Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1861-07-20

With what selfconceit have we rot
been accustomed to observe that gov
ernments which will not honor and sup
port the school master, must pay the
drill sergeant; that where the press is
fettered and man trodden under foot,
there volcanic explosions, fiery out
breaks, devastating commissions are in
evitable.
But during the most of this time
notification and disunion sentiments
have manifested themselves in our
land. For nearly the same time, sla-
very agitation has disturbed the gener-
al repose. To appease the former and
silence the latter, all conceivable expe-
dients have been resorted to. Presi-
proclamations; Senators have sung
peans to the Union; tariffs have been
repealed and gag resolutions adopted !;
mobs have howled through our streets,
and compromise measures varied hues
have dragged their slow lengths
through Congress. We have hunted
Indians in the everglades of Florida,
and chased runaway negroes clear up
to the Canada line. We have acquir-
ed Texas and fought about it, and
backed down from 81 40, lest we
should have to fight about that. We
sacrificed great statesmen and elevated
paltry politicians. We have dissolved
old parties and formed new ones,-dis-
carded ancient doctrines and set up
novel tests of orthodoxy. All for the
sake Of peace!
But at length we are rudely aroused
from our dreams of inefable superiori-
ty over our fellow christians beyond the
Atlantic or across the Gulf stream and
and the Caribbean Sea, by the roar of
hundred heavy cannon hurling their
deadly bolts against the walls Of devo-
ted Sumter, and are shocked by the
kno Wedge that our country-this ia
vored land of Democracy, enlighten-
ment and progress is involved in ci-
vii war.
For a time previous to this, major
;ty of tho froo Stotos had not believed
that there would be any blood she'd
We have been so accustomed to hear
rumblings and grumblings Of discon-
tent from southern quarters, direct
trade conventions, ordinances Of nulli-
fication, threats Of disunion, windy talk
of Brutus and his dagger, noisy swash
ABOUT hogging all creation--that most
of us regarded secession as but a re-
cast of the old play with new scenery
and decorations, and supposed that it
would end at it's predecessors has
done.
In 1888, said Andrew Jackson,
Qualification is mere cloak for trea-
son and it should be sternly repressed
that the tariff was but a pretext.-
Next time it will be slavery or the ne
gro question: Twenty-eight years
have but sufficed to reveal clearly what
he perceived intuitively while it was
in the germ.
We will not stop to inquire how nor
whence, nor why notification, disunion
and slavery agitation were originally
precipitated upon the country nor by
what means nor from what motives
their lurid fires have been kept burn
ing till now. We shall not try to ap-
portion the blame nor the praise which
belongs to this party or to that faction.
All this belongs to the past. History
will pass it's unerring judgment upon
it. We will simply say that we are sure
that all parties at the north have had
enough of these disturbing questions,
and most heartily desire to see them
brought to an end. The disease has
reached its crisis, and it must be de-
stroyed Or it will destroy us. Threats
of disunion have ripened into acts Of
open rebellion ; notification, covert and
cautious, with the Federal Govern
ment, has given place to armed resis-
tance to its authority and defiant Sc
cession from it.
The little state Of South Carolina
that same South Carolina that in the
Rev olutionary struggle forgot what she
never remembered, courage and per-
sonal liberty, and yielded herself up
the only one-ignominious and infa-
nous of all the Revolutionary band of
states-that same state that gave in
adhesion again to the British Govern
ment-that yielded herself up and
made her peace solitary and alone
that same recreant South Carolina that
was whipped back into the Union by
old Virginia-in December last pro-
fessed to secede from, and sever all
connections with, the American I'm
ion! She thereupon seized the FEEDER
al arms and munitions On deposit in
the Arsenal at Charleston, the Federal
custom houses within her boundaries,
the money in the Federal sub-treasury,
and went to collecting revenue from
imports in those stolen custom houses
in her own name exclusively, and for
her own benefit. Of the forts in Char
lesion harbor, she seized all but the