Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1861-07-13

any pretence, break up the govern
ment and thus practically put an end
to free government upon the part Of
the North.
1t forces us to ask, is there in all Re-
publics this inherent and fatal weak
ness? Must the Government of Eeces-
sity be too strong for the liberties of
the people, or too weak to maintain its
own existence? SO receiving the is
sue, no choice was left but to call out
the war power of the Government, and
so to resist the force employed for its
destruction, by force for it's preserva
ton. The call was made, and the re-
sponse of the country was most graft
fyi, :, surprising in unanimity and ex
Gee, led the most sangulne expectations.
Yet none of the States, commonly
: called Slave States, gave a regiment
through the regular state organization.
a few regiments have been organized
within some portions of those states by
individual enterprise, and received in
| to the Government service. The Sc
ceded states, so-called, and to which
Texas had been joined about the time
Of the inauguration, gave no troops to
the cause Of the Union. The Border
States, so-called, were not uniform i'll
their action, some of them being al
most unanimous for the Union, while in
others, as in Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee and Arkansas, the Union
sentiment was nearly repressed and
! silenced. The course taken in Virgin
il was the most remarkable, and per-
haps the most important. 4 conven-
ton, elected by the people of that
State, to consider the very question Of
disrupting the Federal Union, was in
session at the Capitol of Virginia when
Fort Sumter fell. To this body the
people had chosen large majority Of
profossed Union men.
Almost immediately after the fall Of
Fort Sumter, numbers Of that ma ority
went over to the original minority, and
and with them adopted an ordinance
for Withdrawing tie State from the
Union. Whether this change was
wrought by their great approval Of the
assault Oh the Fort, or their great re-
sentiment at the Governments resist
ance to that assault, is not definitely
known, although they submitted the
ordinance for ratification to = vote Of
the people, to be taken on a day then
somewhat more than a month distant.
Tho Convention and Legislature,
which was also in session at the same
time and place, with leading men Of
the State, not members of either
body, commenced acting as if the
State was already out of the I'm
ion. They rushed military prepara-
tons vigorously forward all over the
State. They seized the U. S. Armory
at Harper's Ferry, and the Navy Yard
at Gosport, near Mort <, They re-
ceived, perhaps invited -aUo tHei" State,
large bodies Of troops VIII t4-'r war
like appointments, tror>> the sy-called
seeded States. They formally enter
ed into treaty of alliance with the So
called Confederate States, and sent
members to their Congress at Mont
gosnery, and finally they permitted the
insurrectionary government to be
transferred to their capital at Rich
mond.
The people Of Virginia have thus al
lowed this giant insurrection to make
it's nest within her borders, and this
Government has no choice left but to
deal with it where il finds it, and has
the less to regret as loyal citizens
have in due form claimed its protec-
ton.
These loyal citizens the Government
is bound to recognize and protect, as
being in Virginia. In the Border
States, so-called, in fact the Middle
States, there are those who favor a
policy which they call "armed neutral
ity," that is an arming Of those States
to prevent the Union forces one way,
or the Disunion the other, from passing
over their soil.
This would be disunion completed.
Figuratively speaking, it would be the
building Of an impassable wall along
the line of separation, and yet not
quite an impassable one; for, under the
guise Of neutrality, it would tie the
hands of the Union men, and freely
pass supplies from among them to the
insurrectionists which it could not do
as an open enemy. At stroke, it
would take all the trouble off the hands
of secession, except only what pro-
ceeds from the external blockade.
1t would do for the disunionists that.
which of all things they most desire,
feed them we'll and give them disunion
without struggle Of their own. 1t
, recognizes no fidelity to the Constitu-
ton or obligation to maintain the I'm
ion. While very many who have IA
vored it are doubtless loyal citizens, it
is, nevertheless, very injurious in effect.
, Recurring to the action of the govern