The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-12-06

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the success of the secession movement in
the Cotton States South Carolina is clear
ly bent upon it, and will doubtless pcrsevere
in the course she is now pursuing if she can
but we still doubt her ability, with all the
aid she can get from her canfederatcs in the
South, to carry the matter to the extremity
of actual separation from the Federal Gov.
crnmen..
In the first place, she is not entirely
unanimous at home. There are individuals
among her citizens, few it is true, but some
men of standing and influence, such as Gov
Atkins, who are opposed to the movement,
while in the other Southern States, not ex-
cepting Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi,
there is s'rong Union Party, who can lie
relied upon t. stand in the breach and divert,
if they cannot control, the movement, until
reason has had time to re-assert its dolnin-
ion over the fevered brains of the infatuated
people of the South. Besides, the move
m"nt has already produced diminution of
the revenue, stagnation Of trade, the suS-
pension Of banks, and general loss OF
credit This state of things, so sensbly az
fecting the pocket, will produce the same re-
snltsat the South as they invariably produce
elsewhere, to wit, discomfort, and ultimate
opposition to the policy and measures which
has brought them about.
Then again, the American People have
never been called upon to contemplate serl-
ously the possibility of the dissolution of the
confederacy. There have been times, as
there are now, of darkness and doubt when
it has been apprehended that such direful
alternative might be forced upon the coun-
try for its consideration and determination
but the country has never actually consider
ed it, because the government at the time, as
in the former attempt of South Carolina to
secede, was found comp tent to deal with the
question, and its action was so universally
sustained by the people, that scarcely rip
pie was perceptible upon the surface of pub.
lie sentiment
1t strikes us, that when the people of the
country realize, as we trust they never will.
That there is shadow Of real danger to the
stability of the Union; when they shall
come to ask the question in sober earnest,
can this glorious confederacy of States,
which has withstood so bravely so many
storms and vicisitudcs, be broken up and
other nationalities created on its ruins when
they come to think of the common heritage
of the past, the realities of the present, and
the hopes of the future, and when they look
at the Stars and Stripes and ask themselves
what is to become of the banner of the free,
when there is no Union for it to float over,
they will shrink from disunion as the diresl
calamity that could befal us.
That the present is trying period in our
history, we do not pretend to deny, and
that the emergency calls for frmness, dis
erection and wisdom, beyond any former Pc
Rod, we freely admit One of the States of
the Union is in open revolt, prepared to pro-
coed, if she has not already proceeded, to
the last extremity in oppositio to the Fed
eral Government. The state of parties is
singular and unprecedented, and worse than
all, the head of the Federal Government is
imbecile, incapable, and indisposed to meet
the danger in the face, and by the exercise
of the power vested in him, uphold the SUI
premacy of the laws and the integrity of the
Union. Three months elapse before anoth-
other Administration comes into power, Civ
ing ample time to the Secessionists to hatch
and carry out their schemes of treason be-
fore other and firmer hands assume the
reigns of government.
In the mean time, we counsel GOODNESS,
ffrmness, and unwavering confidence in the
strength and inhering properties of our inst.-
tutions. We may be about passing
through severe ordeal, but it my be only
to prove that, like the solar, our system will
only be strengthened by the attempt of a
member to escape from the ties and attrac-
tons which bind each one to the whole
South Carolina must be dealt with, but we
hope not forcibly. The American people
will debate long before employing armies and
navics to coerce rebelious State, and they
will long bear with the errors of such a one.
as they did with Dcrr, of Rhode Island but
it will he with the severe forbearance which
a parent exercises toward dsobedient and
rcbellious chld-austere, but full of fove and
an earnest desire Tor return to duty and
obedience. South Carolina may be left for
time to experience the consequences of her
own folly; she may be put on short allow
ance, and otherwise restrained for her own
good; and this treatment will probably
bring her to her senses. If does not, it is
at least among the probabilities that she will
by that time stand alone, and the rest of the
Union unanimous against her, she will be
compelled, by the hopelessness of opposition
to return to her proper position in Union,
from that time onward stronger and more
enduring than before.
The Presidents Message.
Wehave received synopsis of the Mes.
sage, but too lengthy for this issue. The
positions in it are nearly these:
That the way to secure peace is to let tn !,
South alone that the election of Lincoln is
MT crfficient canca Gov J;ec,l,;.-. A. vr-: