Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1861-08-28
THE AmLRsCAN CR1SIs CONsIO-
EREn.

1
ERED.
Fromths LiveTpco! Mercury, Aug. 2nd.l
The doctrine Of secession is third instance
in which Enrope (ard toe North too in this
casel holds views contrary to American,
though not to European ideas Of government.
Here again, If be ould pursue truth and ar
rive az correct ConcluWons, American pOliti-
cal Questions must 10 IIdged by American
principles. As every oAe knows, those princi-
pies we're laid down three quarters Of a centu-
nv ago, in the Declaration OF Independence,
and ePery Year since that period this famous
statements OF rights has been read in every
city, town, and village OF the Union; and it has
been proclaimed 10 the whole weird amid the
firing OF guns, pistols, etc that "we hold these
truths to De sslf-evident-that all government
is derived from the consent Of the governed,
and that this right is i~nalienable." All this
was Fought for and secured.
Let us examine the case as well as we are
able. Nine millions Of people demand, for
some cause or other, the right, so clearly an
nounced, and once fought for, Of governing
themselves. Il is denied: but the diversity and
weakness OF the reasons for the denial afford
clear proofs Of the perplexity Of a people
conscious Of doing a dishonest thing. One
great statesman, for instance, wishing to drink
at the same moment cat the fountain and
mouth Of the Nile" asks how the North can
give up the Gulf Of Mexico TO a foreign power?
He would have the great lakes Of the North
aud the great gulf Of the South; and why not
the st. Lawrence and Amazon as well? This
is that selfish view Of the case, which supposes
that all other nations are forever to be penned
up in their present limits, while the States are
to spread over and own illimitable territory.
Another urges as a reason for waTthe '~'stolen"
forts, etc forgetting that the North retains, in
forts, custom houses, mints, and other public
buildings, property Of perhaps ten times the
value Of that taken By the Sluth on its own
soil, TO say nothing Of the whole United States
navy, now turned against those who have
helped to build it.
Another cites the firing of the first gun by
the South, forgetting that that gun was not
fired until an armed squadron left New York
harbor, after Mr.. Lincoln's express declara-
! ton that be would collect the revenue in the
South and retake the forts, a~rsenals, etc. A
man does not usually wait until the blow de-
scends, IL he sees his enemy approaching him
with raised bludge1n the approach Constitutes
the attack. Besides, il the South were in
earnest in secession, it would have been folly
10 walt uH'i IL the whole navy had arrived from
the Pacific and the East to throttle them at
their doors.
Another statesman seems only DESTROYS Of
showing Europe how strong a government Re
publicanism may have, and that it is no fall
uTe forgetting that the exercise Of that power
IN such a way is simply despotism, and proves
the failure, and that a war for union implies
ia itself dtsEaton.
But we pass by all this to consider the point
most strongly urged by the President, namely,
as to what would happen If the doctrine OF sc
cession were acknowledged as a right. We
answer, Just that would happen which would
happen by acknowledging the right Of self
government. The last logically implies the
first. An attempt ia made to evade this in the
North by saying that they acknowledge the
right Of IevolutiOn-Which is an absurditV, as
a government cannot allow or acknowledge
what it forbids besides, If the revolution be
overcome, then the coBqueTed-One or twenty
millions, as the case may be-aTe Immediately
denied the right Of self-govsrnment Thus we
arrive at the same conclusion; and the United
States government, in attempting coercion,
have clearly abandoned their own principles.
Indeed, we might say that certain Northern
States were the first s%eeeders, since many Of
then enacted laws maxim lobedieace to United
States laws a penal ~effense. This was partial
secession /; and it might have been supposed
that the whole North would have been the par
ty desiring to secede from the South, since they
have so long urged their desire to De " diseon-
nected from the guilt 81 slavery" and the
doctrine of self. government and secession
would have allowed them to obey these die
tates Of conscience without bloodshed.
But Mr.. Lincoln also aims to protect, az be
terms them, "the majority Of UniOn men . il
the South-a solicitude which reminds Us
strongly OF that displayed by the Emperor Of
Austria toward the Ren-BIagyar population Of
Hungary, except that in the latter case there
is such a population, but in the former there is
not to be found in the South anything that
could ever be termed a small minority Of
Union men.
In fact, this abandonment OF the fundamental
idea, on the part OF the North, upon which the
whole government was founded, has thrown
the ruling powers into insxtricable confusion,
aud given rise to all those anomalies which so
much surprise Europe. They term those who
correspond precisely with their heroic aHces-
tors "rebels." They call those "piratss" who
are carrying out a mode Of warfare insisted
upon by themselves 80 late as 1857. They are
Dong to their own ports in blOckading tAem
what they only lately declared the Sicilians
had no right to do. They sPpealto Europe for
! countensnce as a free power against a slave,
and yet declare that theY,in'end to- PeFpetusts
that slavery according TO the Constitution.
In whatever light we view the
case, the position Of the North is most unfor-
tuHate. IL, after a fearful expenditure Of life
and money, they succeed in subJugating the
South, it will still require an immense army
10 hold them in suhlsclion. II, on the other
hand, the Union be patched up again, aboli-
tiOnists and others ~wjdimmediateiy
their agitation, and there will be in a short
period, a re-enactment Of all the present
troubles But If, in the third place, the South
is successfulin Der resistance, Of which we
have no doubt, the North will have expended
her blood and treasure merely for the sake Of
creating a hating and hated rival.