The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-12-05

y mingled feeling of curiosity and anxiety per-
vaded this city yesterday, up to the time when the
Presidents Message was received, and from the
eagerness with which that document was sought
after we NAV presume that it has been read before
this by the majority of those who looked forward
TO careful perusal Of it as TO pleasant or neces-
sary duty. The only portion fthe Message which
is likely to give rise to any discussion or, indeed,
to attract any serious attention. is that which
treats of our domestic difficulties. Cur foreign re-
atons are, in the main, in as satisfactory condi-
ton as we could well hope for, and the only
thing calling for immediate notice in this connec-
ton is the extraordinary fact that no mention,
whatever, is made of Peru. When it is relnem-
bered that the Administration has just broken off
all diplomatic intercourse with that Government
and that our Minister, having left the coun-
try, has Just landed in New York, it cannot
all to strike every one as being very singular, if
not suspicious circumstance, that Mr.. BUCHANAN
has abstained from the slightest alluson to Peru.
All these matters however, must be left for future
comment, for the public is not likely to concern
itself at this moment with anything but our home
troubles 1t was not expected that the PRESIDENT
would throw much light on the questions that d-
Elue Tue COUNTY, vi suggest any uUFel VI pIdCl-
cal solution of the difficulty in which in
vowed, and though the people may not see their
way any clearer to-day than they did week ago,
they will not, we presume, feel any especial dis
appointment. Mr.. BUCHANAN has endeavored to
show the causes of the unhappy quarrel between
the two sections, and to point out the redress
which the one ought TO seek and the other 10
grant, and he has done so calmly and impartially,
but by no means forcibly. His argument on the
veXed question touching the connection between
the States and the Federal Government is neither
striking nor convincing. He undertakes to prove
in the first place, that no State has right to Sc
cede, but that such movement is a simple revolu-
ton, and he next proceeds to show that the gene
raj government cannot lawfully resist such a
movement The people of South Carolina, there
fore, may rebel, and if the State authorities sane
ton the proceeding, the PRESIDENT and Congress
can do nothing but protest, for the former is salts
fed that the Constitution does not warrant him
in recommending the coercion of a STATE. The
only deduction we can draw from his theory is
that the right Of revolution may be exercised at
any time by any member OF the confederation, for
if the Federal Government can never reprcss such a
revolution, State may go out ofthe Union for any
cause or for no cause at all South Carolina may Sc
cede Oh account ola Homestead or Tariff Bill as vel,
as on any other grounds whether they he frivo
l0us or just and Mr.. BUCHANAN can no more
collect revenue than he can do anything else in q
seeding State. Practically, then, the right of
secession exists, though it may not be deduceibe
from the precise language of the Constitution or
from the history of the Convention by which the
latter was formed. We cannot but think this
construction Of the Constitution is altogether
unsound. 1t cannot be that the right of revolu
ton can exist, unless the right to Judge its pro-
priety and TO resist it resides in the Government
whose authority is defed. IF the latter can do
nothing TO prevent a State from Withdrawing It's
allegiance, then such action the part of such
State can scarcely be called revolution. But if |
secession is revolution, it seems to us that the
General Government has the inherent and unden- |
able power TO suppress it. 1t might be unwise to
exercise that power, and as against the contem
plated movement at the South it certainly would
be injudcious and ruinous to do go; but that the
President and Congress have the mere legal right
to put down revolution instruction or rebellion
in State we cannot doubt.