Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-05-04
WHOLE NUMBER 593

: should be ready next time, aud believing a
T Republican National triumph would secure
that end they went in for that. Hence
the premeditated breakup of the Demo.
r cratic national convention at Charleston, its
adjournment to Baltimore, and the double
nomination there hence the division Of
the National Democracy Of Virginia, Ken
tucky. and Tennessee whereby the votes Of
those states we're given to Bell and Ever
EFT hence the Breckinridge tickets in In-
diana, Illinois, California, and other states,
, whereby those states were insured to Lin
coin. From outset to inception. the iHFet-
crate Disuhionists have had clearly defin-
J ed purpose which they have pursued with
Satanic astuteness and persstency. And
in December last South Carolina which
had done more than any other state TO rem
der Lucoln's election Inevitable, seeded
from the union ostensibly because of that
election While the anti Republicans Of
, this and other free states were submitting
to the most repugnaut associations and
partnerships in order to save the union By
beating Lincoln, the disciples OF Calhoun
were relentlessly splitting up the Democrat.
ic party and consignihg it to defeat and
ruin, because they were bSnt on smashing
the Union. At-s
South Carolina broke ont of the Union
so far as her act could do it--sOlely, ab-
solutely, Internationally. She waited for
no co operation, invited none, desired none.
She had resolved to lead. and calculated
others must follow. Probably no state de-
sired the Union dissolved but South Caro-,
! lima alone.
But the south is haunted by terror
more potent and deadly than any known
elsewhere on earth. 1t is the mad-dog cry
OF 'Abolitionist,' sometimes softened into
that of ally or favorer OF Abolition, To
think or talk nationally and like average
| Christians on any topic connected with
slavery is in the southern vocabulary, to
be an Abolitionist. To favor the exclusion
of slavery from the territories is to be IA
Abelitionist In short, to regard slavery
in any aspect from the standpoint OF such
Shareholders as Washington aud Jefferson,
John Randolph and Henry Clay, is 10 ih-
cur the fearful stigma of Abolition.
Now let as look more directly at the
course of Southern Unionists
That South Carolina acted rashly, AFRO
gantly, Extensively, in seeding as she did.
was very generally felt and rather freely
expressed in the south. Virginia especially,
keenly feeling that she bad been deposed
from her long position of leader
aud flag ship Of thesouth, viewed the bold
movement with mingled resentment and
chagrin. Her Governor, Letcher, lisa resi-
dent of the Valley , or hither West. sup
ported Douglas for President, and is on rer
cord as public ndorser of DR.. Rufner's
sweeping condemnation of slavery not
many years ago. Virginia had peculiar
and strong local reasons for clinging to the
Union Her people, when directly and
formally appealed to, responded 10 an i'm.
meuse Union majority. mainly composed of
veteran Wings and Fillmore men OF the
school Of John Marshall and Clay yet we
have seen that majority fritter itself away
in endless hair-splitting debates and pro-
tocols, ending at last, after wearing out
everyhody's patience aud their own self-re-
spect, in a secret ordinance of secession, in
stanty followed by an attempt to clutch
the Q. S. Army and Navy Yard within her
limits. And now the state is in full revolt
against the Union, the Harper's Ferry Ar
mory and its contents destroyed by fire, and
the Navy Yard near Norfolk barely saved
from capture by burning the buildings aud
scuttling the ships Such is the end of
Virginia Unionism, with George w. Sum,
mers, John Janney, Alex. I'll. I'll. Stuart.
and VIM Ballard Preston for its apostles,
And the course of events in this state is
but more luminous exhibit Of the parallel
place in most other slave states, while it
only needs to be completed in the rest.
Southern Unionism has died the death of
the suicide and the fool 1t had no sound
basis-no root in the eternal fitness of
things 1t never once recognized loyalty
to the Union as a duty, nor recognized the
right of the Federal Government to be re-
speeted aud obeyed. When secession said.
I'VE repudiate the Union, because the north
is hostile to slavery and will not consent ta
its extension and Union responded, We
will stick to the union little longer, be-
cause we don't believe the north hostile to
slavery aud trust it toM consent to its Ex-
tension it is clear that, while there is no
difference in principle involved, the former
position is essentially the more logical and
tenable. Between party that says what
il means aud looks whittier IL rows, and
one that asserts what it does not believe,
nor imagine that anybody else believes, the
advantage is Immensely with the former.
While Virginia stood squarely IN the
Union and professed to be union state,
and to condemn the rash egotism oil south
Carolina in cutting loose from the federal
bond. she nevertheless proclaimed that no
EFFORT should be made by the federal authori-
~ 10 coerce' her to obey its mandates os
lis laws. South Carolinar she held, had
wronged her southern sisters in seeding
but no troops must cross Nirgnia's ample
domain on their way to enforce obedience
to the Union at Charleston or Columbia.
The rebels might beleaguer Sumter and
starve out its little garrison in perfect SO.
curity; they might, when tired of this slow
business, amuse themselves by pouring red
hot shot and shells into it, thus roastingo out
the little band that they were weary OF at
tempting to starVe out but this was not
coercion : only federal resistance in the
process was entitled to that harsh designa-
ton. Traitors might steal forts and srmo-
ries, National vessels and sub-treasuries, al
Measure this was no coercion ! but any
attempt to retake, or even forcibly to retain
them, would be. Beauregard bAtterlng