Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-03-21
BRATTLEBORO;
THURSDAY, MARCH 81, 1901.
FORT sUMTER-ITs sURRBNDER-THE
CONSTITUENCIES.

terest is felt IN tue result 10 Wncn tnu aumlniS-
tration shall arrive whether Fort Sumter shall
be strengthened by re-inforcements or abandon
ed altogether. Evn-y man we meet with who
has not access to the daily journals, makes in
quiries relative to this very point. An equal if
not greater anxiety is manifested in business
circles, for on all sides it is agreed that upon
the solution of this problem hinges the question
Of peace or war. If the troops under Maj. An
derson's command shall be reinforced at the
present time no intelligent man can fail to per-
ceive that blood must be spilled and a civil war
with all its horrors ensue. It's equally patent
that the troops now at Fort Sumter cannot re.
main much longer in their present position
They are too few to defend even that fortress
against an attack by all the means at the COM
mand Of the seccssionists, and if not attacked
hunger is m enemy that will soon necessitate
their capitulaton II the troops shall be with
drawn q peaceful solution of impending difficult
ties is quite possible, unless the secessionists
shall for purposes Of their own precipiate con
fict.
This matter has been duly considered in Cab
met council both in political and military point
of view, and the opinions of other eminent civil
anil military men, in whose judgement the
country has great confidence, are before the ex-
ecutive He is called upon to make the final
decision. What that decision will be there is
little room to doubt. 1t has long been evident
as sunlight that the fortress must either be aban-
doned or the garrison relieved, and the Difficult
ties in the way of relieving the garrison are in
surmountable. The secessionists have so i'm
proved the time and opportunities gained for
them by Buchanan and his crew of democratic
traitors, that it would require large feet and
larger army to enable even so accomplished n
soldier as Gen. Scott to give hand to Major
Anderson. 1t would require months to assem-
BILE the forces necessary 10 make an attack on
the works of the rebels, who ar well prepared
for afght and clamorous for blood letting. Then
again there are no means at hand for this pur-
pose. Oar army, numbering in all but about
1900 men, is scattered from Maine TO Califor-
MIA, from Mexico to Canada. Our navy is weak
and most of the vessels cit for service are in re-
mote seas. Six months before we could be
ready for an assault that would insure success
the men in Fort Sumter will have eaten their
last ounce of bread. People may grumble and
growl as much as they please, but there is no
help for it =; either the fort must be abandoned
or the garrison must starve. Such is the logi-
cal and inevitable conclusion of the course pur~
sued by Buchanan and his satellites.
This surrender ought to open the eyes of the
people to the political condition of the country
and cause them to prepare for those changes
that must inevitably take place. We can now
no longer shut our eyes to the fact that the
Constitutional government of the United States
is at all end. The Traveller very sensibly re-
marks: A large part in one section has sue
cessfully made resistance to a constitutionally-
created government, and the party is support
ed by nine-tcnths OF the active and controlling
portion of the democratic party and the rest OF
the opposition, in the free States; ard the Bor-
der States consent to stay in the Union only
on the condition that the Unions existence
shall not be maintain ed At this moment
there is no power to collect the revenue in the
South, and il a southern merchant should in
sist on having his goods free from all duties in
Baltimore or Norfolk, he must be allowed to
have them, for what right has government to
"coerce" him into the payment of taxes which
it cannot collect in the ports OF seven South
ern States that are assumed still to belong to
the Union? The right of blockade appears to
a.. Al l., A.
enue. Government is at an end, so far as con-
Germs some of its most important functions, and
there can be no remedy for the evil so long as
We shall continue to delude ourselves alb 1u,
the existence of the Union. All that is left
for us to do is to call National Convention
whc should be instructed to labor for the
reconstruction of the Union on equitable terms
in the first place. and, failing in that,-as mosl
probably it would ALTO provide for regu.
lar dissolution of the Union, and the distribu.
ton OF the property belonging to it. To this
we must come at last il the idea of enforcing
the laws is to be given up obsolete, and 4
any section is to be at liberty to say whether
it shall accept or rejec, the result Of natioma
N'SS'N" S""9'"SN"Haii. heiu ana ucclutu, AM
in which all sections shall have taken mari
AS our government is at present constituted
the position of things is this whenever III,
democratic Tor treason) party triumphs, al
sections and all parties in the nation shall sui
nit to It's rule but when any other party sha
triumph. the democracy shall be at liberty t
rebel, and any attempt that shall he made t
enforce the laws will be regarded as coercion,
and resisted accordingly. The only conditio
on which the Union can be restored and here
after maintained is that the democratic part
shlli rule, being itself ruled BY the Soutl
where the sceptre will be held by King Cotton
for the chief effect of the success of the rebellio
would be to concentrate power IN the Cotto
States, they having fought the battle of Di.
union, and won 1t, They would domineer a
haugh,ily over Virginia and Asf neighbcrs q
over New YORK. and New England. II d
American people, after full discussion of IL
subject, should de ride to reconstruct and mali
tain the Union on the condition of being pc
petually ruled by the democracy as the ageI
of slavery. there will be no belp for ii sui
mission viii be the lot of all; and those wi
should net like democratic despotism wou
have 10 seek freedom in Eome monarchica