The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1861-06-28
From the Daily of Saturday.
PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE.

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We have never doubted that large major
ity of the people of the South have beer
pushed and goaded and driven into rebellion
by the intentional Misrepresentation anC
mendacions lies of their reasonable and am
bilious leaders. They have a veneration fol
the Government of Washington, and Madi
son, and Jefferson; they love the old flag
and would gladly offer up their prayers fol
the preservation of their liberties at the
shrines of the great dead who laid the foun.
dations of the Republic, rather than do it a,
the altar of any ncw temple that JEFF. Davis
and Toombs, and Stevens, and Twisgs and
Slidell can fashion or devise. But they have
been made to believe that in the event of the
election of Mr.. Lincoln, a crusade, not only
unconstitutional but demonac, against the
peculiar institution of slavery, would be Or
ganized and carried forward, with view to
its rapid and utter extinction, through the
indirect instrumentality Of the general gov
ernment, accompanied and helped along by
raids similar to that of John Brown, bringing
alarm, and terror, and bloodshed, and all the
indescrbable horrors of servile insurrection
to every hearthstone in the slave States -
While thus representing the danger to the
south by submission to the government as
administered by Mr.. Lincoln, on the one
hand, these wicked and unscrupulous leaders
have made the most cx,ravagant promises,
on the other, of what they would be able to
accomplish by rebellion.
They assured their deluded followers that
the Republican party would be left alone
TO rally around the Stars and Stripes, and
that the National Government and its time
honored flag would be deserted by the entire
body Of the Northern Democracy; that the
Democracy of the Northern States would
gladly join hands with traitors to drive Mr.
Lincoln and his Cabinet from the Capital Of
the Union, and together with them proclaim
and accept jeff. Davis as presiden, de tacto
of a new Slave Republic. Tney promised
that Washington should be taken by the first
of May; that Fort plckens should speedily
fal that Cairo should be occupied by South
trn troops that Fortress Monroe should, in
an Indefinitely short period, be as destitute Of
walls a, ancient Jericho, il the Federal troops
could not be driven out of that noble defen-
slve work with less disaster TO il; in short,
that The secession army would encamp in un-
disturbed quietude, after taking military oc-
cupaiion OF New York city. upon the salubri-
Gus highlands that skirt the waters OF the
lower Hudson, and that the secession flag
would wave in triumph over Faucuil Hall
l. !, by Suth promises and assurances as these
that the MASSES of the South have been mad
den,d and frenzcd, and robbed Of their pa
,r.otic devotion to the Constitution and the
Union.
But what IS to be the effect Of these false
predictions. nov that their fa.si;y is being
demonstrated? What the effect of these
great promises, followed by such small per
tormancc The southern people begin to
see that in Maryland, and Missouri, and
Kentucky. and Western Virginia. where the
federal troops are III occupation, the utmost
security OF slave property exists while It is
most Insecure IN those regions which are in
actual rebellion. They see that Washington
has not been taken; that Fort Picktns still
rests under the shadow Of the flag Of the Tn
ion; that Fortress Monroe points a thousand
yawnin5 muz1cs dtantly al any enemy that
may be SO reckless as to approach; that Cai-
70 is ucctssfully held by the gallant troops
of the great Northwest; that jeff Davis in
stead of being cncamptd on the Hudson with
his grand army, finds his forces hemmed in al,
Manassas Gap Junction and at Richmond, in
a starving condition; and that instead Of the
secession flag waving over Faneuil Hal, it is
being used to cover the ignominous reueat
of portion OF the rebel army from lIarpers
Ferry. They also see that the democratic
party Of the North have joined with the re-
pubcans in the determination to uphold the
Constitution and the Union.
VIII not the people Of the South, therefore,
at last learn that they have been most cruelty
deceived? We certainly are not without
hope that this will prove to be SO, and we
shall look, though perhaps in vain, for a
speedy and all overwhelming reaction of pub
lie sentiment, especially in Virginia, Tennes-
see, Missouri, North Carolina, and even in
the Gulf States. The good sense of the peo-
pie, their patriotism, their love of liberty,
their veneration for the constitution and at
tachment to the Union, mast at last return.
1t cannot be, that eight millions of people
have gone permanently mad.