The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1862-07-19
AN APPEAL FOR THE UNION.
Ru Hnhnrf L WallsHr

Whilst our great rebellion attracts tho
at;enslon of the world, with us it is 9
question of existence. Our armies
eventually, must triumph, but then re-
mains the difficult task of Restoring,
throughout the rcvoled States, the
supremacy of the Constitution. We
must not only con inue to maintain the
distinction between the loyal and dis.
loyal, the dcluded masses and he rebel
leaders, but we must also remember, that
the reign of terror has long been supreme
in the South, and that thousands have
been forced into apparent support of the
rebellion, by threats, by spoliaion, by
military force of CONSUMPTION, and not a
few, driven out as mendicants, by the
ruin of their homes, and the loss of their
means of subsistence.
With the exception of South Carolina,
whose normal condition for more than
thirty years before she struck down our
flag at Stump or, would seem to have
been that of incipient treason and revolt,
no other State really desired to destroy
the Union. A secret association and
active armed conspiracy in the South,
aided by traitor leaders in the North
and South, and an organized system of
falsehood and misrepresentation, drove
the masses, by sudden action, violence,
and terror, into this rebellion. And
yet, under all these circumstances, the
aggregate popular vote of the Sou h
exhibi ed large majority against Scces-
sion.
Nor should we forget that it was
Nor hern President, yielding to Seces-
sion leaders, in opposition to the patriots
of the South, who, by the whole power
of Executive influence and patronage,
attempted to force slavery into Kansas,
by the crime, heretofore without name
or an example, the FORGERY OF Con-
sTITrTIoN. This was the tolling of the
first bell, alarming to patriots, but the
concerted signal for the grand movement
of the assassins, then conspiring the
death Of the Union. We should also
remember, that, although a Northern
President urged the Lecompton forgery
upon Congress, thus mainly contributing
to the downfall of the Union, yet, when
the vote was taken in the Fall of 1860,
a majority of the popular suffrage of the
South was given to those candidates for
he Presidency who had denounced and
opposed this measure, over the candidate
(now in the traitor army,) who gave it
his support. Thus, on this, as on every
other occasion, where the people of the
South have not been ovcrborne BY vio-
lencc and terror, they have rejected at
The polls the action of the Secession
leaders.
But the disaster was prccipitated,
when the same President, rejecting the
advice of the patriotic Scott, refused to
reinforce our forts, when menaccd or
beleaguercd by traitors, and announced
in his messages, to our country, and all
the world, the Secession heresy, fatal to
all government, that we had no right to
repcl force by force, on the part of a
State, seeking by armed secession, to
destroy the Union. In other words,
that we, under such circumstances, would
be the traitors, and the South the de-
Tenders of the Constitution. 1t was then
that the absurd political paradox was
announced by the President, that State
has no right to seccdc, but that the
Government has no right to prevent its
secession. 1t was this wretcbcd dogma
that paralyzed our energies when they
were most needed, gave immunity to
treason, and invi cd rebellion, rendered
our stocks unsalcablc, and induced thous-
ands, at home and abroad, to believe that
the Federal Government was an unreal
phantom, which existed in name only.
Who does not know that if Andrew
jackson, Southern man, had then been
President, the rebellion would have been
crushed by him in embryo, as it was in
1888, and all the blood and treasure,
now expended, would have been saved
to our country and mankind
Surely, it is some pallation of the
course of the dcludcd masses of the
South that they heard such pernicious
counscls, and from such source.
If, as oar army advances, there has
not been an open, general re urn of the
masses to the Union, we must rccollect
that when We did occupy pars of the
Sonth, and then withdrew, how soon the
re-surging tide of the rebellion swept
over the devoted region, what scenes OF
horror and desolation cnsucd, how the
homes of those who had welcomed our
flag were given to the flames, whilst
dca Ii was the portion of others. But
le' us crush out the very cnbcrs of this
rebellion, drive out to other lands the
rebel leaders, give to the ruined and
deluded masses ample assurance of per-
mancnt protection, and they will resume
their allegiance to the Union. As to
those brave and devoted patriots at the
South, who, throughout the Secession
frenzy, maintained, at the risk of life and
fortune, the cause of the Union, the re-
solve of the Government to protect and
cherish them is manifest.
As final result, we should not desire
to hold the Southern States as provinces
for that would ia ally exasperate, and
tend to perpetuate the contest, increase
our expenses, destroy our wealth and
revenue, render our taxes intolcrable,
and endanger our free Institutions
When the rebellion is crushed, we should
seek real paciication, the close of the
war and its expenses, a cordial restora-
ton of the Union, and return of that fra
ternal feeling, which marked the first