Year: 1863

Secession and Radicalism---The Duties Of


the Hour.


"Before the rebellion the Republican
leaders taught the doctrines of the disunion
leaders of the South, and the Republican
Legislatures carried those doctrines into eff
feet. This fact is notorious. Between the
Republican party of Massachusetts or of
Wisconsin and the disunion party of South
Carolina or of Mississippi there was no es-
sential difference either in theory or practice
The two parties were essentially one The
remark became proverbial, that the only diff
ference between an abolitionist and seces-
sionist was difference of place. He who
entertained the political principles and SEN
timents common to both would be naturally
an abolitionist in Massachusetts or Wiscon-
Sin and O oooossioniet ia Go~tL OarUItua Ur
Mississippi according as he happened to live
in the one set of States or the other. Thus
closely associated in principle, were the two
parties. They played into each others
hands in such degree that the present civil
war is VIGOROUSLY the joint effect of their
atrocious game of power. Nor have they
ceased to play into each others hands
throughout the protracted and bloody drama
of the war, though the medium of co-opera-
tion is now consolidation instead of nullif-
cation. Notification as a weapon of sec
tiOnalism is for the present thrown aside
both South and North Consolidation is
now the favorite weapon alike with the Sc
cesson leaders and with their abolition allies;
and both are vigorously welding it, as they
formerly welded notification, for the per-
manent destruction of the Union and the
Constitution, each blow of the one serving
to strengthen the arm of the other


We have said that the abolitionsts and
the secessionists are still playing into each
others hands to the ruin of the country
This is most true. The wicked and deadly
game which reached so marked stage in
the last Presidential election is yet kept up
with augmented energy and ferceness 1t
is now more than ever the duty of the con
servatives of the country to put down both
the parties to this game. These parties now
more than ever are both active enemies Of
the country. Whilst however, the abol-
tionsts still exert their energies through
civil agencies, the secessiOnists are exerting
their energies through the agencies of open
rebellion. 1t is consequently the duty of the
conservatives of the country vigorously to
meet the secessionists on their chosen field
whilst likewise meeting the aboltionsts on
theirs This duty is nobly defined by the
address of the Wisconsin Democracy
"The election of Mr. Lincoln" says the
address, though effected by minority of
votes was carried in all the forms Of the
constitution, was obligatory upon all the
States and the people thereof, and was no
palliatiOn for the unhallowed act of seces-
sion, was no ground for the risks, sufferings,
horrors, and ruin of the most shameless and
detestable civil war known in the history of
civilized man. The standard of revolt was
raised, and civil war began. Whatever may
have been the relative guilt of the two sec
tional parties in the causes which prepared
the South for revolution, the sole guilt in
the war itself rests with the Southern party
of secession. Congress has declared the
war is waged by the Government of the
United States not in the spirit of conquest
or subjugation, nor for the purpose of
overthrowing Or interfering with the rights
or institutions of the States, but to defend
and maintain the supremacy of the Consti-
tuition and to preserve the Union with all
the dignity, equality, and rights of the sew
eral States unimpaired; and that as soon as
these objects are accomplished the war
ought to cease Thus carried on, the war
is not only expedient, but necessary; not
only justifable, but holy. 1t is defensive
war. 1t is a war of self preservation. Dis
union, once successful, would be a recurring
evil and instead of leaving Northern
union and Southern Confederacy, would
continue its destructive career until all of
the States would be broken and discovered,
until the whole country would be distracted