The Abolition of Slavery | Page 8

suppress rebellion and restore peace and integrity in the
Union.

THE NEW YORK HERALD ON THE WAR.
With the secession of Virginia, there is going to be enacted on the
banks of the Potomac one of the most terrible conflicts the world has
ever witnessed; and Virginia, with all her social systems, will be
doomed, and swept away.--New York Herald, April 19.
We must also admonish the people of Maryland that we of the North
have the common right of way through their State to our National
Capital. But let her join the revolutionists, and her substance will be
devoured by our Northern legions as by an Arabian cloud of locusts,
and her slave population will disappear in a single campaign.
A Northern invasion of Virginia and of Kentucky, if necessary,
carrying along with it the Canadian line of African freedom, as it must
do from the very nature of civil war, will produce a powerful Union
reaction. The slave population of the border States will be moved in
two directions. One branch of it, without the masters, will be moved
Northward, and the other branch, with the masters, will be moved
Southward, so that, by the time the Northern army will have penetrated
to the centre of the border slave States, they will be relieved of the
substance and abstract rights of slave property for all time to come.
Finally, the revolted States having appealed to the sword of revolution
to redress their wrongs, may soon have to choose between submission
to the Union or the bloody extinction of slavery, from the absence of
any law, any wish, any power for its protection.-- Ibid, April 20.

By land and water, if she places herself in the attitude of rebellion,
Maryland may be overrun and subdued in a single week, including the
extinction of slavery within her own borders; for war makes its own
laws.
We are less concerned about Washington than about Maryland. Loyal
to the Union, she is perfectly safe, negroes and all; disloyal to the
Union, she may be crushed, including her institution of slavery. Let her
stand by the Union, and the Union will protect and respect her-- slavery
and all.--Ibid, April 21.
Virginia, next to Maryland, will be subjected to this test. She has
seceded, and hence she will probably risk the breaking of every bone in
her body. If so, we fear that every bone in her body will be broken,
including her backbone of slavery. The day is not far off when the
Union men of the revolted States will be asked to come to the relief of
their misguided brethren, for, otherwise, the war which they have
chosen to secure their institution of slavery may result in wiping it out
of existence.--Ibid, April 23.
In advance of this movement, President Lincoln should issue his
proclamation, guaranteeing the complete protection of all loyal Union
men and their property, but warning the enemies of the Government of
the dangers of confiscation, negroes included.
If Virginia resists, the contest cannot last very long, considering her
large slave population, which will either become fugitives or take up
arms against their masters.--Ibid, April 24.
That we are to have a fight, that Virginia and Maryland will form the
battle-ground, that the Northern roughs will sweep those States with
fire and sword, is beyond peradventure. They have already been excited
to the boiling point by the rich prospect of plunder held out by some of
their leaders, and will not be satisfied unless they have a farm and a
nigger each. There is no sort of exaggeration about these statements, as
the people of the border States will shortly ascertain to their cost. The
character of the coming campaign will be vindictive, fierce, bloody,
and merciless beyond parallel in ancient or modern history.--Ibid, April

28.
The class of population which is recruiting in our large cities, the
regiments forming for service in behalf of the Union, can never be
permanently worsted. They will pour down upon the villages and cities
of Virginia and Maryland, and leave a desolate track behind them, and
inspire terror in whatever vicinity they approach.--Ibid, April 29.
It will be idle for Tennessee and Kentucky to attempt to escape from
the issue, and to remain at peace, while the remainder of the country is
at war. Neutrality will be considered opposition, and the result of a
general frontier war will be, that slavery, as a domestic institution of
the United States; will be utterly annihilated.--Ibid, April 30.
The rebellion must be put down by some means or another, else it will
put us down; and if nothing else will do, even to proclaim the abolition
of slavery would be legitimate. All is fair in war...Gen. Fremont and the
other Generals must act according to circumstances,