Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-04-18
The Journal on Longs speech

Indianapolis Indiana.
The Journal on Longs speech.
The Journal in commenting upon Mr.. LoNG's
speech, in its issue of yesterday, remarks:
I'VE saw, with Mr. Cofax, that ne has no right
to advocate the destruction of the Government,
anywhere and least of all in Congress"
Mr. LONG advocated no such doctrine He
expressed the conviction that civil must
suit in disunion, and if the alternative was pre-
scented to him of the subjugation and extermina.
ton of the people of the rebel States or the re-
cognitiou of the Southern Confederacy he would
choose the latter.
Again the Journal remarks:
"When Mr. Long advocates the division of the
nation and the destruction of the government
for that is lust what he dOes-the right of other
men to maintain both rises as high his right to
speak bis sentiments, and they may stop him, or
punish him If they can't stop him
After the election of Mr. LINCOLN in 1860, the
Journal and many of the leading Republican
papers of the country advocated a division of the
nation. rather than civil "Of what value
said the New York Tribune, would Union be
pinned together by bayonets?" And this senti-
ment repeated approvingly by the Journal.
If the division oil the nation is equivalent to the
destruction of the government, then the
leading Republican journals during the fall and
winter of IS60-6l, when the administration of
the government was about to pass into the hands
of the Republican party. guilty Of the crime of
treason They conserving act which
involved, as they now argue, the l:fe of the ma
ton. 1t is little singular. when the present
position of those papers is taken into considera-
ton, that not one of them ever intimated that
the separation of the dissatisfied States would
destroy the Government, but the other hand
they feared that such would be the result of civil
war The Journal was guilty of the very offense
1t now charges upon Mr.. Lone, and do not
make the accusation without the proof to
tain it,
On the 18th of November, 1850, the Journal,
in referring to the threats of secession by of
OF the Southern States, said: "rhey know very
well that if they are determined to leave the
Union, no Republican will care to have them
stay. If South Carolina and her
ciates really want to leave the Union, they may
go without a word Of objection from any man
uOEtu Vi MASON huN OAAON . INT !" q
do not believe in resisting any secession move
nent in the least On tbs 18th of November.
1860 the Journal said: The people Of the
North will never raise army to force
any State to stay in the Union. - 'Coer
cion' we regard as out of the question in any
case"
On the 18th of the same month the same paper,
rixo d.
Secession is revolution. and the first act OF it
lifts the whole case above all questions Of forms
and laws. We are to decide then, not what is
legal aud constitutional but 'phat is best? In
the present it seems to that if the enforce
ment Of the Constitution leads to civil war, We
shall be better of to let the Constitution be bro
ken, and save bloodshed We can imagine no
evil equal to American civil war. The sepa
ration Of the whole Confederacy into independ
ent nations would be harmless beside it. We
cannot endure the thought of it. OF what value
would an Union be that needs links of bayonets
and bullets to hold it together? 1t is better to
preserve lives, and all the friendliness we can
with our seeding relations. than to preserve the
Constitution the cost of war"
On the 2lst of December the Journal,
continuing its discussion of the probabilities oil
secession, thus enforced the views it had
previously expressed: "And if we cannot have
the Union our fathers made. and can only have
such an one as CALHOUN has devised, zoe don I
tcaat any. Let the sections part in peace. and
form each Union for itself. Ii is the dictate oil
humanity, and the demand of the enlightenment
of the Bineteenth century. that shall never be
resorted to 10 decide question Of humanity Let
Us face disunion calmly, measure il fully, and we
shall find that however much we may lament II
we need not be frightened at it." And these
sentiments came from paper which now declare:
that division Of the nation is destruction Of
the government On the 22d of December 1860
in announcing the secession Of South Carolina
the Journal remarked: "Well. we are a severed
nation. We are divided house. And we ar,
none the worse for it," Yet yesterday the same
paper says that Mr.. Loxe advocates the division
ofthe nation and therefore the dsssruc Of thu
government This il did not think in Decembe
1860 when it announced thai We were severcc
nation. II had no thought then that the seces
sion Of any State or Of all the dissatisfied State
could or would destroy the Government.
We could make numbcriess extracts like tn
foregoing from the Journal during the months o
January. February. March and April Of 1851
but We have not now the space. IL maintaine'
With great earnes,ness snd pertinacty tbroughou
that secession was revolution; that the Declara
ton Of Independence upon which our Govern
ment was based recognized the right OF revolu
ton; and that disunion, a peaceable separation
from the seeded States. far preferable 4
civil war. And four months after the fall 0