Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1861-07-12

notify the Governor of South Carolina thai
ho might expect an attempt would be made
TO provision the fort, and that il the at
tempt should not be resisted, there would
be no attempt to throw in men, arms OF
ammunition without further notice or in
case of an attack upon the fCa.. This no
tice was accordingly given, whereupon the
fort was attacked and bombarded TO its
fall, not even awaiting the arrival Of the
provisioning expedition.
1t is thus seen that the assault upon and
reduction Of Fort Sumter was in no sense a
matter of self-defense on the part Of the
assailants. They we'll knew that the gar
rison in tho fort could by no possibility
commit aggression upon them. They
knew they were expressly notified that the
giving Of bread to the few bravo and hungry
men Of the garrison was all that would on
that occasion be attempted, unless them.
selves, by resisting so much, should pro-
woke moro. They knew that this Govern.
ment desired to keep the garrison in the
fort, not TO assail them, but merely to main.
tain visible possession, and thus to prevent
the Union from actual and immediate dis.
solution, trusting, as hereinbefore stated,
TO time, discussion and the ballot-box fol
final adjustment, and they assailed and re.
duced the fort for precisely the reverse OBJ.
ject--to drive out tho visible authority oI
the Federal Union and thus force it to i'm.
mediate dissolution. That this was theil
object the Executive we'll understood, and
having said to them in the Inaugural Ad-
dress, ''you can have no conflict without
being yourselves the aggressors," he took
pains not only to keep this declaration good
but also TO keep the case so free from in.
genious sophistry that the world should not
misunderstood it.
By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its
surrounding circumstances that point was
reached. Then and there, by the assailants
of the Government began the conflict with.
out gun in sight, or expectancy to return
their firing save only by the few in the fort
sent to that harbor years before for the
assailants' protection, and who were still
ready to give that protection in whatever
was loyal. In this act, discardiug all else,
they have forced upon the country the dis
tinct issue of immediate dissolution or
blood, and this issue embraces more than
the fate of these United States. 1t pre-
sents to the whole family of man the
question whether constitutional republic
or democracy, government of the people
by the same people, can or cannot main
tain its territorial integrity against its own
domestic foes. 1t presents the question
whether discontented persons, too few in
numbers to control the administration ac-
cordng to the organic law, in any case, can
always, upon tho pretences made in this
case or any other pretences, or arbitrarily
without any pretence, break up their gov
ernment, and thus practically put an end to
free government upon the earth. 1t forces
US to ask, SIS there in all republics this in
herent and fatal weaknessl Must gov
ernment of necessity be too strong for the
liberties of the people, or too weak to
maintain its own existence?"
So viewing the issue, no choice was left
but to call out the war power Of the gov
ernment, and to resist force employed for
its destruction, by force for its preservation.
The call was made, end the response of
the country was most gratifying, surprising
in unanimity and spirit the most sanguine
expectation. Yet none of the States com
monty called Slave States, with tho excep-
tion of Delaware, gave regiment through
the regular State organization. A few reg
iments have been organized within some
other of those States by individual enter.
prise, and received into the government
service. Of course, the seeded 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
In their action, some of them being almost
for the Union, while in others, as in Vir.
ginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Ar.
kansas, the Union sentiment was nearly re.
pressed and silenced. The course taken il
Virginia was the most remarkable, perhaps
the most important. A Convention elected
by tho people Of that State to conside
this very question Of disrupting the Fedora
Union wss in session at the capital Of Vir
ginia when Fort Sumter fell. To this bod,
the people had chosen large majority o
professed Union men. Almost immedi
ately after tho fall of Sumter, members o
that majority went over to the minority
and with them adopted an ordinance fo
Withdrawing the State from this Union
Whether this change was wrought by thei
great approval Of the assault on Sumter, O.
their great resentment at the Government
resistance to this assault is not de6nitel,
known. Although they submitted the ordi
nance for ratification 10 vote of the peo
pie, to be taken on day then somewhat
more than 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
Immediately commenced acting as il th,
State was already out of the Union. The,
pushed military preparation vigorously for
ward all over the State. They seized tn,
United States armory at Harper's Ferry
and the Navy Yard at Gosport, near Nor
folk; they received, perhaps invited, int,
their State large bodies of troops with thei
warlike appointments from the so callec
Confederate States, and sent members I,
their Congress in Montgomery, and, finall
they permitted the insurrectionary govern
mont TO be transferred to their Capitol q
Richmond. t ..t ea
The people ofyieinia have thus allowed this Snutip
surreetton 70 make ta nsst within her bordera and ~
Government has choice let bat to deal With Ii heT
ever 1t 6ndG it. and has the less regret az the oys
citizens have in due form claimed It's proteoton Ths1
loyal ctnons the Government Il bound 10 recognize an
protect a. being In Virginia In the border States ID
called ~ aet the middle States there are those who
vor policy which they called armed neutrality; that 4
OF those States prevent the Union froas ~.