The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-03-28
From the New York LedseI.
THE ARCH.BLUNDER.
BY EDWARD IvERITT.

From the New York Ledger.
THE ARCH.BLUNDER.
BY EDWARD IvERErT.
The wages Of sin is death, but in case of great
national wrong, Providence sometimes lets the
account run for long time, $3.50
Like poison given to work long time after.
It was centuries before the overgrown landed ca.
tates, to which Pliny ascrbes the ruin of Italv.
effected that object. In other cases, the crime
is go monstrous and: unnatural, that it comes
"birth strangled" into the world, With shame on
the forehead and death at the heart 1t is then
blunder as we'll as a crime, and of all the blum.
ders ever committed by ambitious and unprinci-
pied men, that of secession is the most stupen-
dous
To gain plausible pretext in the ewes of
mankind for breaking up frame of Government
the most happily constituted fabric of polite.
al wisdom which the world had seen-and one
of which the administration, by the patient ac-
quieseence of the North, had been all but mo-
uopoized by herself. the right Of an individual
State to secede from the Union was passionstely
asserted by the South. The plea was really OF
no value, unless unanimously admitted. While
twenty-three States denied the right Of individ-
ual secession, the strong presumption must, in
eleven that affirmed it. Practically, therefore,
the right of secession resolves itself into the right
Of revolution. But that right, though undoubt
ed, SO far from being an absolute and unquali.-
fed right, as the orators and journalists Of Eng
land pretend, for the sake of putting the North
in the wrong, has no moral foundation except in
cases of oppression go intolerable as to justify
war with all its crimes and woes In all other
cases the right of suppreasing the rebellion (for
till 1t succeeds revolution is rebellion) is just as
clear on the part of the Government. The idea
that there is, either on the principles of morali.
ty Or of public law, an unqualified right, on the
part of any and every subdivision Of people,
to throw off by force their allegiance to the
Government under which they live, and estab-
lish their independence, is one of the widest
crudities Of the day. 1t is undoubtedly true,
that all governments rest on the consent of the
governed, but this is no more the case in Re-
publican America than in Royal England or
Imperial France, And whenever portion of the
governed undertake to revelt against the consti.
tutional government established over the whole,
they Go It at their peril, morally and politically,
as much in one country as in another.
But it is not at this time my purpose to dwell
upon secession as theoretical absurdity. Az a
practical blunder, at once the most gross and fa-
tai which the world ever witnessed, it demands
our present attention. 1t rests upon preten>
ded right, inherent in the Constitution of SOW
ereign State, to seceie at pleasure from any
Union, into which it may have entered. It for.
gets that even if the Constitution of the State
originally implied such right (for it is not all
legged that it IS eY,hIhsssed,) it was extingusbed
by the voluntary ad5 s5tion of a frame of govern
ment one of whose express fundamental princi-
1T, e hall ho tbo La of sbo
land, "any thing fright Of secession or any thing
else) in the Constitution or laws of any of the
States to the contrary notwithstanding But
although there is sef.contrs diction in the very
formula of the right of secession, on the part Of
State which has Joined Union under such
Constitution, the South has laid down that irnag-
inary right as the basis of her revolution. This
I call blunder of the first magnitude on her
part, for, besides being poison, taken at the
birth, to work, q great time after, it lays her,
at the very outset of her attempted national ex-
istence, at the feet of the maratime powers of
Europe; the victim..alike of their arts aud arms,
their power and their policy
That is no imaginary statement Of the result
of the doctrine of secession is already seen in the
progress of events. Their recently Intercepted
dispatches show the indecent panic into which
the Confederate Government was thrown few
months since, by the fancied discovery of an in
triRue on the part of France, to induce the State
of Texas to secede. The Confederate President,
we'll informed by his Secretary, if not cognizant
of it himself, that it was the traditional policy"
of numerous and influential party in Texas to
establish her separate independence, and under.
take the conquest Of the northern provinces Of
Mexico, was frightened from bis propriety by
the information that couple Of superservices-
ble vice-consuls of France had asked the Gov
ernor and one of the Senators of that S'ate,
whether her welfare would not be promoted by
a separate independence. To all appearance
his mind was then, for the first time, struck by
the suicidal logic of secession. He then saw, as
probably never before, that he was Cd the point
of being ''host with his own petard" Let out
half dozen uneasy spirits at Austin and Gal
weston play the same game that was played IN
the winter Of ls6o-1s6l a: Charleston, Mont
gomery and Richmond, and Texas, under the
auspices of the Emperor of the French, secedes
from the Confederacy. Remember, she is s'a
sovereign State" and has perfect right to do
it. Remember it is the Evolutionary policy" of
France to prevent her annexation to the Union,
and of this you are so well persuaded that, withs
out moments hesitation, you impute this pal
try intrigue to the Emperor Of the French, and
direct your emissary at Paris to catechize him
on the subject. Remember what your Secreta-
~ Of State knows good deal better than he
has vet been willing to confess, that nothing but
the aspirations of Gen. Houston to the White
House prevented this policy from taking effect
in 1874; and now ask yourselves whether, in the
light of these facts, there ever was political
bIunder equal to that of the South, in attempt
ing to break away from their connection with a
great nationality, clothed with military and
naval power which would render any such move
ment-with or without foreign countenance-as
homeless as it is unconstitutional.
But if secession was blunder on the part of
the South, the countenance and sympathy which
have been extended to it, by the great naval
States Of Europe, equally deserve that name,
both on the part Of England and France. When
NJ. Guizot, in 1874, stated the reasons why it was
the interest of France that Texas should not be
annexed to the United States, those reasons re-
solved themselves into the expediency Of pre-
serving wha. be called the American equilibrium
that is, a balance between the three great
American Powers, viz: the British Provincial
81 s.s ri sge7 -aau s w
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