Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1860-11-13
hcsion to the Federal Constitution, for only
upon that platform can the Union be saved.

upon that platform can the Union pe sa'cu'
RESPONSES FROM TIE SOUTH.
Sufficient time has not elapsed 10 allow the
responses ofthc Southern press beyond Virginia
to reach us. The Richmond "Whig" thus com
ments: :.
The only chance for compromise was upon
Bell, and if friends OF Douglas and Breckin-
ridge had united upon him, he would now be
President elect of the U. States, and the coun-
try would have escaped the terrible ordeal that
now awaits It. 1t now seems to US clear, too,
that if the Democratic Convention at Charles
ton had dealt justly and fairly with Judge
Douglas, had given him the nomination to
which he was entitled, and had yielded him
the hearty and Jealous support they have been
accustomed to give their candidates, that Inc
would have rallied to his standard host that
would have borne him triumphantly into the
Presidency. To the Brcckinridgers, led on by
Yancey, and to the corruptions OF the Buchanan
administration, we attribute the election OF LIN
coln more than to the influence OF the slavery
question Yancey and Buchanan have done tllc
deed! Would that they only had TO meet ,.S
consequences. But these will fall upon Tue
country, and upon each individual citlZen. we
pray Heaven that the country and they may
pass them enscathed.
The Alexandria Gazette says
We can speak, we think, for the friends Of
the Union Constitutional candidates, both North
and South. when we say, that as lar as their
course and action was concerned in this mat
ter they have no rcgrets-thcy did their duty
10 their country, and strove faithfully and man
fully to prevent what has happened, They
have fought ga!lanHy, and no reproachcS can
he thrown upon them Whether, il in the
certainty that existed that Mr.. Breckenridge
could not by any possibility be elected, It
would not have been better, every way, Tor his
friends TO have united upon Bell and Everett,
is question upon which we have very deer.
ded oninion. but which it is not necessary, at
This lime TO argue The crisis is upon US and
VIC must continue to do our duty to our col'l-
tryI Rashncss, rccklcsSness and wlldnGsS are
not now 10 be thought Of or couneenanced.
Wisdom, moderation, and patriotism must no"
prevail, or the direst consequences must lollo".
Brawling delnagogues must not be suffered 10
pervert the public judgment, or lead the poo
pie to their own destruction.
BY the election Of Mr.. Lincoln, (says the
Sentinel" published in the same city, we oil
the South have thus imposed upon us govern
,nent, outside Of ourselves, and founded on
sentiment hostile to our social system. This.
it continues, is not the individual wickcdncss
Of unfaithfu officials, but the evil comes from
the sovereign will Of the source OF all our po-
ltical power-thc people. The only hope of
escape, indccd-and that could only be tempo
rary-is that the mere agents transiently Sc
lected to carry out that WILL may prove uniaith-
ful to those who elect them. Even if we had
the promise of such intideli,y, it could bring
no sense of abiding relief
That this condition of things brings the
country, and necessarily so, into the jaws of
fearful commissions, is, we. think, perfectly GER
tain 10 state this is but to Tcstatc what dis.
tnguished men of all parties, in the North and
in the South, have again and again laid down
as automatic truths