The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1861-08-31
From the Louisville (Ky) Journal
The Solemn duty of the United States
Government;

The present unhappy war was begun by
the South, begun for the sake of disunion
and was accepted and is carried on by the
United States for the sake of the Union -and
not, we hope, in vain. We know from the
testimony of numerous Southern men, who
dare not speak aloud in their own homes.
that there are muititudes of men in the South
who are at heat for the Union, who, in their
secret souls, arc praying to the United States
Tor dellveiancc almost as they pray to Heaven
for salvation. and who, If ever the power of
the United States shall relieve them from the
thraldom that now brushes their political lives
out OF them, will be able to assert and main
tam supremacy in their respective States. -
We have not an earthly doubt that there are
majority of States whose people, though
now apparently unanimous for Southern
independence, would, if the deadly weight Of
relentless dcSpotiSin were lifted from their
minds, hail the restoration of the Union as
the lroned prisoner OF dungeon halls the
return Of Gods blessed sunshine, and would
greet with eXultation even the little privilege
oil giving free expression to their opinions.
The present positions of several of the
Southern States were never chosen and have
never been endorsed by the citizens of those
States. Secession ordinances were passed BY
Legislatures never elected or authorized to
act upon the subject such Legislatures placed
oil the military and pecuniary resources of
theiI States at the disposal of the Southern
Government and invited the Confederate
armies to an immediate occupation of their
territory and after doing all this, they
granted TO their enslaved and menacled people
the empty and miserable mockery of the
privilege of deciding whether their States
should or should not 60 into the Southern
Confederacy. OF course, where the people
would gladly have shouted " No" by tens Of
thousands, scarcely a solitary ono" was
heard. he States, transferred by such mon
strons and acknowledging fraud and violence
10 the Southern Confederacy, are now subject
to its tyrancal laws and requisltons and
their people, who have never been allowed to
have free voice in the fixing of tier own
destinics, are looking for freedom to power
outside of the dominion Of the deadly tyranny
under which they draw their breathS. 1t
would be fearful thing that the loyal mil
lions in the Confederate States should be per.
manently abandoned by the United States to
the miserable doom. to which, through no
fault Of their own, they have been subjected.
Our trust, our conviction is, that, if the
mighty armies OF the Republic, dcfiel as they
have been to strife, Shall plant the standards
OF the United States at enough points to guar
antee perfect freedom of thought and word
and deed to the whole South, large majority
of the people of many, if not all Of the
Seeding States will declare their loyalty in
thunder. burst of joyous enthusiasm.
The policy of accepting peace on the condi-
ton OF recognizing the independence of the
Southern Conf,deracy would be terrible
one Nay, it would be policy that we hut
ieeby characterize by the word terrible
II would be the death, the everlasting death,
of the great and glorious hope that now lives
in the hearts Of tens of millions upon this
continent and hundreds Of millions through
out the civilized world. 1t would be the des-
traction of the mightiest work that the spirit
of freedom has ever done upon the GARTH
What has been the admiration and the wen
der Of the nations would be their pity and
their scorn. Let no one deludc himself with
the thought or fancy that q Government, a
nation, has not a right to defend itself, by all
the powers and energies at its command
against disruption and dissolution. TO do
this is, as general truth, among a nation S
most sacred rights and its highest and most
solemn duties. The nation that should not
recognize and assert the right and the duty
tempt. Surely no human being supposcs
that England OF France or Spain or Austria or
Russin, If portion, even majority, of a
section of either of those Kingdoms or empires
should assert the right Of erecting their sec
ton into an independent realm. would permit
the right thus claimed to be practically asscr.
ted. 1t is absurd to suppose that either Of
them. upon any claim of portion of their
people to the right of self government. would
submit to ACKNOWLEDGMENT, submit to be divl-
ded into two kingdoms or empires. Sooner
would they wage a war Of centuries, a war;
as they would justly consider it, of national
life or death.
TO submit to the separation Of the United
States INTO two independent powers, would
not only be the most fatal example that we
cond set for the existing generations Of men,
and TO all generations that are to come after
us, but would render the whole area Of the
thirty-four States one of the fccblcst and
most wretchcd portions Of the civilized world
All our old glory would be turned to midnight
darkness. The two republics or two monar.
chies, supposing that to be the number into
which our country should at first be divided
could never remain for even one wear at peace
thousand causes would render collisions
of the two could have the least security
against its own disintegralion and dissolu
ton The United States Government at
Washington, having established the precedent
of permitting eleven or twelve or fifteen States
to go of at pleasure, could not restrain other
States from doing the same thing. Ca ch
and every State remaining even temporarily
IN the United States would feel that it had
the power to assert and maintain its right of
either seeding into the Southern Confcdera-
cy or of establishing, together with such
other States as 1t might be able to carry with
1t. and independent sovereignty, and 1t would
exercise fancicd right whenever, for any
cause, frivolous or otherwise, it should be-
come dissatisfied with the acts of the Govern.
ment of its section. What is now the
United States, as distinguished from the
Confederate States, would almost certainly
within half dozen years, consist of half
a dozen petty ana jairing powers, with no
common head.
Tie same or even worse would be the con.
dition of the States Of the Southern Confeder-
acy, based, as that Conlederacy avowcdly is,
and would be, upon the assumption, as a
fundamental principle of government, that
every State or every two or three States must
ever be recognized as having the right to
establish an independent government or indie
pendent governments at will. There would
be no government in either section fit 20 be
ca lied one. Our country, that we have been
50 proud Of would lie in worse condition
than the miserable little Republics of South