Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-23


crisis the effect, solely, to all appearance,
of party agitation. The seat of this agita-
ton is in a Few of the Southern States; but
its consequences are felt to the farthest bor-
ders Of the Union. Especial cause for excite
ment at this time, so far as the people are
concerned, there is none. The pretense for
it is simply fearof the adoption of policy
by an Administration not yet in power,
through which certain interests peculiarly
Southern will be endamaged. What course
will be pursued by the incoming Executive,
or how, If be were disposed to do so, he
could make an assault upon Southern in
terests, it is impossible to know. Mr.. Lin
coin has made no disclosure of his designs;
and so long as he adheres to the Constitu-
tion, il is not easy to see how the interests of
any section of the country will be in jeopardy
under bis Administration.
The difficulties into which the Northern
and Western States have fallen in conse-
quence of this agitation, appear to have
been fOreseen by Southern politicians. In
deed, it was predicted: perhaps it would be
safe to say threatened. Our shops were to be
untenaDted, the products Of our fields re.
main stationary in the granaries; our bar ks
would suspend specie-psyments, the credit
of our merchants be overthrown, and bank
ruptcy and private ruin every where prevail
They drew the picture strongly: perhaps
they overdrew it; but it did not seem to
strike them that the very evils which they
prophesied in our case, might in the course
of events, fall with even greater violence
upon themselves. Such, however, is, to all
appearance, the fact. The center of political
is also the center of financial disturbance
The ruin which the agitators predicted has
descended first and heaviest at their own
door; and it seems far from improbable that
under the operation of the great law of COM
pensations, the offending incendiaries of the
South will meet at once their severest and
most appropriate punishment at the hands
Of their fellow citizens The reaction
against them will be certain and speedy and
it will be exemplary.
The North will suffer-is suffering Sc
yerely. Every mail and every click of the
telegraphic machinery tells tales of individ-
nal disaster. How far this state of things
will proceed, or how long it will continue, it
is impossible to predict. Mercantile conf
dence, when once shaken, RECEIVERS slowly.
Capital is proverbially timid and selfcon-
servative, and blow that may be struck in
a moment may produce effects from which
it will take months and years to recover.
Many of those who fail will not be able to
reinstate their affairs. Asin a plague so in a
financial panic men grow selfish and indif-
ferent TO the fate of others under the urgency
of the instinct of selfpreservation. Many
who, in prosperous condition of things,
would have kept up, are destitute of the bus
mess vitality necessary to rebuild their
fortunes, and at such times go under and
disappear forever. TAese arc to De pitiod
as they constitute the real sufferers, to whom
asubsequent revival of trade brings little
compensation.
The North is receiving this injury at the
hands Of The extreme South; and-at least
sofar sthe party which endures the suffering
is concerned-eDtir tirely without provocation
This fact, brought home by sorrowful expe
rience, will not be without its effect upon the
popular mind. The South is making enc
mics of those who have hitherto been its
friends; and it viii be a long time before the
bitter memories now generated will be
wiped out. Anti slavery fanaticism is con.
fined to few; but the class conservative Of
mercantile interests is large, and its united
sentiment is powerful. 1t will manifest its
feelings in way of which the South will
have no right to complain; but whose con
sequences will be none the less unpleasant t
the other party on that account. 1t will no
dare to trust and in this'single phrase ther,
is whole volume of distress and disaster
A thousand blockades are not half so de-
structive tothat mutually y-benefcial inter
course which constitutes the life of trade a
the single embargo of the loss of mercantile
confidence.