Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1861-05-22

were IlUL uiI,IvIa tvvu v'cII III tua. uoorluuy.
1t would be useless task TO cndeavor now
to fix the Immediate culpability Of bringing
about the first act Of war. II is not .i0r us to
pronounce censM'e upon eaha section of the
disrupted Union. Pdper constitutions ICE
hola, Aowercr, to be mihiny 'rhcn opposed 10
0te @ishs, ard feelings n omy considerable
section IF Il community. and IN Mat ricr Ms
ISon'h has Il perfect right to scccle, anythi"g
IN the Fedora! Constitution to the contrary not
pithsttMiiny. Anndependcnt Southern Con-
ic'leracy is all absurli;y, as long as foreign,
although even friendly, Government holds
Gnrtrc>srs and places erurmes within it, Dor.
,lcrs. AS the Southern Cunfcdcrary pro
claimed its Independence, it follows incxorsbly
that it must claim the evacuation Of the fc,l-
cra forts. Had thu cabinet Of Washington
been able to see lis way to tue recognition oi
the Government at Montgomery, the ua-
doubted claims of the Federal Government to
these forts d, federal property could have been
easily arranged by friendly negotiation. But
States forbade. We cannot blame Mr. Lin.
culn for taking that view of his duty; but
re may he allowed 10 regret its necessity
Its ciltr 10 the Southern Cunirdcracy peace
fully to withdraw the garrison Of Fort SUMTER
leaving only two Or three men, and so to let
the fort remain until, to Use the words Of the
Now York Tribune, these troubles should be
over--rhus relieving Charleston and South
Carolina Of all fear that they would be in any
manner annoyed or imperiIled by that fort
wears the aspect Of u desire for peace, and its
rejection by the Government Of the Southern
Confcderacy, followed as it has been by the
bombarlment and capture of Fort Sumter,
will leull nuny 10 dcuounce the South Us gull.
ty Of unnecessary resort to violence. We
can pronounce no such hasty condemnation.
Looking to the at best ambiguous uttcrances
Of the Government Mt Washington, and to the
certain fact that the war Of reconqucst has
been ardently advocated by the Republican
organs, the South may haze exercised sound
discretion in the course il has taken. Proba-
blv it could not understand the meaning Of
the phrase, "until these troubles should be
over" supposng it formed any part Of the
offer, any more than We Can understand it.
If they were intended to foreshadow peace.
full solution, why should not Mr. Lincoln have
said so at once? But he could not mean
that for peaceful solution is neither more
nor less than the recognition Of the indepcn-
deuce of the Southern Confederacy. We can
not suppore that the cessation of these troubles
meant the suppression of the rebellion, as Mr..
Lincoln holds It to be, by force; the substan-
tial withdrawal of the garrison Of Fort Sumter
seems TO negative that Interpretation. But if
it mean neither the use Of force nor the peace
full recognition OF the South, it meant nothing
at all for nobody can pretend to believe
that the Cotton States, with their peculiar
institutions, can be persuaded to re-cnter the
Union upon any terms Of modification of the
Constitution that the free States of the North
either would or ought to sanction. The
Southern COnfederacy may, therefore, have
had good reasons to reject the offer in qucs-
ton; and so the net of war accomplished in
Charleston harbor on the 18th Of this month
became inevitable.
What ought noR to be done2 is abe quss.