“ [66] readiness to support the Government and the laws. An army of observation should be established at available points, to strike wherever a blow will tell the best the moment that the Secession Rebels make a single aggressive movement against the Government.
”Philadelphia Ledger.
“ The present presents the most momentous period in the world's history. For many years past the people of the United States have been engaged with a purpose, to exhibit to the nations of the earth the feasibility of a Republican form of Government; for as many years, thus far, the so-called experiment has proved successful, but it is to be now determined whether our supposed success was real or fancied. We are among those who believe, if properly managed, there is strength enough in a Republican form of Government to make it self-sustaining. Let us now test the question; let the strong arm of the law be seen and felt; let the authority of the Government be earnestly asserted; let every right and power of the nation be presented in its own defence, and then let European despotism mock at us if they dare.
”Philadelphia News.
“ The Secession leaders are relying very largely upon the first shock of battle for the promotion of a general Secession feeling in the Southern States. They ought, however, to consider that the sympathies of honest and sensible men are not likely to go with the wrong-doers. If the General Government commit any wrong or outrage upon South Carolina or Florida, it will be condemned; but if a United States vessel shall be fired into and her men slain for a mere attempt to take food to the Government's troops in the Government's own forts, and if war shall grow out of the collision, no spirit of Secession or rebellion will be created thereby this side the cotton line. Such at least is our opinion, founded upon our conviction that the great mass of our fellow-citizens are sensible and patriotic and just. Who that loves his country would see it humiliated and its honor trampled on?
”Louisville Journal.
“ The authorities at Washington are now for raising seventy-five thousand troops, and fancy they will do exploits. They ought to reflect that the few they can spare to the South go far from home, into an intensely hostile country, and to them most unpropitious climate. They will have, after the excitement is over, little heart in the business. There will be no laurels to win. The rest of mankind will give them no credit. Even England and France deplore the strife, and offer prayers that it may cease. Every patriot will feel ashamed of the fratricidal war. They will meet an enemy skilled in war, as proud and vain as ever trod a battle — field — an enemy fighting for his home and his firesides, and who can bring into the field any number of fighting men that he may need. We say any number, and it is true--one hundred thousand if needed. If they doubt it, they can try the experiment, and it will be another Fort Sumter experiment.
We don't doubt the bravery of the North; but in this contest they will lack the stimulus of their foes, and meet their equals at great disadvantage. Then there is a sentiment in this country that all just governments are founded on the consent of the governed. If a whole tier of States seek other arrangements in government; if their old government is odious to them, and they seek a release from it, and resist with determination the old government, what shall be done about it? There is our Declaration of Independence, and the strong expressions of States when they entered the Union, which, if they do not recognize the right of secession, squint so much that way that they are easily applied to that purpose. It is an odious task to force a government on an unwilling people. Resistance becomes exalted into a patriotic virtue. No matter how little cause really provokes the resistance. How easy it is to inflame the South against this conduct of coercion! What, they will say, is the motive? Is it any love for us that all this blood is shed to retain us in the same Union? No, they will say ; they hate us! They abhor slavery and slaveholders! They tried to keep us out of the Union, and they swear it as a part of their religion that they will have no more Slave States! Why do they wish to retain us, but to play the tyrant over us? Why are they not ready to let us go in peace? They preach against us, pray against us, and what do they want with us but to subjugate us — to indulge their preaching and prayer at our expense? The terms now used in all these irrepressible prints are, rebels, traitors, and the empty threats to punish them. The bluster and gasconade about having a government, only reminds men of George III., who used empty words after they had lost their meaning. We say nothing about the similarity of the cases upon their merits. George & Co. thought the Colonies had no more reason than the Southern States now have; and the latter think they have more reason to rebel than their fathers had, and they know that these threats against them are more imbecile than the threat of His Majesty against the Colonies. Depend upon it, Messrs. Lincoln & Co., you are wasting treasure and blood to no purpose. All your professions of peace will count nothing. You talk like enemies and act like them. Even these border Slave States, who have stood by their government, who feel a patriotic attachment to the Union their fathers made, are unheeded. Their advice disregarded, and their wise counsels spurned. They ask for peace most earnestly, as essential to a restoration of confidence and salvation of the Union: and Lincoln & Co. call for troops, and are mustering armies, when all the effect will be to gratify their own resentment and make the breach incurable. They mistake altogether our government and people. No power can restore a State to this Union but its people. ”Louisville Democrat.
“ We learn that seventy-five thousand troops, the full number called for by the President's proclamation, have been tendered in this State alone, and that one hundred thousand are probably prepared to do military duty. Our people are all alive with patriotism and honest bravery. They will never let the Government languish or go down for want of support.
The quota of six regiments called for from Illinois was full last Saturday night, and enough additional companies were offered to make six regiments more. Altogether, up to Monday night, one hundred and twenty-five companies were offered to the Governor. Of these, sixty were accepted, twenty-five were accepted conditionally, and the remainder ordered to hold themselves in readiness. The work of recruiting still goes on. ”Cleveland leader.
