Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-04-17
s.Let Them Go i'm peace,

Wequote the following extract from an article in
the New York Tribune, the leading organ of the
Republican party, in which it argues, with great
force and ability, the 'inalienable right of COM
munities to alter or abolish forms of government
that have become oppressive or injurious" These
positions were taken when the country was free
from excitement, and were deliberately avowed as
the fundamental theory ofour Republican Govern
ment. Wequote:
The telegraph informs US that most of the cot
ton States are meditatng withdrawal from the
Union because of Lincoln's election. Very well:
they have right to mediate, and meditation is
profitable employment of leisure. We have
chronic, invincible disbelief in disunion as rem
edy for either Northern or Southern grievances;
we can not perceive any necessary relation be-
tween the alleged disease and this ultra heroic
remedy; still, we saw, if anybody sees fit to med
itate disunion, let them do so unmolested. That
was base and hypecritie row that the House
once raised at Southern dictation, about the ears
of John Quincy Adams, because he presented a
petition for the dissolution of the Union. The
petitioner had right to make the request; it was
the members duty to present it.
And now, If the Cotton States consider the
value of the Union debateable, we maintain their
perfect right to discuss it. Nay, we hold with
Jefferson TO the inalienabe right of communities
to alter or abolish forms of government that
have become oppressive or injurious I; and if the
Cotton States shall become satisfied that they can
do better out of the Union than in it, we insist
on letting them go in peace. The right to Sc
cede may be a revolutionary one, but it exists
nevertheless and we do not see how
one party can have right to do what
another party has right to prevent
We must ever resist the asserted right of
any State to remain in the Union and nulify or
defy the laws thereof: to withdraw from the
Union is quite another matter. And whenever
considerable section of our Union shall deliber-
ately resolve to go out we shall resist all coercve
measures designed to keep it in. We hope never
to live in republic whereof one section is pinned
to the residue by bayonets. a =.
Ifthese doctrines were correct and sound on the
9th of November last, the day they were ut
tered they are none the less so now BY no one
has the principles avowed by the Tribune been
maintained with more force of logic or terseness
of language. 1t presents the whole issue in
nut shell. Now the Tribune takes an oppo-
site view of the question. The people of the
Confederate States have suddenly become "reb-
els" and "nsurgents," who should be severely
chastised, against whom coercive measures should
be employed for doing just what the Tribune de-
clared their nalien ble right to do. What u its
language? "Whenever a considerable sec
ton of our Union shall deliberately resolve to
go out, shall resist all coerciye measures
designed to keep it in" And it goes still
further than this. 1t will not only resist SEQ
ercive measures" against community desirous
of Withdrawing from the Union, but it declares,
1--WE hope never to live in a Republic whereof one
section is pinned to the residue by bayonets .
Can language be more emphatic than this?
These doctrines were received by the Republi-
can party as the true exposition of the theory of
our Government and the principles avowcd in the
Declaration of Independence. The indianapolis
Journal adopted the text of the Tribune, and
elaborated it by able and lengthy articles-and
will give it the credit to say that in ability
and force they were not excelled. And
the Indiana Republican organ, like its pro
totype the Tribune, has changed front
Why do these two organs, in direct con
hict with their previously avowed principles, now
advocate .coercive measures" to keep State.
within the Union which not only desire to with
draw from it, but have left and established an in
dependent Government SO far as the Tribun
is concerned, we can readily give reason for il.
abandonment of its Wanted theories OF .'inalien
able rights" and il is one in which the people o
the North west have deep concern. That pape
has hobby which it has steadily and constant,
advocated-a protective tariff Among its thou
sand Utopian theories upon morals, society
finance and government, which it has adopte,
and abandoned in rapid succession, it has been a
, true to the cotton lords of New England and tn
iron masters Of Pennsylvania as the needle to tn
pole. In its issue of last Friday it lets the ca
' out of the bag. The Confederate States nigh
have gone in peace so far as the Tribune is con
D cerned, and the school of politics it represents
the Montgomery Government had not made
fatal stab at the tariff system Hear its groans
A new tariff has just gone into operation unde
Federal law. Does anybody suppose that ther
viii not be Northern traders who will seek I
! avoid payment Of duties under Federal law, b
8 taking their goods to Southern ports, and SNUG
: Cling them in under the rebel code proclaimed .
!. Montgomery? There is but one way 10 put
stop to this contraband trade, and that is BY do
ciaring by act of Congress that all along the rebe
{ lious coast there are no ports of entry But sue
. edicts are not worth the parchment they are writ
ten on unless supported by blockading fore,
"Coercionl There must be no coercioniD shire
the border States. "Inevitable bloodshedp screar
the advocates of whatis called the peaceful polio,