The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1860-10-10
The Coercion" Issue

Inc great issue introduced into the present
canvass by Mr.. Douglas in his Norfolk IVA,
speech, oyerrides all other issues. By it, SQUAT.
ter sovereignty becomes pigmy. 1t rises up
head and shoulders above every other ques-
! ton in. the present political campaign, and
must engage attention to the exclusion of all
others. The proposition of Mr.. Douglas to
whip Southern men into subjecton to old Abe
Lincoln's acts, no matter what they may be,
is an offshoot Of Federalism, worse than any
Of Adams centralizing doctrines. Mr.. Doug
las has stated that State has no right to
leave the Union, and that if one should attempt
to sccede while he was President or any other
man, (even Lincoln,) he would march the
Federal troops On her soil and coerce her.
This doctrine is too odious for any State
Rights man to suPport-indeed, no Southern
man can subscribe to it, and have left any feel
ing of independence in his bosom. A more
hateful edct could not have issued from the
pen of the author of the irrepreSsible con-
fct' doctrine Seward himself could not
have hurled into the faces Of Southern men
more hideous instrument Of torture and ty-
ranny. Will Southern men subscribe to
Douglass coercion doctrine. We have too
much confidence in the manhood Of Southern
men to believe that they will countenance
such monstrous offspring of federalism
They scorn it, and repudiate the author of it
with contempt
Upon this issue, the Richmond (Va) En-
quirer says:
There can be no mistaking the meaning Of
military organizations, nor does it need any
suspicious acuteness to point moral to such
names as "Z0uare Wide -Awakes, 'and "Rall-
Spitter's battaltoa'' Are there no "Brown
Avengers" or iarper's Ferry Raiders
among them? OF the Presidential candidates
three are agreed that State has no right to
secede, and on that issue occupy the same |
platform; and the Wide Awakes have their |
for believing that in the event Of the
of Alabama or South Carolina, it will |
be not only pretext but duty to march into |
Southern territory. Now these contingencies,
Of Lincoln's election and State secession, are
imminent, and why, in the day of trial and
danger, should we be distracted in council and
paralyZed in action by division among our
selves? We hope and trust that no Virginian
2an reconcile himself to the thought of an
armed invasion of Southern States through
ler territory; and yet this is the crisis to which
lffairs are tending, and which we shall have to
meet What we will do in such contingen-
" is question outweighing in importance all
considerations of mere party triumph, and it
will be too late to respond to it effectively when
he crisis is upon us. Our only hope is to
mite and present an undivided front noac As
ar as Virginia is concerned, the contest will
,e fought not out of the Union, but for State
lights and State sovereignty in the Union. She
will have to stand between the power of the
central Government and the assertion of SOW
reign authority by some sister State. Let
he first armed invader, whether Federal
ninion or an abolition drilled incendiary, who
iolates the sanctity of her territory, find her
itizens not only wide awake, but prepared to
meet him.