Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-05-08
rhe RECORD of the Journal.


No paper in the Union has advocated secession
in more decided terms and with greater ability
than the indianapolis Journal. the central organ
of the Republican party Of Indiana. That We
may not be charged with doing it injustice, We
propose to sustain the proposition byquoting
few extracts from its columns in proof thereof.
Read:
OF what value will be an Union that needs links
of bayonets and bullets to hold it togetherf If
any State will 60 from us, let it go.
Has any Secessionist, even that prince of rebels,
JKrT. DAVIS, ever advocated dsunion in stronger
termsI Here is another argument TO the point;
If one section of the Union will not endure the
other without concessions that can not be made, a
war will be monstrous cruelty. Let US part in
peace.
Hereis another extract which covers the entire
case at issue:
You can not compel friendship and fraternity,
and if the Union is not friendly one ii nothing
If il is not held together by love for it and trust
in its benefits il is Union, whatever else It may
be The Government will be weaker for II, the
nation must be poorer for it. 1t will cos. US
much and give US nothing. A subjugated So
ince is always an element of weakness, and not
unfrequently door for ruin, until the exaspera-
ton of defeat and humiliation have had time to
wear out and n generation arises that has forgot
ten the past in present blessings. Fight the Gulf
States to compel them to love us well enough to
stay with us This is the absurdity at the bottom
of coercion. The cOunteryailing argument that
the Union must be preserved is no argument at
all because the Union is not preserved by war.
If il were we would see the wisdom OF coercion
at once The Union, i'm its very life and essence
is broken to pieces by a war, and it is hopeessly
broken. p aceful separation does not break the
Union half so utterly and irremediably as COERCION
for time will soon teach the slave States the folly
of disunion, and bring them back, while war
will put an impossible gulf of blood in the way
of a return forever.
One more extract, which will be found in the
leading editorial of the Journal of December %
1860, after reading which we think the conductors
of that print will never have the impudence to
denomce even a South Carolina secessionist
Here it is:
If South Carolina pretends to be an indepen-
dent government, she must control her own ports
and il we blockade them she must drive US out
1t is as absolutely necessary to her national ex
istence as the air is to individual existence By
blockading their ports, therefore, only resort
to trick to bring the first attack from South
Carolina, instead of making it ourselves. And
that trick is unworthy of great nation. If we
are right we can begin the attack, without seek
ing pretexts. If we are not right we are only
showing cOwardce as well as cruelty in resorting
to such trick There is, therefore, no escape
from a war, if we refuse to admit the indie
pendence of South Carolina. We must, then,
determine either to fight openly, and at
once, or, openly and freely permit South
Carolina to depart. If we fight her we
shall fight every State in the South. 1t
is idle to blink the fact This we re
gard as the inevitable result of war with South
Carolina. And war, we believe, is q thousand
times worse evil than the loss of State, a
dozen States that hate us. and will not stay with
us without ruling us edon't believe in stand
ing on trifes or technical difficulties. Let us con-
slider South Carolina foreign nation the hour
she gives the Federal Government notice of her
secession, and in spite of all distractions and
questions of propriety, treat with her for an adj
justment of our common debts and common
property, and for the arrangement of treaties for
the continuance of business. If We do So dis
union will soon kill itself If we attempt to kill
it with bayonet and ball, it will wound us fear
fully before we can succeed, and when we have
succeeded, its dead body will be pestilent as its
living body. We shall be burthened as badly to
carry the corpse as to bear the FESTIVE and strug
Cling live carcase.