The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-29 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(From the Oorrespo;clent of the Times.)
WASHINGTON, JAN. 14.
You will see by the heading of this letter that I
date from the capital. As the crisis was drawing
to a head, I found it necessary to be here. Events
move so rapidly, and publie opinion is moulded so
insensibly one way or the other, that it is almost
impossible to:gather a just sense of what is going
on without being at the centre of action. Seeing
that all other schemes of compromise had fallen
through, and that the last hope of an amicable set-
tlement rested on the manifesto of Mr. Se ward, the
Premier of the incoming Administration, to be made
in the Senate, I came here on Friday last to hear it.
To understand fully the importance of it you
must picture to yourself the circumstances under
which it was made. South Carolina, already
seceded, had added to her offences of secession,
seizure of the public forts, custom-houses, trea-
sury, moneys, and revenue cutter, and the outrage
of firing upon the Star of the West, sent to the 1
relief of Major Anderson, and forcing that vessel to
return to New York. Major Anderson had it with-
in his power to silence the guns that arrested her,
but, like a prudent and brave man, he forbore to
shed blood. Albama, Florida, and Mississippi, in
their several conventions had the day before each
resolved to retire from the Union. The authorities
of Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana had within the
week taken armed possession of the forts and
arsenals of the United States within their borders,
and detachments had been sent to take possession
of the important naval station of Pensacola. Mr.
Davis, of Mississippi, had two days before made an
elaborate speech in the Senate, speaking on behalf
of the Gulf States, imploring peace in eloquent
language, but offering the alternative of war should
resistance be made to secession. Mr. Hunter, of
Virginia, had the day before, in a speech of great
power, and which undoubtedly represented the
present sentiment of a majority of his State, de-
clared that it was no longer a question of maintain-
ing this Union. That he regarded as irreparably
gone. It was a question how another could be re-
constructed on its ruins, and he had offered as his
best terms the acceptance by the North of the
Breckenridge platform in its most odious form, and
a double Executive, one from the North and one
from the South. At the North the Legislature of
the State of New York, by an almost unanimous
vote (there being only two dissenting votes in the
House and one in the Senate), had resolved, on the
motion of the Speaker, to tender to the President of
the United States '6 whatever aid in men and money
may be required to enable him to enforce the
laws and uphold the authority of the Federal
Government ; and that, in the defence of the
Union, which has conferred prosperity and happi-
ness upon tho American people, renewing the pledge
given and redeemed by our fathers, we are ready to
devote our fortunqs,. our lives, and our sacred
►The people of this district, composed of
persons from different parts' of the Union, but
all depending upon the Federal Government
for their existence, were in a state of appre-
hension bordering upon terror, fearing lest a band
of armed rioters should possess themselves of
the public buildings in order to give to the new
Southern Confederacy the prestige of successors of
the old Government. So deep-seated was this fear
that many ladies kept their trunks and boxes
packed, so as to be ready for a start northward at
a moment's notice. And throughout the country
there was the feeling that' all plans for adjustment
had failed, and that, unless the programme of the
incoming Administration was broad enough to
arrest the tide of revolution and prevent it from
sweeping over the border States, there was no hope
of avoiding civil war.

The rush to the Capitol began more than two
hours before the opening of the Senate. The ac-
commodations for strangers in the galleries are
much greater than in the House of Lords or the
House of Commons, and are open to all without
permits. The only distinction made is that one
gallery is devoted exclusively to ladies. I reached
the Capitol an hour and three-quarters before the
opening of the Senate, and three hours before Mr.
Se ward was expected to begin, and then the ladies'
galleries were filled, and the gentlemen's galleries
Were rapidly filling with persons of both sexes
The crinoline pushed itself everywhere as pertina-
ciously and as suecessfully as men could do. In
five minutes every seat in the galleries was occu-
pied, every place where a man, or a boy even, could
stand was filled, and before the Vice-President took
the chair thousands must have gone away disap-
pointed. During the hours of waiting the crowd
were very good-natured. Occasionally, some one
more turbulent than the rest would elbow his
neighbours, only to be laughed at by all. One poor
boy finding himself badly squeezed begged to be let
out, and was passed over the heads of the men
about him into the lobby. I happened to sit among
a number of young men belonging to the Volunteer
Militia of this district. They were speculating
among themselves how many men would refuse to
turn out when Gen. Scott should order out the
militia to protect the public property against the
Secessionists. One man thought that in his com-
pany there would be six men who would refuse to
do duty. The others seemed to think that their
companies and regiments could be depended upon to
a man. South Carolina they denounced in un-
measured terms, and seemed to think that they
"couldn't stand beef at 35 cents a pound a great
while." These little straws are, I believe, correct
indices of the course of the wind here.

Mr. Seward spoke for about two hours. You
will, doubtless, have a copy of his speech in the New
York papers of today or to-morrow. I have no
copy, and can only give you from memory the impres-
sions which it made upon me. He began by declar-
ing himself a Union man, in favour of preserving
the Union in all its parts, in peace or in war. That

it was threatened could not be denied. But it can-
not be saved by eulogiums, nor by mutual recri-
minations or attempts to throw blame on others,
nor by debates in Congress upon the territories or
upon the abstract right to secede, on which ques-
tions men's minds were mado up. Neither could
it be preserved by force, in a country where the
consent of the governed was by theory essential to
the maintenance of government. He would not
assent to any plan that proposed a destruction of the
present Union for the purpose of reconstructing
another. Neither was the Union to be saved by any
one in particular, nor by Congressional compromises.
Nor can it be dissolved except by the consent of the
people of all the States. After demonstrating that
the Union had been an historical necessity for the
period of nearly a hundred years, and that the same
philosophic causes still existed for maintaining it:
Mr. Seward next proceeded to treat with great force
the inevitable results ofdisunion. The power of the
United States makes it respected abroad and pro-
serves it from foreign aggression. In a disunited coun-
try this central power of safety would hi-wan-fir-lg.
The Union once secured, and its elements reformed