The national Republican., 1861-01-16
UNANIMITY PRODUCED BY THREATENED
CpNEJSCA CATION-SOCIAI, REVOLUTION

The reign Of terror now existing in the cot
ton States, is the legitimate product of the Pc
culiar composition of their society.
There is . radical difference, in this respect,
between the farming and the planting slave
States. In the former, there is a middlng in.
terest, which does not exist in the latter.
In the plantation States, the mass of the
whites, are, in the language of Hon. J. H.
Lumpkin, Of Georgia, "poor, degraded half
.fed halfclothed, and ignorant, uithou SAB
bath schools or any other kind Of instruction,
mental or moral, and ,cahom any just appreci.
alton Of character " in the language of Gov.
ernor Hammond, of South Carolina, "obtdin.
ing a precarious subsistence by occasional jobs
by hunting, by fishing, by piundering fields or
.tolds and too often Jy rhat is in its effects far
,oorse, trading with slares, and seducing them
to plunder for their benefit; " or, as it is all
summed up in the language Of another eminent
South Carolina authority, "rhiling a,oay an
eristence in state but one step in adrdnce Of
the Indian of the Forest" This is the stubborn
truth, and yet one, which, although attested by
cloud of witnesses, has failed, until now, 10
be realized by the country.
At the other extreme of society in the plant.
alton States, we find characteristics hardly more
compatible with republican government, which
can only securely coexist with individual self
command and individual habits of submission
to law. Violent and domneerng men, who
will not themselves submit to adverse major
tiles, are just the persons to coerce compliance
in others, by extreme and revolutionary pro-
ceedings.
The Jefferson (Mo.) Inquirer, after quoting
paragraph in respect to the forced loan at
Charleston, says:
"The foregoing is about the latest news from
Charleston, and we are not surprised at this
exhibition of the worst sort of despotism in the
midst Of anarchy now prevailing there.
This is no new determination on the part
of the disunionists. Some time before the recent
Presidential election, the Louisville Journal
published an editorial upon what it stated to
be credible testimony that the Governors of
the cotton States entertained a deliberate and
Organized plan among other things TO declare
Republic Of the South and PRONOUNCE
CoNFlscATIoN OF PROPERTY OF ALL oPPo-
F NEYTs.'
"Again, in letter from an intelligent and
elinformed correspondent of the Missouri
Republican, written also before the Presidential
election, it is stated that if Lincoln be elected
President ofthe United States, the disunionists
are bent on erecting a Southern Contederacy if
possible. The plan is for the Governors Of
sererai Southern States to call their reSpectire
Legislatures into extraordinary session pre-.
pare for a Southern Union-dnd confscate
The estates Of all persons ,cho oppose the more.
, ment.'
"That it is the fixed purpose of disunionists
in the cotton States to con6scate property, there
is hardly doubt"
: An office-holder in this city, of the highest
grade below that of Cabinet Minister, said,
about six weeks ago, that he was in favor Of
the secession of his State, and the confscation
of the estate Of epery man rho opposed ii. We
had the fact at the time, from gentleman of
the highest character, and are reminded of it
by this article in the Jefferson Inquirer.
1t is just in the line of these selfwilled lord.
lings of the cotton States, to threaten con6sca,
ton against resisting minorities. 1t cores
ponds exactly with their temper and their po-
litical tactics, and we have no doubt, from all
, circumstances, that there has been an extensive
understanding Of such a character.
In the end, there is another power, back of
all and stronger than. all, which will eat up
these revolutionists one after another, and that
is, the down.trodden masses of poor ptites," )"
to whom education and hope of advancement
have been denied, but who still combine with
the passions of the savage the vigor and cour.
age of the best European races. We have read
of these people in books. We are now about to
see them in action. The tiger is unloosed and
we shall see what we shall see.
| Not in proof of the fact of what is going on
> at the extreme South, already known and es.
tablished, but as a convenient description of
it, we republish the following letter. published
in the New York He,uld, as written by large
f planter in Mississippi:
"-CouYTY, Miss, Dec. 25, 1860.
81 have been through several counties in
this State, and some of the northern counties
in Alabama, and have no hesitation in saying
that the men Of property in both States are
unanimously opposed to the secession move
ment. 1t is got up and engineered by the polit.
clans and the poor whites the Shareholders
r are compelled to fall in with it, for fear of hav.
9 ing their property confscated. The largest
o slave.owner in this State was warned, the other
day, that if he gave vent to his Union senti.
| ment, ne wOulu De lyncneu, ana MS property con-
iscated. He took the hint, and left the Stats.
1t is so in every county, and also in Alabama
Y Louisiana, and Georgia. The interest of the
;. owners of slaves, and property of every kind,
r make them friends of the Union but in the
u present state OF feeling in these Statss, they
l. cannot declare themselves without running
D more risk than they care to encounter. The
T., hope of us shareholders is, that the Government
will at last do something to check the present
. revolutionary tide, so as to give us chance to
e organize reactionary party, without endanger.
IS ing ourselves, our cotton, or our necks. If peo-
!. pie here felt certain that the United States