The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-11-05

who have voluntarily resigned it-but it has none
of people who have chosen ruler, or of ruler
who has submitted TO be chosen, for the express
thus been conferred and accepted. Men do not
willingly embark, and put pilot at the helm, for
the sole object of sinking the ship and all on board
to the bottom of the sea. The best answer there.
FORE to the charge of disunion against Mr.. BRICK
IYRIDGE, as inferrible from the opinions of his
Southern supporters, is to be found in the fact that
they support him for the Presidency of the Union, |
and that the only connection between him and |
them is involved in that legitimate support
But enough of these things. The issues of to- |
morrow may he full, as we have said, of solemn
and abiding consequences. That the aggressons
of Northern fanaticism-believed at the South to
be yet further involved in the success of the Re-
publican party-have kindled dangerous and wide
spread excitement among our Southern brethren,
it were idle to deny and foolish TO attempt to dis
guise or make light of. There are rash counselors
amorg them, and there is unhappily, fearful
willingness TO hearken to those who are rashest.
1t may be in the power Of a passionate and
resolute few to preciptate results which wis
dom cannot stay nor patriotism cure. Upon
the slavery question the interests of Maryland
are with the South, and her sympathies
are with its wrongs, which are hers in at
least an equal degree. Yet over and above all
sympathes and all resentment, is her devotion
to the Union, and the only question for her to
solve, is how she can render that devotion prac-
tically most effective: Where can she best stand
as mediator and peace-maker2 How can she
render her position most available, to check en-
croachments on the one side and constitutionaze
resistance on the other2 To our views, the answer
to all these enquiries is but one. The test ques-
ton of the controversy is the doctrine announced
in the bred Scott case, by the Supreme Court.
Properly or improperly, it has still been made
such. Against that doctrine Mr.. DOUGLAS is ar
rayed, in one sense, and Mr.. LINCOLN in all senses
To support either of these gentlemen, would be 10
throw Maryland not only against the South but
against the Constitution also, as expounded by
the tribunal appointed to fix its landmarks. Mr.
BELL while he acquiesces in the construction
which the Supreme Court'has given, is pledged to
! it by his friends rs an abstraction only
and is placed before the people expressly on the
ground of ignoring the whole of the question 10
which it belongs and whose settlement now and
forever, is called for by the South, with unani-
nous intensity of earnestness. BY none, not even
by the advocates of Mr.. LINCOLN, has Mr.. Brock
ENRDGE been denounced rs a disunionist, and an
extremist-because of his adherence to the Censti-
tutional doctrine which the South enforces-more
harshly and bitterly, than by the friends of Mr..
BELL. The vote of Maryland, under such circum-
stances, for Mr.. BELL, would strengthen the hands
of Northern fanaticism, by showing that border
State, more deeply involved perhaps, than any
other in the interests of the South did not
sympathize with the South nevertheless in its
convictions of right or its constitutional resist
ance to wrong In the South it would
destroy all influence of Maryland, for it would
destroy all reliance upon her sympathy. 1t is
impossible that she can have the confidence of the
South or have q voice for Union and peace, in its
counses, unless upon the question of right under
the Constitution, she takes her stand by its side
For all purposes, then, of practical efficiency fol
good-of impression on the North and influence
on the South-her vote must be cast for Mr.
BRECKENRIDGE. The South united in one pha
lanx will have strength enough within the Unior
to be above the dangerous temptations and bat
counsels of despair Broken into fragments, with
out the confidence and moderation which strength
and unanmity inspire, there are portions Of thu
South which will listen, as brave men do Away
in extremity, to the suggestions which are ferces
and most desperate. We do not say that thes
things ought to be. God forbid We only sa,
that they are, and that it is the part of wisdom
and of patriotism to look them in the face, and t
avert, as far as may be, the calamities which ma,
be Fastening in their train. If Mr. LINCOLN is t.
be elected by the people-as seems almost certain
now-the vote of Maryland, merely as a vote
must of course be thrown away. 1t is her duty
therefore, TO turn it to its only possible account
by so bestowing it, as TO give weight to her coun
sells and strength to her hands in the perilous con
tngencies of the future.