Year: 1860

Ject OF Dlsunlon, OF which we are enabled TO
present the following report:


Mr.. WESTON said:


II we are to believe in the new philosophy of
the present day, the Government under which
we so long reposed in vain security, is a mere
house of painted cards, beautiful to the eye,
but destined to crumble at the lightest touch
or even at the lightest breath. With the right
of secession claimed for each one ofrhirty.three
States, to be exercised at their caprice, or
what is in practical effect the same thing, with
the theory proclaimed by the President, that
the act of secession by either one of thirty three
States is not to be resisted by force, the Gov.
ernment which went into operation in l1S9,
and which two generations OF men have lauded
as the perfection Of wisdom, has been the most
stupendous sham which ever imposed upon the
credulty of mankind.


For myself, | believe that the Union will be
perpetuated, peaceably if we can, but forciby
IL we must; or, at any rate, that it cannot be
destroyed without convulsion so terrible and
80 bloody, that it will be conspicuous even on
the long and dark record Of human wars and
revolutions. This Government of thirty mil
lions Of people, with history Of century,
stretching from ocean to ocean, and shaped by
the geography of a continent, is not a bubble
to be pricked, or farthing candle to be snuff.
ed out. IL it goes down, it will be amid the
storm of battles, and with the whole heavens
lurid with the glare Of conhagrations.. Woe
be to those who think otherwise!


Let us not be deceived by temporary ap.
pearances. The Executive authority, which is
the natural rayng point of public opinion in
troublous times, and which saved the country
from war in 1882 by q seasonable and well-di.
rected blow, now fails us with uncertain sounds.
To this element of weakness and of wavering
counsels, is added the panic Of the commercial
press, the first to speak, and with an artificial
reverberaton, which mutiplies an editor by the
whole number of his subscription list. But
the great country has not been heard from.
Indeed, the great country has hardly yet, even
itself heard, much less pronounced its judg.
ment upon, the strange events which are pass.
ing in South Carolina and in the adjoining
States. The men who live on the cross roads
have vet to hear and to be heard from. The
lion is not aroused, but is still sleeping. Woe
be to those against whom his wrath shall be
kindled Better for them if they had never
been born!


1t is loosely said, in respect to certain States,
that they have been troublesome and unproft.
able partners, and that the hest wav to be rid
Of them is to let them go. At the first blush,
such consummation presents an expected re.
lief from the brawliug clamors which have irri.
tated and wearied US for an age. But reflection
and events will prove that it is not question
Of letting South Carolina go, but of giving up
the Union altogether. If South Carolina goes,
the Gulf States will 60, certainly it Georgia
yields and who, then, is 10 guaranty that the
border slave States will remain loyal? Many
may hope it, but who could have that steady
confidence in it, which is the only possible basis
nf al, 10 ha pf 1;s,p
tegration once commenced, it will 90 on until
scarcely any two States remain united. A union
of the free States by themselves is a chmera,
and so also is Southern Confederacy. When
the idea Of unity is once shaken, and men be
gin to speculate upon new combinations as af
fecting personal and material interests, tits the
centrifugal force everywhere which will over
power the centripetal. If you begin in the
Northeast, how long would Maine remain in a
political connection, from which she is already
dissuaded by geographical position, and many
Of the persuasives to which would be lost by the
withdrawal of the Southern states? Pennsyl
vania and New York, competitors for the trade
Of the West, would inevitably separate, aud
neither Of them would consent to such Unior
as we have now, with their combined weight il
aSenate, only equalling one third of the weigh
Of the New England States. That is predic
ament Of things to which they are at present
reconciled, as part Of great system, in which
they find many compensations, but to which
they would never agree upon a new ad ustment
in new partnership. The West herself, trust
ing to her overwhelming strength, and looking
to the sword for outlets to the sea, would reject
all alliances which would fetter her own self
reliant sovereignty.


Not only would it be difficult to keep States
together, but, even at this early day, we have
propositions to divide States themselves. During
this very week, the Representative in the House
Of the lower wards of New York city declares
that that city will sever its connection with
State which he denounces as puritancal"
we once cut loose from our moorngS, he is
wise man who can predict whittier we shal
drift, and even such proposition as this vii
find advocates.


II the dream Of Northern Confederacy is
vain, the dream of Southern Confederacy j.
even more palpably so. Covering an area SO
much larger than that of the free States, with
sparser population, with an equal rivalry oi
commercial interests, and with the same ele
ment Of disagreement as between large and
small States, the South would unite even less
easily than the North. The people OF the South
are more tenacious of theories and less prac
teal. While in the heat of contests with the
free States, of which the subject matter is sa
very, they find in that institution strong bond
of union; but with the outside pressure taken
off, that bond would lose its power. Even now
and in advance Of that trial of framing a new
Government which would develop the real diff
culties of it, South Carolina proclaims her op
position to anything more than league, leav
ing her still in the possession of full sovereignty
The Gulf States would never put it in the power
Of the northern slave States to make CONNER
cial regulations, or to prohibit the African slave
trade. The Southern States, if left to them
selves today, would be fortunate, indeed, if they
could even agree to disagree, and that is more
than could be nationally hoped of them, by
those who understand the character of theil
population.