New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-01-15
COERCION.

In tunes ike Ihe5t, WpIus arc "AdBo' ho' "o
Try TO understand precisely what is meant now
adsys by Coercion.
There are two bases on which Governments
are established and sustained-l. Ballots; g Bull
let's The latter is the ancient, usual, time-hon-
ored foundation; the former is the modern, re-
publican, American basis. We who stand by the
Union and Constitution as they are, and the au-
thorities as lawfully constituted, stand squarely
and exactly on this platform. We propose to
settle in the Union all differences that have arisen
or may arise between citizens or States: to set
tie them by voting, not fighting. We we're beaten
NOT very fairly-in '56, and We quietly acqui'
esced in the verdict Of the majority. We tri-
umphed in go; and we now demand that the
defeated shall do as we did when we stood where
they now do.
But" say they, g there is q popular msjor-
{" ity against you" Yes so there was against
Buchanan four years ago. but he was none the
less rghtfully President. He had plurality of
the Popular and q majority of the Electoral
Vote; Lincoln has now the same. The relative
positions of the Republican and Democratic parties
are exactly reversed: We ask Of our opponents
nothing more than We fully conceded to them
"But the Supreme Court is against you, ,nd
90 the next Congress win be-" Yes that is
so: and 50 much the less is your excuse for your
treason. You are organizing revolt against a
government which will be two-thirds yours after
Mr.. Lincoln shall have been naugurated Presi-
dent. You are conspiring to burn your own
house to spite one who owns bare third OF it.
You are adopting the worst habits OF Spanish
America without the Spanish American excuse.
South Carolina has had her own way in
three. fourths of the Presidential Elections yet
held. She voted for Washington, John Adams,
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, jackson, Polk,
Pierce and Buchanan, She has been beaten
only in the elections respectively OF John Quincy
Adams, Van Buren, Harrison Taylor, and
Lincoln. Andrew Jackson, whom she had
twice voted for, was President when she before
attempted to nulhfy the laws Of the Union. Mr.
Buchanan, whom she voted for in sc, is now
President; and it 10 against troops sent to re-
enforce Fort Sumter, under his rule, that she
has fred the first gun Of her new revolution.
Abraham Lincoln is the President elect of the
United States. 1t is the duty Of oil citizens and
States to recognize and obey him as such.
South Carolina refuses to do So 1t is Sbe and
her confederates--not we-who appeal srom
Ballots to Bullets She puts aside Elections as
impairment or inconsequent, and appeals to
Battalons. Our regret that she takes this
course does not change the facts.
Some of her hackers assert that, whenever
one State shall see ft--no matter for what rea-
son or on what pretext-to secede, the Union
il utterly broken up not merely as between
her and the remaining States, but even as be-
tween those loyal States If this be 80, then
any one State can disrupt and disSociate the
other thirty.two Of its own mere good pleasure
and in defiance of their decided choice. 10 state
this proposition clearly is to explode II. Our
delightful Mayor improves upon this, with his
usual fertility Of genins, by insisting that States
may be broken up into fragments because other
States have assumed 10 dissolve the Union. His
Honor's logic, being leveled at the grogshops
and darker dens Of our City, does not need to
be refuted in journals that have different field
Of circulation.
For the genuine secessionists-those who hav-
inc hated the Union for thirty years, think the
moment has at last come to destroy 1t and
constitute one into which no Free State shal
ever be admitted-we have that kind OF respect
which earnestness, even in wrong must COM
mand. For the sham Observation-Disclosures who'
whether in the Free or the slave osa'es, arc
using Secession as hideOus mask wherewith 70
friehten the North into selfabasement-we nave
no more respect than for other tricksters ana
hvnocr;tes. And these constitute majority Of
those whs are playing Secession to-day. NO con-
siderable portion Of the people Of MARYLAND VIZ
ginis, Kentucky Tennessee, or mseou1i' I0a"!