Those
loyal citizens this government is bound to recognize and protect, as
being Virginia.
In the border States, so called,--in fact, the Middle States,--there are
those who favour a policy which they call "armed neutrality;" that is,
an arming of those States to prevent the Union forces passing one way,
or the disunion the other, over their soil. This would be disunion
completed. Figuratively speaking, it would be the building of an
impassable wall along the line of separation,--and yet not quite an
impassable one, for under the guise of neutrality, it would tie the
hands of Union men, and freely pass supplies from among them to the
insurrectionists, which it could not do as an open enemy. At a stroke,
it would take all the trouble off the hands of secession, except only
what proceeds from the external blockade. It would do for the
disunionists that which of all things they most desire,--feed them well
and give them disunion without a struggle of their own. It recognizes no
fidelity to the Constitution, no obligation to maintain the Union; and
while very many who have favoured it are doubtless loyal citizens, it
is, nevertheless, very injurious in effect.
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