Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-05-18
The Spirit of che soath.
nv HORACE GREELEY.

! Hot oHoCh vi OatJIe-Wnen mighty most
are dimy seen gathering on either side fo
the deadly fray, and thousands have al
ready hidden adieu to the homes that shal
greet them no more-it is well to note no
mcreley the ostensible, tangible causes o
quarrel, but the spirit wherein those cause
originate, the radical antagonisms of under
standInglng, sentiment, and purpose, tha
render bloody collision inevitable. In thit
article, | propose to speak only of the more
conspicuous and vital misaprehensions o.
fact and duty which seem, judging by the
tenor of her journals and the utterances o
her public men, to be nearly or quite uni
versal in the South.
l. Nowhere, throughout the Savehold
ing region, does the idea of moral obliga
tion to uphold and obey in all things law
ful the federal authority, seem to have the
slightest acceptance or recognition. Even
John Bell, aud John NJ Bolts, and Gov.
Hicks, appear to ignore it as completely as
if it had never been suggested. Gen. Har.
ney, soldier of forty years standing. sees
clearly that it would be madness in Mis-
souri, to defy the Union but that she
would violate any moral duty in so doing.
does not occur even to his mind. Mr.. John
S. Phelps, who, as Member of Congress
must have expressly sworn to support the
| Constitution of the United States at least
nine times over, does not find in this crcum
stances any reason for his decided hostility
TO Secession. John Campbell of Alabama
| resigns his seat on the bench Of the FEEDER
al Supreme Court because his State has
plunged into a rebellion that be dsapproves /:
but that it is his duty TO resist that rebellion
and TO make good the solemn oath in virtue
of which he has been drawing Sc, 900 per
annum from the Federal Treasury for years.
he does not seem to comprehend. In fact
the public men of the South, Unionists as
well as NulllferS, would seem to have been
swearing fidelity to the Federal Govern.
ment for the last half-century With no more
conception that the oath had any force or
meaning than if they had been play y.actors
in petty theater, going through the mock
cry of swearing allegiance to some mimic
sovereign whom the next hour saw divest-
ed of his tinsel and returned to the rank of
ments Of the Secessionists. That there is a
South, they clearly comprehend that there
is North also, they are likely to discover
if they do not already realize it but that
we were ever citizens of one common coun-
try, they do not even treat as delusion
worth dispelling. That our Union is but
league, and alliance, a confederacy of
thirteen or more Independent sovereignieS,
any of which was at perfect liberty to break
and destroy that alliance at its own good
pleasure, without even asking the others
how they liked such proceeding, is coolly
assumed by Jefferson Davis and his abet-
tors as incontestable. When Mississippi
repudiated her bonds, Mr.. Davis seemed to
consider the process one requiring certain
legislative and executive formaiticS to rem
der it coherent and respectable but when
she repudates the Union which nurtured
and protected her infancy and made her
what she is, he does not deem it necessary
to ask the states she deserts how they take
it. He sends ENJOYS, indeed, to the Stare
States, but only to urge them to join her re-
pudation of old and assumption of new re-
lations to the Free states she does not
condecgend even to give formal notice that
she has renounced her company. Plain men
must be utterly perplexed to determine why,
if the secessionists theory Of our Union be
the true one, there was so much excitement
and such contest over the Fedeal Consi.
tuition when first framed and submitted for
adoption, since it did motif this theory be
the true one amount practicallyto anything
more than Fourth-ofJny public dinner
or free love arrangement to live together
so long as should he mutually agreeable.
If the Secessonists' theory be sound, the
vehemauce and persstency with which the
adoption of that constitution was opposed
the assertions that it absolved and anuihilat-
the States, become totally ineXpicnblc.
That the people Of the Southern States
at least the dominating, governing classes
have ever been first Virginians, Carolin,
ians, Georgians, Mssissippians, etc, etc,
and a long way afterward-if ever-Amerl.
cans, is now very clear. Their appearance
in Europe or elsewhere as cities Of the U.
States was plainly a submission to a disa-
greeable fiction for the sake Of personal con-
veuence The men who have seized the
sword with fell resolved to cleave the
Republic asuuder betray, alike by their
words and their deeds, that they never were
loyal to it.
Ill But the worst manifestation of
Southern spirit is found in the inteuse mali
gnty, the scornful contempt, with which 1t
regards the people of the Free States.
That we are essentially clock 'pedlers and
horn flint manufacturers, who should never
persume to take arms in our hands except to
amuse their natural wilders by an exhbi.
ton of timorous ignorance and cInmbsy
awkwardness-th we cling TO the South
in order to exc out our miserable livelihood
by diverting some of her lavish wealth to
the relief of our hopeless poverty-that
there is nothing so mean that Yankee
would not eagerly do it for dollar, no dirt
so foul that be would not roll in it for the
chance of a sixpense being stuck thereby
to his garments-such is shown by their
journsls to be the general estimate Of
Northern character by Southern men and
women. Even the present unmistakeable
uprising Of our people to defend the Union
aud its Government is mistaken by them
for a mere straw FIRE Of Jenny Lind furOr'
or KosSuth enthusiasm, which will bnrn
out as speedily as it was ignited. That
the North seeks to browbeat and bully and
will not actually fight, would seem to oe
the universal belief below Mason and DIX
on's. That it is a sadly, ruinously mistaken
| Ona a fauy uaaEo will damonStrate.