New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-11-28
THE STRENGTH or SECESSION.

| it appears greater at the husiings than the polls
much more imposing in the hurly-burly of street
corner harangues than in banking houses where
bills of exchange are discounted, or the rural
districts where the crops and the men are raised
that must ultimately pay them.
| Whatever South Carolina may threaten, we
| opinc that Rhett, Keitt and their fiery followers,
viii have hard work to persuade her to go out
Of the Union alone. They may utter incendary
philippics, aud mount Palmetto buttons and blue
| cockades; she may hold Conventions and pass
| ordinances, and seem TO hang on the very verge
| Of secession: but when the hour comes for her
| 10 actually 90 ont of the Confederacy and set up
| an Independent Government, solitary and alone,
| she will pause. Then We shall look to see Viz
| ginia or o general Convention of the South,
| tender its counsel: and after much cogitatOn,
| We fancy South Carolina viii wait for the CO.
operation of her slayehOding sisters, or even for
| an overt act Of the incoming Administration.
| We need not say that she will wait IN vain for
any such act "a an excuse or pretext for break
ing mp the Union. VIII the other Southern
States, or even n majority of them, join her in
this mad scheme either before or Immediately
upon the inauguration Of Mr.. Lincoln! What is
the strength of the secession sentiment in the
other slayehOldng States
The large vote for Bell, and the respectable
support of Douglas in the South, must with some
exceptions. be- counted against secession. Douglas
carries Missouri; Bell Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Virginia. He and Douglas and Lincoln have
larger popular vote than Breckenridge in Della
ware, Maryland, Georgia, and Louisiana; while
they press him hard in North Carolina, Alabama,
ard some other States. Full returns are not yet
received, but it may be safely assumed that q
decided majority Of the popular vote in the
slayeholdmg States is against Breckenridge. Now,
the larger SHARE Of this majority is hostile to Sc
cesson in any form and under any pretext; for,
every out and out SecessiOnst voted for Breckin-
ridge. At the outset, then, one half the South
has recorded its emphatic verdict against seces-
sion.
Nor can all the Southern supporters of Brock
inridge be counted as SecesSOnlsts. Many of
them are utterly opposed to that mode of re-
dressing alleged grievances They voted for him
for no such reason as this. Others of his adyO-
Gates, while they may admit the right of
State TO secede, yet, ere taking the final step,
they would require frmer ground on which to
walk out Of the Union than the mere election of
a Republican President They would stay for
some positive act of Federal aggression to justify
q severance of the ties which bind them to sister
commonwealth. Others, STILL would never con-
sent to secede unless in conjunction with all, or
nearly all, the SlayehOlding States. They would
not dream of leaving Virginia. Maryland, Ken
tucky and Tennessee behind them. This analysis,
il viii be perceived, reduces the number of
Secessionsts per SC in the South to o compare
lively small body
Aud even those States which, upon q super
fetal view, seem eager to leave the Union at the
earliest moment, are far from being unanimous
in their choice of this insane remedy for magin-
AIRY wrongs. Owing to the oligarchic features
of her Constitution, and to the death or ostra-
cism of her conservative statesmen, the politics
of South Carolina have fallen into the hands Of
hairbraned fllbusters like Keitt, Rhett aud
Chesnut They are nOw having their day. When
the secession movement reaches point where,
if another step be taken retreat will be imposs-
bic, we shall hope TO hear calm voices, as we did
in the analogous commissions of 1882, cOunseling
caution aud demanding delay. We believe she
viii not leap into the gulf of Disunion alone,
hut, when she reaches IFS brink, viii wait for
the countenance and cooperation of sister States.
VIII they join her. and go down with her!
Georgia upon which South Carolina is
chiefly relying for aid aud comfort in
this crisis has cast majority of
her votes against Breckenridge. Cobb aud Iger.
son are quarreling about seat in the Senate
The defeated asVirant viii be apt to take the
side of this question opposed TO that espcused by
his successful rival. Alexander II. Stephens, one
of the strongest men in the State and in the
South, and Herschel V. johnson, who has staked
his all upon this issue, are both opposed to this
reasonable scheme. Other influential citizens
act with them. A majority of the people have
just repudiated Breckenridge and secession at the
polls. Can it be that Georgia, when the cul-
minatiug point in the exigency is reached. will
not advise delberaiOn VIII she consent 10
start upon this perilous journey with no other
companion than South Carolina
How is it with the other Calhoun States
The popular sentiment in Alabama, IA indicated
by the recent election, is not widely different
from that Of Georgia. The vote for Breckenridge
does not largely exceed that of Bell and Douglas
combined. Ioncey, vino heads the Sccessonists
III that State, though regarded as man of
genius, is held by her considerate people as an
erratic declaimer, wholly unit to lead in try.
ing crisis; while, on the other hand, many of
her most distinguished citizens are utterly ayerse