February 10, 1861; The New York Herald
—Full details will be found in another column, of the most grave and momentous event that has yet occurred, in the progress towards civil war and military despotism, of the revolution which convulses the country. Two barks, two brigs, and a schooner, the property of citizens of this metropolis, were on Friday seized by authorities of Georgia in retaliation of the robbery by our police, under pretence that they were contraband of war, of goods belonging to individuals of that State. It is the first act of reprisals, at the south against abolitionist aggression in the non-slaveholding States. It is tantamount to a decree of non-intercourse, that may pave the way for open hostilities between members of a confederation, which, only two months ago, were bound together by ties it was fondly hoped could never be sundered. Every sober minded, intelligent, patriotic American citizen, will be startled and alarmed by it, and will shrink back with horror from the prospect of blood, carnage and internecine strife, which it threatens to inaugurate.
The history of the facts which culminated in the reprisals that were witnessed, on Friday last, in the part of Savannah, is speedily told. Some weeks ago, merchandise was purchased in New York, by several Georgian gentlemen, including various descriptions of firearms, and their shipment was ordered to their destination. The relations of the States with one another were peaceful. Neither the federal government, nor any competent authority, had recognized the existence of a breach between sections of the republic, outside of the competency of Congress and the Chief Magistrate to heal. Either Governor Morgan or his advisers assumed, however, the responsibility of ordering the Metropolitan police to invade vessels lying in the harbor, and to seize upon such wares as, in their discretion, they might deem to be “of war.” No war had been declared anywhere, and no act could have been more offensive, uncalled for, unwarrantable, and illegal. It was an invasion of the rights of private property, almost without a parallel in modern times. Nevertheless, it was ruthlessly perpetrated. Immediately afterwards, ex-Senator Toombs, of Georgia, addressed a telegraphic despatch to the Mayor of this city, protesting against what had been done, and alluding to the inevitable consequences of such lawlessness. Mr. Wood’s reply is known. He disavowed participation with it, and declared that it met with his own disapproval, and was reprobated by the vast majority of the people. In the early part of the present week, another despatch was received by telegraph by the Governor of New York, from the Chief Magistrate of the State of Georgia. The latter simply demanded that the property belonging to his fellow citizens should be handed over to Mr. G. B. Lamar, the President of the Bank of the Republic. Governor Morgan chose to cap the climax of absurdity, folly and political iniquity, by sending back a telegraphic answer, that the subject was too grave a one to reply to cursorily, and that he must await a more detailed communication from Governor Brown by mail, before giving it his attention! This was, of course, equivalent to an endorsement of the robbery which the Metropolitan police had committed, with an attempt at evasion and to gain time, similar to those which have characterized every public leader of the Seward school of Massachusetts politics, since the beginning of the crisis under which the country is laboring. The Georgia administration have met it with true Southern promptness. They have retaliated by taking possession of five New York vessels with their cargoes, and this is the latest and most fearful development as yet, of the great conflict.
No comparison can be drawn between the occupation of federal property, and the seizure of fortresses, by seceding States, and the act which has been consummated in the port of Savannah. The latter stands all alone. Forts Pulaski, Sumter and Pickens; the arsenals in Charleston, New Orleans and Mississippi; the defences of the Belize and Pensacola; and even the custom houses are subtreasuries in Southern cities, are a part of a copartnership fund, of which each, upon an unexpected, sudden disruption, snatches on what is under his hand, to be disposed of as referees or umpires may finally adjudicate. The withdrawing members of the confederation owned a share in all they had previously taken. They had plausible reason for believing it to be a large one, and not a few of their statesmen pronounced their claim to be exclusive. No pretext of the kind will, however, be alleged by Georgia, in behalf of the confiscation of the five vessels and their cargoes, by Colonel Lauton. they are acknowledged to belong to private individuals of this city; but Governor Brown will find an abundant justification of the act he has ordered, in the responsibilities of his position, and in the necessity of indemnifying private citizens, who are his constituents, for a unwarrantable robbery committed by our police, for which they could obtain no other redress. It is the very nearest thing to the beginning of a civil war; but let the blame rest where it belongs, upon the republican Executive of the State of new York, whose atrocious usurpation of powers that do not belong to him has led to such a sad result.
Thus, day by day, is the Union drifting nearer, and with accelerating rapidity, towards the verge of a precipice, underneath which naught but its mangled ruins will be found, if a remedy is not speedily applied. And from what quarter is any good to come? The bristling of bayonets and the heavy tread of artillery are already pioneering the battle issue which Mr. Seward has declared shall be the last act of this conflict. Congress does noting; the administration is powerless; Mr. Lincoln and his future premier are straining every nerve to scrape together the sinews of war; and, under such a regime as we see before us, it will require but a very short time to sink the country to the lowest depths of degradation. Military preparations are visible in the North, ostensibly to pave the way for the inauguration of a new chief magistrate; but whose final results will be the uprising of ambitious leaders, and the submission of the whole of this fair, free and happy land to the despotism of the sword. From the action of the State of Georgia, on Friday, the conservative sentiment of the North should receive a shock, whose vibrations should be felt from Maine to Oregon. If the strenuous efforts of every good citizen are not used to avert the evils with which we are threatened, imagination itself can scarcely conceive the horrors of the catastrophe with which the republic is menaced.