Year: 1861




the people, or too weak to maintain its own
cxisteDceY So viewing the issue, no
choice was left but to call out the war pow
er Of the Government and no to resist the
force employed for its destruction by force
for its preservation.


The call was made and the response of
the country was most gratifying. surpas-
sing in unanimity and spirit the most san
guine expectation. Yet none of the States
commonly called slave States, except Del
aware, gave regiment through the regu.
lar State organization A few regiments
have been organized within some other of
those States by individual enterprise, and
received into the Government service. OF
course the seeded States, so called, and to
which Texas has been joined about the
time Of the Inauguration, gave no troops to
the cause of the Union. The border States,
so called, were not uniform in their action,
some of them being almost for the Union,
while in others, as in Virginia, North Car
olina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, the I'm
ion sentiment was nearly repressed and ST
fenced. The course taken in Virginia,
was the most remarkable, perhaps the most
important. A Convention, elected by the
people of that State to consider this very
question of disrupting the Federal Union,
was in session at the capitol of Virginia
when Fort Sumter fell 10 this body the
people had chosen large majority of pro-
fesscd Union men, Almost Immediately
after the fall of Sumter, members of that
majority went over to the original minori-
ty, and with them adopted an ordinance
for Withdrawing the State from this In
ion. Whether this change was wrought
by their great approval of the assault on
Sumter, or their great resentment at the
Governments resistance to this assault, is
not definitely known. Although they sub
mitted the ordinance for ratification to a
vote Of the people, to be taken on day
then somewhat more than month distant,
the Convention and Legislature, which was
also in session at the same time and place,
with leading men of the State not men,
bers OF either. Immediately commenced ac-
ting as if the State was already out of the
Union.--Tkey pushed military prepara-
tions vigorously forward all over the State;
they seized the United States Armory at
Harpcr's Ferry and the Navy Yard at Cos
port, near Norfolk; they received. perhaps
invited, into their State large bodies of
troops, with their warlike appointments,
from the so called seeded Statcs.-They
formally entered into treaty of alliance
with the so called Confederate States, and
sent members to their Congress at Mont
gomery, and finally they permitted the in
surrectionary Government to be transferred
to their Capitol at Richmond. The peo-
pie of Virginia have thus allowed this gi-
ant insurrection to make it's nest within
her borders, and this Government has no
choice left but to deal with it where it finds
1t, and it has the less to regret as the 10y
al citizens have in due form claimed it's
protection. Those loyal citizens the Gov
crnment is bound to recognize and protect
as being in Virginia. The border States
so called, in fact the middle States. there
are those who favor policy which they
called armed neutrality, that is, an armir
OF those States to prevent the Union for
ces passing one way, or the disuniOn the
other. over their soil. This would be dis
union completed; fguratively speaking, it
would be the building of an impossible wall
along the line of separation, and yet not
quite an impossible one, for under the guise
OF neutrality it would tie the hands of the
Union men and freely pass supplies from
among them to the insurrcctiOnists. which
1t could not do as an open enemy. At q
stroke it would take all the trouble off the
hands of secession except only what pro-
cccds from the external blockade. 1t
would do for the disunionists that which
of all things they most desire-feed them
well and give them disuniOn without
struggle OF their own. 1t recognizes no
fidelity to the Constitution, no obligation
to maintain the Union. While very many
who have favored it are dobtless loyal cit
iZons, it is nevertheless very injurious in
effect. ..


Recurring to the action of the Govern.
ment it may be stated that at first call
was made for $4,000 military, and rapidly
this a proclamation was issued
for closing the ports of the insurrectionary
districts by proceedings in them of q block
lde. So far all was believed to be strictly
legal. At this point the insurrectionists
their purpose of entering upon
the practice of privateering. Other calls
we're made for volunteers to serve three
years, unless sooner discharged, and also
argc additions to the regular army and
navy. These measures, whether strictly
egal or not, were venturcd upon what ap-
,eared to be q popular demand for a pub |
10 necessity, trusting then, as now, that
Congress would readily ratify them. 1t