Year: 1861

SNS thuV PlObecuOn III WnateVer was law
ful.


In this act, demanding all else, they
have forced upon the country the distinct
issue-immcdiatc dissolution or blood
And this issue embraces more than the
fate Of these United States. 1t presents
to the whole family of man the question
whether constitutional republic of de-
mocracy, government of the people by
the same people can or cannot maintain its
territorial integrity against its own domes.
tic foes. 1t presents the question whether
diScontcnted individuals, too few in num-
bers to control the administration accord
ing to organic law in any case, can always
upon the pretences made in this case, or
on other pratcnccs, or arbitrarily without
any protencc, break up their government,
and thus practically put an end to free
government upon the earth.


1t forces us to ask: Is there in all Re.
publics this Inherent and fatal weaknessf
Must Government of necessity be too
strong for the liberties of its own people.
or too weak to maintain its own existencer
So viewing the issue no choice was left but
to call out the war power of the govern
ment, and so to resist force employed for
its destruction by force for its preserva.
ton.


This call was made, and the response of
the country was most gratifying, surpass-
ing in unanimity and spirit the most san
guine expectations. Yet none of the States
commonly called slave States, except Dell
aware, gave regiment through regular
State organization.


A few regiments have been organized
within some others of these States by in.
dividual enterprise and received into the
government service. Of course the seeded
States; so called, and to which Texas had
been Joined about the time of the inaugu.
ration, gave no troops to the cause of the
Union.


The Border States, so called, were not
uniform in their action-some Of them be.
ing almost for the Union, while in others.
as Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee
Arkansas, the Union sentiment. was yery
nearly repressed and silenced


The course taken in Virginia was the
most remarkable, perhaps the most impor-
tant. A convention elected by the people
of that State to consider their relative
position toward the Federal Union was in
session at the capital of Virginia when
Fort Sumpter fell.


To this body the people had chosen
large majority of professed Union men,
and almost Immediately after the fall of
Fort Sumpter, many members of that
majority went over to the original minori.
ty, and with them adopted an ordinance
for Withdrawing the State from the Union:
Whether this change was wrought by
their great approval Of the assault on Fort
Sumpter, or their great resentment at the
| Governments resistance to that assault is
not definitely known.


Although they submitted the ordinance
for ratification to vote Of the people, to
be taken on a day then somewhat more
than month distant, the convention and
the Legislature which was also in session
at the same time and place, with leading
men of the State not members Of either,
Immediately commenced acting as if the
State were already out of the Union.


They pushed military preparations vig-
orously forward all over the State; they
seized the United States armory at Har-
pcrs Ferry, and the navy yard at Gosport,
near Norfolk; they received, perhaps in
vited into their State, large bodies of
troops, with their warlike appointments,
from the so-called seeded States.


They formally entered into treaty of
temporary alliance and cooperation with
the so'callcd Confederate States, and sent
members totheir Congress at Montgomery;
and finally they permitted the insurrec.
tionary government to be transferred to
their capitol at Richmond.


The people of Virginia have thus allow
ed this great instruction to make its nest
within her borders, and the Government
has no choice but to deal with it where it
finds it.


And it has the less regret, as the loyal
citizens have, in due form, clai imed its pro.
lection. Those loyal citizens this Govern
ment is bound to recognize and protect as
being Virginia.


In the Border States, so called--in fact,
the Middle States-they are those who
favor a policy which they call armed neu-