Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-02-16
II The Union is To BE Saved, The Only
Way To Do 1t.

and IN the puOnc press, 10 see tne real nature
of the crisis that is now upon the country,
and which they are laboring to escape from
by tearing down the pillars of the Constitu-
ton; not like blind Samson, to destroy the
enemy, but to crush themselves before. the
enemy. This blindness to the real nature of
the crisis, is owing chiefly to the way that
the minds of politicians and of the press are
besotted by the negro question.
The negro has become SO much the sole
idea in American politics, that men actually
believe that there can be no other cause of
agitation. If an earthquake should drop
one Of our States out of existence, men
would attribute it to the negro question;
and, very likely, would go to work to pro-
vide new PuaraI ties on that subject. So
now, the Government is prostrated; six
States are in actual rebellion, seizing the
property of the Government and setting its
laws at defiance, and our blind politicians go
TO work to legislate on the negro question
to restore the Government.
Now, everybody who stops to think,
knows that there is no relation between the
crisis and The negro question. No new
legislation has taken place on the question
of slavery for the last six years, either in
Congress or in the States. The legal status
of slavery is the same that it has been for
years; therefore, that question can have had
nothing to do with this outbreak Every
thing which the South has asked, with
any approximation TO unanimity, for
slavery, has been granted, SO that there
can be nothing in that question to cause
the crisis. Furthermore, the country is
now under the Administration that the
South elected, and under which it has ex-
listed for nearly four years, and which seemed
to give it perfect satisfaction on the negro
question; so that has nothing to do with
the disturbance. Mr.. Lincoln's Admins
tration has nothing to do with it, for it has
not yet come into power. Congressional
action can not have caused it, for no new
measures have been proposed; and if they
were, the South has had the control of Con-
gress. Judicial decisions have not caused
the crisis, for the South control the Supreme
Court, and the decisions have all been in
favor Of the South.
Thus we have shown that the negro ques
tion can not, in the nature of things, have
had any thing to do with the rebellion.
Yet our politicians, and resurrected fossils,
and our blind journals, go Immediately at
work TO pouitice our negro sore, as if that
was the only place that could be diseased.
Like the physician whose skill was rather
specific, these political doctors think they
are great on fits therefore every disease OF
the body polite must be turned into negro
fits, so that they can apply their specific
for that complaint.
But the slavery question has nothing to do
with the treatment of this rebellion; and
there can be no slavery question Ia this
Government that can not be settled fairly
and justly under our Constitution and laws,
by legal and proper means. The real diff
Guilty is that the people of section of the
nation are in insurrection against the Gov
ernment. They have seized its forts vessels,
arsenals, CUSTOM houses, and other public
property, and made kind of thieving war
upon it. There is no negro in this. 1t is
diyested of all complications, and is simply
question between legitimate government
on one side, and unmitigated rebellion on
the other.
By reducing the question to its simple
merits, the treatment of it becomes equally
simplifed. We have not tsstop to settle the
vexed question of slavery, which the oftener
it is settled the more it is unsettled but first
the Government Is to be established and
restored to its full functions; then if there
are any public questions to be settled, they
can be settled by the regular operation Of
our glorious institutions.
No Government can ever be safe or re-
spected, or fit to exist, which permits rebel
lion. The first step to be taken is to vindi-
cate the outraged law. What would the peo-
pie demand, if Maine had rebelled as South
Carolina has? or Minnesota or Oregon, as
Louisiana has? The measures that the ma
ton would have demanded in those cases,
are the measures which the present case de-
mands. Equality of the States is the funda-
mental principle of our Constitution. What
is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gan
der. We are not proposing coercion. Co.
ereiOn is not to be thought of. We shall
only propose such measures for preserving
the Government as all anti.coercionists will
admit to be strictly within the province and
duties of the Government
All the national forts, revenue cutters ar
senals, navy.yards, custom-houses, mints,
and all the stolen public arms, and all the
other stolen property must be delivered up
the damage to any of the public property
repaired, or compensated for; the Govern
ment authority formally restored in all the
rebel States, and its flag duly honored. The
most notorious Of the ringleaders of the re-
belliOn, especially those who have joined
treason to rebellion, must be delivered up To
be tried by a eourt-martial, and properly
hanged.
This effected, the supremacy of law and
the power of the Government fully estab-
lished, the time for lenity and magnanimity
viii have arrived. Then the Government
will be in proper attitude to propose com
promise. The frat compromise for a recon.
struction of the Government should be OF
the terms of indemnity for the past and Sc
I e A l. u