January 11, 1861 – The other side of the Question—Shall the North Secede from the South?
“The South Carolina Ordinance setting forth the list of grievances on account of which that State secedes, enumerates them thus:—1st. The Tariff Laws, which are stated to operate injuriously to the South. 2d. The rule that the majority of people in the Union shall govern. 3d. The resistance to the extension of Slavery into the Territories.”
If these are good and justifiable reasons for the Southern States seceding from the Union, says the Chicago Journal, then surely the Northern States have had better reasons to secede, long ago, for their grievances are ten fold greater. How would it do to “take the wind out of the sails” of the Southern soreheads, by a publication of Northern grievances, and a blustering threat that unless speedy redress is promised and given, the Free States will secede from the Slave States?