New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-01-29
rItn HySI.i.Y or coEnoroN.

From report of the proceedings of Congress, q
few days ago, we make the following extract.
Mr., Ashley, Of Ohio, read warIike speech, m
which he denied The right to properly in slaves
under the Constellation and urged the adoption OF
coercion to crush out the few thousand families in
the South.
Mr. Edwards, Of Illinois, followed in a similar
strain.
It will he observed thst Mr.. Ashley, of Ohio,
proposes no halfway measures for the settlement
of the difficulties which lie in the way Of the Abo-
liticn party. He believes in coercion--in coercion
Of the most positive ard demonstrative kind-in
that sort Of coercion which would soon crush
out the few thousand fanatics in the Southn We
are glad to see that Ashley takes such high ground.
We admire Ashleyas pluck. We never like to see
things half DONE and therefore If coercion is to be
attempted, we would be glad TO see Ashley put at
the head Of the coercionists, feeling well assured
that SO brave a taker would be equally brave in
deeds and that the crushing process. under his
guidance, would be signalized by speedy success.
If the I" few thousand fanatics at the South y are
to be crushed ont we know of no one they would
sooner be crushed out by than the valorous and
belligerent Ashley.
1t is eyt-e.,.t though, to speak seriously, that
this Efan labors under the common impression all
over the North--a common error, also that there
is any real division of opinion at the South in
respect of the propriety and necessity of seces-
sion. He talks about the few thousand fanatics OF
the South, as if they were Insignificant in numbers
and the great body Of the people were in favor OF
the Union. When we tell these Northern people
that the very idea of longer continuance Of the
Union, under Black Republican control, sickens
and disguss ninety nine men out of every hundred
IN al, 70 If ia 81
feeling, approaching unanimity, in favor Of dis
union, in every seeding State that the Southern
people are determined to break up the Union, and
even accept the consequences of civil war, if the
North should be guilty of the objectionable folly
and crime of coercion-we only state the naked,
simple truth 1t seems to US that the prompt Sc
cession OF every Southern State that meets in Con-
venton ought to open the eyes of these people to
the real state Of affairs in the South, and satisfy
them that it is equally as grave error to under
rate the number Of the secessonists as it is to sup
pose that they can be =" crushed out7' by any
military force the North may be able to bring
against them.
The threat of coercion, INDUCED in by men like
Ashley, only renders the South more firm, united
and defiant. The Border States,1 which are
slower than the rest in actual secession, have been
prompt to record their sentiments on this point,
declaring that any attempt of coercion will be re-
sisted by them to the death. All threats of this
sort serve exactly the purpose of the immediate
secessionists of the Gulf, because they tend to
unite Southern men, and, by aggravating and in
tensifying Southern feeling. draw us all closer to-
gether in the bends of fraternal union. Therefore
we are glad to see Ashley talking this way and we
hope he will keep it up. It unites the South, at the
same time that it prevents the possibility Of any
patched-up compromise or adjustment
Apropos Of the policy of coercion, so violently
urged in these speeches, the New York Herald, of
late date, remarks as follows:
Whatever Union sentiment existed in the South
ern States heretofore is now extingnished and the
secession movement is sweeping all before il like
an avalanche The North would not believe the
South was in earnest till nov it is almost too late
to arrest the progress of the revolution. 1t con
tented itself with denouncing the secessionists as
traitors and rebels, which only accelerated their
action George Ill and his ministers called the
people of these States, when they were colonies,
rebels and traitors; but the denuneaton did not
stop their career. Had he yielded to their just de-
mands and shed no blood, he might have preserved
his provinces. If, before the end of the next
month, the rights of the South are not conceded,
fifteen States will be lost to the Confederacy before
the 4th of March, and any attempt at coercion will
only hasten the catastrophe. Full justice to the
South, promptly rendered, or the peaceable sepa-
ration of fifteen States, and the formation Of
Southern 0onfederacy, or the dread alternative Of
bloody civil war, are the only possible solutions
of the dark problem which agitates the whole
American people, from Passamaguoddy to the Rio
Grande.
The Herald is right, with the exception that it is
now too late, even for the full justice to the
South Of which it speaks. The alternative now
are peaeeable separation of the fifteen Southern
States or a bloody civil war. We prefer the for