Delaware (OH) Gazette, "A Few Plain Questions to the South," January 13, 1860

A Few Plain Questions to the South

1. Do the southern states seriously contemplate a non-intercourse with the North, or a secession from the Union, or neither?

2.In the former case, how long can they do without the necessaries, the luxuries and the amenities of the North; or, to speak figuratively, when a child from resentment refuses his dinner, how many subsequent meals does he usually omit?

3. In the case of secession from the Union, in what part of Christendom would be found a more feeble nation than the separated South, without ships, without sailors, without manufactories, without white labor or industry, without much money, and with the volcano of the black population under their feet?

4.In case of a disruption of the Union, to which side will the frontier states of Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, &c., think it most prudent to attach themselves?

5. What will be the first fruit of separation of the states, unless it be a stampede of slaves, a recapture, a rescue, a fight, a civil war?

6. How long can the South carry on each a war with the disabilities already mentioned and with a white population which is now less than a third of that of the Union, and soon will be but a fourth, a sixth, and eventually a still smaller fraction?

7. How much courage is there in a "chivalry" which selects for its assault an unarmed and unsuspecting victim like [Charles] Sumner and which is unable to suppress a paltry insurrection of a few fanatics till it is done for them by United States marines? 

8. If it took Virginia two days to capture John Brown and his twenty untrained "vagabonds," so they are called at the south, how long will it take to conquer the state of New York?

9. If it cost the Emperor of Austria some hundred millions, and a part of his dominions to carry on a few months war with France, how long will South Carolina be able to wage war with her appropriation of $200,000?

10. Is the alliance of a foreign power to be preferred to the more natural alliance of countrymen, kindred and friends? Is a colonial dependence on Great Britain, like that which our fathers split their blood to sever, more desirable than a constitutional government of the majority of the people? Or would Marshal Pelissier make a more acceptable Governor of the South than a legally elected Republican President?

11.Is not the bluster and bravado of southern secession growing rather a stale topic, peculiar to noisy politicians and hair-brained journalists, which the sensible and conservative portions of southern people know to be foolish and would prefer to have it cease?

12. Do not the people of the North, a few eccentric abolitionists excepted, respect the constitutional rights of the South––are they not bound to them by ties of consanguinity and of interest––do they not feel and admit that slavery, as it now exists within the southern states, is no concern of theirs––that present emancipation is not to be expected, and that the South must work out the problem of slavery for themselves?

13. Thirty or fifty years hence, what safety will there be to the South, except in the protection of a strong government like that of the United States?––N.Y. Post.