Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1861-05-24

suIicieht warrant, Tor assuming that the
government under which we have lived,
and under which our fathers lived, and
under which the posterity of this great
people ought to live in peace, was and is
OF some value, and that it ought not for
slight causes to be disturbed.
The election of a man to lhePresidency
of the United States, according to the
usual mode, strictly in conformity with
the Constitution of the United States, with
out force OF violence, is the pretext upon
which what is called Secession is now at
tempted. Just sa all thePresidents but one
have been elected to the highest executive
office on this continent, SO Abraham Lin
coin was elected President of the United
States
There is no pretence anywhere that the
election was not legal and constitutional.
His installation, however, was the occa-
sion Of resistance to the constituted au-
thorities, and state after state has been
madly precipitated into a revolution. To
make more severe the trials of the country
IN this exlgency, some high in position as
cabinet ministers, and as administrative
officers, had been coyertIy and treac!er-
ously using the whole power intrusted to
them, to destroy the force and efficiency
of the machinery of the government On
the 4th OF March last, the new incumbent
found the treasury of the nation empty,
and its credit exhausted its army scat
tered in small bands to extreme points, so
that it could not be concentrated within
any reasonable time; its ships dismantled
and disabled, or in foreign and far distant
ports, and its arms doubly secured by be-
ing deposited in the willing hands of
traitors, and every diurral revolution
brought fresh aiXeties, as the treacherv
and taithIessness of a multitude Of civil,
military and naval officers became mani
fest. The very magnitude of the crimes
that have been committed against the
government. appalled, the stoutest, and
stealing the monies from the public trea-
sury, the plumber of arms from the arse
mails, and other public crimes, were so
imposing in their extent, that by their
side, the dignity and luster of the boldest
conspiracies and robberies of which his
tory makes record are dim and shadowy
in their littleness and meanness.
1t is easy to conceive, at such a time,
and under such endorsements as those,
how much labor must have been perform
ed to bring back the Government even to
the doint it has now reached, and it is also
clearly to be perceived how much the
States themselves must be relied upon to
| furnish efficient aid to restore the country
to health and strength and prosperity.
The Federal Government, being thco-
retically one of law and not of force, can
not act with that celebrity incident to des-
potic one, whose strength is in great arm
mics, ready at the trumpet's call to engage
in the conflict. 1t must move with pow
er. We must approve of whatever it has
done ana be prepared for further exhib:-
tons of energy, such as the public exigen-
ces may demand. But the States must
be prepared to aid the Government by
supplies Of men, and if necessary by the
loan of means. Each State can muster
quota of soldiers quicker than the Gov
eminent can muster the quota of each
State, and so each State can arm and uni
form and equip its anota quicker than the
Government can arm, equip and uniform
them all.
There is necessity of giving Immediate
attention to the country directly contigu-
Gus to the line between the law abiding
and seeding States, and those that still
may be forced into secession. The Union
men of the seeding states and particular
| ly of the border states must in some way
| be sustained. The ferceness Of this wick
ed rebellion is to exhibit itsslf through
the last named sections of country more
than anywhere else, yet on the law and
government side of the line of division
there is less preparation for defence than
almost any where else, From Pittsburgh
and Cincinnati to the mouth of the Ohio,
Oh the northern side Of the river, the coun-
try is almost entirely defenceless against
an armed enemy. At the present time
Cincinnati and numerous smaller towns on
the river could be utterly DESTROYED and
the contiguous country laid waste without
the means of resistance. It is a matter
of absolute necessity not only for the north
border states but for the northwestern
states to be able to control the business
and commerce of the Ohio river, and the
upper Mississippi in order to reach vital
part of this rebellion. They must be able
to cut off from the seeding states, all sup
plies Of breadstuffs, and also to stop the
transit and transportation of arms and mu-
nitions of war. An enemy to our common
government cannot be permitted to hold
an important pointlike Cairo, The Mis-
sissippi and Ohio rivers must be kept al
all times open to the legitimate and hon
est commerce and business of the North
west. St. Louis must be strengthened in
the hands of the Union men of Missouri,
not only because it is just that it should
be so, but because the interest of the free
territories west and northwest of that city
demand it. The vast lumber and mineral
interests of Wisconsin, independent of her
commanding produce and stock trade, bind
her fast to the North border and North
western states, and demand, like them,
the free navigation of the Mississippi, and
all its tributaries, faom their highest navi-
gable waters to their mouths.
The necessities | have named being
granted. we must look to the means to do
what ought to be done in the least posi-
BILE time. It needs men, arms, and NUM-
tons of war. One hundred and sixty
thousand men, if it were necessary, could