American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1851-1863, 1861-08-03

ciamor now loudly for repeal OF the pernI-
cious and ruiDous tariff. Threatened thus
with the loss of both political power and
wealth, or the repeal of the tariff and at
last of both. New Eneland-and Pennsylya
t MIA, too, the land of Penn, graded in peace
demanded now coercion aud civil war,
with all its horrors, as the price of preserv-
/ ing either from destruction. Az, sir, Penn
sslvanla, the great keystone of the arch Of
/ the Union, was willing TO lay the whole
weight of her iron upon that sacred arch.
and crush it beneath the load. The sahla-
CATION of the Sonth-ay, sir, the sHbiRgelloa
of the South! | am not talking to children
or fools; for there IS not a man in this
House, fit to be a Representative here who
does not know that the South cannot be
forced to yield obedience t. your laws and
aut bority until you have conquered and
subiugated ber-the suhiugation of the
South, and the closing up Of her ports, first
/ by force in war, and afterwards by tariff
laws in peace, was deliberately resolved
upon by the East. And, sir, when once this
policy was begun, the self-same motives o.
waning commerce and threatened loss oi
trade impelled the great city Of New York,
and her merchants, and her politicians and
press, with here and there an honorable ex-
cepilon, to place herself in the verv front
rank among the worshippers of Moloch.
Much indeed, of that outburst and uprising
in the North, which followed the proclsna-
ton of the 18th of April, as well, perhaps,
as the proclamation itself, was called forth,
not much by the fall of Fort Sumter-an
event long anticipated-as bv the notion
that the insurrection" might be crushed
out in few weeks, if not by display, Ger
tainly by the presence of an overwhelming
| force.
These, sir, were the chief causes which,
along with Others, led to a change in the
policy of the administration, and, instead
of peace, forced us headlong into civil war,
with all its accumulated horrors.
But whatever may have been the causes
or the motives of the act, il is certain that
there was change in the policy which the
Administration meant to adopt, or which
at least they led the country TO believe
they meant TO pursue. i will not venture
now to assert, what may yet some day be
made to appear that the subsequent acts OF
the Administration, and its enormous and
persistent infractions of the constitution, its
high-handed usurpations of power, formed
any part of deliberate conspiracy 10 over
throw the present form of Federal Repuhli-
can Government, and to establish a strong
consolidated Government instead. No sir
whatever their purposes now, | rather think
that, in the beginning, they rushed heed
iessiy and headlong into the gulf, believing
that, the seat of war was far distant and
difficult of access, the display of yigor in re-
nforcing Forts Sumter and Pckens, and ia
calling out seyenty-fye thousand militia
upon the firing of the first gun, and above
all, in that exceedingly happy and original
conceit of commanding the iusurgent States
to "disperse in twenty days" would not on
the one hand, precipitate crisis, while spon
the other, it would satisfy its own violent
partissns, and thus revive and restore the
falling fortunes OF the Republican party.
| can hardly conceive, SIR. that the Presi-
dent and his advisers could be guilty of the
exceeding folly of expecting to carry on
general civil war, by mere posse contains
of three months militia. 1t may be, indeed,
that with wicked and most desperate cum
ming, the President meant all this as a mere
entering wedge TO that which was TO rive
the oak asunder; or possibly as test, to
learn the public sentiment of the North and
West. But, however that may be, the
rapid secession and movements of Virginia,
North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee,
taking with them, as | have said elsewhere.
four millions and half of people, immense
wealth, inexhaustible resources, five humid
red thousand fighting men, and the graves
of Washington and jackson, and bringing
mp, too, in one single day, the frontier IRON
the Gulf to the Ohio and the Potomac,
together with the abandonment by the
one side, end the occupation by the ether,
of Harper's Ferry and Norfolk Navy Yard,
and the sudden gust and wbrlwind of passed
in the North, compelled either sudden
waking up of the President and his advisers
TO the frightful signiticancy Of the act which
they had committed in heedlessly breaking
the vase which imprisoned the slumberipg
demon of civil war, or else premature, but
most rapid development of the daring plot
to foster and promote secession, and then TO
set up new and strong form of Government
in the States which might remain in the
Union.
But whatever may have been the purpose,
assert here to-day, a Representative,
that every principal act of the Administra-
ton since, has been glaring usurpation
of power, and paliable and dangerous vio-
lation of that very constitution which this
civil war is professedly wased to support.
Sir, pass by the proclamation of the 18th
of April, summoning the mlitia--not to de-
fend this capital; there is not n word about
the capital in the proclamation, and there
was then no possible danger to il from any
quarter; but to retake and occupy forts and
property thousand miles off-summoning,
say, the militia to suppress the so-called
instruction. l do not believe. indeed, no,
man believed IN February last, when Mr..
Stanton, of Ohio, introduced his bill to en-
large the act of 1875, that that act ever con-
templated the case of general revolution
ard of resistance by an organized Govern
ment. But no matter. The militia thus
called out, with shadow, at least, of au-
tbority, and for a period, extending one
month after the assembling of Congress,
were amply sufficient TO protect the capital
against any force which was then likely to
be sent against it---and the event has proved
lit-and ample enough also to suppress the
outbreak in Maryland. Every other princi-
pal act of the Administ ration might very
well have been postponed and ought to have
been postponed until the meeting Of Con-
gress; or, if the exigencies of the occasion
demanded il, Congress should forthwith
have been assembled. What if two or three
States should not have been represented,
although even this need not have happened;
but better this thousand times, than that
the constitution should be repeatedly and
flagrantly violated, and public liberty and
private right trampled under foot As for
Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk Navy Yard,
they rather needed protection against the
Administration, by whose orders millions of
property we're wantonly destroyed, which
was not in the slightest danger from any