The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-28 00:00:00

LV WHAT STATE HE FOUND THE COUNTRY.

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Travelling in the dead of night to escape assassination,
Line, arrived at Washington nine days before his inau-
guration. The outgoing President, at the opening of the
session of Congress, had still kept as the majority of his
advisers men engaged in treaNn ; had declared that in case

1 of even an "imaginary" apprehension of danger
u,dtaconmo-e
no-
tions of freedom among the slaves, "disunion
inevitable." Lincoln and others had question 'd tl e opinion
of Taney; such impugning he described to the "factions
temper of the times." The favourite d )ctrine of the majo-
rity of the Democratic Party on the power of a Territorial
Legislature over Slavery he condemned as an attack on
" the sacred rights of property." The State Legislatures,
he insisted, must repeal what he called " their unconstitu-
tional and obnoxious enactments," and which, if such were
null and void, "it would be impossible for any human
power to save the Union." Nay ! if these unimportant
acts were not repealed, "the injured States would be jus-
tified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the
Union." He maintained that no State might secede at its
sovereign will and pleasure ; that the Union was meant for
perpetuity, and that Congress might attempt to preserve,
but only by conciliation ; that " the sward was not placed
in their hands to preserve it by force ;" that " the last
desperate remedy of a despairing people would be an ex 7
planatory amendment recognising the decision of the Su-
preme Court of the United States." The American Union
he called "a confederacy" of States, and he thought it a
duty to make the appeal for the amendment " before any of
these States should separate themselves from the Union."
These views of the Lieutenant-General, containing some
patriotic advice, conceded the right of secession, pro-
nounced a quadruple rupture of the Union " a smaller evil
than the reuniting of the fragments by the sword," and
"eschewed the idea of invading a seceded State." After
changes in the Cabinet, the President informed Congress
that matters were still worse ; that " the South suffered
serious grievances, which should be redressed in peace."
The day after this message the flag of the Union was fired
upon from Fort Moultrie, and the insult was not revenged
or noticed. Senators in Congress telegraphed to their
constituents to seize the national forts, and they were not
arrested. The finances of the country were grievously
embarrassed. Its little army was not within reach—the
part of it in Texas, with all its stores, was made over by its
commander to the seceding insurgents. One State over an-
other voted in Convention to go out of the Union. A Peace
Congress, so-called, met at the request of Virginia, to concert
the terms of a capitulation for the continuance of the Union.
Congress in both branches sought to devise conciliatory
expedients ; the territories of the country were organised
in a manner not to conflict with any pretensions of the
South, or any decision of the Supreme Court ; and, never-
theless, the seceding States formed at Montgomery a Pro-
visional Government, and pursued their relentless purposes
with such success that the Lieutenant-General feared the
City of Washington might find itself "included in a foreign
country," and proposed, among the options for the consi-
deration of Lincoln, to bid the seceded States " depart in
peace." The great Republic seemed to have its emblem in
the vast unfinished Capitol, at that moment surrounded by
masses of stone and prostrate columns never yet lifted into
their places ; seemingly the monument of high but delusive
aspirations, the confused wreck of incohate magnificence,
sadder than any ruin of Egyptian Thebes or Athens.