Year: 1860

the name of Federalism ata


There are others who advocate the doctrine Of
secession from the Union prior to the Inauguration
of an unacceptable President, on the ground that
Submission " in the beginning of his Admins
tration would pave the way to the easy "subjuga-
tion of the South They cannot afford to wait
for the overt act," lest forsooth, it might find
chivalrous people SO corrupted by the blandish-
ments of power that all attempts to rouse in their
breasts spirit of resistance to oppression would
prove unavailing! And this is the charge brought
against Southerners by their assumed custodians
and champions! 1t was long ago said that next to
cool and deliberate vaor the coward insensibility
to insult affords the best assurance of peace Those
who, to save the shonor of the South, would
plunge her into disunion, without cause, lest she
should fail to assert her rights, if good cause were
given, deny to her the former in order that they
may impute the latter in the most offensive and in


sulting FORM Can it be supposed that brave and
high-minded people will take counsel of men whose
oficious patronage impeaches the courage of its
clients by prompting them to act of desperation
and selfdestruction the only way of escape from
consuming shame? For ourselves we have no
fears that our countrymen in any section will ever
plead guilty to any such Indictment. They will
| rather find in the hot haste with which ambitious
leaders seek to precipitate disunion, "without
aoaiting for cause," the best possible evidence that
they expect no sufficient cause to arise in iustca
ton of the step-we should rather say the plunge
which they recommend.
There are also particular reasons why attempts
at dsunion must be doomed to confusion and over
| throw at conjuncture like that which ha. now
| overtaken the country. 1t may be, as our North
Carolina contemporary believes that designing men
in the Democratic organization have sought to dis
tract and divide Its councils as an entering wedge
| to the dissolution of the Union" But all such
men have greatly mistaken alike their own power
and the mission of the Democratic party. The
union OF the States anterior to the organiza-
| tion of the 90 National Democracy" and will be
able to survive its decline and fall. Il would not
be difficult to show that if the Union is now in any
DANGER it is from the fell spirit of sectional antago


nism which the Democratic party, more than any
other, has reused by its iDjudcious measures, ex-
citing false hopes of aggrandizement in the one
section and planting deep at the same time the
seeds Of resentment in the other The spectacle





on which it formerly thrived, has no more useful


moral in our eyes than which shall tell to future
times how small part of the nations prosperity
| was due to the power which it failed to use with


the requisite discretion. Instead of seeing in Its
| eclipse the precursor of civil dismemberment and
ruin, we may rather hope to find in the errors and
abuses which have wrought its overthrow preg
1 nant lesson for the warning of those who shall
| succeed it in the administration of this great
| country. ri 80 zfE
! And this leads us to remark that the quality
of those who shall accede to the Executive control


of the country depends in large measure upon the
will of our Democratic friends As we have before


had occasion to say, party unable to govern itself


stands confessed unfit to govern the country.


Smitten with incurable weakness by their own dis
sensions, the Democracy surely cannot hope to
| wreak upon the country the mischiefs for which
| they have none to blame but themselves. If by
| their own fault they have rendered themselves an


easy prey to the enemy it is idle to reproach that


enemy for the wrongs of which they are the volun-
| tary authors, while it would be preposterous be-
| yond example if they should seek to make their
selfinHcted impotence more powerful for evil than
| ever their strength has been for good. The very
extravaganza of such an assumption in behalf of


party which has fallen to pieces because it did not
know its own mind and could not agree upon its
| own purposes, defeats all attempts at serious
reply,


There is another consideration which should suf-


flee to dissuade the Southern Disunonists from the
Ill starred enterprise in which they have embarked
| under the auspices of Breckenridge and Lane We
allude to the solemn protestations by which these
gentlemen have, since their nomination, publicly
pledged their unchaugng fealty to the Union and
| the Constitution. We fad it difficult to believe
| that they, any more than the great mass of their
honest supporters. can be easily brought to do
despite to their own solemn OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
rations made necessary, it may be, by the uufortu-
nate association In which they are thrown, but


presumed to be only the more sincere in proportion


to the disoyal element which is likely to be dis
affected by them.


We have thus stated few of the considerations
which incline us to look with confidence for the
confusion and discontinue of all schemes looking
directly or Indirectly to overthrow of the Fede-
raj Government as possible consequence of the


mere constitutional election of any President. The
civil system reared by the fathers aud cemented by
their blood was not constructed at such cost to


come to such an ignobe end.
But while this faith is strong within us, and
while no considerations Of political advantage could
induce to simulate panic fear which we believe
to be without foundation when regard is had to the
impregnable defences of the Federal Union, We
feel it our imperative duty to lift warning voice
against the designs of those who in their efforts,
abortve they may prove, are seeking to commit
the people of the Southern States to false issue,
such as that upon which we have been remarking
A dissolution of the Union may prove to be soue-
thing more than rash and heady counsellors will
find it in their power to compass, but they may
greatly compromit the cause and weaken the po-
siton of the South by identifying its people, in the
estimation of their felloW.ctlZen with a menace
too unreasonable to inspire awe, but uttered in
tone of violence too emphatic to pass unheeded.
Throughout long series OF years the self-appoint


ed defenders of the South have sought to take her
destnes into their own anointed hands, as if they
alone were competent to regulate and determine all
questions affecting her interests or honor A sim
gular nfelicity has thu, far attended their endea-
vors, either from chronic inability of the South
ern mind to appreciate such dsinterested services,