Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1861-07-12

tegrity against its domestic foes. Ii presents the
question wet her discontinued indivi duals too few
in numbers to CO ntrol the Administration ac cord
ing to the organic law in any case, always,
upon the pretences made in this Cas- or any other
pFetenee, break up their government, and thus
practically put an end to tbs fFeest government
upon the earth. 1t forces us to ask is there in all
Republics this inherent and ia tai weaknessl Must
a government Of nece ssity be too strong for the
liberties of its own people or too weak to maintain
it's own exlstenceg
So viewing the issue, NJ choice was left but to
call out the war power of the Government, and so
to resist the force employed for ats destruction By
force for its preservation.
The call wss made, aud the response of the
country was most gratifying, surprising 10
unaninisy and spirir the most sanguiBe expec-
tations Yet Done Of the States commonly
called slave States, except Delaware, gave a
regiment through regular State organizations.
few regiments have been organized with
in some Others Of those States by individual
enterprise, and received into the Government
service OF course the seeded States SO cali
ed, and to which Texas had been joined about
the time Of the inauguration, gave DO troops to
the cause Of the Union. The Border States,
so called, were not Uniform in their action,
some Of them being almost unanimous for the
Uuion, while 10 others, as Vlrgiuia and North
Carolns, Tennessee and Arkansas, the Union
sentiment was nearly repressed and siepcsd.
The course taken i'll Virginia was the mos
reuarka BILE, perhaps the ,nost important. A
convention elected by the people Of thea State
to consider this very questsss Cf disruptiug
the Federal Union was in session at the capl-
s.l of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell. To
this body the people had chosen large ma
jority of pr0fessed Union men. Almost imme-
diately after the fall of Sumter, mauy members
of that majority went over to the original
disunIon minority, and with them adopted an
ordinance for Withdrawing the State from the
Uuion. Whether this change wGs wrought
by their great approval of tbo assault upcn
Sumter, or the great resentment at the Gov
erDment's resistance TO that assault, is not def
uitely known. Although they submitted the or
dinance for ratification to a vote Of the peo-
pie, TO be taken on d day then somewhat more
than moatb distant, the Convention and the
Legislature, which was also in session at the
same time and place, with leading members of
the State net members of either, Immediately
commenced acting as If the State we're already
out Of the Union. They pushed their military
preparations vigorously forward all over the
State. They seized the United Ssatos armory
at HarpcE's Ferry, and the navy yard at Cos
port, near Norfolk. They reeeived, perhaps
invited, into their State large bodies of troops,
With their warlike appointments from the so
called seeded States They formally entered
into treaty of temporary alliance and eo-op-
GRAFTON with the so called Confederats States,
and sent members to their Congress ct Mont
gomery, aud fnsly, they permitted tho insur-
rectionary Government to be transferred to
their cspitsl at Richmond.
The people Of Virginis have thus allowed
this giant iusurrection to make its nest with
10 her borders, and this Government has nc
choice left but to deal With it. where il finds it,
and it has the less regret as the loyal citizens
have, IN due form, claimed its protection
These loyal citizens this Government is bound
to recognize and protect as being Virginia.
In the Border States so called, in fact the
Middle States, there are those who favor o
policy which they call armed neutrality that
is, an arming of those States to prevent the
Unlon forces passing one way or tha Ditunion
the other, over their soil. This would be dis
union completed, fgurstiVely speaking. 1t
would be tue building Of an impossible wall
along the line of separation, ADD yet not quite
an impossible one, for under the gnise of neu-
trality it would tie the hands of the Union
men, aud freely pass supplies from among
them TO the insuriectionisis, which il could
not do as an open enemy. At stroke il
would take all the trouble off the haads Of
secession, except only what proceeds from the
external blockade. l. would do for the Dis
uuienlnts that which, of all things, they most
daslre--feed them we'll, and give them disunion
without struggle of their own. Ii recoeni.
yes no fidelity to the Constitution, DO obliea-
ton TO maintain the Union aud, while very
many who have favored it are doubtless Low.
al, it is nevertheless very injurious in effect
Recurring to the action Of the Government
il may be stated that at first call was made
for seventy five thousand militia, and rapidly
| following this proclamation was issued for
closing the ports of the insurrectionary dis
tries, BY proceedings in the nature of a block.
ade. SO tar, all this was believed to be strict
ly legal.
! ut this point, the iusurrsctionists announced
tneIr purpose TO enter upon the practice of pri.
Watering. Other calls were made for yoluu.
teers TO serve three years, unless sooner dis
! charged, and also for large additions to tht
regular army and navy. These measures
whether strictly legal or not, were venturec
upon under what appeared to be a popula,
demand and pnbllc necessity, trusting, then
as now that Congress would readily ratif,
them. It'll believed that nothing has beef
done beyond the constitutional competency O
Congress.
Soon. after the frst call for militia, IL wa.
considered duty to authorize the Command
ing General 10 proper cases. according 70 bi,
discretion, to suspend the privilege of th.
writ OF habeas corpus, or, in other words. t.
arrest or detain, without resort to the crdiusr,
| processes and forms Of law, such individuals
as be mlght deem dangerous to the public safe.
". Tins authority has purposely been exer
cised but very spariDgly. Nevertheless, .h,
i legalltY and pfanrlatE anf 1rhnt h.s ham L..