Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1861-04-25


strengthen it viii render it absolutely i'm
pregnable Gen. Scott has now quite a
large force Of well-appointed men under
his command, and it viii be readily i'm
agined that he has not neglected the re
peated warnings which have been given Of
the schemes of the rebels, and th.t he has
taken every precaution which his military
knowledge and experience suggested
The Crisis-Non, Coercion
The question whether we have a govern
mcnt at all is now being tested, in its lull-
est extent, and, under the circumstances,
the sooner that test is determined the bet
ter for all If Governors Of States, Con
yentions and other resorts Of willy and am
bilious politicians are to play the tyrant at
will, and set themselves up as superior to
the supreme laws of the land and Presi-
dent daily elected and sworn to execute
them, whenever Hey deem it expedient,
then IS our government failure, and the
ideas Of our loretathers that the people
should rule in a prescribed form chimera
that cannot be reduced to practice. Its
power IS now being exerted in the face of
unusual difficulties, ard with lis success or
failure will rise or fall the destiny Of our
people.
Nothing, in our opinion, has tended more
to produce the present unhappy state of af-
fairs than the infamous doctrine Of non
coercion, which, ike aboIitionizm in the
North, has set up higher law in the South,
striking at the very foundation Of law, Of
order and Of government Had those who
set up this vile doctrine in the Border and
Southern States sa;3 to the Southern con
spirators . You s1oU not seize United States
forts, arsenais, arms, stores, and miuts."
they might with some propricty have
said to President Lincoln You must
not coerce." But what are the facts
The recent events at Charleston in firiue
at Fort Sumter and the American fag-an
insult never before submitted to excert
when traitors ruled in Buchanan's cabinet
were not sufficient to rouse feeling Of
patriotism in those States, but to cap the
climax OF mob law and violence the brave
young men from our State who left their
work shops, their wives and children, to
defend the honor Of that flag, were basely
lnsulted at Baltimore, and subsequently
two Massachusetts soldiers on the same duty
brutally killed, and number Of others,
including some 20 or 80 of Gen. Smalls
regiment from Philadelphia, shamefullv
maItreated while passing through that city
to defend the soil Of Maryland against a
threatened Southern invasion. The citi-
zens Of that city, instead Of rising ~ as
one man and crushing at a single blow he
toul eonspirators in their midst, seem to
have tameiy submitted 10 thc cuEthroafs.
and they are now reopipg the fearful pen
atty OF letting loose a fend born, bred and
and n"rt~-ed in the internal regions, for.
IN no other place could such villainous
doctrine have found resting place.
Let those vino continue to speak OF =
look at its practical working, and all W,
see that it must lead to anarchy If a
Governor can djzobey President and the
laws he is bound to administer, Why may
not a Sheriff, Mayor Of city, or Bur
CESS OF town, disobey governor, a con.
stable a judge Or justicc-in short, every
man IN any position as an officer set him.
self up as the arbiter of his acts regardless
OF law! This coercion, whether an
piled to single man, to 2 city, to a eoun
ty, or to State, Is rothing more, nothing
less than a subvers;on of law.