Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-02-04
I. Reconstruction Of n sthbie Unlou Ne
tween the Hostile sections Possiblef g

tween the Hostile sections Posstblef
uNepe well if politicians would look at
existing facts and cease their impotent
drivel about preserving Uaion which is al
ready Destroyed. The Union has ceased to
exist, by the action Of fifteen States, which
are in complete alliance, offensive and de-
fensive, sgainst it; and which defy the Con-
stitution and laws with perfect impunity.
On the other band, the North has ceased to
expect that the Union--tbat is the Constitu-
ton. can be preserved. 1t is too late to talk
OF the unconstitutionality ofSecession, or of
the constitutlonalpower ofthe Federal Gov.
errment to enforce its laws and maintain its
territorial integrity. Parchment powers are
annihilated by present facts. Whatever
powers the Government had, it has vacated
by recognizing Secession as an existing fact
which it has no right to resist. And now
the North has also recognized Secession as
an accomplished fact, and as having rights
superior to the Constitution, by sending
Commissioners 10 concede to it terms outside
the Constitution, in order to reconstruct a
Union. Thus by the overt acts of one sec.
ton, and their recognition as rights by the
other, ard by the vacation of It's cJDsti
tutiopal powers by the Federal Government
the Union is dissolved, and has ceased to be
consideled es possibility.
Events move with such startling speed in
the lspid decentralization and destruction of
cur Government, that theories and princi-
pies are left far behind. All questions about
the right Of coercion and of the enforce
ment of the Constitution and laws, and
about the principles of the Constitution, and
of compromises for the preservation of the
Union, are waived and set aside, both North
and South, by the general acceptance of the
actual division of the Union, as the status
from which reconstruction of the Consti-
tuition and new Union are = be formed
What kind of Governmentmust that be
which can now be formed by a union with
the Soutb2 1t will be a Government with
the established right of Secession. A Gov
eminent with the right of any turbulent
State of the thirty -four, or more, to destroy
it, the Inauguration of anarchy with con-
stituticnal forms and powers. The condi-
ton which Mexico has arrived at, after many
years of revolution and decay, will be by u;
elevated into a principle of Government
ard established ever our Constitution.
Secession will be established as a means
of controlling our elections. 1t will be the
political capital to which the politicians ot
the South will ever appeal, both as a mean:
OF exciting their own people, and of operat-
ing upon the North. Every recurrence of q
Presidential election will be a threatened
crisis, to throw. the industrial and financial
interests of this great country into convul-
siors. A Southern demagogue, in an iRsig-
nifcant State, which, perhaps, may owe its
whole existence to our bounty, can fire this
great Confederacy as easily as one of the
same sort fred the Temple Of Ephe5us, and
win greater notoriety without any of the
risk.
1t will be a Union which recognizes the
demands of the South as the measure of the
submission of the North; which the North
clings to on any terms that the South may
grant, and the South habitually spurns as
ahjectly subject to its demands which the
North is TO make the supreme object of iti
loyalty, and the South to hold as existing
only by its sufferance; which the Nortl
accepts as vital TO its prosperity and its ver1
existence; and therefore, which the Soutl
naturally must regard as privilege whicl
it grants on its own terms, and which is to b,
violated at convenience.
1t will DO longer be Union of equals
but of arrogant superiority and peremptorJ
threats on one side, and of accepted vassalagt
on the other; a Union which one section
sets up as TO be preserved at the sacrifice O
its natural and constitutional rights; and
the other holds subservient to its lightes
abstraction, and as only a means of coercins
the North into submission to its constantly
increasing demands. 1t will be Union il
which the constantly increasing preponder
snce of free population in the North, will
have TO be counterbalanced by constan
suIrenders of constitutional rights anG
political power to the South,
Were arrogant demands ever satisfied by
submission, so long as one right remained tc
be surrenderedi If they were, then NIGH
we hope to satisfy the South by concession
but until human nature is reversed, one sur
render will be only the basis for fresh de
DaDds. A reconstruction of the Union will
make all our industrial and commercial in
teTests, and the constantly-growing wealth
of the North, the sport of desperate politici
ans in both sections. The power to throw
our financial relations into convulsions viii
be political resource constantly holding on
temptation to reckless political adventurer
in the South. The savings earnings an,
very subsistence of the millions of free labor
ers in the North, will he placed at the mere
of political agitstors like Keitt, Toombs an
Wigfall who, when political quiet at hom
hiss left them without resource, can alway
resort TO the fanaticism against the Nortl
with certainty that all the damage the
can do to the Union will result in conces
sions TO the South. Rebellion against th
Union will have before it constantly Ii
temptation of a reward and any future ele'
tion of Northern President whom the Souy
can not control, will always bring the wor
elements of their society to the surface, an
give them the control of their politics az
the peace Of the country.
VIII that be Government which wi
Establish justice, insure domestic tral
guilty, provide for the common defens
nromote the general welfare and seeure Il