The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-04-18

|stitution necessary to carry such an ar
rangement into effect; sure ~ 1t was IN
few years by its perfect madness to cure
ITSELF But this did not suit the ambitious
leaders in cotton growing States. They
well knew that no such expression OF pop
ular opinion could be obtained, for the
good reason that no such opinion existed.
They knew that separation thus peacea-
bly, brought about would be an experiment
as short-fived as suicidal. They knew that
the border States would stand aloof, and
that the first revolution in domestic poll
tics, probably the next Presidential cleo
ton, would consign to political ruin the
the seceeding States to the Union.-
This they knew, this they felt, this
they in effect confessed. They die
not wish to be allowed to Ego in peace."-
All professions to that effect are delusivt
and hypocritical. 1t was for the wicked
purpose of ''iring the Southern heart by
the shedding Of blood, thus exciting ths
border states to take part with the Cotton
States, and what was ofequal importance
overawing and silencing opposition al
home, that Fort Sumter was attacked. L
ever the secrets of this conspiracy are dis.
closed by the publication of the correspond.
ellce that passed between Richmond
Charleston and Montgomery. in that ina,l.
spicious winter of 1S60-61, what now af
firm will be found in black and white. In
truth it was substantially avowed in the
columns of the Charleston journals and in
the speeches of the demagogues who were
sent from Virginia to fan the flame of trea.
son. ~ A3ii4t.t1 titE ~ lt3ti45 'iti
The blow was at length struck, and but
too successfully. With the outbreak of the
rebellion reign of terror as merciles as
that of Robespierre was inaugurated at the
South, and every man but the noble and
lamented Petigru quailed before it. Vir-
ginia ensnared in the meshes OF her hair
splitting metaphysics, and fearful Of being
deprived Of the wreIched privilege Of sup
plying the plantations of Mississippi and
Louisiana with the surplus of her slave
population, in known opposition to the
wish of the majority of her people was en-
gineered into the contest; and a war not
merely of aggression, but of cold blooded
calculation on the part of the South and OF
self-defence, of duty, and of necessity on
the part OF the North was inaugurated.
| Il With every month Of its prosecution this
aggressive character of the war has been
more and more displayed. On the 18th oi
April, 1861, and while the news of the bonn
bardment OF Sumter was passing over the
| wires to Montgomery, and before its little
band of heroes had been compelled to WELD
to the overwhelming force by which they
We're surrounded, the intention of captur-
ing Washington was, as we have seen, pub
| licly announced by the Confederate Secre-
tary of War. Washington is the capital OF
thirty-four States. AT the time this insolent
threat was uttered, the Confederacy was
confined to the seven cotton-growing States
| What right could this rebellious group Of
States, far off on the Gulf of Mexico, with g
sum total of q little more than two and 8
half millions of white inhabitants, have tc
| the metropolis of the Union? Seven days
later, the pavement of Baltimore was stain
ed with the blood Of Massachusetts men
fastening in obedience to lawful authority
to the defense Of the Capital. Events have
shown the mistaken loyalty Of Maryland
4 Not a voice was raised in all her borders i1
response to the proclamation of the Confed'
crate General, who crossed the Potomac
| last September with an army of 81 900 men
''to liberate oppressed Maryland" West
ern Virginia was next attacked. Mr.. Sen.
ator Mason, in published letter, signed
i part of the State, (whO had no more inten.
II ton than the Western counties of Massa
! chusettS to secede from the UniOn,) that i
Il they presumed even to vote against the or
dinance, they must leave the State, such
j being that gentleman's understanding Of
the principle that government must rest or
!! the consent of the governed. In further il
lustration of the principle, Western Vir
i ginia was overrun by the Confederate troops
4 till they were driven out by Rosecrans anG
Mcclellan. Kentucky and Missouri were
/ next invaded. There, too, the progress o.
events have disclosed, on the part of the
masses of the people, an mistaken loyalty
i to the Udion; but they have been overrun
| plundered and devastated by the armies O.
this pacific Confederacy, which asks fol
nothing but ITO be let alone and allowed tt
go in peace" Though the first act of the
Secassionists in Baltimore, after the muir.
derous attack on the Massachusetts troops
was to tear up and burn the bridges on the
railroads leading to the North and West
Mr.. Benjamin (the humane Secretary O
State to the Gonfederacy) ordered the.Union
men, charged with bridge-burning in East
Tennessee, to be tried by ga drum-head
cOurt-martial," ifconvicted to be hung, and
their bodies to be left on hegibbet near the
| bridges destroyed; the mass of the people
in East Tennessee being all the time as
loyal to the Union as in Western Virginia.
The same is the case, to a considerable ex-
tent, in Western North Carolina, in North
ern Alabama, in Arkansas, in Louisiana
and in Texas; but contiscation, impress
ment into the army, the bloodhound, the
Soourge, and the halter, are the machinery
by which this pacific Confederacy produces
its Wanted unanimity. You may recollect
that Gent Houston, the Governor of Texas,
refused to call the Legislature of that State
j together, to act on the question of secession.
| III,
ofGeorgia, on the third day of the session
OF ls60-6l, openly declared in the Senate OF
| the United States, that ''if he did not WELD
to public sentiment, some Texan Brutus
will arise to rid his country Of the hoary-
headed incubus, that stands between the
people and their sovereign will.''1 III
An attempt, know, is made especially
by foreign writer's to assimilate the exist
ing rebellion at the. South with the Ameri-
can revolution. We might, as against Eng
land, accept this view of the subject, for she
not only denied the right of the Colonies to
assert their Independence, but treated the
attempt to do so as a rebellion. Although
she denies oar right by legislative act. to
close the ports of the rebellious States, She
did it herself in the Revolutionary War by
George III, c. 5, and two years after the
capitulation Of Burgoyne and after the in
dependence of the States had been acknowl-
edged by France, she sent Mr.. Laurens to
the tower as traitor. She therefore is. as
much as estopped from recognizing the
right OF secession as we are from deny
ing it. 5f1''L I'll
f. But the truth is, there is not the slirhtes,
similarity between the secession of the reb.
ell States and the American revolution, un.
less upon the principle that all rebeliions