The Idol of Union.
Mr. Reed, of Philadelphia, in one of the able letters which have lately appeared from his pop, refers to the declaration of Bishop Hughes in a speech in Ireland that the United States (including the Secession States) must be one; that they must be one, either under the present Government of the United States, or, if that Government is conquered, then one under the Federal Constitution. And this chimera Mr. Reed, who has the good sense to denounce and condemn it, declares is indulged by many besides Bishop Hughes.The Confederate States are not trying to conquer the Government of the United States, and when Bishop Hughes represents them in that light he does them grievous injustice. We are simply laboring to establish our own independence, and only ask the United States to let us alone. That is still, as it has been from the beginning, the whole of our demand. Bishop Hughes does not comprehend the spirit and purport of this movement. It is to be let alone; to untwine ourselves from an embrace which is as disgusting and hideous to us as the folds of the anaconds; to live apart, socially and politically, forevermore from the people of the United States. We do not make war upon the anaconda except in self defences; we should consider it no glory to conquer him, except so far as we are thereby rid of a spectacle and a contact which we loathe; assuredly, we would not desire him as our vessel and our slave. His snakship must be made to release us from his calls, and, having done that, as we ask of him is to go his ways and leave us to ourselves. Union with him! The gorge of a rhinoceros would be disturbed by such a proposition.
We should like to know by what process Bishop Hughes, and those who think with him, expect to bring about unity of all the States under the Confederate Government, if that Government be successful. If it be defeated, it is easy to see that a certain kind of Union will be forced upon the South; but if victorious the North can scarcely expect to compel us to let her in. It is impossible to conceive that she is so demented as to suppose that we would voluntarily accept her political companionship again on any terms. Passing by the deep and irreparable wrongs she has inflicted upon us in this war, no Constitution whatever could be framed which would give us any more security in a new league with the North than that which was unable to restrain Northern rapacity, fanaticism, and fraud in the old Union. Let us alone! That is all weak of you, and that we will have or die.
