A Plea for the Union
The Kentucky Statesman
(Lexington), November 20, 1860
Our plea is not addressed to the panic-striken Union-shriekers. We
have no word of suggestion for those who propose in this hour of imminent
peril, nothing beyond the Union resolves of county-town meetings, and
who are ready to impugn the loyalty of every proposition for action
which is not interpolated with vehement professions of unqualified devotion
to the Union. Such men are worse than drones in an emergency such as
that with which we have to deal. But to the intelligent citizen who
understands the true extent and character of the danger which threatens
us, and would strike a blow in the right direction, we beg to submit
a thought or two.The people of the States of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
Georgia and South Carolina have in every possible manner in which public
sentiment can be expressed, in mass meeting, through their executive
and legislative officers, through the addresses of leading men of all
political parties, through the press, indicated a present determination
to revolutionize the Government. We repeat that every avenue we have
to the public sentiment of those States reveals to us a most appalling
unanimity of feeling and opinion in favor of immediate secession from
the Union. Steps are already being taken, and serious movements are
now deliberately set on foot to sever their relations with the existing
confederacy. That movement will accomplish its purpose if not arrested
by influences beyond the border of States engaged. That powerful minority
of anti-secession men to whom we have been directed so often, has not
yet exhibited itself. We have as yet to note the first noticeable expression
of opinion from any of the States we have named, in opposition to the
revolution. Mr. A. H. Stevens [i.e., Stephens], to whom so many
eager eyes were turned, has virtually seconded the whole movement, only
differing from the secessionists in a preliminary evolution of the forces.’
There seems really to be no opposing minority in the cotton States;
but if there is, it is manifestly powerless. He is a fool who doubts
the settled purpose of these men, or questions that their resolution
will be equal to the responsibility. They are in earnest, and will dissolve
this Union before the 4th of March unless the border slave States arrest
their lamentable movement.We are not of those who say “let them
go!” Nor are we of those who say, “whip them in!”
We are for inducing them not to secede. We shudder at the thought of
a dissolution of the confederacy, and would now labor to prevent it.
The Union, the Constitution, the Government will not be worth the loyalty
of the patriot when six, eight, or ten, States shall have over-ridden
the law and proclaimed their separate sovereignty. Let us devise some
mode by which the Union can be preserved intact. We think Kentucky,
Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri can save the cause. How? certainly
not by county or State Conventions; certainly not by extenuating the
aggressions of the Republican party and pledging unqualified loyalty
to the government administered on Lincoln’s platform; certainly
not by characterizing the action of the cotton States in harsh words
of condemnation, and ignoring the wrongs which have impelled them to
the step; certainly not by meaningless shrieks of Union and senseless
denunciation of secession; all this does no good. If every man, woman
and child in Kentucky were to assemble in one grand mass meeting, and
with one acclaim resolve that secession is treason and the Union must
and shall be preserved, secession would still go on, and the Union would
as rapidly approach its dissolution. However much we may condemn the
Southern secessionists as rash and wrong, let us not, at our own peril,
mistake their character. Let us not commit the fatal folly of imagining
that they are to be deterred by threats or frightened by the Opposition
of Kentucky. On the contrary, let us at the earliest moment realize
the fact that the more unqualifiedly Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee
pledge submission to Republican rule, the more determined will be the
cotton States to assume their independence. But there is a mode whereby
the cotton States can be induced to hear the appeal of the border States.
Let us meet them in common council. Let us have a Southern convention,
and let the slave States take counsel together as to the best mode of
preserving their rights in the Union. We believe that if this proposition
be made to the seceding States it will be acceded to and when once in
convention we believe that such action can be determined on as will
deter them from the step they now propose. By this Union of purpose
and concentration of action the slave States have it in their power
to coerce from Mr. Lincoln and from the Republican party a recognition
of their rights and an abandonment of the unconstitutional designs of
that organization. This can be shown to thecotton States; and with assurances
of co-operation and support from their border friends, they will try
it. It seems to us that the secession of five or six States at this
time would be an act of egregious folly and gross ingratitude. Mr. Lincoln
is absolutely at the mercy of the anti-Republicans in Congress. He can
do literally nothing without their consent and acquiescence. They have
it in their power to stop the machinery of government, to withhold supplies
and vacate the public offices. He will be powerless for evil now as
when a private citizen of Illinois, if the opposition to him is concentrated
and well directed. All this advantage would be lost if the cotton States
secede and withdraw their members. The non-seceding States would be
left in a minority, without power to restrain Lincoln in any of his
measures. What folly, then, to throw away such an advantage, and what
injustice to abandon friends at such a time! Then let us meet these
States in convention and appeal to them with these and other equally
strong arguments. The Louisville Journal, a few days ago, appealed
to Mr. Breckinridge to go South and to employ whatever influence he
might have to restrain this movement. Won’t the journal now
join us in an appeal to the Governor to appoint one or two leading and
influential men from each of the three parties in Kentucky to meet similar
delegates from all the Southern States in Convention, and there represent
the true feeling of our State? If assent be not given to this proposition,
then answer us, what on earth do you propose to do?We believe that six
or eight States will, on or before the 4th of March next, be virtually
and formally without the Union, unless some action is taken to prevent
it. We see nothing else to save the Union than a Southern Convention;
and we believe that will. But the suggestion is our own, and for it
we beg to say that neither the party we support nor any of its leading
men, is in anywise responsible.
