Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/334

 326 *W. C. WOODWARD resume the power relinquished to the Federal Government in the bond of Union, or prevent the enforcement of the laws passed by Congress, but by open, undisguised revolution. It might be called nullification, secession or an "irrepressible con- flict," yet it was none the less revolution. It might be peaceable and without bloodshed, but still it would be revolution. It might come from resistance to laws providing for raising a revenue or for the return of fugitive slaves from resistance in South Carolina or in Massachusetts, it would be revolution and if carried so far as to result in armed resistance it might truthfully be, denominated as treason. At the same time, the Union could not forbear taking the North to task for incon- sistency, pointing out that it was treason to nullify the laws of Congress in South Carolina, but in Massachusetts it was quite a different thing. In the one place it suggested a halter and a gallows while in the other it was commended and gloried in. In the next issue, December 1, the Union expressed itself still mo.re strongly. It declared that resistance to Lincoln as a candidate was one thing and resistance to him as President was quite another. "Therefore, while in common with North- ern Democracy we resisted, and still resist the aggressions of Republicanism on the South, we have no sympathy with any scheme of disloyalty to the Union. And while we will not de- sist from exposing the causes which have led to these unhappy results and will continue to place the responsibility where it belongs, we disclaim for ourselves and the Democracy of Ore- gon, any sympathy or affiliation with the secession of any of the states; and warn them, that, if carried so far as to result in resistance to the laws of the Federal Union, It must be put down with all the power of the government. And in this, they will find the North united as one man in support of the gov- ernment, no matter who is President." The Union has been quoted at some length to show clearly the uncompromising at- titude of the Southern press in Oregon before secession became an accomplished fact. But during the next few months the Union receded from its high ground, devoting most of its space to "exposing the