Year: 1861

| A Vigorous Defence of the Right Of Sc


cessiOn. E-.-..t
| Frem The IiVerpool Mercury, AuguSt2 . O.. ..-
Il is a common remark in this country that poll


eal and social questions in the United States gene


rally result in way precisely the reverse of whs


might have been anticipated. These constant error


are principally owing, believe, to the fact tina


the American people are always judged from Eu


ropsan point Of view, and hence Wr1ters start witt
false premises For instance, it has always beel


thought that principle and everything else must Civ
| way to mammon the phrase HdlTnigkty dollar wa


coined by some ingenious person, and being of con
! Venient shape and die, soon became current anC


passed for truth and from this love of money i


has since been argued that the Americans would
j never incur the expenses of war Yet suddenly We


see the whole naion sready suffering severely from


the incipient evils of the conflict, abandoning mon
ey>making and voting an almost unprecedented sum
| for this purpose. The explanation is eSsy-the
Americans are not dollar but abor-worshipping
| people. ArdOr and energy are their great char


acteristies and whether it be earning or spending
mehey, pleasure or business eating drinking, re-
vivals of religion war, to whatever their atten-


on is directed it is done as if life depended on it.
Another mistake, correctedsby the present unhap-
py crisis, is that the American always seek the pc
riOd of Englands difficulties to buster and threaten
her, as, for example, during the Crimean war, and
yet now these same people shorn of hall their
strength and that half turned against them threat
ening England more fercely than ever. although





better armed. This then, is a mere Anglo-Saxon
determination to defend their conceived rights un-
der all possible circumstances.


The doctrine of secession is q third instance in
which Europe and the North too in this easel holds
views contrary to American, though not TO Euro-
pean, ideas of government. Here again if we
would pursue truth and arrive at correct eonclu-
siOns, American political questions must be judged
by American principles As every one knows
those principles were laid down three quarters Of
a century ago, in the Declaration Of Independence
and every year since that period this fRnisHs stss
ment Of rights has been read in every city, town
and village of the Union; and it has been proclaim
ed to the whole world amid the firing of guns pis-
tolls &C.. that eve hold these truths to be selfevi-
dent-tha all government is derived from he consent of
The governed, and I.is right Is iHGieHa6ls.7 All this
was fought for and secured. "


Let US examine the case as well as we are able.
Nine million people demand, for some or 9TH
er the right so clearly announced and once fought
for of governing themselves. IL s denied but the
diversity and weakness of the for the deni-
al afford clear proofs of the perplexty of people
conscious of doing dishonest thing. One great
statesman, for instance, wishing to drink at the
same moment at the fountain and mouth Of the
Nile" asks how the North can give up the Gulf of
Mexico to foreign Power? He would have the
great lakes of the North and the great Gulf Of the
South and why not the s.. Law renee and Amazon
as well? This is the selfish view of the case, which
supposes that all other nations are forever to be
penned up in their present limits, while the States
are to sprea1 over and own illimitable territory.
Another urges as reason for war the "Etolen''
forts &c forgetting that the North retains forts
custom houses, mints and 9th public buildings,
property Of perhaps ten times the value of that
taken by the South on its soil, to say nothing
Of the whole United States navy now turned against
those who have helped to build it. @


Another cites the firing of the first gun by the
South forgetting that that gun was not fired until


4 f., Tor n,lr b,-b
Lincolns express declaration that he would collect
revenue in the South and retake the forts arsenals
&C. A man does not usually wait until the blow
descends, if he sees his enemy approaching him
with raised bludgeon the approach constitutes the
attack Besides if the South were in earnest in Sc
whole navy had arrived from the Pacific and the
East to thFC tile them at their doors. - -..-


Another statesman seems only desirOus of show
ing Europe how strong a Government republican
ism may have, and thar 1t is no failure; forgetting
that the exercise of that power in such way is
simply despOtism and preves the failure, and that
a war for Union implies in itself diSlrhi0R.


But we pass by all this to consider the point most
strongly urged by the President namely as TO what
would happen if the doctrine of secession were ae
knowledged as right. We answer, just that would
happen which would happen by acknowledging the
right of selfgovernment. The last logically i'm
plies the first. An attempt is male to evade this
in the North by saying that they scknowlede the
right of revOlution-which is an absurdlty, as q
Government cannot allow or acknowledge what 1t
forbids; besides if the revolution be overcome,
then the conuuered-one or twenty millions, as the
case may be-are Immediately denied the right of self
government Thus we arrive at the same conclusion;
and the United States Government, in attempting
coercion have clearly abandoned their own princi~
PIES The Old World idea Of Government is a
power over the individual imposed by another: the
New, of a power imposed by himself Itis coercion
in the one case self restraint in the other This is
the grand basis of repubEcanism, and it has work
ed during three quarters of q century with the
most wonderful success All the great questions
of immigration, tariff currency, &c, &c, which
have agitated the people have not at all disturbed
the Union shaken he notions about self govern
ment. But in the course of the immense progress
of the United States it was fair to suppose that in>
tePests so diverse might arise as to make division
and separation desirable; and we now have the
first instance of this in the slavery question. An
other instance growing in the future will probably
be MOrmonish. An enormous population is rising
in the West, whose numbers are rapidly swelling
By immigration and large natural increase, and who
will soon have prominent and powerful voice in
the Government. r glteOus New Eogland will then
doubtless say-"Our conscience will no longer per-
nit union with these people, AMI we will quietly
separate like Abraham and Lot, in land large
enough for boih.n The doctrine of the right Of
self government and consequent secession, per
mits it. -. -


Such Is the lberality of the Govern
ment properly viewed, that we hold it almost
impossible that any case of secession should arise
except where separation would be clearly for the
benefit of both parties, it is in the present case
and for tie truth Of this position we appeal to the
past Mr. Lincoln sees nothing in acknowledging
the right of secession but state shattered from state
county from county, city from city, all ending in
anarchy and ruin. But look at the facts. Has not
lust the reverse been ths case2 State after state
county after county, have of their own free viii
hastened to join the great COnfederacy, until ths
original number OF thirteen has been swellei ITO
more than thirty. Hundreds of thousands of peO-
pie too have annually poured across the Atlantic to
embrace the advantages Of combination and partici
pate in the right of selfgOYernment, but not one
state has seeded Nor will one secede, unless its
interests are so very diverse and opposite that its
secession would be benefit No aggregation Is
the cOncomadHh of eiUilizdtioR, segregation, Of
bdrbdrism; and while the reduction Of the
nations Of the world to one tongue and
one people, is going on so rapidly in
America, we find the diverse Of the picture in
Africa where isolation and Suspicion have reduced


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