ession upon the slave States. Thus we see eleven
States in a confederate capacity openly making war upon the Federal
Government, and compelling it either into a disgraceful surrender of its
rights as guaranteed by the Constitution, or war for self-defense. Fort
Sumter was not allowed to be provisioned, nor was there any disposition
manifested to permit its possession in any manner honorable to the
Government, although its exclusive property. It must be surrendered
unconditionally, or be attacked.

The worst feature connected with the secession movement is the hot haste
with which the most important questions connected with the interests of
the people are hurried through. The ordinance of secession is not fairly
submitted to the people, but a mere oligarchy of desperate men
themselves assume to declare war, and exercise all the prerogatives of
an independent and sovereign government. And yet the terms submitted in
the Crittenden Resolutions as a peace-offering to the seceding States to
win them back by concessions from the North, present a spectacle quite
as mournful for the cause of national unity and dignity as the open
rebellion of the seceding States. The professed aim of these States is
either a reconstruction of the Constitution in a way that shall
nationalize slavery and give it supreme control, or a forcible
disruption of the Union. What are the terms proposed that alone appear
to satisfy the South? They may be briefly comprehended in a short
extract from a speech delivered by Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts,
February 21, 1861:

'But the Senator from Kentucky asks us of the North by irrepealable
constitutional amendments to recognize and protect slavery in the
Territories now existing, or hereafter acquired south of thirty-six
degrees, thirty minutes; to deny power to the Federal Government to
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, in the forts,
arsenals, navy-yards, and places under the exclusive jurisdiction
of Congress; to deny the National Government all power to hinder
the transit of slaves through one State to another; to take from
persons of the African race the elective franchise, and to purchase
territory in South-America, or Africa, and send there, at the
expense of the Treasury of the United States, such free negroes as
the States may desire removed from their limits. And what does the
Senator propose to concede to us of the North