New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-27
SHALL WE HAVE A FEDERAL UnloNt


SHALL WE HAVE A FEDERAL UNION.
The border Slave States make certain enor'
nous demands Of the American People, as the
condition of their future allegiance to the Cen
eral Government Many well.meaning, but short
sighted persons clomor for these concessions, IN
the hope of thereby preserving the Union. They
FORGET that the nature Of the concessions de-
manded as well as the fact of making them at
all, under existing circumstances, VIII involve
the destruction of the Central Power, and must
result if granted, in dissolution of the Federal
Government altogether.
The border Slave States are said to be deslrous
TO maintain the Union. We wish it were so,
but unbapply they have at the outset, assumed
a fatal position. They say that the enforcement
of the United States laws in any seeding com
munity will be considered coercion and that
if it be attempted, they will go with the South
What, then, do they propose to us' Govern
ment which cannot be enforced Laws wnch
iu0ct no penalty in case of their violation! But
can any human authority be respectable without
the means to make itself respected Can the
BODY polite survive in state of permanent pa
ralysisl
Now, what IRE the concessions demanded J
The resignation of the very principles aud mcas-
ures on which an overwhelming majority Of the
People have just instructed the Federal Admins
tration 30 insist; the establishment of the very
policy which the popular verdict has so emphat-
icaIy condemned; the incorporation into the Con.
stitution of the very Breckenridge Platform
which even the corrupt Democratic party was
compelled to repudiute!
Suppose we succumb TO the VIII Of the minor
It's. Supposc we stine our convictions, desert
our principles, ,tultify ourselves in our own eyes
and in those Of our antagonists, and guarantee
the perpctuation aud extension Of Slavery OYER
all present and future territory south Of So 80
Suppose, also, that the seeding States are
thereby pacifed, and induced to resume the out
ward forms Of Union What them All this
VIII not preserve nor rrstora "n~ --.i---i --it!'
On the contrary, It VIII have destroyed 1t for.
ever; for we shall have established new and
fatal precedent. IIenceforth. the bare majority
of any single State can nullify our Government
at its pleasure. To-day it is Carolina, tomorrow
it may be Rhode Island or Delaware which as
sumes to dissolve the Confederacy. The will Of
the majority Of tho American people constitution
ally expressed can no longer decide anything.
We have established anarchy and inaugurated
chronic civil war Hereafter, Congress will no
longer DO legislature, but a debating society.
It's cnactnents will not be laws, but mere empty
81 ba ind al
of the Supreme Court Of the United States
VIII be superseded. The supreme power
will be- vested solely in the Legislatures OF
the STATES, ard the forms Of national
unity will henceforth be an idle mockery.
The only real alternative, therefore, is between
the enforcement of Federal authority upon every
citizen Of the United States who ressts it, or an
actual dissolution of the Federal Government.
II, in or effort to enforce the Federal laws,
we fnd il necessary, or expedcnt, TO slough oil
the ffteer Slave States we shall at least have
left us a Federal Union Of nineteen homogeneous
States, free, populOus and powerful, with al
efficient celtral organization and continent for
its dcyccpcmcnt. The Southern Confederacy,
on the contrary, yitiated by the suicidal pria-
ciple Of State Secession, will be only an ag-
gregated disiDtegraton, rope of sand, q
tossing incohcrcnt chaos Of petty nationali-
ties There can be no question as TO the
result. Rent by internal discOrds and jeal-
ousies, tbe seeding States will, one by one,
abolish Shvcry and return, under tho irresisti-
bio force If social grayitatOn, to the peaceful
haven Of national unity, under the Constitution
handed down to us by our fathers.
The yitd question, then, for our consideration
is not whether Freedom or Slavery is to BIO the
future guide Of the Federal Government, but
whether We shall have Federal Government at
all. If 81, it must be by prompt, decisive ac
tion We must either treat the fact of Southern
Secession ~ q revolution, and recognize the in
dependence Of the seeding States; or We must
confront it as treason, and put it down by the
military forces Of the loyal States Either course
viii be frink, honorable aud comprehensive
Either mode Of action will result in permanent
Federal nationality Any other proceedings in
yolye a Logical fallacy, and must result in imbs
cility and failure. Shall we maintain national
existencei Shall we have Federal Union