Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-06-20

on any Government whose history has been
written. Contemporary with, and following
the fall of Sumter, the siege of Fort Pickens
was and still is actively pressed the pro-
perty Of the United States Government CON
tinued to be seized wherever found, and its
troops, by fraud or force, captured in the
State of Texas, in violation of a solemn COM
pact with its authorities that they should be
permitted to embark without molcstation. -
This was the requital which the lone-star
State made to brave men who, through long
years Of peril aud privation, had guarded its
frontiers against the incursions of the saw
ages. In the midst of the most active and
extended warlike preparations in the South
the announcement was made by the Secre-
tary of War Of the Seeded States, and
echoed with taunts and insolent bravados by
the Southern press, that Washington City
was to be invaded and captured, and that
the flag of the Confederate States would
soon float over the dome of its capitol -
Soon thereafter there followed an invitation
to ali the world-embracin necessarily the
outcasts and desperadocs of every sea-to
accept letters of marque and reprisal, to prey
upon the rich and unprotected commerce of
Of the United States.
In view of these events and threateniDgs,
what was the duty of the Chief Magistrate
Of the Republic? He might have taken
counsel of the revolutionists and trembled
under their menaces; he might upon the
fall of Sumter, have directed that Fort
Pickens should be surrendered without firing
a gun in its defense, and, proceeding yet
further, and meeting fully the requirements
Of the ''let-us-alone' policy insisted on in
the South he might have ordered that the
stars and stripes should be laid in the dust
in the presence of every bit of rebel bunting
that might appear. But he did none Of
these things, nor would he have done them
without forgetting his oath and betraying
the most sublime trust that has ever been
confided to the hands of man. With a
heroic fidelity to his constitutional obliga-
tions, feeling justly that these obligations
charged him with the protection of the re-
public and its capital against the assaults
alike Of foreign and domestic enemies, he
threw himself on the loyalty of the country
for support in the struggle upon which he
was about to enter, and nobly has that ap-
peal been responded to. States containing
an aggregate population Of nineteen millions
have answered to the appeal as with the
voice OF one man, offering soldiers without
number. and treasure without limitation, for
the service of the Government. In these
States, fifteen Hundred thousand freemen
cast their votes in favor of candidates sup
porting the rights of the South, at the last
Presidential election and yet everywhere,
alike in popular assemblies and upon the
tented field, this million and "a half of voters
are found yielding to none in the zeal with
which they rally to their country's flag.
They are not less the friends of the South
than before but they realize that the ques-
tion now pre- sented is not one Of administra-
tive policy, or of the claims of the North,
the South, the East or the West; but is,
simply, whether nineteen millions of people
shal tamely and ignobly permit five or six
millions to overthrow and destroy nstitu-
tiOns which are the common property, and
have been the common blessing and glory OF
ALL The great thorOughiares of the North,
The East anl the West are luminous with
the banners and glistcning with the bayonet4
Of citizen soldiers marching to the capital.
or to other points OF rendezvous; but they
come in no hostile spirit to the South. II
called to press her soil, they will not ruffle Il
flower of her gardens, nor blade of grass
of her fields in unkinlness. No excesses
will mark the footsteps of the armies Of the
Republic; no institutions Of the States will
be invaded or tampered with no rights OF
person, or property will he violated The
known purposes of the Administration, ard
the high character of the troops employed
alike guarantee the truthtuness of thi,
statement. When an insurrection was ap
pretended few weeks since in Maryland
the Massachusetts regiment at once offered
its services to suppress it. These volunteers
have been denounced by the press of tht
South as ''knaves and vagrants. "the dreg
and offscourings of the populacc," whC
would rather filch handkerchief thar
fight an enemy in manly c,mbat;" yet W,
know, here, that their discipline and bear
ing are most admirable, and, l presume, i
may be safely affirmed that a larger amour
of social position, culture, fortune, and ele
vation of character, has never been fount
in so large an army in any age or country.
If they go to the South, it will be as friend
and protectors, to relieve the Union senti
ment of the seeded States from the crue
domination by which it is oppressed am
silenced; to unfurl the stars and stripes II
the midst of those who long to look upol
them, and torestore the flag that bears then
to the forts and arsenals from which disloya
hands have torn it. Their mission will b
one of peace, unless wicked and blood
thirsty men shall unsheath the sword acros
their pathway.
1t IS in vain for the revolutionists to OK
. claim that this is 'subjugation. 1t is SO
precisely in the sense in which you and an
all law-abiding citizens are subjugated. Th
people of the South are our brethren, an
while we obey CLAWS enacted by our join
authority, and keep compact to which W
are all parties, we only ask that they shall b