Arkansas true Democrat., 1861-10-03
From the Liverpool Mercury, Aug 2nd The American Crisis Considered.

hesdoctrne ofsecession Is a third instance in which Europe (and the North too, in this easel holds views contrary to American, though not to European ideas of government. Here again, if we would pursue truth and arrive at correct conclusions, American political questions must bejudged by American principles. As every one knows, those principles were laid down three quarters of a century ago, in the Declaration of Independence, and every year since that period this famous statement of rights has been read in every city, town, and village of the Union; and it has been proclaim ed to the whole world amid the firing of guns, pistols, etc, that {" we hold these truths to be elfevident-that all government is derived from the consent of the governed, and that this right is inalienable." All this was fought for and secnrad <
 Let us examine the case as well as we are able Nine millions ofpeople demand, for some cause or other, the right, so clearly announced, and once fought for, of governing themselves. It Is denied; but the diversity and weakness Of the reasons for the denial afford clear proofs of tine perpexlty Of people conscious ot doing dishonest thing. One great statesman, for ln stance, wishing to drink at the same moment !" at the fountain and mouth of the Nile asks how tke North can give up the Gutf ot Mexico to foreign power? He would have the great lakes of the North and the great gulf of the South; and why not the St. Lawrence and Ana zon as well? This Is that selfish view of the case, which supposes that all other nations are forever to be penned up in their present limits while the States are to spread over and own H. limitable territory. Another urges as a reason for war the " stolen, forts, etc; forgetting that the North retains, in forts, custom houses, hints, and other public buildings, property of perhaps ten times the value of that taken by the South on its own soil, to say nothing ot the whole United States navy, now turned against those who have helped to build it.
 Another cites the firing of the first gun by the South forgetting that that gun was not fired until an armed squadron left New Y ork harbor, after Mr. Lincoln's express declaration that he would collect the revenue in the South and re take the forts, arsenals, etc. A man does not usually wait until the blow descends, if he sees his enemy approaching him with raised bud geon the approach constitutes the attack. Be sides, if the South were in earnest in secession, it would have been folly to wait until the whole navy had arrived from the Pacific aud the East to throttle them at their doors
 Another statesman seems only de5rous of showing Europe how strong government re publicanism may have and that 1t IS no failure; forgetting that the exercise of that power in such a way is simply despotism, and proves the failure and that war for union implies in itself disunion.
 But we pass by all this to consider the point most strongly urged by the President, namely, as to what would happen if the doctrine of SC cession were acknowledged as right. We answer, just that would happen which would happen by acknowledging the right of sefgov- ernment. The last logically implies the hrSt' An attempt is made to eVade this in the North by saving that they acknowledge the right ot revolution-which is an absurdity, as gov ernment cannot allow or acknowledge what 1t forbids if the revolution be overcome, then the conouered-one or twenty millions, as the case may be-are immediately denied the right of self.government. Thus we arrive at the same conclusions; and the United States government, in attempting coercion, have clearly abandoned their own principles.
 Indeed we might say that certain Northern States were the first seceders, since many of them enacted laws making obedience to United States laws penal offense. This was partial secession; and it might have been supposed that the whole North, would have been the party desiring to secede from the South, since they have so long urged their desire to be "discon. nected from the guilt of slavery" and the doe Urine of selfgovernment and secession would have allowed them to obey these dictates o conscience without bloodshed.
 But Mir. Lincoln also aims to protect, as he terms them, the majority of Union men" 1T the South-a solicitude which reminds u: strongly of that displayed by the Emperor O Austria toward the non Magyar population O Hungary, except that in the latter case there k such population, but in the former there i not to be found in the South anything tha could ever be termed small minority of Uniol | men.
 In fact, this abandonment of the fundamental idea, on the part of the North, upon which th' whole government was founded, has thrown tht ruling powers into nextricable confusion, a'I given rise to all those anomalies when so ihuci surprise Europe They term those who cores pond precisely with their heroic :, ancestors re bels." They call those pirate. who are car ar rv;no ont q mode of warfare insisted upon by themselves so late as 1857. They are dolng t their own ports in blockading them what the onlv lately declared the Sicilians had no rlgh to m do. They appeal to Europe for countenanc as free power against slave, and yet declar that they intend to perpetuate that slavery ae cording to the constitution.
 In whatever light we view tn
 case. the position of the North is most untortu nate. If, after fearful expenditure ot he am I.
 "' ;,, aubiupatin0 the South