coun-
try new and monstrous issue. They are to
decide whether the Union shall be preserved
by force or by friendship; and in coming to
decision on this question they will have to ex-
anime whether the Union can be preserved by
force, and whether they are prepared to make
the great sacrifices which would be necessary
in order to exert that force. Mr.. Hickman
talks fippantly about the relative proportion
of eighteen millions of population in the
Northern States to ei0bt milons in those of
the South, and of his readiness. to head a small
detachment for the purpose Of marching-we
do not remember to what goal of gore and
glory. Webb, too, is valiantly belligerent, as
the organ of the fighting merchants of New
York, and frequently announces his intention
of whipping the entire South into the most alb
ject and submissive subsection. Senator Will
son shuflles little on the question in Washing
ton; but when be gets into his own barnyard at
Natick he crows as Justify as either Hickman
or Webb But these are the vaporings of short.
sighted politicians, not the calm reflections of
farseeing statesmen; and it behooves every
man in the North to ponder seriously what
means the threat of eighteen millions of men
undertaking to coerce eight millions of their
fellows.
If we could for moment suppose that the
men of the North would unite, and knit them
selves as strongly and as unanimously together
to make the aggressive war as the men of the
South are knit and united to repel it, the per-
tpective would be the most terrible that ever
presented itself to the world. Two vast COM
munities, possessing every engine that art can
construct, every appliance that skill or science
has invented, would grapple in a struggle for
life or death. The forces of the contending
parties, unequal as they seem in numbers,
would be equalized, if not reversed, by the diff.
ferent moral power which always attends ag
erosion and defence. The busy hum of pro.
ductive industry would give place to the waste
full claDgor of gathering in martial array. Com
merce would cease its thronging on our rivers
and seas, and the present hope of peaceful
reward for honest labor would be displaced
by the lust for spoil and the longing for the
CORY laurels of war. Battle would extend its
destructive rage over the now peaceful cities
and fields of the land, and the horrors of the
strife would be heightened by the rage of the
csrdled feelings of brotherhood that for eighty
years have bound us together. However the
venal pen of history might gid the achieve
ments of a few fortunate military leaders, and
lift its hosannas in their praise, these would, In
sober truth, be but the knen Of death to the
happiness, prosperity and glory of the land.
But the idea that such conflict can &C.
cur-that eighteen millions of people in these
Northern States can be united to make an ag-
gressive and destructive war upon their eight
millions of brethren In the South-is absurd.
And it Is the more absurd when we remember
that the motive which Hickman, Webb, Wilson
and their black republican fellows adduce for
It il the support of q fanatical idea which is
based entirely on ignorance and misrepresenta-
ton of the social institutions of the South. Every
principle which leads to the preservation of
the Union can spring only from desire for
peace and feeling of fraternity. The govern
ment under which we live and so greatly pros
per is based upon the idea of the selfgovern-
ment of the States. That idea rejects every
possibility of external influence for coercion.
1t makes the affections of the people of all Sec
tons the base and the bulwark of the govern
ment; and whatever destroys these destroys the
Union and the government at the same time.
Their forms might remain for a time, but they
would be nothing but heartless shells, which
would soon drop to pieces from their own hol
lowpess
Should the black republican leaders, therefore,
succeed in their revolutionary attempt to seize
the powers of the general government, and
through them endeavor to coerce the Southern
States into an unwilling submission, those very
powers would turn to ashes in their grasp, and
the name and faculties of the confederation
would exist only in hollow usurpation. The
vitality that anmates the federal power flows
only frou he voluntary consent of the States
and the willing affections of the people Of all
sections. A withdrawal Of all the Southern
States, under the impulse OF sense of danger,
such as the black republican party menaces
their social organization and their every vested
interest with, would paralyse the arm of the
North, should such wild fanatics as those who
threaten to preserve the Union by force en-
deavor to rouse it to carry their threat into
execution Then would commence the new
phase OF the present conflict. In the North