The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1861-08-15

liEg.cause without which this horrd calamity of civil
war might have bern postponed and, perhaps, finally
averted. One of the last aud worst acts of n Con-
gress, which, born in bitterness and nurtured in
convusion, Utterly did those things which it ought
not to have done, and left undone those things
which it ought to have done. was the passage of
obscure. il-considered, i'll dgested and un-
statesmenlike high protective tariff act, commonly
known as " the morrill, tariff Just about the
same time, too the Confederate congress at Mont
gomery adopted our old tariff of 1857. which we
had just rejected to make way for the Morrill, act,
fixing their rate of duties at five, fifteen, and
twenty per cent. lower than ours. The result wa.
as inevitable as the laws of trade are inexorable.
Trade ard cOmmerce-aud especially the trade
and comm cree Of the West-begar TO look to the
South. Turned out Of their natural course years
ago, by the canals and railroads of Pennsylvania
and New ork. and diverted eastward at a heavy
loss to the West, they threatened now to resume
their ancient and accustomed channels-the water
courses-the Ohio and Mississippi. And politca
association and union, il was well known, must
soon follow the direction of interest and trade
The city of New York, the great commercial en-
porum of the Union, and the Northwest the chief
granary of the Union, began to ca nor now londly
for repeal Of the per1icious ami ruinons tariff
Threatened thus with the loss of both political
power and wealth, or the repeal OF the tariff, and
ut last of both, New Engiand-and Pennsylvania
too. the land of Penn. called in peace-Iemanded
now coercion and civil war, with all its horrors az
the price of preserving either from destruction.
Aye. sir. Pennsylvania, the great keystone of the
arch of the Union, willing to lay the whole
weight OF her iron upon that sacred arch and crush
it beneath the load The subjugativn ofthe South
aye, sir, the SabjugqtiOn of the Soath am
not talking to children or fools for there is not
man in this House fit to be representative here
who does not know that the South cannot be forced
to yield obedience to your laws and authority
again until you have conquered and subirgated
her-the subjugation of the South and the closing
up of her ports. first BY force in war, and after
ward by sariff laws in peace, deliberately re.
solved upon by the East. And, sir when once
this policy was begun. the sefslme motives of
waning commerce an threatened loss o. ira lie
impelled the great city of New York and her
merchants and her politicians AMI her press, with
here and there an honorable exception, to place
herself in the very front r,Ek among the worship
ers of Moloch. Much, indeed of that outburst
proclamation of the 5th of April, as WELL perhaps
as the proclamation itself, was called forth not so
much by the fall of Fort Sumter-an event long
anticipated-as by the notion that the "insurrec
ton" might be crushed out in few weeks, if not
by the display. certainly, least by the presence
of an overwhelming force.
These, sir, were the chief causes which. along
with others, led to a change in the policy of the
Administration. and, instead of peace forced us
hcadiong into civil war, with all its accumulated
horrors.
But whatever may have been the causes or the
motives IF the act, it is certain that there was
CHI nSe in the policy which the Administration
meant to adopt, which at least they led the coun-
try to believe they intended to pursue. will not
now venture to assert, what may yet some day be
made 20 appear, that the subsequent acts of the
Administration, and its enormous and persistent in
fractions of the Constitution its Digh handed uSur-
pations OF power, formed any part of deliberate
conspiracy to overthrow the present form of Fed
eral Government in its stead No, sir whatever
their purposes now, rather think that, ir the be-
ginning, they rushed hccdles-ly and hcadlong into
the gull, believing that. as the seat of war was
then far distant and difficult of access, the disnlay
of vigor in rer icrcng Forts Sumter and Pickens.
and in calling out seventy five thousand militia l. D.
on firing o the first sun. anu above ALL in that ex-
ceedingly happy an,l original conceit OF command
ing the insuIrgent States to ''disbursc in twenty
days. would not, en- the one hand. precpItate
crisis, while. upon the other, it would atisfv its
own violent partisanS and thus revive and restore
the falling fortunes of the Republican arty.
can hardly conceive, sir, that the President and
his advisers could be guilty of the exceeding folly
OF expecting to carry general evil war by a
mere ''posse comitatus'' of three months militia.
1t may be, indeed, that, with wicked and most
desperate cunning, the President meant all this as
meie entering wedge TO that which WAS to rive
the oak asunder; possib as a test, to learn the
public sentiment of the North and West But.
however that NAV be, the rapid secession and
movements of Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas,
and Tennessee, taking with them, as have said
elsewhere. four millions and half of people. i'm
meRse wealth. inexlaustible resources, five hunf
dred thousand fighting men, and the graves of
Washington and Jackson, and bringing up too in
one single day, the frontier from the Gulf to the
Ohio and the 20 tomac, toe ether with the aban
donment by the side. and the occupation by
the other, Harper's Ferry and Norfolk navv-varl
ami the sudden gust and whirwind of passion in
the North, compelled either sudden waking up
| of the President and his advisers to tie friohtfu
signifcancy of the act which they had committed
in heedlessly breaking the vase which imprisoned
the slumberng demon of civil war, or else a pre-.
mature but most rapid development of the daring
plot to foster and promote secession, and then set
un new and strong form of Government in the
tates which might remain in the Union
But whatever may have been the purpose. as
sert here to-day, Il RcpI pIescutatiyc, that every
principal act of the Administration since. has been
glarlng usurpation OF power, and palpable and
dangerous violation oihat very Constitution which