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

-afterwari reconsidered on the motion Of
Mr.. Cameron, made from personal courtesy
to the venerable mover of the resolutions
Earnest debates took place and various de-
lays were interposed; the resolutions o.
the Peace Congress were, at length, brought
in. and adopted by Mr.. Crittenden in lieu
of his own resolutions the remaining cot
ton States seeded, and all hope OF the
adoption of an effective compromise was
abandoned; not, however, without the pas.
sage of resolve, by the requisite majority
of two-thirds in both houses, proposing an
amendment of the Constitution, that nc
change should hereafter be made in that
intrument adverse to the interests OF the
South. How little was to be hoped from
this or any other measure of peace may be
inferred from the remark of leading
member of the Committee Of Thirty-three,
from Alabama, that if the North would
tender the South q blank sheet to write her
own terms Of compromise, the offer would
not be accepted.
No, my friends, there is no alternative
put to acknowledge the Independence OF
the Confederacy, or to subdue the rebellion
by the strong arm of military power. To
suppose that there is hope of any other set
Element is the grossest delusion.
Can you then recognize the independence
of the Confederacy? Remember that it
carries with it acknowledged defeat in a
war OF aggression arrogantly provoked, by
an enemy VIGOROUSLY inferior in numbers.
financial means, and all the resources of
war that peace made on that basis would
be "a standing invitation, not only to foreign
powers, in all our disputes, to disregard
our rights, but to an insolent antagonist,
flushed with triumph, to resort, on every
future occasion of controversy between the
two Governments, to menace, insult, and
invasion. We must not as showing the
oh oofnr of ha ,ton ,ictu
have to deal, forget the immediate cause of
the present war, which is too apt to be over
looked, in consequence of the vast dimen-
siOns to which the contest has swelled. 1t
was simply that Mr.: Buchanan refused to
enter into a negotiation with deputation
from South Carolina for the cessiOn or the
sale of Fort Sumter. Now on the SUPPOSE
ton that the demand of Carolina was as
legitimate and reasonable, as it was ground
less and absurd, still to rush at once into q
war for such reason was what might be
expected of a tribe of savages, rather than
from a community Of civilized men. What?
in a time of profound peace, and in the face
OF a disclaimer on the part of the President
of an intention TO increase the garrison or
the armament of the post, then occupied
but by asingle company, to open upon it,
without u shadow of provocation, from II
batteries to cannonade it with red-hot shot,
because the General Government did not
see fit to evacuate it and surrender the pub
lie property at the first tap of the rebel
it is the work of madmen, suf-
fcient of itself to justify the reply of Judge
Petigfu, who, when asked by stranger
the way to the lunatic asylum, told him he
could not go amiss in South Carolina. Can
an ignominiOus peace, at the close of war
thus inaugurated, lead to any thing but
renewal of hostilities on the first paltry dis
pute? #ad
Then, too, we must remember that the
recognition Of the Confederacy is the pros
tration of the Government and the dismem-
berment of the territory of the United
States, over which that Government is To-
gally and oonstitutionally established.
Such has rarely, if ever, been the case-at
least, to any thing like the same extent-in
the revolutions, the civil wars, and the re-
bellions of Europe. Most of these wars
have been dynastic struggles, or contests
to maintain the balance Of power, or sus-
tain the national influence and honor
Limited changes of jurisdiction have some
times followed, but never surely such a
lion demands of the Government of the
United States. Twice within the last quar-
ter ofA century, and while our politics were
controlled by the South, we have been on
the point of a war with England to main
tain our right to a corner of the State of
Maine, and to an island on the Pacific
coast, which, till the difficulty arose, was
laid down in the maps of the region. We
are now expected to give up to foreign
power, land bitterly hostile foreign power
it will be,) and that under the coercion of
a barbarous war waged upon a wretched
bubble. half this fair terri
tory of the United States; a sea coast Of
:, 900 miles! some of the best harbors and
ifo Sta IF ha tr1y. No prt
resses that guard our coast-wise commerce;
some of the great lines of communication
East and West, North and South; the con-
troll of the navigation Of the Gulf of Mexico
and of the outlet Of that great system of in
ternal waters which gives it's character to
the central basin of the continent; to give it
up, too, on principle, in virtue of which
may fall into the arms of any European
power that chooses to persuade or coerce
the surrender. To suppose such thing
possible on the part of the United States,
except at the last spasm of national
strength, the last sigh of national honor,
the last struggle of national agony, would
be to apply to the whole country Judge
Petigru's conception of the State of South
Carolina.
Can any man look at a map of the Union
and then seriously entertain the opinion
that the United States, brought, us l haye
just said, to the very verge OF war with
Great Britain, after diplomatic struggle
of sixty years, for the possession of few
acres Of unsettled land on the banks of the
are going to permit foreign
power to intrench itself at the entrance of
Chesapeake Bay, and thence to stretch its
boundary westwardly, wherever it chooses
to draw the lines, over the hills, through
the central plains, across the Rocky Noun
tains, to the setting sun? What! foreign
power to hold the strait, twelve miles wide,
between Cape Charles and Cape Henry,
sure, at the first outbreak of border war
with the North, to admit some hostile for
eign navy into Chesapeake Bay. Is the
route by which Howe's army, in the Revo-
luton, moved from New York to the con-
quest Of Philadelphia SO soon forgotten:-
Many of you have crossed the Susquehan-
nah, the noble river which enters that bay
at its head. Has it occurred to you, in con-
nection with this recognition of the South
ern Confederacy as foreign power, to ask
yourselves where this noble river rises?-
Not in Maryland, the State in which it en-
tiers the bay. Not in Pennsylvania, whose
central valleys it clothes with beauty and
but far up in the northeastern
section of Central New York. Many Bos-
fnnianS franueDt Sharon Sprinpx and wbi1a