The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1863-09-19
British Opini0m-Tiie Utility OF
tic American War.
from the London News |

to have reached its last extreme when
we hear men talk Of the American war
as "uselcss war; A great many PEG
pie are saying so every day, without
any apparent consciousness of the cou-
domination u man passes on himself when
he discusses the utility Of saving ones
country or dying for it.. The New York
STANDARD has opportuncly rcpublishcd,
in its issue of July 18th, report of a
public meeting held in Fancml Hall, six
and twenty years since, at the ins.iga-
ton and under the influence of DR..
Charming, which many Of our glib VIII
tiers and takers might read with adyan-
tage. At that meeting Claiming and
other speakers distinctly recognized the
occasion as the beginning Of q crisis
through which the Republic must inevi-
tably pass, for its salvation or destruc-
ton and since that day there has never
been time when the conflict could be
regarded as either unnecessary or use
less. Ii was as vital as it was incvita-
bic and it was the consciousness of this
which gave to that meeting u solemnity
never rivalled by any occasion in the
actual season of war.
1t was not on behalf of the negroes,
or about the negroes at all that the cit
lzens OF Massachusetts met in their old
hall. 1t was to confer on the case of
the murder Of fcllow-ctizcn who had
been quietly using and asserting his
right Of free speech in 4 free State
/ his Massachusetts, man, Loycioy, was
the first who fell in this war, which so
many people call useless :; and he fell in
asserting the right Of every citizen to
speak and to print his opinion on public
affairs. After his press had been twice
destroyed, he was himself shot at the
door Of his Office in Illinois, where he
was hunted to death by the same sort of
champions Of the South as those who
have now been cxcmplyfying Southern
chivalry in New York. The men of
that day who thought that any disturb
ance Of the apparent harmony Of North
and South would be highly inconyenient,
or as they called it 6: useless :" did their
utmost to battle DR.. Channing's move
ment, as the proceedings show. The
Attorney General Of Massachusetts adj
vocated delivering up dissatisfied citl-
zeus to be dealt with under Southern
laws rather than find any fault with either
Southern laws or iawlcssncss and when
it was doubtful whether dastardly or
patriotic counscls would prevail, the list
ening citizens felt that their fate trcmbled
4 holn io H,,t
in any case for the South, dominant at
Washington, had begun to trample on
such essential gifts as must be fought
for sooner or later; the question was
only whether the struggle should be
prompt, bold and decisive, or deferred,
timid, and rresoIuec.
Such was the opening of the strife
which we witne SIS in this day and very
wildly is the scene brought up again by
the republication of the report Of that
critical meeting, which was one of Dir.
Channing's last services to his country.
lie obtained for his native State deliv-
crancc from the 81 lme of an unrcsisting
submission to the Southern gag. The
brave and sound we've fewer than he had
supposed but they were ascertancd,
and they might be tgusted to uphold the
liberties Of the citizens till they should
have to be fought for by an all-cngross-
ing civil war.
There is a sense in which these choice
citizens have always declared the war to
be g useless and " unnecessary - but
it is not in the sense III which our Seccs-
sion newspapers make the assertion.-
What the sound Republicans mean is,
that a bold and timely resistance to I'M
constitutional action would have brought
the South into order at any time before
the great concessions made by Northern
cravens in 1850 and EDWARDS. A stand
made for the right Of petition, when Mr..
Adams contended for it in Congress
almost alono, would have saved this war.
If South Carolina had been called to
account, in 1888, for burning the con-
tents of the mall-bags in the streets Of
Charleston, this war might have been
saved. If Massachusetts had made q
stand for her constitutional rights, when,
IN 1915, Mr.. uoar-a venerable and dis
tingushcd citizen commissioned to con-
fer with the Government of South Caro-
lima on the case Of Massachusetts seamen
in the port of Charleston-was marched
out of Charleston with his daughter, in
violation of all right and Usage, thls war
might perhaps have been averted. Web
ster was then in the Senate at Washing
ton, and he was always dead weight on
the liberties of his Safe and country
the Southern. influence, commercial and
political; was too strong for the una
reused and uuconverted people to resist.
The outrage was put up with, and the
present war was thereby rendered neces-
sary and inevitable. 1t is in this sense
that retribution is traced by the national
concience in the war Which has cost SC
many lives and SO much misery. If the
last generation of citizens had been ur
to their duty, they would have spared
the South much guilt and punishment
and their own children all the horrors OF
this time. The last thing that the mcr
of any generation would assent to is any
suggestion that the Republic is not
worth all cost in preserving it.
Between the day when Lovejoy was
mobbod and murdered in Illinois and las
month, When the same things were done