The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1861-01-26

in favor of preserving the Union, proclaim
vehemently against sscoercion." They are
10 favor Of maintaing the supremacy Of the
laws, but force must not be used! They
delight, especially, in asseverating that the
Federal Government has no right to coerct
State! A proposition no one asserts! II
is not contended in any quarter, or by any
person 50 far as we know, that the Federal
Government has the right to coerce State
to remain in the Union! The Government:
deals solely with indiviauas-not with mu-
nicipal corporations. But how is it with
the South? Do not the Southern State:
propose coercing the Federal Government
to let them 60, if they are not allowed
peaceably to "seeede ?" Most certainly,
that is their present attitude. The N. Y.
Times states the issue correctly and sue
eincsly in these words: "The present dis
union movement, when scrutinized closely,
resolves itself into an attempted military
coercion Of the Federal Government into
concessions uhich reason and argument
hare failed to con,mand!'
Is not this statement true? If not, what
means the seizure, by State authority, OF
the Government forts and arsenals in each
and all of the five ''secedipg" States? Ills
true, and yet Southern Disunionists, and
their doughface sympathizers, and abettors
at the North, daily and hourly proclaim the
strange doctrine, that if the Federal Gov
crnment should undertake to regain the
property SO wrested from its control, OF
attempt to so distribute its forces as to hold
possession Of the public property in the
Southern States, yet unmolested by the
frenzied mob Of seccssion-such efforts
will, and ought of right to be, construed
into attempts at coercing said States, and
should and will be resisted to the bitter end !
This is the work of the South, and is, of
course, all right! No attempts at coercion
would or could come from that quarter of
course not! So think the Northern oppo-
nenta of the Republican party.
When the Republican party declares that
''the Federal Constitution, the Rights of the
States, and the Union Of the States, mus:
and shall be ed'-that the Federal
Government should use all its powers for its
own protection-exhaust all its resources,
and put forth the utmost Of its strength in
maintaining its authority, and indicating it's
honor in the eyes of the world-why, North
ern sympathizers with Secession Omen who
were politically defeated at the late election)
step upon the scene Of action, and, in con-
vention assembled, declare-'s that they
"nelther respect nor sympathize with the
"hypocritical and newborn zeal, for the
"ezecution of the laws by civil war. now
"being manifested by the authors of the
"'liberty bills'-the advocates of 'higher
law'-'he nullfers Of the fugitive slave
" law-and the sympathizers with Chicago
"negro mobs and John Brown raids" Such
is the temper of Northern sympathizers with
Southern disunion-and all because they
hadn't votes enough to elect their President
last Nov. 1t is thus, that no inconsiderable
portion Of the Democrat, party at the
North, is coyertly, but none the less effec-
lively, working for the overthrow of this
Government. But the game is about played
out, for this fact is daily and hourly impress
ing itself upon the public mind, to uit-thai
the secession Increment is a rar of the
South upon the Government, and not of
the Government upon the South There is
no evading or diguising this. There has
been nothing like coercion, on the part of
the Federal Government, nor is there likely
tohe. "Tho whole policy of the Government
is defensive, the protection of its own
property, the maintenance of its own posi- !
tons, the preservation of its own revenues.
No Government could abandon these simple
duties without committing suicide. To
hesitate about them would be to abdicate
everything like national authority. l, is
not at all impossible that war may grow out
OF our present difficulties. But if so it will |
be because the South insists upon it, and
commencest it. The Federal Government has
no war to wage. Its duties are discharged
when it maintains possession Of its forts,
protects its property, collects its revenue,
and enforces its commercial regulations.
South Carolina, or the whole South. may
maintain their "separatc" existence as long
as they please, without molestation, if these
points are left untouched.''