White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1861-07-11

ton. A few regiments nave 0een organ
lied within some other of those State
by individual enterprise and received int
the Government service. OF course to-
seeded States, 81 called, and to which
Texas had been Joined about the time o
the Inauguration. gave no troops to tn
cause of the Union. The border States
30 called, were not uniform in their action
some of them being almost for the Union
while in others, as Virginia. North Caro-
lins, Tennessee and Arkansas. the Unior
sentiment was nearly repressed and silenc
ed. The course taken in Virginia was
the most remarkable, perhaps the mos
important. A convention elected by the
State to consider this very question o.
disrupting the Federal Union was in ses.
sion at the Capital OF Virginia when Fort
Sumter fell. To this body the people
had chosen large majority Of protested
Union men. Almost Immediately after
the fall of Sumter many members of that
majority went over to the original dis
union minority. and with them adopted
an ordinance for Withdrawing the State
from the Union.
Whether this change was wrought by
their approval Of the assault upon Sumter,
or the great resentment at the Govern.
ment's resistance to that assault, is not de-
fnitely known. Although they submitted
the ordinance for the ratification to a vote
of the people, to be taken on a day then
somewhat more than a month distant,
the Convention and the Legislature. which
was also in session at the same time and
place, with leading men of the State not
members of either body. commenced act
ing as if the State were even already out
of the Union. They pushed military
preparations vigorously forward all over
the State. They seized the United States
Armory at Harper's Ferry, and the Navy
Yard at Gosport, near Norfolk they re-
ceived, perhaps invited into their State.
large bodies of armed troops. with their
warlike appointments, from the so called
seeded States; they formally entered into
q treaty of alliance and cooperation with
the so called Confederate States and sent
members to their Congress at Montgom.
cry; and finally they permitted the in
surrectionary government to'be transferred
to their capital at Richmond. The peo-
pie of Virginia have thus allowed this
giant instruction to make its nest within
her borders, and this Government has no
choice left but to deal with it where it
finds it !; and it has the less regret as the
loyal citizens have in due form claimed
its protection. Those loyal citizens this
Government is bound to recognize and
protect, as being Virginia. In the border
States SO called, but in fact the Middle
States, there are those who favor policy
which they call armed neutrality, that is,
an arming of those States to prevent the
Union forces passing one way, or the dis
union the other over their soil. This
would be disunion completed figurative-
ly speaking, it would be the building of
an impossible wall along the line of sep
aration, and yet not quite an impossible
one. for. under the guise of neutrality. it
would tie the hands of the Union men
and freely pass supplies from among them
to the insurrectionists, which it could not
do as an open enemy. At stroke it
would take all the trouble off the hands of
secession, except only what proceeds from
the external blockade. 1t would do for
the disunionis,s that which of all things
they most desired. feed them well. and
give them disunion without a struggle
of their own.
1t recognizes no fidelity to the Con-
stitution; no obligation to maintain the
Union; and while very many who have
favored it. are doubtless loyal, it is new.
ertheless very injurious in effect. Recur-
ring to the action of the Government, it
may be stated that at first a call was
made for seventy FIVE thousand militia,
and, rapidly following this. proclama-
ton was issued for closing the ports Of
the insurrectionary districts, by proceed.
ings in the nature of blockade So far
all was believed to be strictly legal. AT
this point, the insurrectionists announced
their purpose to enter upon the practice
of privateering. Other calls were made
for volunteers. to serve three years, unless
sooner discharged, and also for large
addition to the regular army and navy.
These measures, whether strictly legal or
not, were entered upon under what ap.
peared to be popular demand and pub
lie necessity, trusting then, as now, that
Congress would readily ratify them. 1t
is believed that nothing has been done
beyond the constitutional competency of
Congress. Soon after the first call for
militia. it was considered duty to au-
thorize the commanding general in proper
cases, according to his discretion, to sus-
pend the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus, or in other words to arrest and
detain, without resort to the ordinary
processes and forms of law, such individ-
uals as he might deem dangerous to the
public safety. This authority has pur-
posely been exercised but very sparing-
"; nevertheless the legality and propri-
ETY. OF what has been done under it are
questioned, and the attention of the coun-
try has been called to the proposition,
that one who is sworn to take caro- that
the laws be faithfully executed. should
not himself vioiste them.
OF course, some consideration was Civ
en- to the questions of power and proprie-
ty. Before this matter was acted upon,
the whole of the laws which were requir-
ed to be faithfully executed, were being
and failing of execution in near
ly one-third of the States, must they be
allowed to finally fail Of execution? Even
had it been perfectly clear that, by the