The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-04-12


Many states sent more than their
quota. Troops to the number of
81 ,8l6 came in answer to the call.
There appeared no longer to be any
division of sentiment in the North.
lhe destruction of fort Sumter had
unified the people. Stephen A.
Douglas who had fought Lincoln
and his policy for years, now went
to him and offered his services.
Greeley, Everett, Beecher and many
others who had been advocating the
theory that the erring sisters of the
South should be permitted to go in
peace, now felt and declared that the
day for compromise had passed, that
the iron hand should
rule. A great wave of patriotism
swept the country. Public meetings
were held. Funds, supplies, assist
ance of all kinds were offered to the
government. The loyal heart of the
North responded with will to the
attack on Sumter. Before the first
of May there were 10000 troops in
Washington, and soon the govern
ment was turning away great bodies
of volunteers who offered their SER
vices. Galusha A. Grow wrote to
the War Department on May 5 beg
ging that Pennsylvania volunteers
over and above the states quota
might not be refused, but received
and held in readiness in the state.
Grows Letter.
You have no conception"
he wrote, "of the depth of feel
ing, universal in the northern
mind, for the prosecution of this
war until the flag floats from
every spot where it had a right
to float year ago."
The Possible Result.
| have tried to recall the condi-
tions as they existed in that April of
fifty years ago, and to picture feebly
the sentiment, the patriotism and the
action of the North. And the point
| wish to reach is this: What would
have been the result at the end of
fifty years, had there not been this
public sentiment, this burst of pa
triotism, this outpouring of men and
money in support of the great pres
ident, for protection to the flag, for
the preservation of the country
Without the sentiment of the people
of the North back of him all of
Lincoln's efforts would have been
unavailing. Without that free-will
offering of men and money, the
South would have accomplished it's
mistaken and misguided purpose.
The Southern Confederacy, starting
with seven Southern States, adding
four more when Sumter fell, would
have gone on grasping for more and
more, encroaching continually on the
North for the enlargement of her
territory The citizens of the bor-
der states would have been in a con-
tinual turmoil. Their people, divided
among themselves, would have form
ed zone of continual disturbance
stretching across the entire conti-
nent. And if the seven or eleven or
any number of the Southern states
might withdraw from the Union and
set up government for themselves,
so, with equal right and authority,
might any number of the western
states. Let once the principle pre-
vail that any state might, on her
own motion, dissolve her relations
with the United States as body, and
political anarchy would soon ensue.
Any difference that any state might
have with the federal government,
or any preteXt for difference,
would result in her withdrawal from
the Union. The same thing would
have been true later on with the
Confederate states. And it is a
remarkable fact that in the constitu-
ton adopted by the Confederate
states, no provision was made for the
withdrawal of any state; virtual
acknowledgment of the principle
that the union of the states must of
necessity be indissoluble, in order
to preserve the integrity of the body.
So that the great principle for which
Abraham Lincoln contended, for
which the soldiers of the North
fought, for which thousands suffer-
ed and died on the battlefield, in
the prisons, in the hospitals, in the
camps of the south during those
four terrible years, was not primar-
lily the freedom of the slaves, or the
restriction of slave territory, or the
protection of government property,
or that any political party might
prevail. 1t was for the basic idea
that the union of states once formed
and organized into a federal body
could not be disrupted against the
will of that body.
Other Results.
If, fifty years ago, the right of
secession had been conceded what
would have been the situation to-
night? There possibly would have
been a group of states in the north
east still retaining the name and or
ganization of the United States of
America. There is every reason to
suppose that there would have been
group of confederated states in
the west known possibly as the
Western States of America. 1t is
also reasonable to presume that there
would have been a group of the
mid-continent states known as the
Middle States of America. Perhaps
all these would have been again sub
divided, each with its separate Or
ganization and laws, with it's own
policy and rules concerning the
great national problems of tariff,
transportation, foreign relations, cur
rency, etc. And suppose, what is
most unlikely, that we were all liv-
ing at peace with each other, think
how we would have been hampered.
There would have been no great
government to maintain order and
aOualitV on thiS continent and to