New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-23

we nave repeatedly SAID, aud we once more
insist, that the great principle embodied by JEFF
ferson in the Declaration of American Independ-
ence that governments derive their just power
from the consent Of the governed, is sound and
just, and that if the Slave States, the Cotton
States, OF the Gulf States only, choose to form
an independent nation, they have clear moral
right to do so. We have never said, nor init
mated, that this is a right to be claimed in a
freak or pet, aud exercised with the levity OF
beau choosing his partner for dance. We
do not believe--we have never maptained-that
State might break out of the Union like
bull from a pasture-that one State, or ten
States, might take themselves of in huff
much less make feint Of going in order to be
bribed to stay; but we have said, and still
maintain that, provided the Cotton States have
fully and defnityely made up their minds to go
by themselves, there is no need of fighting about
it; for they have only to exercise reasonable
patience and they VIII be let of in peace and
good will. Whenever it shall be clear that the
great body of the Southern People have become
conclusively alienated from the Union and anxious
to escape from it, We will do our best to for
ward their views.
There is no treason in believing that your Sec
ton can do better out Of the Union than in it;
it is not culpabe to act upon this conviction and
seek to difTuse it. But robbing arsenas, sezing
forts and armOries, stealing the contents OF minis
and sub-treasuries, aud firing on vessels bearing
the flag aud doing the work Of the Union, are
very different matter.. If these may be done
with impunity, then Government is farce and
treason impossible.
We beg the leaders Of opinion to keep in view
the distinction here indicated. We must not, in
behalf either of the Union or of Freedom, tram
pie down the great truth that governments de-
Z" i've their just power lrom the consent of the
governed" This was the fathers doctrine,
elncidated by their practice. Between their re.
distance TO the Stamp Act aud their Declaration
Of Independence, there interviewed twelve years
Of earnest, patient, emphatic remonstrance and
entreaty. They did not draw the sword until
their last hope of peaceful redress Of grievances
had persisted. They did not even declare them
SELVES independent until the cannon Of Bunker
Hill, the smoking ruins of Charestown md Fal-
mouth, the logged determination Of their British
rulers TO crush them under a red.handed despot
ian, had rendered further forbearance pusilani-
nous. If the South really wants TO go alone,
shc need not be- half 80 long securing tlat end
by peaceful means as our Revolutionary Fathers
were in reaching the point at which they made
their choice between resistance unto blood and an
abect submission.
AZ yet there is no evidence thnt even South
Carolina really wants the Union dissolved, while
there is pretty clear evidence that every other
State does not. Tie precipitation wherewith the
Cotton States have been forced into treason
able attitudes the violence, terrorism and eager
ness for bloOdshed which have marked the whole
course Of the Secession movement; the uniform
repugnance of the conspirators to submit the
question Of Union or Disunon to direct vote
Of the People; and the emphatic majorities cast
against Secession wherever the People have been
allowed to pass upon lis merits-all these COM
bino to prove the hollOwEess and emptiness OF
the pretense of Southern unanimity for Disunion.
Let us have q free canvass and a fair poll
throughout the South, and Secession will be- over
whelmingly defeated And, until il shall have
accorded such canvass and vote it is a foul
conspiracy and no more entitled to be respected
and deferred to than the pirate captain who has
invaded and overawed the timorous sayages of
some tropical island is to be treated as the
rightful Governor of such island.
None are 30 blind as those who Will not see.
These may confuse the right of SelEGoyernment
asserted by THE TRIBUNE with tho right of
Secession claimed and exercised by the Gulf
States. The majority, however, arc more dis
corning.
AIEAIING AND STATESMANAEIIP.