East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1861-07-11

They well knew that the garrison in The fort
could, BY no possibility, commit aggression upon
them; they knew, they were expressly notified,
that the giving of bread to the few brave ard
hungry men of the garrison was all which would
ON that occasion be attempted, unless them
selves by resisting so much should provoke
more. They knew that this government desired
to keep the garrison in the fort not to assail
them, but merely to maintain visible possession,
and thus to preserve the Union from actual and
immediate dissolution, trusting, as hereinbefore
stated, to time, discussion, and the ballot-box
for final adjustment, and they assailed and re-
duced the fort, precisely the reverse object, to
drive out the visible authority Of the federal
Union, and thus force il to immediate dissolu
tiop. That this was their object the executive
we'll understood, and having said to them in the
inaugural address Z" You can have no conflict
without being yourselves the aggrcssors,' he
took pains, not only to keep this declaration
good, but also to keep the case so far from in
genious sophistry as that the world should lot
misunderstood it. BY the affair at Fort Sum
ter, with its surrounding circumstances, that
point was reached Then and thereby the as
sailants of the government began the conflict Of
arms, without gun in sight, or in expectancy,
W Itluiu luciI nIt, save bulJ TIC low III lllt
fort, sent to that harbor years before for their
own protection, and still ready to give that pro.
lection in whatever was lawful In this act,
discarGng all else, they have forced upon the
country the distinct issue: immediate dissolu-
ton or blood and this issue embraces more
than the fate of these United States 1t pre-
scnts to the whole family of man the question
whether constitutional republic or democracy,
Il government Of the people, by the same poo.
pie, can or cannot maintain its territorial in
tegrity against its own domestic foes 1t pre-
sents the question whether discontented indi-
viduals, too few in numbers to control the adj
ministration according to the organic law in any
case, can always upon the pretences made in
this case, or any other pretcnses, or art-trarily
without any pretcnce, break up their govern
ment, and thus practically put an end to free
government upon the earth. 1t forces US to ask
81 Is there in all republics this fatal and inner
ent weakness? Must q government, of ne
cessty, be too strong for the Liberties of its own
eople or too werk to maintain its own exist
cnce ?h So viewing the issue, no choice was left
but to call out the war power of the govern
ment, and so to resist the force employed for its
destruction by force for its preservation. The
call was made, and the response of the country
was most gratifying surprising in unanimity
aud spirit the most sanguine expectation. Yet
none of the States, commonly called slave
States, except Delaware, gave regiment thru
the regular State organization A few regi-
ments have been organized within some others
of these States by individual enterprise, and
received into the government service. OF
course, the seeded States, so called, and to
which Texas had been joined about the time OF
the Inauguration, gave no troops to the cause OF
the Union. The border States, so-called, were
not uniform in their action, some of them being
almost for the Union, while in others, as in Vr-
ginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas
the Union sentiment was nearly repressed and
silcnced. The course taken in Virginia was
the most remarkable, perhaps the most import
ant. a conventions, elected by the people OF
that State to consider this very question Of dis
rupting the federal Union, was in session at thC
capital of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell Tc
this body the people had chosen large ma
ljority OF professed Union men, Almost imme
diately after the fall of Sumter many members
Of that majority went over to the original dis
union minority, and with them adopted an or
dinance for Withdrawing the State from The
4 Union. Whether this change was wrought by
their great approval of the assault upon Sum
ter or their great resentment at the govern
ment's resistance to that assault is not definitely
known. Although they submitted the ordinance
for ratification to a vote of the people, to b.
taken on a day then somewhat more than
month distant the Convention and the Legis
laturc, which was also in session at the same
time and place, with the leading men of the
State, not members of either, Immediately com
menced acting as if the State was out of thu
Union. They pushed military preparations vigor
ously forward all over the State They seized
the United States armory at Harpcr's Ferry
and the Navy Yard at Gosport near Norfolk
They received perhaps invited, into their State
large bodies of troops, with their warlike ap
pointments, from the so called seeded States
They formally entered into treaty of tenn
porary alliance with the so-caled Confederate
) States, and sent members to their congress al
Montgomery, and finally they permitted the in
surroctionary government to be transferred tc
their capitol at Richmond. The people of Vir
gina have thus allowed this giant instruction
to make its nest within her borders and thi.
government has no choice left but to deal will
it where it finds it; aud it has the less to regret
as the loyal citizens have in due form claimed
its protection. Those loyal citizens this gov
eminent is bound to recognize and protect a.
being in Virginia. In the border States, so
called, in fact the middle States, there are thos,
who favor policy which they call armed neu
, tralty: That is, an arming of those States t
prevent the Union forces passing one way, Oh
. the disunion the other, over their soil. Thi
!. would be disunion completed Fguratively
speaking, itwould be the building of an impass
able wall along the line of separation, and We
not quite an impossible one, for under the guis
: of neutrality it would tie the hands of Unioi
men, and freely pass supplies from among then
to the insurrectonsts which it could not do, a
an open enemy. at a stroke it would take al
, the trouble off the hands of secession, cxcep
only what proceeds from the external blockade
IL wnnld do for the disnninnists that which of al