New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-13
From the New York Timea, May l6th.l
A SAFE COUNSELLOR.
How Horace Greeley would Have
saved the Union" Between
1850 and 1864.
A Warning from the Past.

| by the judgment he has displayed on previous
critical occasions. Test Mr.. Greeley by this
standard, and who would be rash enough to
| lntrist the work of government to his hands :
What would have happened to us in 1860 il
Mr.. Greeley's counsel had been adopted NAV
be gathered from his own published works al
that time, a portion of which we print below
We commend the following literal quotations
which have no little historical value, to the
calm consideration of our readers:
From tho Tribune, November o, 1860
STATE SECESSION FULLY INDICATED.
And now, If the cotton States consider the
value of the Union debatable, we maintain
their perfect right to discuss it. Nav, we
hold with Jefferson to the inalienable right to
communities to alter or abolish forms of gov
eminent that have become oppressive or in
furious and, if the cotton States should de-
eide that they can do better outside of the
Union than in it, we insist in letting them 90
in peace. The right to secede NAV be a
revolutionary one, but it exists, nevertheless :;
and we do not see how one party can have a
right to do what another party has right to
prevent. We must ever resist the asserted
right OF any State to remain in the Union
and nullify or defy the laws thereof; to with
draw from the Union is quite another matter.
And, whenever considerable section of our
Union shall deliberately resolve to 90 out,
we shall resist all coercive measures designed
to keep it in. We hope never to live in a
republic whereof one section is pinned to the
residue by bayOnets.
But, while we thus uphold the practical
liberty, if not the abstract right of secession,
we must insist that the step be taken, if it
ever shall be, with the delberation and
gravity befitting so momentous issue. Let
hn fSixy for 1nt
subject be fully canvassed before the people !;
and let popular vote be taken in every case,
before secession is decreed. Let the people
be told just why they are about to break up
the confederation; let them have both sides
OF the question fully presented; let them re-
fleet, deliberate, then vote; and let the act
of secession be the echo of an unmistakable
popular fiat. A judgment thus rendered,
demand for separation so backed, would
either be acquiesced in without the etltlsiOn
of blood, or those who rushed upon carnage
to defy and defeat it, would place themselves
clearly in the wrong.
From the Tribune, December 10, 1901
THE SOUTHERN STATES HAD AS MUCH
RIGHT TO LEAVE THE UNION AS THE
COLONIES HAD TO REVOLT IN I776--THE
ARGUMENT USED BY SOME BRITISH
STATESMEN IN 1S6l-62.
We have repeatedly asked those who dis
sent from our view of this matter to tell us
frankly whether they do or do not assent to
Mr.. Jetferson's statement in the Declaration
of independence, that Governments "derive
their just powers from the consent of the
governed;' and that whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of those
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or
abolish it, and to institute a new Govern
NJ 40 70 Ia orfil
doctrine, believing it intrinsically sound,
beneticent, and one that, universally ac-
cepted, is calculated to prevent the shedding
of seas of human blood. And if it justified
the secession from the British Empire of three
millions Of cOlonists in l776, we do not see
why it would not justify the secession of five
millions of SOutherners from the Federal
Union i'll 1861. If we are mistaken on this
point, why does not some one attempt to
show wherein and why? For our own part,
while we deny the right of Shareholders to
hold slaves against the will of the latter, we
cannot see how twenty millions of people can
rightfully hold ten, or even five, in detested
union with them, by military force.
VI course, we understand that the princi-
pie of Jefferson, like any other broad gener-
alization, may be pushed to extreme and
baleiul consequences. We can see why
Governors Island should not be at liberty
to secede from the State and nation and
allow herself to be covered with French and
British batteries commanding and threaten
ing our city. There is hardly great princi-
pie which may not be thus run into the
ground" But If seven or eight contiguous
States shall present themselves automatically
at Washington, saying, eve hate. the Fed
eral Union we have withdrawn from it we
give you the choice between acquiescing in
our secession and arranging amicably all in
cidental questions on the one hand, and at
tempting to subdue us on the other"-we
could not stand up for coercion, for subiuga-
ton, for we do not think it would be Just.
We hold the right of self-government sacred,
even when invoked in behalf of those who
deny it to others. So much for the question
of principle.
| Now as to the matter of policy:
| South Carolina will certainly secede. Sew
eral other cotton States will probably follow
her example. The border States are evil
IDENTIFY reluctant to do likewise. South Caro-
lima has grossly insulted them by her dicta-
torial, reckless course. What she expects
and desires is clash of arms with the Fed.
eral Government, which will at once com.
mend her to the sympathy and corporation
of every slave State, and to the sympathy, al
least, of the pro-slavery minority in the free
States. 1t is not difficult to see that this
would speedily work political revolution
which would restore to slavery all, and more
than all, it has lost by the canvass of 1860
We want to obviate this. We would expose
the seceders to odum as disunionists, no
commend them to pity as the gallant
though mistaken, upholders of the rights o
their section in an unequal military contest
We fully realize that the dilemma of thu
incoming administration will be critical one
1t must endeavor to uphold and enforce thu
laws, as well as against rcbcllious slave
holders as fugitive slaves. The new Presi
dent must fulfill the obligations assumed il
his Inauguration oath, no matter how shame
fully his predecessor may have defied them
We fear that Southern madness may precipi
tate bloody collision that all must deplore
But if ever "seven or eight States" SEN
agents to Washington to say, We want t.
90 out of the Union," we shall feel con
strained by our devotion to human liberty t
say, Let them go! And we do not see no,
we could take the other side without comm
in direct conflict with those rights of ma
which we held paramount to all politica
arrangements, however convenient and al
vantageous.
From the Tribune, December 81, 1901
NO RIGHT TO GEORGE SOUTHERN STATES.
: Most certainly we believe that govern
ments are made for peoples, not peoples 10
governments, that the latter derive thel
| ;,,st ,,ou,ar from the consent of the GOV