Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1861-07-12

I expect an attempt woull be made to
provision the fort, aud, if the attempt
should not be resisted, there would be
no effort to throw in men, arms or am-
munition without further notice, CT in
case of no attack upon the fort This
notice was accordingly given, whereupon
the fort was attacked and bom bardcd to its
fall, without even awaiting the arrival
OF the provisioning expedition. 1t Is
thus seen that the assault upon anl the
reduction Of Fort Sumter was in nu
sensc 4 matter Of sclr def }nSc on thl
part Of the assai!ants.
/ They we'll knew that the garrison in
the fort could by no possibility commit
aggression upon them. They knew they
/ were expressly notified that the giving
Of bread to the few brave and hungry
men of the garrison WIS all which would
be attempted unless themselves, by re
sistins So much, should provoke more.
They knew that the Government desired
to keep the garrison in the fort, not to
assail them, but to merely maintain Wis
ible possession, and thus to preserve the
Union from actual and immediate disso-
luton, trusting, as hereinbefore stated
to time, discussion, and the ballotbox
for final adjustment, and they assailed
and reduced the fort for precisely the re-
vers, object, to drive out the visible au-
thority ot the Federal Union, ana thus
force it to immediate dissolution. That
this was their object, the Executive we'll
! 4 J. ,,l sad to than, IN
the inaugural address you can have no
conflict without being yourselves the
aggressors, he took p,ins not only to
keep this declaration good, but also kept
the use so free from power OF ingenious
sophistry, as that the world should not
be able to misunderstood it. BY the
affair at Fort Sumter with its surround
ing that point was reached;
then and there, by the assailantS OF the
Government, began the conflict Of arms,
without gun in sight or in expectancy
to return their fire, save only the few in
. the fort sent to that harbor years before
for their own protection, and still ready
to give that protection in whatever was
lawful in this act, discarding all else,
they have forced upon the country the
destructive issue, embracing more than
the fate of these United States; it pre-
sents to the whole tamily of man the
question, whether Constitutional Re
public or Democracy, government of
the people by the same people, can, or
cannot. maintain its territorial integrity,
against its own domestic foes. 1t repre-
sents the question, whether discontented
individuals, too few i'll numbers to con-
troi the Administration, according to the
organic law in any case, and always upon
the prctenses made in this case, or any
other pretense, can break up the Gov
ernment, and thus practically put an end
to free Government upon the earth? 1t
forces us to ask, is there in all Repub-
lies this inherent and fatal weakness?-
Must a Government, Of necessity, be too
strong for the liberties of its own peo-
pie, or too weak to maintain its own ex-
istence? So viewing the issue, no choice
was left but to call out the war power Of
the Government and to resist the force
employed for its destruction by force for
its preservation. The call was made,
and the response of the country was
most gratifying, surprising iii unanimity
and spirit the most sanguine expecta-
tion. Yet none of the States commonly
called the Slave States, except Delaware,
gave regiment through regular State
Organization. A few regiments have
been organized within some others of
those States by individual enterprise,
and received into the Government SER
vice. OF course the seeded States, so
called, and to which Texas had been
Joined about the time of the Inaugural
ton, gave no troops to the cause of the
Union. The Border States, so called,
were not uniform rhthelr action, some,
Of them being almost for the Iaion,
while in others, as Virginia, North Cslr-
olina, Tennessee and Arkansas, the
Union sentiment was noarl y repressed
and si!enced.
The course taken in Virginia was the
most remarkable, perhaps the most i'm
portant 4 Convention elected by the
people of the State to consider this very
question Of disrupting the Federal Union
was in session at the Capital Of Virginia
when Fort Sumter fell To this body
the people had chosen large minority
Of pro!essed Union men. Almost i'm
mediately after the fall of Sumter many
members Of that majority went over to
the original disuniou minority, and, with
them, adopted an ordinance for with
drawing the State from the Union
Whether this change was wrought by
their approval Of the assault upon Sum
ter, or the great resentment at the Gov
ernneHt's 5 resistance to that assault, is
nN definitely known. Although they
submitted the ordinance for ratification
to vote Of the people, to be taken on Il
day then somewhat more than a month
distant, the Convention or Legislature.
which WAS also. in session at the same
time and place, with leading men Of the
State not members of either, Immediately
commenced acting as if the State were
already out of the Union. They pushed
Military preparationsTigorously forward
all over the State. They seized the
United States Armory at Harper Ferry
and the navy gard at GosPort, near Nor
folk; they received, perhaps invited, into
their State, large bodies of armed troops,
with their warlike appointments, from
the so-called seeded States; they for
mally entered into Il treaty Of temporary
alliance and CO operation with the So
called Confederate States, and sent mem
bers to their Congress at Montgomery;
and finally, they permitted the Insured
tionary Government to be transferred to
their Capitol at Richmond. The people
of Virginia have thus allowed this giant
insurrectlon to make its nest within her
borders, and this Government has no
choice left but to deal with it where it
finds it, and it has the less regret, as the
loYal citizens have in due form claimeI