New York Herald
April 19, 1861
Virginia has seceded. She has taken this dreadful leap in the dark, and terrible to her, we fear, will be the consequences. A revolutionary army, under Governor Wise, is supposed to be moving upon Washington; the federal forts and other property in North Carolina, it is reported, have been seized in the name of the States; and from these and other Southern reports it is morally certain that Virginia will very soon be followed by North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas. The number of States thus arrayed on the side of the Southern confederacy will be twelve, with a population exceeding ten millions.
Delaware stands unquestioned in her loyalty, Maryland is apparently immoveable, and Missouri, we dare say, from her peculiar position and from her preponderating Northern and European settlers, will hold fast to the cause of the North. Thus the flag of the United States and the North will have a population exceeding twenty millions to uphold it; while the defensive cause of the seceded States, with about half this aggregate population, will be encumbered with that fearful item in a sectional war of over three millions of African slaves. A brilliant spontaneous manifestation of the Union loyalty of Maryland occurred at Baltimore yesterday. A body of secessionists on Federal Hill tried the experiment of hoisting the secession flag and firing a secession salute; but with the first discharge or two of their cannon, the Union operatives from the neighboring foundries and workshops turned out and quickly dispersed the revolutionists. From this significant incident, and from the Union serenade to Governor Hicks and his Union speech the other evening, we confidently believe that Baltimore and Maryland will stand the tug of war for the Union.
This gratifying attitude of Maryland keeps open several railway lines of communication with the North, to say nothing of the military advantages of the water line of Chesapeake Bay. Hence, if the Southern invading army are not in Washington before tomorrow morning, the probabilities are that they will not very soon attempt its occupation. The Massachusetts regiment, the New York Seventh regiment, and the troops pouring in from Pennsylvania, will, by tomorrow morning, we dare say, give General Scott an available defensive force for the federal capital of at least ten thousand effective men. Governor Wise and Major Ben McCulloch will hardly venture upon the expulsion of this defensive army under General Scott unless they can bring a force of twenty thousand of their raw recruits to the conflict. The name of Scott is in itself a tower of strength, of discipline and confidence, to the troops under his command, and his is a name, too, which will be respected by his enemies.
It appears, however, to be the settled purpose of the Southern revolutionists to expel the administration of Abraham Lincoln from its seat of authority. The Secretary of War at Montgomery, in a speech there on the receipt of the news of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, exultingly predicted that the confederate States would be in occupation of the city of Washington by the 1st of May. This would seem to indicate an extensive organization for this object. At all events, no man can longer entertain any doubts of the sagacity which marked the precautions of General Scott in reference to Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration. When our vigilant old General in Chief first sounded the alarm last December, the NEW YORK HERALD came promptly to his assistance, as will be seen from various extracts which we reproduce this morning on the subject from our columns. For example, on the 1st and 3d of January we suggested the concentration at Washington of sixty thousand men; and again, on the 15th, we appealed to the administration that, all things, in order to avoid a civil war of endless calamities, it is most important to provide against any treasonable or revolutionary movements upon Washington designed to overthrow the established government there.
We now hope that our suggestions of January in regard to our federal capital will be fulfilled to the full extent of sixty thousand men, so disposed as within a few hours to be within reach of the city. They may be needed there before the 1st of May, and, if not needed for the defence of Washington, they will be useful in guarding the line of the Potomac and the outlet of Chesapeake Bay, as the movements of the enemy may require. That the war will now be carried into Africa there is very little doubt; and thus, in the fatal step which Virginia has taken, she may not only suffer the disruption of her own territory by the Union elements of the Pan Handle and the West, but she may suffer, within a year, to the extent of one hundred millions of dollars in the losses of her slave property, to say nothing of the horrible contingencies of a possible servile insurrection.
Meantime as all hope of the representation of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas in our new Congress may now be abandoned, would it not be well for President Lincoln to assume the responsibility of summoning Congress together without delay? The Senate is ready, and a quorum is elected of the new House. Maryland, we believe, is the only State likely to be represented at this extra session which has not elected its members. And she could within a week supply this deficiency. To give system, efficiency, prestige and funds for the purposes of our government in the conduct of this war, the presence of Congress is needed at Washington. The resources are at the command of the government for a short war and an early peace; and half a million of men put in motion from the North may prove the cheapest, shortest and most effective argument in behalf of peace. Let us have no more child’s play. The great North is ready, and New York city and its suburbs alone, if required, can furnish fifty thousand men and fifty millions of money for the purposes of a decisive war and an early peace.