The danger of rebellion in the North!
[From the New York Times, Oct. 6.]
The symptoms of a mutinous and seditious spirit against the
Government are daily and hourly developing themselves at the
North, in the radical wing of the Republican party and among the Abolitionists of the true-blue stripe.
Both factions, having been separated by only the breadth of a hair, or the difference between tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee, are now cordially united in opposition to the
President, whose manly letter to
Fremont is the occasion for the opening of a general fire upon him, from the big sixty-four pounders down to the pop-guns.
Even the telegraph at
St. Louis is used to spread mutiny through the
North.
Under these circumstances it is the duty of the conservative elements to come forward and sustain
Mr. Lincoln and denounce the Abolition traitors, who are the prime cause of the present misfortunes of the country, and are doing their worst to render permanent the mischief they have wrought.
The Government itself, consulting its own safety, ought to seize and incarcerate the leaders, who are a thousand times more dangerous than the editors of Northern papers sympathizing with the
Southern rebellion, and opposing the war for the
Union.
The Secession heresy never had any strength at the
North, and it is now completely squelched here by the vigorous action of the
Government; but a more formidable and a far more extensive disunion element openly defies the
President, spits upon and execrates the
Constitution, which is the bond of the
Union, and threatens to subvert our whole political system, turning it either into a consolidated military despotism or into a Mexican anarchy, in which numerous petty chieftains will each play an independent part.
When the
Southern Secessionists were forming their plans against the
Federal Government, we warned
Mr. Buchanan of the danger, and called on him to act with energy.
We told him that his foes were of his own household; that leading members of the Democratic party meditated the destruction of the
Government.
Our admonitions were unheeded, and the consequence is a bloody civil war. We now warn
Mr. Lincoln that there is a disaffection to his Government in his own party at the
North; that it is every day gaining strength, and that unless he speedily crushes it, it is very likely soon to crush him and betray the cause of the
Union into the hands of its Southern foes.
This is now the real danger of the country, and it should be promptly met by the powerful arm of the
Government, before it consolidates its strength and matures its plans.
If the policy of the red revolutionary republicans prevailed, and the
Government were weak enough to succumb to it and endorse such proclamations as
Fremont's, or issue others to the same effect, the
North would become a divided instead of a united people, and the
South would become so thoroughly united that it would be as easy to find a white crow as a Union man beyond the
Delaware and the
Ohio.
When the war commenced, no sane, well informed man hoped for the success of our arms, unless upon the basis of a Union element in the
Southern States, which would become developed as our armies advanced.
The malignity of abolitionism seeks to destroy that element and convert it into one of hostility, and if it is only successful, the men of the present generation will not live to see the end of the war; and from its vast, extensive nature, covering an area of two-thirds of the soil of the
United States, it will soon exhaust and ruin the country.
Already great evil has been done by the proclamation of
General Fremont in
Missouri.
We have the testimony of
Rev. Mr. Olmstead, pastor of the Baptist Church as
Booneville, in a letter in a Chicago Republican journal, that "the whole country in
Northwestern Missouri is up and flocking by hundreds to
Price's camp, their arms being of every description; that the whole force of the rebels marching from various points against the
Union army will amount from 100,000 to 150,000 men;" and his opinion is that the only hope is to fall back, concentrate, entrench, and act on the defensive!
Such are the first fruits in
Missouri of the false step of
Fremont towards making the war one of emancipation, instead of a war to restore the
status quo ante bellum--the same condition as existed before hostilities broke out. The Abolitionists and radical Republicans do not want the
Union restored unless negro slavery is cut out of it by the sword; they do not want the
Union restored unless the essential principles of the
Constitution are abolished — principles without which the
Union never could have been formed.
A Union without the
Constitution is a new question, which neither the
President nor Congress nor
Generals have any right to solve.
That remains for the decision of the people in convention assembled, and any attempt to decide it in any other way would be an act of usurpation and rebellion, equalling in criminality the course of the
Southern rebels.
The President has been denounced by the radical organs because he did not override the act of Congress relating to the confiscation of slaves and other property.
These reckless revolutionists thus call on the
President to perjure himself.
He is sworn to maintain the
Constitution and execute the laws.
It was upon this ground that the
Herald and the conservative press of the country called on
President Buchanan, and after him on
President Lincoln, to put down the rebellion in conformity with the oath of office.
Unlike the monarchies of
Europe, in our Government it is not the
Chief Magistrate, but the National Legislature, that is the war making power, and therefore controls and defines the objects of war. When the present war broke out, and before Congress had assembled, the
President had a discretion, subject to the revision of Congress; but as soon as that body met and passed an act limiting the discretion of the
President on the very point raised by
Fremont's proclamation, the
President, who is sworn to carry out the laws of Congress, was bound to conform to that policy himself, and to cause all in authority under him to do likewise; and the fact of the abolition journals expecting him to do the contrary is an admission of their infamous designs — that when they voted for him as
President they expected him to use his power as
President to abolish slavery, and when they supported the war in the commencement they also hoped that such was its object; and now, when they discover the contrary, and that he is not willing to play the part of usurper, they are filled with all the rage of disappointment.
The patriotism of the
President has so far battled their schemes, and he ought to be warmly supported by the whole country, without regard to party politics.
But, meantime, it will be only an act of prudent precaution on the part of
Mr. Lincoln's Government to arrest the leaders of a conspiracy equalling in atrocity that of Cataline and his Confederates in ancient
Rome.