New-York daily tribune., 1861-05-26
WHOSE FEET MAKE HASTE TO
SHE'D BEGGD."

raises lis voice throughout the patrlOI Slates,
his logic runs in this groove:
"The North aud the South are radically di-
verse-invinciby so. The South has become
convinced that her safety, her Development, her
interest, require separation from the North.
She is rightfully the sole judge in a matter so
vitay affecting herself, while it but secondarily,
incidentally affects others. The sacred principle
of Self-Government implies this-aifrms it.
Then why not let her 90 in peace ~
We answer-Because she did not choose to 90
in peace--did not, in fact, choose to 60 at all.
Had she so chosen, with any lair approach to
unaninity and been content to allow reason
able time for the accomplishment of her purpose,
we should have heartily supported her movement,
as we have often stated, and as our adyersaries
delight to quote. Gerrit Smith, in bis letter to
the Peace Society which we published the other
day states the case forcibly thus:
"The South might have left Us in peace, bad she
but asked us 10 let her do But yants cannot ak
They take without asking. More than this, We would
soon have acquesced in her breaking out OF the natioD
could she but have restrained berseli from warIing
upon it. Bat yrants cannot strain themselves from
aggression. IL IL true that Government might have
Continued to occupy its Southern forts and collect ih
Southern revenues-but not for more than year or
two The whole North would ere long have said: II
the South does not want us, we do not want her, "
she prefers TO be nation by hersef, let her be IT. II
ste prefers another government 10 ours is there not t
least seeming oppresson and meannsts III our depriV-
ing her of the means Of supporting II!
That the Republicans generally and President
Lincoln especially, gave hearty assent to Ken
tucky's proposal, last Winter, Of Constitutional
| Convention, is well known. Had but Virginia
! backed that proposal heartily, We tnink it would
have been carried; had the Gulf States acceded
10 it. there would have been no scIious opposi-
tiOn. And Convention would have bad 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 ol civil
power are subject 10 aud bound by it. If the
Secessonists shall prove too strong for the
patriots q Convention viii have to be called ut
last. Then why not begin where, after the
sacrifice Of hundred thousand lives, we mutt-
should the Secessonists prove lnvincible-be con-
tent TO end
We answer--and it is the core Of the whole
matter-he traitors hare .forced the eontorosy 10
Uoody issue because hey oouM nat oihtrnise
BEGTN TO succeed. They are not bit ionder of
absorbing bullets than other men; but they are
bent on breaking up the Union, and hcy oonM
only carry mGiority Of he Stare States By rpS'-
ing into rebellion. Had peace been preserved
and the laws Obeyed down to the 9Th Of March
last, and had the People OF the Slave States,
after dispassiOnate reading Of Mr.. Lincoln's
Inaugural, been called upon to vote on the ques-
ton" Shall We remain Loyalty in the Union, or
" shall We break out of it l"-we have not
doubt that great majority OF them would have
voted to remain. Throughout the last Winter,
any man in the Slave States who suggested the
propriety of waiting for Mr.. LiBcOln's Inaugural
and to SEQ whether the Republicans would do
aught Objectionable was denounced by the con-
spirstOrs as submissionst and an enemy Of
I" Southern rights"
The JEFF. Dayises, Rhetts and Ysnceys Of the
South reasoned thus: 90 IL is now or never with
"us--if we cannot break up the Union upon the
"electon of a Republican President, we never
"can. But majority of our people--as we
"learned TO our cost in 1cJ0-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
succeed only by appealing 10 force, and thus
"maling up bloody issue between Slavery and
"a Republican Administration, which viii com
"pell all VINO adhere TO Slavery 10 back us; and
that secnres not only the triumph of disunion.
but the adherence OF ali the slave States to our
&" Confederacy." Hence the Inauguration Of
civil war by corrupting Federal officers, seizing
forts, armories, arsenals. custOm-houses, mints,
sab-treasuries, &C., until our inconcclyably meek
and patient Government was fairly driven to
take up the gage recklessly threwn down.
Even after the rebellion had been ostentatously
proclaimed, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and Arkansas resolved to stand by
the Union. Not ill that most atrocious lombard.
ment Of Fort Sumter was it possible to suck
them into the whirlpool Of Secession. But the
tidings of that bombardment and its result, which
aroused and united the Free States in behalf of
the Union, had a precisely contrary effect on the
Slave. They saw Slavery graphing for lie or
death with the Union, and this was sufficient
10 inaugurate terrorism which compelled nearly
all 10 taks, or seem to take, tho siae Of insnr-
gent SIayeT,
We rsstersie tass DlyRBea pistf bays bar