Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-01-09
The Effects of Disunion.


sage, most forcibly portrays the advantages of
the Union to that State, and the States generally
and the disastrous consequences which would fol-
low the disruption of the Confederacy to each and
all. We copy portion of it, which refers 70 the
present crisis of the country, as well worthy of
general consideration, and to show the sentiment
prevailing in powerful border slave State:
Missouri occupies position in regard to these
troubles that should make her voice potent in the
councils of the nation With scarcely Disunon-
ist per Sc to be found in her borders she is STILL
determined to demand and maintain her rights at
every hazard. She loves the Union while it is the
protector of equal rights, but will despise it as
the instrument of wrong. She came into the
Union upon a compromise, and it is willing to
abide by fair compromise STILL not such ephem-
eral contracts as are enacted by Congress to-day
and repealed TO morrow; but a compromise as
surfing all the just rights of the States and agreed
to in solemn convention of all the parties inter
ested.
Missouri has a right to speak on this subject,
because she has suffered Bounded on three
sides by free territory her border counties have
been the frequent scenes of kidnapping and VIC
lence; and this State has probably lost as much
in the last few years, in the abduction of slaves,
as all the rest of the Southern States. At this
olated, and almost depopulated, from fear of a
bandit horde who have been committing depreda-
tions-arson, theft, and foul murder-upOn the
adjacent border.
Missouri has right to be heard from her pres
ent position and power, as well from the great
calamites that hasty dissolution of the Union
would bring upon her. She has now larger
voting population than any other slave State, with
prospective wealth and power far beyond any of
barc ctr StotO nd
square miles of territory already inhabited by
million and quarter of people, she has more
arabic land, of the first quality, than any other
State in the Union; her territory is washed and
intersected by rivers, whose fountains and tribu-
tary streams water half the continent, and whose
mingled flood forms can inland sea" extending
more than thousand miles to the oceln; her
mineral wealth is far above the reach of compu-
tation; her commercial metropolis has already
become the half way house between the Atlantic
and Pacific, and the great mart of trade for half
a score of States and Territories; whilst our svs-
TEN of internal improvements is stimulating in
dustry and effort and rapidly filling up the vacant
lands with intelligent, enterprising settlers. 1t
would seem, indeed, that Missouri and her sister
border States should be the first, instead of the
last, to speak ON a subject of this kind. They
have suffered the evil and wrong, and should be
the first to demand redress. Is it quite proper
that those who have suffered no pecuniary loss
should initiate proceeding of this kind, and say
to us, by their premature action, that we do not
know when to redress wrongs, defend our
honor? Our people would feel more sympathy
with the movement if it had originated amongst
those who. like ourselves had suffered severe loss
and constant annoyance from the interference and
depredations of outsiders.
As matters are at present, Missouri will stand
to her lot, and hold to the Union so long as it is
worth an effort to preserve it. So long there is
hope for success she will seek for justice within
the Union. She can not be frightened from her
proprety by the past unfriendly legislation of the
North, nor dragooned into secession by the re
strictive legislation of the extreme South If
those who should be our natural friends and al
lies undertake to render our property worthless
by system of prohibitory laws, or by re-opening
the slave trade, in opposition to the moral sense
of the civilized world, and at the same time re-
duce us to the humble position of a sentinel, to
watch over and protect their interests, receiving
the blows and none of the benefits, Missouri will
hesitate long before sanctioning such an arrange
ment. She will rather take the high position of
armed neutrality. She is, at present, able to take
care of herself, and will be neither forced nor
flattered, driven nor coaxed, into course of ac-
ton that must end in her own destruction
If South Carolina and other cotton States per-
sst in secession, she Will desire to them 60 in
peace, with the hope that short experience OF
separate government, and an honorable re-adjust-
ment of the Federal compact, will induce them
to return to their former position In the mean
time Missouri will hold herself i'm readiness, at
any moment, to defend her soil from pollution,
and her property from plumber by fanatics and
marauders, let them come from what quarter they
NAV. The people of Missouri will choose this
deliberative, conservative course, both on account
of the blessings they have derived from the
Union, and the untold and unimagined evils that
will come with its dissolution Is it nothing to us
that the postal system of the United States car
res intelligence to every family in the State and
receives back, in postage, only small portion OF
the expenditure? Is it trife to us that millions
are distributed from the Federal exchequer every
year to support officers and contractors within the
State? Is it a matter of no consequence to our
farmers that other millions are paid every year
for stock and produce to support the army on our
western frontier?
But far above this pecuniary view of the sub
iect-quite beyond the reckoning of dollars and
cents-is it nothing to be an American citizen
a freeholder in the greatest and most powerful
country on the globe-part owner of a flag that
has been baptized in the fire and blood of IL thou
sand battles flag that floats proudly on every
sea, and in every port-a countryman and kins
man of heroes and patriots, who fought and
fell in the great struggle for liberty and rightly l.
there nothing in the memories of the past, the
prosperity of the present, the hopes of the flu
ture, that should make us cling with diving
grasp to this last hope of the world-ths proud
temple of American liberty But if the blessings
we have derived from our government excite nc
desire for their preservation, then let the evils
crimes and horrors which must follow its dssolu
;ion, withhold us from hasty and inconsideratt
action. First though least in the category oil
evils that must come with secession, are those OF
pecuniary nature.
The disruption of our present relations, and the
organization of an independent government, even
without the natural consequences of civil war
will bring great and almost insupportable bur
dens upon the people. In addition to the loss OF
all the pecuniary benefits now derived from the
General Government, the people must be un-
avoidably taxed for the means to naugurate a new
system Depreciation of property; depression OF
trade; ruin of individuals and corporations; the
withdrawal of gold and silver from circulation
and the substitution of irredeemable paper fo1
bankable funds; the loss of State credit and the
GRIPPING destruction of every public enterprise
these are amongst the negative evils Of revolu-
ton, vet enough of themselves to destroy the
hopes and crush out the energies of great peo-
pie. To these must be added the positive evils OF
taxation to support respectable military force, a
more thorough sytem of domestic police an ar
rangement for the transportation and distribution
of the mails to provide for additional officers of
Those who skeptical on this point should
reckon the expense of the three week s campaign
Just terminated and then estimate the cost of a
Gordon of armed sentinels sufficient to protect Il
border of nearly one thousand miles In this, as
i'm most cases of fraternal strife, conquest is
the worst of all defeats. A single years expert
ment of separate government, under these cir
cumstances, would so impoverish the State and
Cypress the people that the natural consequence
might be looked for in a reign of anarchy desl
potsm. Our natural enemies, the Abolitionists,
would attack three sides, and prey upon us
whenever and wherever they could find the OPP
portunity Bickering, broil battle, feud and foray
would prevail in all parts of the State; thousands
of our best citizens would seek peace and quiet
elsewhere, and Missouri would become like the
lightning scorched track of the Roman armies,
where they "made a solitude, and called it
peace ~
All our social, industrial, commercial and edu-
catioual interests would anguish and die. The
wheels Of commerce would rust upon the rails,
the hammer upon the anvil, the pillow in the fur