Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1861-05-01
The Temner of the War

Ihe following significant paragraphs are
from an editorial in the New York Times:
The URioa, men 0ftke South can deter
mine I'll character and the issues of the
iDlPending contest. If they will stand by
the government. they can bring the re-
bellion to speedy end, avert from their
institutions the disturbance and destruc-
ton which otherwise await them, and
restore the Union to its old integrity. If
they yield to the political heresy of John
G.. Calhoun, that the first allegiance of the
American citizen is due to the State in
which he lives. instead of the National
Constitution. which covers all the States
and I'll the citizens of this great Republic,
they convert the contest into a war of sec
lions, and insure the ruin of their domes-
tic institutions.
1t has been proclaimed on high authori-
ty that the Southern Confederacy rests np-
on negro SLarery as its basis aud corner
stone. If the whole South rallies to that
issue, the utter destruction of Slavery Is a
foregone conclusion, no matter by what
horrors it may be attended. 1t is idle to
blink the fact that there is already a grow
ing conviction in the public mind that the
fate of Slavery, though -unconueeted with
the present contest, as far as the Govern
ment authorizes can control it, is neverthe-
less involved in the result One of the re-
suits Of the events that have crowded the
past ten days is the growth of a new pub
lie opinion on Slavery. The AbolitiOnists
find their ranks swelled by an element
which assuredly they could never have
hoped to be able to use. Not that they
approach the subject from any of the usual
theoretical or moral considerations which
influence the distinctively Anti Slavery
class; it is simply a hot desire to have done
with what is felt to be the cause of all
their wOes-a fierce struggle in the body
polite to free itself from the poison which
is gnawing its vitalsl This feeling-sin-
gularly blunt. at times. in its expression
has penetrated to the very substratum Of
society. The burning light reflected on it
by recent events, has caused the whole
question to assume an entirely new aspect.
A touch of terrible reality has swept away
the sophims Of generations.
The New York Rorld says on the same
subject: @
We warn ths, South not to cast into the
food the letters Of their slaves Any at
tempt to chastise the irresistible tide Of
Northern sentiment would be impotent and
futile. and be a voluntary casting beneath
the everlasting flow of the waves of irons
which would never again manacle human
limbs 3 r5l3d -
Itis not against the intentions of the
North thatswe warn them, but against the
inevitable consequence of their own folly
and madness They putt it outOf our pow
er any longer to guarantee them against
nameless horrors of widespread servile in
surrections. They compel US to use in de-
tense of the government the arms which,
while they were loyal. we would have free
.ly taken up for their protection Liberty
is native to the human heart; the desire
for it is the most irrepressible of mans
Unborn instincts. 1t needs no incentive
from without to fire the feelings of the OPP
pressed to grasp it, when the madness of
their OppressOrs creates a favorable oppor-
tunity. The slaves have been taught at
home the meaning of the word abolitionist;
they have been told at home that the peo-
pie of the North are abolitionists; they Will
learn at homie that this war, that these gi-
gantic military preparations all over the
South are for the purpose of resisting the
abOlitiOnists SptntaneOus human nature
will do the rest. Individual cases there
will no doubt be of self-sacrifcing devotion
to their masters; but there never were four
mllienss of being since the world began IN
whom selfish feelings we're not general and
predominant. The last annual messageot
President Buchanan has some heaIt-depress-
ing words bearing on this point, which
ought to be held up as a warning to the
South, written in letters in fire The long
agitation of Slavery, be said has at length
produced its malign influence on the slaves
and inspired them with vague notions OF
freedom. A sense of security no longer ex-
lists around the family altar. Many a mat
ron throughout the South retires in dread
of what may befall herself and her children
before the morning.
If the long pent-up feelings inspired by
those ..vague notions of freedom" should
heave with volcanic force and pour a desc
lating scourge over the entire South. 1t de-
ponds on the course now to be pursued by
the border states whether the government
will pity or save. If they aid the rebels
in letting loose pirates to prey upon our
property, if they continue to murder and
outrage our citizens when Fastening to the
defence of the capital; if they per-
sist in their intolerable insults to the ma
tional fac, in vain will they invoke 1t for
their protection in the hour of their ex-
tremity. At junetuTe 50 solemn, and
in yieW,of contingencies so appalling. there
can be no desecration in imagining the
parental government of the Union address
ing them in the language Of inspired Wis
dom: but ye have set at naught all my
counsel. and would none Of my reProoE !
Will mock when your fear eometh; when
your fear cOmeth as d~esOlation, and your
destruction comsth as a whirlEind when
distress and anguish cOmeth upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but | will
not answer.n