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Mr. Greeley also said :
Any attempt to compel them by force to remain would be con- trary to the principles enunciated in the immortal Declaration of Independence, contrary to the fundamental ideas on which human liberty is based.
These articles continued to appear in the northern press for months after the election of Mr. Lincoln, and until after most of the Southern States had seceded. They continued until after the people of the South had adopted a constitution, and organized their new Confede- rate Government; after they had raised and equipped an army, appointed ambassadors to foreign courts, and convened a congress ; after they had taken possession of three fourths of the arsenals and forts within their territory, enrolled her as one of the nations of the earth.
After all this, Mr. Greeley's paper continued to indorse the action of all southern people as fully as it was possible for language to en- able it to do so. Mr. Greeley said:
We have repeatedly said, and we once more insist, that the great principle embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of American Inde- pendence, that governments derive their just powers from consent of the governed, is sound and just; and that if the slave States, the cot- ton States, or the gulf States only choose to form an independent nation, they have a clear, moral right to do so. Whenever it shall be clear that the great body of southern people have become conclu- sively alienated from the Union, and anxious to escape from it, we will do our best to forward their views.
Mr. Greeley was earnestly and ably supported in his views by the most prominent men and able editors of Republican papers all over the North.
I cite the following from the Commercial, which was certainly the leading Republican paper of Ohio. After Mr. Lincoln was inaugu- rated, the Commercial said :
We are not in favor of blockading the southern coast. We are not in favor of retaking by force the property of the United States now in possession of the seceders. We would recognize the exis- tence of a government formed of all the slave holding States, and attempt to cultivate amicable relations with it.
In addition to all this, the commander of the Federal army, Gen- eral Winfield Scott, was very emphatic in endorsing the views of the
