February 13, 1861; The New York Herald
The bells of St. Germain d’Auxerrois have at length tolled forth the signal for massacre and bloodshed by the incoming administration. The speech of Mr. Lincoln, at Indianapolis, is the first authoritative proclamation of his intentions in the present crisis. His words are pregnant with meaning, and deserve the mature and deliberate consideration of every conservative citizen of the country. ‘If the United States,’ he exclaimed, ‘merely hold and retake its own forts and the properties, and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places where they are habitually violated, would any of these things be invasion or coercion? Would the marching of an army into South Carolina be invasion?’ The Premier of Mr. Lincoln had already declared to the United States Senate that ,’which should sweep away opponents to republicanism moths before the whirlwind,’ was his idea of the final development of conflict. And, by a well calculated coincidence, on the same day, perhaps at the same moment that Mr. Lincoln was indoctrinating the citizens of Indiana into invasive and coercive principles, Senators King and Fessenden were announcing, at Washington, their reasons for reinforcing the navy of the United States with vessels which should be able to penetrate Southern harbors, and attack Southern fortresses.
‘Treason,’ says Mr. King, ‘is abroad in this land, and I believe there is an occasion and a necessity of the increase of the armament and the power of the country. But for the condition of things in the country now, I would vote against it, but I vote for it as a measure to put the country in a condition to defend itself against its enemies, whether they are domestic or foreign enemies. This government and this country cannot be peaceable destroyed, or overthrown or divided. Men cannot talk treason–they must act it; and he who acts it, in my judgment, should take the fate of a traitor, and should not seek to escape by pretending that he can commit it peacefully against the country. I tell these gentlemen that, in my judgment, this reason must come to an end, peacefully I hope, but never, in my judgment, peacefully, if by an ignominious submission of the honor of the people of this country to traitors. Never. I desire peace, but I would provide, amply provide, for the means of defence of the country, by war, if necessary.’
Senator Fessenden was equally positive in deciding if the time was coming to use force, he was perfectly ready to do it. ‘Where, then does the country stand? Governor Morgan offers the militia of New York to Mr. Lincoln, and a large sum of money is appropriated by the State Legislature for coercive purposes; the authorities of Massachusetts mobilize their forces to act outside of the State; Pennsylvania avenue is turned into a Champ de Mars; Generals like Wool, Sandford, Scott and Weightman are sharpening their swords for bloodshed; and every preparation is being made for the inauguration of sectional hostilities after the 4th of March next. It is declared that the Southern seceding States must prepare for a blockage of their ports; to surrender the fortresses they have seized upon, and to fall back into the passive submission which republican aggression has demanded for over thirty years. In the present deplorable condition of the country is this the right policy? Is it expedient? The Southern Congress at Montgomery offers the hand of friendship to the North, on such terms as they believe to be consistent with its dignity. They have provided, in the sixth article of the constitution of the Southern republic, that its government take immediate steps for the settlement of all matters between the States forming it and their late confederates of the United States in relation to the public property and public debt at the time of their withdrawal from them, these States hereby declaring it to be their wish and earnest desire to adjust everything pertaining to the common property, common liabilities and common obligations of that Union upon principles of right, justice, equity and good faith. To all this, the republican party answers, ‘Submit to the abstractions of the Chicago platform, or there shall be no alternative but war– a bloody, internecine, destructive conflict, which shall bury in ruins the prosperity of the country.’
Sober minded, patriotic citizens at the North, have no time to lose, if they would avert irreparable disaster. Meetings should at once be held in every city, town and village of the Union, proclaiming, first of all, as an indispensable, irrevocable preliminary, the resolve of the people to maintain peace, and next their desire to aid in the work of reconstruction, which the exigencies of the time imperatively demand. The declarations of Mr. Lincoln, of his Premier, and of the republican Senators and members in Congress, have rendered clearer than noonday the suicidal intentions of the incoming government. They are founded upon the gigantic scheme of General Scott for the subjugation of the South, which was exposed by the Congressional representatives of Louisiana, in their address of the 14th ultimo, to the Convention at Baton Rouge, and which includes the garrisoning of Southern forts and arsenals, the marching of forces into the seceding States, with a view employing them for domestic intimidation.
The republican party is only awaiting, in fact, the close of the present administration to clothe itself with the panoply of war, and to initiate acts of aggression, which it fills the mind with horror to contemplate. Imagination cannot conceive the disasters that will overwhelm the land, if an appeal is permitted to cannon and the bayonet to solve the inter-State problem which the developements of the last few months have created. The only remedy is with the people. Unless they rise in their might, and put an end to the agitations by which the republic is convulsed, the calamities foreshadowed in Mr. Lincoln’s speech at Indianapolis will, before the close of one month begin to be felt from one end of the Union to the other.