The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1861-06-26

would cover the whole American people to
having failed in their great mission to de
monstrate before the world the capacity o
our race for selfgoyernment.
i While a far more fearful responsibility ha
fallen upon President Lincoln than upon am
of his predecessors, it must be admitted tha
he has met 1t with promptitude and fearless
ness. Cicero. in one of his orations agains
Catiline, speaking of the credit due himsel
for having suppressed the conspiracy of tina
arch. traitor, said, "if the glory of him wht
founded Rome was great, how much greatei
should be that of him who bad saked it from
overthrow after it had grown to be the mis-
tress of the world?" So it may be said o
the glory Of that statesman or chieftein who
shall snatch this republic from the vortex O.
revolution, now that il has expanded from
ocean to ocean, has become the admiration
of the world, and has rendered the fountains
of the lives of thirty millions of people foun
tains of happiness.
The vigorous measures adopted for the
safety of Washington and the Government
itself may seem open to criticism, in some Of
their details, to those who have yet to learn
that not only has war like its laws, but that
it has also its privileges and dduties. What
eyer of severity, or even of irregularity, may
have arisen, will find its justification in the
pressure ofthe terrible necessity under which
the Administration has been called to act.
When man feels the poignard of the de-
stroyer at his bosom, he is not likely to con-
suit the law books as to the mode or meas.
ure of his rights of self.defense. What is
true of individuals is in this respect equally
true of governments. The man who thinks
he has become disloyal because of what tine
Administration has done, will probably dis
cover, after close selfexamination, that he
was disloyal before. But for what has been
done, Washington might ere this have been
a smouldering heap of ruins. =, ..sg.
They have noted the course of public af-
fairs to little advantage who suppose that the
election of Lincoln was the real ground of
the revolutionary outbreak that has occurred.
The roots of the revolution may be traced
back for more than quarter of century,
and an unholy lust for power is the soil out
of which il sprang: A prominent member
Of the band of agitators declared in one of
his speeches at Charleston, last November
or December, that they had been occupied
for 80 years in the work of severing South
Carolina from the Union When Gen. Jack
son crushed Notification, he said it W would
revive again under the form of the Slavery
agitation, and we have lived to see his pre-.
diction verified. Indeed, that agitation du-
ring the last Is or 20 years, has been almost
the entire stock in trade of Southern politi-
clans. The Southern people, known to be
as generous in their impulses as they are
chivalric, were not wrought into frenzy of
passion by the incorporate words of few
fanatic Abolitionists for these words, if left
to themselves, would have fallen to the
ground as pebbles into the sea, and would
have been heard Of no more. But it was the
echo OF these words, repeated with exagger-
ations for the thousandth time by Southern
politicians, in the halls of Congress and in
the deliberative and popular assemblies, and
through the press of the South, that produc-
ed the evaporation which has proved So DO
tent a lever in the hands of the conspirators
The cloud was fully charged, and the Jug
Cling revolutionisis who held the wires and
could at will direct its lightnings appeared
at Charleston, broke up the Democratic Con-
vention assembled to nominate candidate
for the Presidency, and thus secured the
election OF Mr.. Lincoln. Having thus rem.
dered this certain, they at once set to work
to bring the popular mind of the South to
the point Of determining in advance that the
election of a Republican President would be
per sc cause for dissolution of the Union
They were but too successful, and to this
result the inaction and indecision Of the Bor-
der States deplorably contributed When
the election of Mr.. Lincoln was announced,
there was rejoicing in the streets of Charles.
ton. and, doubtless, at other points in the
South; for it was believed by the conspira
tors that this had brought tide in the cur
rent of their Vaccinations which would bear
them on to victory. The drama of Seces-
sion was now open, and State after State
rapidly rushed out Of the Union, and their
members withdrew from Congress. The rev.
olution was pressed on with this hot haste in
order that no time should be allowed for re-
action in the Northern mind, or any adjust
ment Of the Slavery issues by the action of
Congress or Of the State Legislatures. Had
the Southern members continued in their
seats, satisfactory compromise would, no
doubt, have been arranged and passed be-
fore the adjournment of Congress- As it was,
after their retirement, and after Congress
had become Republican, an amendment to
the Constitution was adopted by a txo.thirds
interfere with Slavery in the States, and de-
claring, further, that this amendment should
be irrevocable. Thus was falsiied the clam.
or so long and so insidiously rung in the ears
Of the Southern people, that the abolition Of
Slavery in the States was the ultimate aim
of the Republican party. But even this
amendment, and all others which may be
needed to furnish the guarantees demanded,
are now defeated by the secession Of eleven
States, which claiming to be out of the Union
will refuse to vote upon, and in effect will
vote against any proposals to modify the
Federal Constitution. There are now thirty.
four States in the Confederacy, three -fourths
of which. being twenty six, must concur ir
the adoption of any amendment before it can
become part of the Constitution; but the
Secession of eleven States leaves but twenty
three whose vote can possibly be secured
which is less thar the constitutional number
Thus we have the extrasrdi nary and di.
creditable spectacle Of q revolution made bJ
certain States professedly on the ground tho
guarantees for the safety of their institution
are denied them, and at the same time, in
stead Of CO. operating with their sister State
in obtaining these guarantees, they design
edly assume q hostile attitude, and thereb,
render its constitutionally impossible to Sc
cure them. This profound dissimulatiol
shows that it was not the safety oftbe Soutl
but its severance from the Confederacy Tho
was sought from the beginning. Cotempo
rary with, and in some instances preceedinl
these acts Of Secession, the greatest outrage
we're committed upon the Government Of tn
United States BY the States engaged II
them. It's forts, arsenals, arms, barracks
custom-houses, post-ofiices moneys and, in
deed, every species Of its property within
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