The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-05-11
re war Cersain.

There are diseases for which there ID no cure
but the surgeons knife. The wisest men OF the
present time see no way Of ending the contro-
yersy between the North and the South but by
submitting il to the arbitrameit of war. John
Minor Bolts pleads earnestly and pathetically
that the Slave States may be allowed peaceably
to withdraw from the rest Of the Union; an ex-
pertinent Of which he predicts the utter failure,
and which be seems to think would end in sub
hitting themselves again to the government
which they have thrown of. He sees clearly
the dreadful evils which impend over the south
ern States if the war should be carried on IN
sarnest-constant alarm, sudden lmpoverlsh.
ment. the exile of its best citizens, frightfu in
surrectiops of the colored race, depopulation
and utter ruin-and it is most natural that he
should seek some way Of escape from fate SO
terrible.
But it il not the North that has chosen to de-
eide this question by war. The war has been
forced upon us. If the South really desires to
part from US in peace, the Constitution OF the
United States points out the way OF doing IT.. A
convention Of the States should have been called,
and the consent of the convention, ratified by
thps Of three-fourths of the State Legislatures,
would have divorced the Slave States from their
allegiance to the Federal Government
Not even the first step has been taken towards
this amicable arrangement. The leaders OF the
secessionists made it their boast that they would
throw off their allegiance to the general govern
meut without asking its consent They began
with fraud and proceeded to violence; they first
stole from the public treasury and then robbed
the government. in open day. Even before they
| finally seeded they made war by seixing the
government arms and taking hostile possession
Of the forts The very first step of each seced-
ing State was to arm itself; their earliest meas
ure, when formed into a new Confederacy, was
| to bring an army into the field, the wages OF
which we're 10 be paid out of the funds they had
stolen. Their whole scheme contemplated either
the employment of violence or negotiations with
the Federal Government, aided by threats ofvio-
lence "Bully the American government into
making concessions, if you can" was the tenor
of their instructions to their Commissioners, III
you cannot, we will hght.H
The government did not allow itself to be bul.
lied, and now the other alternative is to be tried
If that alternative is too dreadful for them to
contemplate if war will devastate and ruin the
Slave States, as Mr.. Bolts predicts, it is they
| who must desist fromit. Let them give up wha,
they have taken by theft and robbery, disband
| the rebel army, break up their traitor0us orgsn
ization, and acknowledge the authority of the
Federal Government; let their ringleaders seek
safety in fight whils the opportunitysis given
! them, and there will be no occasion for blood
shed. If they desire peace it is for them to make
| it /; the choice lies with them. They have taken
4 the government by the throat let them with
draw the hand that offers the sacrege before
| they are smitten to the dust.
The rebel leaders and their followers, we sup
pose, will never do this. They are infatuated
with the idea of their own supremacy to the PEG
pie of the North, to such degree, that If the
| npt VIC IN demands
shock must CONG. gnt their demands cannot
be granted without acknowledging that the most
solemn compact has no binding force, that ODE
dience to the law is no duty, that the public or
der may be disturbed with impunity; that rob
berry and rebellion are always to have their way
and that our form of government, seen in its
| true light, is mere anarchy. This is what Mr..
Bolts asks the Free States magnanmously to
admit in mercy to the South. We cannot do il
without admitting principles which will unhinge
society.
| The war must thsn come, and the slave States
will rush upon their own ruin; the wave must
sweep onward and dash itself in pieces against
the rock. Nothing will bring the politicians o.
those States to their senses but trial of theil
strength with that of the North. They have
prepared themselves for it; they have provoked
it by every means of insult and defiance; they arc
marching northward at this moment to meet it
Let them have what they have for years beer
conspiring to bring about.
| We have heard much, lately, of the forecas
Of the Southern politicisns-of the regard tt
the future with which they lay their plans ant
shape their conduct That they are capable o
keeping political object long in sight is trut
enough, but persistency is a different thiDt
from wisdom They have planned, with mos
fatal dexterity, their approach to the gulf il
which they are about to plunge, bat they have
meyer calculated its depth nor thought of thu
means of rising from their fall.