The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1861-04-23
The War.

EE- We devote our paper, to the ex-
clusion of everything else, to the details
Of the War news. The taking Of Fort
Sumter, however distasteful to those who
hoped never to see the Stars and Stripes
trailing in the dust, has proven the sal
walton of the Country. By it Freedom
has been saved. Through it men have
had their patriotism and love of nation
ality aroused, and now. where the traitors
foudly hoped to find divided counsels, po-
iitical prejudices. obstructing elements,
they see nothing but the greatest unan-
unity, the most intense love of the Re-
public, the most exalted exhibitions Of
national feeling, the sternest determine
ton to repel the attack made upon the
government. No sooner had the sound
of the cannon at Sumter reverberated
among the hills Of the North and Of the
West, than all party strife was forgotten,
and there went up such shout Of indig
nation, suck call for retribution, from
the threats of honest freemen, as was
never heard before, and which must have
made the yillainous traitors tremble-
We can glorfy the result at Sumter, in
view of the grand development of patri-
otism which it has elected. Our noble
President, always calm, always collected,
met the emergency with promptness and
energy. Under the authority of an old
law Of 1875, giving the President power
to call out the militia in case of insur-
rection, he imme diatly issued call for
$4,000 men, and almost as soon as the
telegraph had conveyed the intelligence
Of the call to the country, the people had
proffered an army twice as great, and
means sufficient for its support for one
campaign at least. Pennsylvania alone
offers more than the contingent, and New
York and Ohio will do as we'll. Our
own Governor leaves sick bed, and
travels to Davenport in order the sooner
to obtain the proclamation, and offers to
mortgage his property to obtain the
money for the arming and equipping of
the troops. Chicago alone proffers the
quota of men for Illinois, and Illinois
proffers nearly the whole number requir-
ed from the Union. Who dares to say,
after this, that money getting has swal-
lowed up the loftier aspirations of our
people =?
The contest can have but one end.
With us is the Power, and with us the
Right. The issue is emphatically Slave
~ or Freedom. The question is, as sta
red by the Vice President Of the South
ern Confederacy, whether we shall live
under the Constitution of our fathers,
based on the idea Of liberty, or whether
we shall exist under that Of JEFF DAVIS
and his cosdjutors, founded on the doc
,rine Of slavery. Whether we shall still
hold to the vital principle of Democracy,
the right of the majority TO rule, or
whether we shall submit to the despotic
doctrine of the Secessionists, that the
minority, the few, are to govern. North
ern freemen will soon give their answer
will soon settle the question in favor Of
Liberty and the majority.
With the sentiment of the whole civil
lied world against them, with no credit,
and the great champion of reputation at
the head Of their government, with no
navy. with scarcity of provisions, with
but few if any, manufactures of arms,
with servile population of several mill
ions to be kept in check, with dspari-
ty Of men and resources, with large mum
bers Of Union men among them, with
nothing to depend upon but the bravery
of their people-when met, as they are
with a people equally brave, how can the
result be other than against the traitors
1t must be against them. They may,
By their boldness and promptness, meet
with temporary success, but with the
North fully in the field against them.
they must go down. They must fall be-
fore Northern power, Northern bravery
and Northern love Of freedom God
grant, that with their fall, the vllainous
system of human Slavery may be dash
ed to atoms.
Ed President Lincoln, in response to