The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-06-01

"Whcsc Feet Make Haste 70 shed Blood,
| Wherever an nily Of the Secession consp;rn
| tors raises hssvoiee throughout The patfio
States, his logic runs in this grove:
The North and the South are radically sdi
verse-invincibly So The South has becom,
convinced that her safety, her development, he
interest, require separation from the NORTH
She is rightfully the sole Judge in . matter q
vitality affecting herself, while it but secondarily
incidentally affects others The sacred princi
pie Of self government implies this -affrms it
Then why not let her go in peace!"
We answer--Because she did not choose to &c
in peace-did not, in fact choose to go At ALL
Had che 90 chosen, with any fair approach te
unanimity and been content to allow reasonable
time for the accomplishment of her purpose, VIC
should have heartily supported her movement
as we have often stated, and as her adversaries
delight to quote. Gerrit Smith, in his letter tr
the Peace Society, which We published the 9th
er day, states the case forciby thus:
"The South might have left us in peace, had
she but asked us to let her do 80. But tyrants
cannot ask. They take without asking More
than this, we would soon have acquiesced in hel
breaking out of the nation could she but have
restrained herself from warning upon it. But
tyrants cannot restrain themselves from aggres
sion. 1t is true that Government might have
continued to occupy its Southern forts and col
lect its Southern revenues-but not for more
than year or two. The whole North would
ere long have said: If the South does not wan,
us, We do not want her. IL she prefers to be q
nation by herself, let her be it. Irshe prefers
another government to ours, is there not at
least seeming oppression and meanness in our
depriving her Of the means of supporting its' y
That the Republicans generally, and President
Lincoln especially, gave hearty assent to Ken
tncky's proposal, last winter, of Constitutional
Convention, is well known. Had but Virginia
backed that proposal heartily, we think il would
have been carried; had the Gulf States acceded
to IL, there would have been no serious opposi-
ton. And Convention would have had power
to recognize and conform to the Secession of
the South, which neither the Executive nor
Congress possesses. A Convention is above the
Federal Constitution; all other repositories of
civil power are subject to and bound by it II
the Secessionists snail prove too strong for the
patriots, a Convention will have to be called at
last. Then why not begin where, after the sac.
rifce OF hundred thousand lives, we must
should the Secessionists prove invincible--be
content to end? it''s
We answer-and it is the core of the whole
matter-the traitors haze forced the controversy to
bloody isaac because they could not otherwise eeen
BEGIN to succeed. They are not bit fonder of
absorbing bullets than OTHER men; but they are
bent on breaking up the Union, and they could
Only carry a majority Of the Stare States BY
rushing into rebellion. Had peace been preserved
and the laws obeyed down to the 4th of March
last, and had the people of the Slave States, at.
ter dispassionate reading of Mr.. Lincolns In
augural been called upon to vote on the ques-
tion-"Shall we remain Loyalty in the Union, Or
shall we break out of it ?"-we have not doubt
that great majority of them would have voted
to remain. Throughout the last winter, any
m in the Slave States who suggested the pro.
prety of waiting for Mr.. Lincon's Inaugural
and to see whether the Republicans would do
aught objectionable, was denounced by the con.
spirators as ''submissionist' and an enemy of
Southern rights"
The JEFF. Davises, Rhetts and Yanceys of the
South reasoned thus: ut is now or never with
us-if we cannot break up the Union upon the
election OF a Republican President, we never
can. But majority of our people-as we
learned to our cost in lS5O-love and cling to
the Union, insisting that whatever evil may be
apprehended from the result of one election is to
be cured by the issue of the next. We can sue
ceed only by appealing to force, and thus ma
king up bloody issue between Slavery and
Republican Administration, which will compel
all who adhere to Slavery to back us; and that
secures not only the triumph of disunion, but
the adherence of all the Slave States to our
Confederacy." Hence the Inauguration of civil
war by corrupting Federal officers, Selling forts,
arsenals, custom houses, minis, sub
&C., until our inconceivably meek and
patient Government was fairly driven to take up
the gage so recklcssly thrown down.
Even after the rebellion had been ostenta-
tiously proclaimed, Virginia, North Carolina,
kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas resolved to
stand by the Union. Not till that most afro
cious bombardment of Fort Sumter was it pos
sibe to suck them into theswhrlpool of Seces
sioa. But the tidings of that bombardment and
its result, which aroused aud united the Free
States in behalf of the Union, had precisely
effect on the Slave. They saw Slavery
graphing for life or death with the Union, and
This was sufficient to inaugurate terrorism
which compelled nearly all to take, or seem to
take, the side of insurgent Slavery.
We reiterate that Disunion might have been
effected without a loss of blood If The people of
Ne South had heartily desired it. It was because
INTO Secession, that the original traitors delib-
,rately melted and uaugurated this most afro.
;sous war.-tN. Y. Tribune.
secession Outrages In Northern Missouri.
Mr. P. II. Bowling, well known to many of our
citizens and those of Manhattan, has just return.
I'D from North Missouri, where he went to teach
school in April. He was located at Millville,
Ray county, eleven miles from Lexington.
Mr. Bowling confirms the story of outrages
on Union men in that State. He
AID no difficulty until since the transactions at
st. Louis. The seizure of the secession forces
at camp Jackson, by the United States troops,
the rebels to the highest pitch. He
n called on to enlist in the State militia and