The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-23 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(From the 4rhrrreapondent of the Morning _Post.)
• BOSTON, JAN. 15.
Without asserting that the dangers that threat-
ened this country are over, I can say that affairs
have experienced a marked improvement during the
first week of the year; and this, notwithstanding,
several acts of violence were perpetrated during
the week's course by the excited portion of the
population. The chief cause of the change is the
apparent determination of the Federal Government
to do at least a portion of its duty, and this deter-
mination is mainly attributable to the absence of
some of those malign influences which for a time
ruled at the White House. South Carolina made
a great mistake when she withdrew her congres-
sional delegation from Washington. Had she kept
her senators and representatives there, their bold-
ness and. resolution would have sufficed to prevent
the President's conversion to a sense of his duty.
His weak mind was overcrowed by the fierce minds
of men like Keith and his colleagues, who put him
under the screw, and kept him there ; but when
they had left, and Secretary Floyd's pilfering had
been detected, so that he also had to leave, the
President fell into better hands. Mr. Holt, who
took the place mado vacant by Floyd's withdrawal,
supports the Union : and General Scott's influence
is on- the increase, and is ever exerted on the side
of the law. Secretary Black, too, has thrown his
-weight into the Union scale, and gives advice not
materially different from that which his predecessor,
General Cass, gave, and which led to the latter's
loss of his office. The union party has— th—us
obtained the upper hand in the councils of the
President, and as it is strenuously supported by a
strong Democratic "pressure from without," the
effect has been greatly to encourage the public.
• The Northern Democracy have made the discovery
that they were playing a bad game by sup-
porting the disunionists, and now they are be-
coming as loyal as they would have been had the
secessionists been arrayed against Breckinridge in-
stead of Lincoln. They never intended that the
disunionists should triumph, and they never sup-
posed that the Southrons meant more than to
frighten the Republicans into an abandonment of
the fruits of their late victory. So that when
South Carolina went out of the Union they were
startled ; and when she proceeded to seize the pro-
perty of the United States, actually stealing 25,000
muskets that were in the arsenal, and a cutter, and
throwing garrisons into Forts Moultrie and Pinck-
ney, they revolted against the rebels, and are as
ready to fight them as are the Republicans. Even
the New York Herald calls for the assembling of
CO,OOO militia at Washington, to be employed in
protecting the federal capital and in securing the
inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, the said army to be
drawn in equt.l proportions from the border free
States and border slave States. Ido not wish to be
uncharitable, but I believe that one reason why the
Democracy are now so ready to support the Union
is, that they think they have inserted a wedge in
the Republican party, the driving home of which
shall rive it to pieces, and so leave the way open
fer a Democratic restoration at an early day. They
arse not far wrong. The Republican party is divid-
ing on the question of concession to the South.
The sincere portion of the party, men who are of
anti-slavery sentiments in their hearts, have deter-
mined that, with their consent, slavery shall never
be allowed to spread over this continent. They
refuse to consent to the repeal of the personal liberty
laws, and declare that they shall ever oppose the
admission of any more slave States into the American
Union, even if the conseqences of their opposition
should be that union's destruction. The other
portion of the party, who are perhaps as honest as
the ultras, urge the repeal of all the personal liberty
laws, and are ready to admit 50 slaves States into
the Union, provided the South. will spare the Union
to admit anything. The meotin; of so many
Northern Legislatures last week afforded oppor-
tunities for retiring and incoming Republican go-
vernors to aid their views, and take sides on this
question, whether the victors shall vote themselves
the vanquished car not. Governor Morgan, of New
York, goes for submission to the Scutt', and would
grant it very near all that it demands, in apparent
unconsciousness that, if his policy should prevail,
other demands would be immediately brought for-
ward. Governor Blair, of Michigan, is for retain-

ing the personal liberty laws ; and so is Governor
Washburn, of Maine, with the proviso that, if they
contain unconstitutional provisions, those provi-
sions should be removed. In Massachusetts, which
is held by the S:mth to be the represun tativ:-,, State
of North, the division of opinion in the Repub-
lican party was illustrated in a very strange way,
involving an entire departure from the procedure
of 80 years. Our State polity dates from 1780, and
in all that time no retiring governor has ever
thought it proper to make an address to the Legis-
lature. But Mr. Banks thought it expedient to
depart from the practice of all his predecessors ; and
so, on the 2d of January, his Excellency delivered
a valedictory, as the papers call it, to the new Legis-
lature. In this address the retiring but not very
modest governor " laid it on thick," the objects of
his praise being himself and his works. Evidently
he agrees with Mr. Thackeray, who assures us that
if we only praise ourselves often and vigorously the
world will at last take our estimate of ourselves, and
vote us good or great, according to our ambition.
But Mr. Banks would not have been guilty of an in-
novation for the simple purpose of telling the world
how high an opinion he has of himself, though he
'" improved the occasion" to that end. He had

another end in view, and was but the mouthpiece
of the Conservative Republicans of Massachusetts.
•
:Knowing that the new Governor would not recom-
mend the repeal of the obnoxious law, or in any
other way give encouragement to the principle of
slavery, the Conservative Republicans prevailed
upon the old one to' o the work they thought ne-
,eessary ; and they found the task of persuading him
to be a very easy one, as he agrees with them in
opinion and purpose. Accordingly, after praising
Massachusetts as the greatest and best community
that ever existed on the face of the earth, and
himself as the greatest and best man in Massa-
chusetts, he intimated that even this perfect State
has one defect, which is the personal liberty statute.
With considerable hardihood he declared that the
law ought to be repealed, whether it is constitu-
tional or not, because it is of an irritating nature
—a sort of cantharides blister on the American
body politic. There are several other irritating
things in Massachusetts, according to the ideas of
slaveholders, and all of them much more fiery than
the law that is so offensive to the Conservatives. It
ie the general dislike of slavery that exists here,
and the action consequent on that dislike that
move the South to that " wrath which grows from
fear;" and unless we are prepared to abandon our
opinions, to muzzle the press, to destroy free
speech, and to indict and 'mulish abolitionists—as
Mr. Everett recommended us to do in 1836, he
being then our governor—any such legis-
lation as that suggested by Mr. Banks must
be entirely useless. This the departing gover-
nor well knows, and he never expected any-
thing to follow from his recommendation except
this: it will raise him in the estimation of that
faction of the Republican party which, it is now
supposed, will predominate in the Lincoln Ad-
ministration ; for his ex-excellency has by no
means given up his political purposes on assuming
the post of director of the Illinois Railway Com-
pany, It is not his practice to give up anything
that is likely through its retention to pay. Three
days after the valedictory of Governor Banks was
delivered, Governor Andrew was inaugurated, aryl,
he strongly recommended to the Legislate Ara a
course flatly in opposition to that so e7,oquentlyr-
urged by his predecessor. He would 'nave the pe
sonal liberty law maintained. I thick his views are
more in accordance with those of the people of the
State than are those of Mr. Banks; and he received
104,C00 votes last November, while Mr. Banks was
never chosen by more than 60 000 The Legislature
will soon take the matter in hand, and then we
shall see whether we are to " back down" at the
suggestion of office-seekers, or to maintain our old
position. What makes most strongly against the
purpose of the repealers is the fact, well known 1
to all men, that if all the personal liberty I