Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1861-02-26
TUESDAY EVENING. FEB. 90, 1861.
Compromise or War.

The incoming Republican Administration
will have to choose between compromise or war.
With ell the hatrei of the radical Republicans
to compromise, the Administration they have
selected must either compromise or fight. 1t
can take no middle or neutral ground in this
controversy, for there is none that can be taken.
II it says 1t will not concede the terms on which
alone the Union can be reconstructed, but will
agree to peaceful separation, this win still
be acompromiae, and one which win be yielding
far more than the most extreme men in the
seeded States have ever demanded as o condi.
ton OF remaining in the Union. r- -,.i
g The leading ard more influential organs of
the Republican party denouLce the secession
ists as rebels and traitors. To make peace with
rebels and traitors on any terms, short of unqual
iHed and entire submission to what ia claimed
astbe paramount authority, and especially to
concede to them the Independent possession Of
thetefritory which they have wrested from the
Jurisdiction Of that authority, would be the most
huriiliating and debasing species of compromise.
s Itcomes to this, then, that the new Republic
can Administration to be inaugurated on Mon
day next, must either compromise by concession
or negotiation as With foreign State, or pre-
pare for war, and 10 fact commence and carry
on a civil war. 81
II the Republican Administration, treats the
seeded States as still in the Union, it must
either concede to them the conditions necessary
to their continuance in it or coerce them into
submission to the federal authority; and coer-
cion In this case means and will be war. In
the event that coercion is determined on, the
frst step will be to gain possession Of the FORTS
arsenals and other federal property, which has
been seized and is now held by seeded States.
10 doing this, military force must be employed.
That property will never be given up quietly,
without compromise, to the civil authorities Of
the United States; in fact, no process for its re-
covery, Issuing from the federal courts, can be
served in the seceded States by an executive
officer, without the aid Of a strong military
force. u ~ So s4r57sh -
The employment Of such force will necessar-
lily bring on Q conflict, and the fret drop Of
blood shed, instead of cementing, will sunder
the Union forever. The secessionists have pur.
sued polite course. They have declared
themselves out ofthe Upioa, and have organ
lied separate and independent Confederacy,
bat they have refrsined from direc. acts Of hos-
tile aggression. They have waited and are
waiting for The Government at Washington to
take the initiative in this. The seeded States
being thrown upon the defensive, their soil in.
vaded by hostile troops from the North, and the
lives and property Of their citizens being imper
illee, all the slave States viii doubtless make
common cause with them. Then bloody Rev
olution will have begun. the issue Of which no
mancan foretell. But zone thing is certain, that
twill end, sooner or later, in thepermanent dis.
solution Of this, our boastsd Federal Onion.