#1
Control of the Mississippi River
The leaders of the secession movement seem to have recognized the fact that the commerce of the Mississippi river is an impediment to their treasonable schemes--that the Northwest has too vast an interest in that creek to tolerate for a moment the thought of its falling into the hands of a foreign power....
Chicago Daily Tribune, 18 December 1860
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The millions of people who inhabit the vast and fertile region tributary to the trade of the Mississippi, will never permit themselves by any contingency to be cut off from the commerce of the world. To the great marts beyond our own borders they must and will go--"peaceably if they can--forcibly if they must." Such is the spirit of the Northwest, and when secession attempts to eject the jurisdiction of the United States from that great outlet, there will be a tornado of indignation there which will force its way to the Gulf in spite of all opposition.
Buffalo Morning Express, 24 December 1860
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The Northwest will be a unit in maintaining its right to a free and unobstructed use of the Mississippi river throughout its entire course....
....we say distinctly, that the mouth the Mississippi will not pass into the hands of a foreign power, or our trade and intercourse up and down that river be left at the mercy of a mere treaty, until after a long and desperate struggle....
....we are not to be coerced by South Carolina, or Louisiana, or Mississippi, into a dishonorable surrender of our indisputable Rights....This is our position; and be the result what it may, this position we shall maintain.
Cincinnati Daily Gazette, 14 January 1861
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There can be no doubt that any forcible obstruction of the Mississippi, would at once lead to a war between the West and the South....The West...will not submit an hour to any extortion or robbery attempted to be practiced by Mississippi or Louisiana. They demand, and will have the free navigation of the Mississippi,--Secession or no Secession.
Milwaukee
Daily Wisconsin, 18 January 1861
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It is very clear that if the secessionists... insist upon a blockade of the Mississippi river, a bloody conflict must be the result. The potent voice of the Northwest, speaking by the tongue of a Democratic member from Illinois, (Mr. McClernand,) has already declared that the free people who inhabit the region of the Mississippi Valley will never consent to the destruction of their commerce...."Will an empire of ten million people in the West be content to become subordinate--a nation of herdsmen? Perish rather;" said Mr. McClernand in the House. "The slightest obstruction or annoyance offered by real or pretended sovereignties to navigation upon the mighty thoroughfare of northwestern commerce would arouse a spirit that would cuts its way to and through the mouths of the Mississippi, or sacrifice tens of thousands of lives in the attempt...
...The commerce of the Mississippi itself is not the only interest involved. The gigantic tributaries of that artery of trade are no less blocked. Of what use is the Missouri, draining the vast territory to the westward of the Mississippi, if the blockade of the latter is maintained? What will become of the millions of tons of western produce and manufactures that find an outlet through the Ohio river, if the Mississippi outlet is sealed?...
...The West will take the remedy in its own hands, President or no President. Mr. Buchanan may temper as he pleases with the traitors in Charleston and Savannah. He may permit the public property to be seized and held by the rebels. But the West will never ask his consent to rid itself of an obstruction which threatens to arrest its very life-currents....
...they are more than ever ready to fight.
New York
Evening Post, 23 January 1861
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The proposition that a single State has the right to control the navigation of the Mississippi is simply absurd, and, if boats are actually stopped...the country will rise up in arms to open the navigation of the river...
...the country will never submit to the closing of the Mississippi.
Portland (Maine)
Daily Advertiser, 29 January 1861
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The seceding states can not be let alone in the quiet enjoyment of their assumptions for they thrust their usurpations in the very highway over which the mighty north-west must travel, or sacrifice its essential interests. So there comes a conflict which will compel the interference of the national government. There can be no escape from it...it will be upon the Mississippi that this contest between different sections of the country is to be met and perhaps decided.
Worcester Palladium, 30 January 1861
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...our people are firm, and will not consent to be oppressed, or to have their rights and privileges abridged....they will not consent to have their peaceful trade and commerce impeded. They will not consent to have the Mississippi River obstructed.
Burlington (Iowa)
Daily Hawk-Eye, 8 February 1861
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If the great North-west tamely submits to this levying of tribute money upon her imports, she deserves, as she will receive, the scorn of the civilized world....we are confident the people are not now prepared to tamely submit to the preposterous claims of one, two, or a dozen self-constituted cotton-confederacies. No, gentlemen, you may pass as many secession ordinances on paper as you please, but when you commence taxing the people of the North-west to support your governments, you will be likely to hear a rumbling that will be prophetic of a coming avalanche.
Evansville (Ind.)
Daily Journal, 12 February 1861
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...the control of the "Father of Rivers" is something which the American people--especially those of the Northwest--would not surrender without a desperate struggle...
Cleveland Morning Leader, 21 February 1861
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The free navigation of the Mississippi will never become the subject of treaty between the people of the Northwest and any other people whatsoever. It will never be accepted as a gratuity. It is their right, and they will assert it to the extremity of
blotting Louisiana out of the map....This overrunning and exterminating may be a shocking thing, but if it becomes necessary to put an entirely new race of men in possession of Louisiana, to secure the great national right...the thing will be done. Call it by what name you choose it will be done....
Chicago Daily Tribune, 25 February 1861
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The States of Mississippi and Louisiana, and the Montgomery Convention, have deemed it worth while to assure the commercial world that they guarantee the freedom of the Mississippi, "in times of peace." This reservation implies a right of the rebel Confederacy over that river--an assumption as unfounded as it is impudent, and one which will not be conceded for a moment, either by the General Government, or by anyone of the half dozen States directly interested in its uninterupted navigation....
....since the promulgation of this guarantee...Louisiana has declared her purpose to ignore it. She assumes the right to exact tribute from all comers, and has given public notice that, after the 4th of March, no goods shall pass over the waters of the Mississippi, through her territory, without the payment of such duties as she, in her generosity, may levy.
This is more than an act of war against the Government of the United States. It is a blow struck at every State and Territory bordering on that river and its tributaries. Even should the General Government submit to this indignity, the millions of People to be directly affected by it, will not. Upon the free navigation of the Mississippi depends every material interest of those States and Territories.
Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 4 March 1861
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"...after Boston, Chicago has been the chief instrument in bringing war on this country. The Northwest has opposed the South as New England has opposed the South. It is you who are largely responsible for making the blood flow as it has.
You called for war until we had it....
Go home and raise your six thousand extra men. And you, Medill, you are acting like a coward. You and your Tribune have had more influence than any paper in the Northwest in making this war. You can influence great masses, and yet you cry to be spared at a moment when your cause is suffering. Go home and send us those men!"
....- Abraham Lincoln to a delegation from Chicago (sent to Washington to protest a call for more troops). The delegation included Joseph Medill, editor of the
Tribune.
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