The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-12-21
THE GREAT POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL
CRISIS. a1sAao8

THE GREAT POLITICAL AND CUMMERClAL
CRISIS. 11staoo
The telegraph, although very Industrious,
does not furnish every thing bearing upon
the present terrible state of the country.
From our abundant mails of the past few
days, we CLEAN much that is OF interest.
The Cincinnati Commercial says that
Mr.. CoRw1N, of Ohio, will submit propo-
sition to the Committee of Thirty-Three,
for the adjustment Of sectional differences.
He proposes an amendment to Section Third
of Article Second of the Constitution, by
striking out that portion which authorizes
Congress to make all needful rules and
regulations for the Territories, and inserting
a clause transferring the whole power now
exercised by Congress, under the Republican
Interpretation, to the settlers Of Territories
hereafter to be organized. In substance
and effect to make such Territories entirely
independent of the United States, and quasi
foreign States, which shall elect all their
own officers, pay all their own expenses, and
be subject to no Federal supervision, except
for defensive purposes, until admitted as
States, upon such State Constitution as
their people may elect.
- Rev. r. j. BRECKENRIDGE, of Ken
tucky-uncle of JOHN C.--has written
letter, in which he says, that if the North
insists on using the National Government
to put down slavery-or if the South insists
on using it to perpetuate and extend slavery
in either case the continuance of the Ma
tional Union is impossible" Mr.. B. adds:
If we can escape immediate commissions,
what will occur, in my opinion, will be the
gradual consolidation of the entire South, in
one opinion, and upon one man (probably
Mr.. Breckinridge) by 1864; and the permanent
triumph of the Democratic party in 1864, by
means of the united South, and certain pOr
ton, more or less considerable, of the Northern
States. This is the best result see to be pos
sible; and who say this am an old.fashioned
Republican of the school of l79S--a Clay Wing
"a steadfast Know Nothing, and never yet
voted for John G. Breckenridge, though he has
stood towards me nearly in the relation of a
son, since his orphanage in very tender in.
fancy.
= The Louisville Journal, after lengthy
review of sectional difficulties which now
agitate the country, proposes convention
of the Central States, to be held at Louis
vile, on the 22d of February, Washington's
birthday. The States included in this pro-
position are Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylva-
MIA, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. These
States, the Journal thinks, constitute the
real Keystone of the Federal arch.
The National Intelligencer recon-
mends the assembling, at an early day, of a
Convention or Congress of Delegates, who
shall be appointed by the several slavehold-
ing states, for the purposes of mutual con-
sultation in respect alike to the dangers
believed to be impending, and the remedy
deemed most adequate to avert them. Any
State refusing to join in such consulta-
ton, the Intelligencer thinks, would deprive
herself of the sympathy of the other slave,
holding states, and show that disunion, and
not redress Of grievances, was the real
object.
-HERsCHEL V. JOHNSON, in letter from
Georgia, to AUGUST BELMONT, Of New
York, after reviewing sectional differences,
says:
l regard the preservation of the Union as
second only to the rights and interests it was
intended to secure. Hence 1 would exhaust
every means of redress within the Union be.
fore resOrting to disruption of its ties;
would appeal to all the conservatism OF the
country. North and South. and allow it ample
time to rally, to concentrate, to organize and
speak through the ballot box; and if could
give it direction, it should assert and affirm the
principle of intervention By Congress with
the subject of slavery, and sweep from the
statute books of the several non. slaveholding
States that have passed them, every vestige of
an act which in any wise initiates against the
rendition of fugitive slaves. This is my plat.
form. 1t would, l think, save the Union. do
not know whether it can be adopted, nor
whether the republicans will recede from their
ruinous principles principles and policy. l
fear the South will not allow time for the issue
to be fully considered and decided by the peo-
pie of the North. But l should have strong
hope of the predomna nee of the conservatism
of the North if the South would wait for its
action.
From every portion Of the New Eng
land States we hear of the stoppage of
manufactures and discharge of workmen.
Great distress will prevail this winter unless
business revives. In Pittsburgh, the mills
and factories are running but half time.
In New Haven, over 1000 employees have
been discharged from establishments en-
gagged in the Southern trade, and the pro-
portion is as great in other Connecticut
towns. The South is losing three cents a
pound on her cotton, and food is enormously
high and very scarce everywhere; the West
is deprived of the expected Southern mar
ket for her food; Eastern industry is, for
the present, at an end, and the great COM
mercial cities of the central States are
going through crisis of unexampled Sc
verify. These sufferings must, it is said,
soon lead to measures of compromise at