The Crisis of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One in the Government of the United States.: Its Cause, and How It Should Be Met — John Shaqi
The Crisis of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One in the Government of the United States.: Its Cause, and How It Should Be MetStreight, Abel D.
History
The Crisis of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One in the Government of the United States.: Its Cause, and How It Should Be Met
Streight, Abel D.
Secession; United States -- Politics and government -- 1857-1861
showing that he recognised the principle of suppressing insurrection by
force, if necessary to do so, in order to maintain the supremacy of the
law. Again, we find the United States using force to carry out the
fugitive slave law in the Burns case, and, in fact, several others. The
Kansas troubles were met with force, not compromise. All these cases have
occurred in the north, and have been promptly met by the government, which
has had a tendency to teach the people of that section of the country
that, to resist the laws, is sure to incur the legal penalty. Remonstrance
has been of no avail--the laws were pointed to as the guide. This was the
case particularly in the Kansas troubles, when the laws of the notorious
bogus legislature were being forced upon the people by the government
bayonets. Mr. Buchanan was then implored to desist, and allow the people
to re-construct the laws of the territory. They were told that, although
the laws were oppressive, yet so long as they remained on the statute
books of the territory, they were the laws of that country, and must be
enforced. This has uniformly been the course of the government toward the
people of the north. We do not complain of this, but simply refer to it to
show that, while the people of the north have been taught to obey the
laws, or suffer the penalty of their violation, the people of the south
have been allowed to control the policy of the government by threats and
violence, and as might have been expected, they have at last become
entirely insufferable. They will no longer be satisfied with anything in
reason or out of reason. They will neither be peaceable, nor allow others
to live in peace. Their demands have become more frequent and of a more
startling character--and why is this? It is because they have never been
made sensible of the fact that the government of the United States is
capable of enforcing its laws in that portion of the country as well as in
any other.
How absurd it is, then, at this time, for us to offer them another
compromise--it would be like adding new fuel to the fire, it might
suppress the flame momentarily, but when it bursts forth again it would be
with increased vigor and violence. We should not compromise in the least
if we desire permanent peace, but administer the laws with firmness and
justice; and although it may take the force of arms to do so, yet a
rivulet of blood, spilt at this time, will prevent rivers of it in the
future. Let us not entail the evil effects of failing to perform our duty
upon our children, but sternly perform our whole duty, and transmit to the
next generation the good old ship of State in a sound and navigable
condition; and if there be mutineers who persist in her destruction let us
warn them manfully of the dangers they are incurring upon themselves, and
as a last resort, rather than give up the ship, let us arrest their
progress by force.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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