Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1860-11-15
The South Getting Ready to
Leave the UniOn..What is to
be DOnef


The intelligence We print from South Caroli-
na and the Cotton States will be read with in
terest. The off repeated threats OF secessisn, In
the event of Mr.. LINooLS's election to the Presi-
dency, begin to assume definite shape. De-
elamation has given place 20 decision. and the
issue is about to be forced upon the Admins
traticn of Mr.. Buchanan, as to whether the laws
of the land will be nullifedor not. In Charles
ton harbor bark belonging to the Cushings, Of
Boston, had hoisted the Palmetto flag. and sa-
luted it with fifteen guns. In New Orleans an
effort was being made to organize company of
minute men. A company of volunteers in Vir-
olina. in the event of secession. The Legisla-
ture of South Carolina had determined on i'm
mediate secession, and rejected propositions of
cooperation with other States, which were
made. A Convention will he held in Decem-
Der, and secession appears inevitable. The Fed
eral office holders in Charleston had rendered
their designations. 1t was intimated that PRES
ident Buchanan had assured the South that,
prevent notification. This appears to be a
mere newspaper rumor, for which there can be
no foundation. Gov. Brown, of Georgia, had
sent special message to the Legislature, re-
commencing course of retaliatory legislation
against "unlriendly" States in the North, in re-
sponse to the action Of those States on the fu-
gitive-slave law question.
What, then is to be done? Isit possible that
the American Government possesses NO power
to protect itself? Are our laws TO be violated
and vitiated? Are our magistrates to be insult
ed and defed with impunity? If this theory
is to prevail, there is, of course, an end to free
institutions on these shores. Mr.. Buchanan
will throw up his hands and announce his in
capacity to protect the American Government.
Treason will thus be made respectable and tri-
umphant. General jackson construed the Con-
stitution in his own way. and the people sup
ported him. 1t is true, he asked Congress to
confer upon him plenary power to punish all
disobedience to the laws of the United States;
but what would Gen. jackson have done if Con-
gress had refused to give him such power?-
Would he not have assumed il? In other words,
would he not have made the law, and have
thrown himself upon his countrymen? If the
fearful idea shall once prevail that any State of
this Union, upor whatever pretext. may secede
and refuse to obey the laws. and there is no pow
er on the part of the Executive 10 preserve the
national compact, where are we to land? Talk
as you may OF the despotism of comforting up
on the President the right to insist upon obe-
dience to the laws, yet is it not better that he
should have supreme power to do this than that
he should be helpless, and that all our civil
rights should be destroyed9
1t is singular comment upon the threats of
the fre-eaters to leave the Union, on account of
the election of Mr.. LINCOLN. that the very peo-
pie whom they expected TO assist them have
thrown an immense vote in favor of JOHN BELL
the same JOHN BELL who has been denounced
by Mr.. YANoEY and others as an Abolitonist al
most as extreme IS LINCOLN himself. tt e very
people who accuse Mr.. LINCOLN of being iden-
titled with Mr.. SEWARD and his doctrines, turn
about and support Mr.. BELL for the Presidency.
who is charged by them with being in sympathy
with Mr.. LINCOLN on certain important ques-
tions. 1t looks now as if Maryland, Virginia
Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Lou
isiana had all pronounced in favor of BELL
Even in Alabama, where Mr.. YANcEY and his
doctrines were supposed TO be supreme. the
Douglas element has been powerful, conquering
Mobile and other important points. and it is alb
surd to say that the Douglas and Bell men of
the Sooth sympathize with their revilers. We
know that the common cant of the dav was to
the effect that if LINCOLN was elected all parties
in the South would unite to resist his Inaugural
tion, and TO punish the Northern people for
electing him. But is it not a reasonable and
common-sense view that they would not be
likely to unite in resisting the constitutional
election of a President with men who bad been
constantly and daily tradncing and laughing at
them? There is as much bitterness against the
Bell men, on the part of the Breckenridge men
in the South, as there is against the friends of
DoueLEs and LINCOLN in the North.
eWWhen Mr.. JEFF ERsoy, after the e.c;,ino
contest of 1900. was about to accede to the Ad-
yniniSfrntion nf tba Govarnn,o,t