Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-04-18
Civi, war---rhc End in view.


/ Civil war has commenced. That worst and
most fearful calamity which can bcfai ma
ton is upon us. That great cyil has come,
against which Washington and all the patriots
and statesmen of our United Republic have !
warned us, while entrcating us to beware of
geographical distinctions aud sectional differ |
ences. But these distinctions have been
broadened, and these differences aggravated,
until at lat the fatal blow has been given,
and a sectional war inauguratcd.
The roar of cannon which wcro fired into
and from Fort Sumter on tho 18th of April,
1861, sounded the kncll of the American
Union. The patriotic historian, as he records
the sad event, will crop a tear upon the page
on which IL is written. We may now say
that the glory of the American name is de-
parted, and with it depart our national great
, ness and prosperity. We must prepare our.
selves for untricd and fearful scenes - for
privatiop, suffering, heavy taxes, the breaking
up of communities and families, and for evils
all the moro fearful, because underlined and
terrible.
1t is now no time for rccriminaton and
abuse. 1t matters little whether the Gov
crnmcnt or the secession forces fired the
first gun. Both claimed the right to occupy
. Fort Sumtcr--oue was Fastening to its relief
in order to retain its possessions the other
= was determined to prevent such movement,
which it regarded as an act of hostility. The
- United States Government, under the Ad-
, ADMINISTRATION OF Abraham Lincoln, was ostcn-
sbly attempting to provision the garrison in
! Fort Sumtor, which it had legal and con-
stitutional right to do A resistance, on the
part OF the Sccessionsts, to that right, was
revolutionary; it was rebellion. But the
= BON bardmeht opened on Fort Sumtc T., on the
= 18th of April, was not the first overt act of
revolution or rcbelio which the secession
" lists had committed. During the four months
- preceding that BON bardmcnt, they had COM
" mitted a series of such acts in each Of the
u seven seeded States, both before and after
= the Republican Administration came into
:, power.
II From the time that Lincoln knew for GER
, tainty that he was elected President of the
" United States, he and the men who most ac-
~ lively promoted his election knew just as GER
- tanly that the country was in state of revo-
y luton, and that acts Of rebellion had been,
70 and would, unless the revolutonsts were
! conc iiated or conquered. commune to be
!. committed The policy OF the Buchanan
" Administration was to conciate; it cannot be
~, IL told what the policy Of the Lincoln Admins
" trdtion iS--whcthcr TO conciliatc by conceS.
~ sion and compromise, or conquer by fire and
~ sword. Though the country was in the midst
y. Of rcbcllion, which he Gould have stayed
~ with ten decisive words in favor of concilia.
" " ti0n, President Lincoln would not speak these
W. words before his Inaugural address; and
"s when that address came, it was so Ambiguous
Us that the country was as much in the dark a
~ to what the new Administration designed t,
~, ~ do, as before. Nor have the oraclcs a
" Washington been more definite since, in re
vi sponsc to the urgent and almost despairin
i nu cntrcaties for some certain indication OF tn
-, ~" policy Of the new Administration.
~, The Administration has, as we have said,
" legal and constitutional right to provision
R,,, ,l ,.,ia nm
m N, constitutional right may not be at all time
, polite or morally iustiliabc. The motiv
'"' with which an act is done--the design or en-
a. aimed at, is what determines its true charact
, cr. Many deeds arc performed every da
"" which infringe no law constitution, an
~ yet are as intrnsically criminal as the opc
,,u commission of murder or robbery.
!" The secessionsts or rGvOlutionists declar
a., ~, openly that they have dissolved their conncC
'' ton with the Federal Government; that the
go have set up an independent Government, an
~ mean to maintain it, If need be, Mt the poir
Ioa of the bayonct. Now what does our preser
o' Federal Government mean to do with thi
~ ~ in,gerium ia iRiperiO-tliiS sovereignty within
=" Sovcrcigntyi For what purpose and wit
Va ' what design does it seek to retain its hol
o upon forts in seeded Statcsl Does 1t nten
.h by the strong arm of military force to reduc
NV these States to subsection!
:, 1t has not said that such is its policy. IIa
m it said so when it first. came into power, o
.,l shortly afterwards, though Union men woul
~ have lamentcd that nD COMP omise had bee
',. attempted, they would, notwithstanding, a
~. most to man, have rallied to the support
i,' an Administration which had taken an oper
its manly and patriotic stand to put down rebe
lion and vindicato the laws and honor of OF
common country. But instead of this, tt
Administration has been paltcring, hcsitatin
1T has announced no policy--it says
ink wants to retain the Southern forts, but Il
rict what purpose is not disclosed. If it meal
,,. to cocrce or conciatc, it should say so.-
The secrecy it has Observed--the concca
""" ment il scdulously practises--so mnch like Il
init mystery that hangs around the courts
for eastern despots--is Erima facie proof that /
ends arr not such, and its policy not thu
- which will bear to be revealed in full to Il
~ American people AMI the world.
The Administration does not intend to p
Il own revolution by force or concliatc it
~, concession; If tdd, Seward and Chase won
- have the manlincss to say so. No, the cove
O6g intention is to aggravate the secession NOV
,l3 mcnt by pretending to oppose it, to cause &
T., Border Slave States to secedc, and thus bril-
"S about, with civil war rs the means, the co
inc summation o;the long concealed, rcvoutio
airy, reasonable Republican Alb >lition co
heu spracy for the final separation of tue slav
G52 holding from the non saveholding States.
ohm Statesman.