The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-03-30
IHE HA WK EYE


las 30Ge 31eAenH. .st5 aiaa58
Va roft Sumter b evacuated Fost Pieksns
win - ths last vessiss Of tie Unitsd States
authority In the Csafsdsrass esaaes except the
forts at the end Of the Florida Peninsula. The
people were led 70 aequiesce in this evacuation,
because any other course Was represented . sim-
ply Impossible, and hence submission was una
voidsbls. But they were told at The time that
he point Of honor would b maintained By the
continued occupation of Fort Rickens, and its
reinforcemsn& But now Lieut. Slemmer de-
mahds reinforcemsnss, which General Bragg,
Commander Of the rebel forces at Pensacola.
forbida, and Fort Picksns may BE- likewise aban-
dosed. There can be no plea Of impossibility.
The harbor Of Pensacola is not so guarded as to
prevent the entrance Of war vessels, for the
Brooklyn has been lying near the Fort for some
time and hiss landed number of troops The
President has power even under existing laws to
hold the Federal Forts BY the employment Of the
entire militia If need be, and If not his avail
able forces are sufficient to hold it until Con.
gress could be summoned and make provision,
- Il would speedily do. The batteries bearing
upon the Fort are not completed like those sur
rounding Sumter, but have barely been COM
menced. The same reasons can not bold. Gen.
Braxton Bragg forbids the landing Of reinforce
ments without permit from Jefferson Davis,
and the Peace Policy requires the complete aban-
donment Of the Fortress, avoiding collision by
Yielding to the rebels without struggle. IS
This Is far different thing from giving the
people time to consider. It is giving new vic
tories and furnishing capital to Davis and his
followers, to repeat With louder emphasis the
old story Of Southern strength and Northern
weakness. It is giving the rebellion strength
and putting of the promiSfd reaction to an in-
definite time. The deluded Union men, who
have been precipitated into secession, will not
zee their folly and put down their leaders while
every day shows new victory over the United
States, but will gradually come to respect the
proves Of their new government
We have been fttering ourselves that England
and foreign nations. would never recognize the
independence of the Confederate States Their
sympathies, It is true, are opposed to slave re-
public, but nations in their foreign policy seldom
sacrifice their material interests to their symps-
thies They seek only peaceable and friendly
trade, and the cotton Of the South ID more me-
cessary to them than anything else. They will
consider not the government de jure, but the
government de tacto. And when they see these
seven seeded States, setting up successfully
separate government, and the general govern
ment offering no impeachment whatever, and pre-
tending to exercise jurisdiction over less than q
square mile Of their territory, and daily yielding
fractions Of that, it may be hard to discover why
the Confederate States are not really an indepen-
dent nation, which should be SO recognized.
A paper declaration that the Union exists,
with no attempt to make good the declaration
when rebels conspire against it, will be consider
as idle and childish, and disregarded, as Lord
Lyons says win be q paper: blockade Of the
Southern harbors. We cannot expect foreign
nations to uphold our government, without any
effort upon our own part. And the hope Of sus-
tanning the government, by peace policy, which
daily yields a step backward, seems to us very
forlorn hope indeed.