Year: 1861

A Heet OF war ships has put to sea for
the purpose Of blockading the secession


ports. 1t appears that vigorous block.
ade is already enforaed by the govern
ment vessels in Norfolk Bay. No steam
or sail craft is permitted to pass beyond
old Point Comfort. Norfolk, Peters
burg and Richmond are cut off from all
access to the ocean. Virginia was the
last State to secedc, and is the first to
suffer the consequence Of her folly
Within the next four weeks every port
and inlet on the Southern coast, from the
mouth of the James River to the Rio
Grande, will be effectualy closed. It
will not be paper blockade, but an ac-
tual one, which will accord with the de-
cislon Of the Convention at Paris in
1856, which decided that to be recoguiz-
ed blockade must be actual and with
adequate force. ~'--@ BIZ --4 -.sa~- "s,


Nearly all the chief ports of the South
are situated some distance from the sea
coast, on the bank of river or arm of a
bay, as New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah,
Norfolk, Richmond, Alexandria, Balti-
more. This circumstance renders the
work Of blockading comparatively easy
for power having command of the sea-


Henceforth until the end Of the rebellion
no vessel will be allowed to enter or de-
part from any port in a seeding State


This rule applies to coastwise as well as
foreign trade. Not blade of cotton will
be shipped, nor package Of goods re-
ceived. All commercial intercourse with
the loyal States and the rest of the world
will have to be conducted through the
| internal channels of communication.


The cotton heretofore shipped abroad
from New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah
and Charleston, will be obliged to make
its way Northward by river and rail to
Cairo, and thence Eastward by river,
railroad and lake to New York and other
loyal Eastern cities. But even this route
will be wholly at the mercy of the Gov
ernment. Not bale of cotton or hogs
head Of sugar can reach market unless
the Government of the United States
grants permission. And the same is true
in regard to the importation of goods and
provisions. If the seeding States be
allowed to receive them at all, it must
be through the interior routes. In this
way the rebels will be obliged to help
defray the expenses of the war, to pay
tribute to support the Government
against which they have revolted, aud to
swell the business of the common car
riers of the Western and Eastern States,
and the profits of the royal merchants of
the sea board cities. From Alexandria
to Brownsville, the rebels will have be-
fore their eyes, in the prostratlon of COM
merce in all their ports, in the bankrupt
cy Of their merchants, collapse of their
sI~"i-", --a s~;'---~~ ~-r~-~--ra-y~sao~< -r Gov
their poor, palpable manifestation of
the American Government, against which,
without just cause, or decent pretext,
they have rebelled. This sort of logic
will do more in six mouths to bring
them to their senses and restore them to
loyalty, than peace conventions and di-
plomatic twaddle would accomplish to
the end of time.


The full weight of the blow which
blockade will inflct upon the rebels, can
hardly be realized by people at this safe
distance. But to bring the thing home
to the comprehensions of our readers
Suppose Illinois was one of the seeding
States, and the Government should an
chor off our harbor half dozen ships Of
war, and not allow another vessel to enter
this port or sail out, what would be the
consequence to the commerce of Chicago
Let railroad communication between ILL.,
mos and the East be cut off at the same
time and imagine the ruin, confusion
and distress that would soon ensue. 1t
is only by contemplating the effect of an
embargo on our own commerce that We
can realize or estimate the crushing force
of vigorous blockade upon the material
interests Of the insurgents. Every rebel
will be made to feel the grippe of Uncle
Sam on his neck It is emphatically a
choking process from which none can
escape. The pressure about the necks
OF their purses will be as sufocating to
their spirit of rebellion, as gripe of
their windpipes would be to the breath
in their nostrils The hundred war
vessels constituting the bockage, will do
as much towards putting down the REBEL
ion and reducing the traitors to obedi-
ence, as an equal number Of regiments
marched among them by land. Against
the blockade, the rebels can interpose no
resistance; they cannot strike back or
impede it by bitches or fortiications.-
They cannot give it open battle, nor yet
assail it from an ambuscade. Every man
in arms, and every man at home will
suffer from blows which he can neither
parry or escape. For every dollar it will
cost the Government to maintain the
blockade it will cost the rebels ten
When to this be added the march by
land of an irresistible army upon Rich
mond; another upon Memphis third
from Pensacola upon Montgomery, and a
fourth upon Texas, the probabilities are,
that the rebels will be "broaght to their
milk" They will begin to discover that
a bargain which requires the assent of
two parties to make, requires the assent
of both parties to render null and void.
They will be taught also, that Uncle Sam
i, able and ready to discipline and chas-
tise the refractory and contumacious
members of his household.


So much for the rebels But let it be
remembered that the blockade is a two
edged sword, while the blow inflicted by
it upon the insurgents is damaging to an
incalbulable degree, the injury done
tharehv tn tho commerce and industry nf