April 12, 1861, The Vindicator
(Staunton, Virginia)
(Staunton, Virginia)
Under the above caption, the N.Y. Times (Black Republican) devotes two columns to the discussion of the “policy” of the Lincoln Administration at Washington in keeping the country so long in suspense as to what course that government is going to pursue in the crisis in which our national affairs now stand. The Times first expresses great regret at the idea that there should be any embarrassment in the mind of the President at the course he should pursue in the Fort Sumpter [sic] matter. Such things, it admits, “require grave and serious attention,” but such attention should long ago have been given to so important a subject, and the country at large, set at ease upon the subject, one way or the other. The time that has been spent in apportioning the patronage of the administration to the greedy sharks of the “Carpet-bag Volunteers,” would have been more profitably spent in devising some plan to avoid the horrors of civil war, which the Administration is determined to inflict upon our country. In a military point of view, we look upon the surrender of Fort Sumter as a necessity, according to a fixed rule of military affairs, which is, we believe, to give up a post that is either no longer tenable, or that cannot be reinforced, except by so great a sacrifice of life as to render its succor almost as disastrous as a defeat. Even if the attempt to relieve the garrison at Fort Sumpter were successful, (and it can only be so to a limited extent) does any one believe for a moment that the Carolinians would cease in their efforts for its reduction, even if the siege were prolonged to the extent of the famed siege of Troy, or the Thirty Years War? We do not–for well we know the gallantry of the brave sons of the Palmetto, and we feel satisfied that the last son of South Carolina will perish in the breach before they will give up the attempt to place the flag of the Confederate States upon its walls. Mr. Lincoln has, we fear, determined upon making the attempt “to hold all the Forts and Arsenals, and collect the revenue,” proclaimed in that enigmatical production which he gave to the country on the 4th of March; and ere this reaches our readers, the telegraph may bring us the news of a bloody battle, upon the scene of that gallant defense of Fort Moultrie in ’76, Charleston harbor.
The Times goes on to acknowledge that the “country” (Abolition-dom) has been very much deceived in the expectations conceived of the administration of Mr. Lincoln. It complains that affairs at Washington are managed with too great a display of “masterly inactivity”–that the country knows nothing of the future, and that commercial affairs are thereby greatly damaged,– that there is no policy evinced, but only a “a listless waiting for something to turn up.” After complaining that such a course at present is particularly unwise, it pays the following high complement to our young sister Republic:
The new Confederacy is moving forward, towards the consummation of its plans, with a degree of vigor, intelligence, and success, of which, we are sorry to say, we see no indications on the part of the Government at Washington. In spite of the immense difficulties with which they have to contend, —the poverty of the country, its utter lack of commerce, of an army and navy, and of credit,–the hostility of its fundamental principles to the sentiment of the Christian world,–the utter hollowness of its reasons for revolution, and the universal distrust which it encounters everywhere,–in spite of all these obstacles and discouragements, we cannot conceal the fact that the new Government of which Jefferson Davis is at the head, has evinced a marvelous degree of energy, and is rapidly assuming the proportions of a solid and formidable Power. Within less than six months they have adopted a constitution, organized a Government, put all its machinery into working order, established a commercial system and put it in operation, laid the basis of a financial department, organized an army, secured enormous stores and munitions of war, and put themselves in a position to offer a very formidable resistance to any attempted coercion on the part of the United States.
The italicised portions of the above are our own. The poverty of the country–rather amusing that–the poverty of that portion of the country that by its single product of Cotton keeps starvation away from the doors of thousands upon thousands, both in our own and other countries–the failure of which crop would almost bankrupt England, both Old and New. “Lack of credit!” We have reason to know and believe that any amount of money required for the treasury of the Confederate States can and will be, raised by its own people–without their bonds being hawked about the markets of Yankeedom and Europe–as those of the United States have been, and still are. They are, it is true, without commerce now; but how long will it be before the necessities of Europe and the North will furnish her with that item of a nation’s prosperity. Of the army and navy–if Mr. Lincoln carries out his “coercion policy,” our friend of the Times will be very well satisfied before long that they are making tolerable progress in that line; and he, if he desires ocular proof, may find himself in a position that will require “faster time” than he made on the “Solferino” track to get out of the way of a Southern bullet.
The fact is that Lincoln’s “peace policy” has been, in our belief, a sham–a miserable lie–from the first, and everything that has emanated from him or his Cabinet a tissue of falsehood and deceit, from the famous inaugural down to the letter of the Hon. Simon Cameron to Maj. McCue, in reference to the removal of the guns from Bellona Arsenal–and for the one sole purpose of defeating any attempt of Virginia to assume her sovereignty. How successful that is to be, a few days must show us–for we do not suppose that the “Grand Council” can prolong its sessions beyond the end of next week. What effect the “warlike movements” of the past week may have upon their deliberations, we know not; but from their past we do not augur much good in the future. The Commissioners appointed a few days since to visit Washington and enquire of Mr. Lincoln his “policy” will, we have no doubt, be very blandly received by that Arch Priest of Abolitionism, Seward, and be as completely hoodwinked by him as the various members of the Convention, who have visited Washington, have heretofore been. They will no doubt call upon “King Abram,” who will amuse them prodigiously with “flat boat yarns,” and again assure them that “nothing hurts anybody”–“nobody is going wrong”–gracefully bow them out, adding, by way of a parting assurance, the fact that if the “policy” is enquired of when they return to Richmond, they can “tell ’em you don’t know!”
We pray we may be mistaken, but we do not see a hope–a ray of light–a straw to grasp at– nothing but war will satisfy the intense hatred that is borne at the North to the institutions of the South–nothing can satisfy their hatred but the shedding of “their brother’s blood.” It is too late now to talk of “Compromise,” “Conference,” or “Commission.” The golden hour, when all this train of horrors could have been avoided has been lost, by the miserable submission policy that rules in the Convention at Richmond. If Virginia, or rather that Convention, had have fearlessly told the Administration–“you shall not make war upon our sister States–you shall not shed a drop of Southern blood–that moment the match is applied to the first gun to be fired upon the South, that moment Virginia goes out and unites herself with them, to conquer or die”–there never would have sailed the first man from New York against the South. Separated those States would have been, ’tis true, (for nothing will ever bring them back,) but the country would be saved what is now inevitable–internal war. And at whose hands but those of the Submisssionists of the Virginia Convention, can every drop of blood that is shed in this contest be demanded?