Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1862-01-16

pICbCht tiOuoiCo.
A subject SO skillfully shaped already into
engines of nischief-by meddlers on both
sides the line referred to--that common
country and Constitution for which we
protested common reverence could not save
us from the implacable war that we now
witness, is to become We are asked to believe,
a subject of Indifference as soon rs the con-
tending sections are organized into separate
Governments. Maryland and Pennsylvania,
still as near together as ever, but allies no
longer-thp same sensitive subject Of discord
between them, without any common tie or
Constitution by which that discord may be
restrained or adjusted-and yet the imaginary
line, which is still all that separates them. is
become, by some miraculous agency, here
after mighty barrier, across which the en-
missary of Northern fanaticism will never
venture to set his foot
Instead of then the widest of all fancies
being ever realized, should such separation
take place, the mind recoils frcm a contem-
plation of the feuds which would inevitably
follow such partition; feuds embittered by
mutual ordinations and "reminiscences per-
petually ranking in the minds of each, the
very first subject falling sacrifice to their
influence would be the very one for whose
security this separation is prescribed. And
whilst those inaugurating the reckless expe-
riment would be comparatively exempt from
its disasters, we, upon whom they will be
precpltated, will furnish but another illus
traton of the past history of the subject
they ever the loudest in complaints of ag-
erosion, and we the only ones to suffer by
its infection.
The institutions of slavery, as we must be
all aware finds no support in the sympathy
of foreign nations; on the contrary, we have
had repeated proofs that public opinion there
is stouty array ed against it. Its power to
withstand this opposition, as it has hitherto
successfully done, have been chiefly derived
from the protection it has found under the
shelter Of the Great United National Govern
ment. Shall we then be guilty of the mon.
strous folly Of dividing this nation, and add
ing to the foreign element of opposition to
tfis institution the still more dangerous and
approximate one incurred by the creation of
q foreign government at our very thresh-
hold, and whose people will claim to charge
to its account the national calamites to which
it has been made subservient2
But it is giving to the rebellion consd-
Grafton TO which it has no claim to discuss
its pretensions in connection with its assumed
supervision with the interests of slavery.
Such considerations could have had little or
no share among the motives of those who
naugurated it; these leaders were too intel
ligent and astute to have overlooked the
consequences to which ] have referred, and
must have foreseen, too, that such interests
above all others, would be most materially
affected in the course Of a war, let that war
be conducted as it might But the ds:nem-
berment of this Union--the organization of
a separate Southern Government the intro
duction into that Government of political
principals well known to be opposed to the
long established sentiments aud purposes of
vast majority Of tho nation-made up the
object the conspirators had in view. These
have formed SO long the subject Of their am
bilious mediations that, after having in form
opposed but in effect promoted the success
OF political agitators Mt the North as reck less
as themselves, they have seized upon that
success, the result Of their own contrivance
as the preteXt for their premeditate rebellion,
and thus to accomplish their selfish and am
bilious schemes has this contest been thrust
upon lis and Our beloved country, lately 80
prosperous, peaceful and happy, made the
theatre Of a civil war, Frustrating every in
dustrial pursuit. penetrating every domestic
circle and involving all, more or less, in it,
calamities.
The question is frequently asked, and with
nationa! soil tude-when will these things
end? How long will this war last ? and
how and WHEN may we look for returning
peace?
To halbor a doubt of tie proper answer
Of these questions is to protract this war
In the very nature Of things there can be but
one solution Of the problem. The gcograph
cal condition Of our country, the characte,
of our people, their indispensable necessities
and their not less indispensable duties, aik,
forbid the possibility of any other.
Their very existence depends upon thci
nationality 1t never can, therefore, be sur
wondered. To surrender it is to admit fail
ure Of Republican institutions-is to confes
before the nations Of the earth that we ar
pnwerless for self-gOvernment, and to trans
init our names to future generations to stan,
forever in gnoble contrast with the glurou
slres from whom we have descended. A
such a suggestion We n light almost expect t
see the guardian spirit of this venerabl
chamber, halowed AZ it is by such mcmorie
of the past, rise up to rebukc the recrean
thought.
The leaders Of the rebellion may asser
over and over again that the South neve
will submit to this National rule--that i
will resist to the last the proposed reunion
SO far as those leaders are concerned, W
may not doubt the sincerity of their protest
Their offences against free institutions ar
too rank and too recent to allow them will
ingly again to submit to the will Of the ma
jorty But, to say nothing of the popula
voioe-which they have for the present st
fled to admit for argument sake that bu
one sentiment pervades the entire Soutl
; and that it clamors for separate Govern
, ment, earnest as that purpose may be, thel
is a still stronger force opposed to it; nc
merely the force Of vast numerical super
GRITTY, but power made irresistible by II
, force Of necessity controlling and dccisiy
e power, growing out Of the demands whic
| The laws of self-preservation make imper;
tive. Nationality with lis, therefore, is III
: cessity, and peace, anxiously as we may ava
it, can never come until that necessity is r.
+ cognized, and our whole country once mo-
y united under its old established rule. WI
can doubt that such will be the ultimate r
: suit of the war if it is confined to the faitl
i iul pursuit of that object?
t 1t has been manifest from the first til
II the main reliance of the sccessonists has bee
far less in the Justice of their cause or in Il