New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-12-20
eUCCEsTIONs TO SOUTHERN ZEN.

will not be lost upon that educated and lntelll-
gent portion of the Southern population which
used 10 constitute the bulk and strength OF the
LATE Wing party in the Southern States. Upon
their shoulders We are obliged to say, rests no
small share of the responsibility for that section
azaticn of parties, which, having begun IN the
South. extended by an inevitable political neces-
sity TO tho North, and which is now sought 20
be made the excuse and occasion on the part OF
certain disappointed and desperate men for
dissolution of the Union.
When the proposition was brought forward,
some six years ago, for the repeal OF the Mis-
souri, Compromise, the injustice, the impoilcy,
the danger of that proposal must have been EVIL
dent TO all rejecting Southern minds. That was
AN occasion when the Northern Opposition had'a
right to expect the cooperation aud support OF
these citizens of the South with whom for some
thirty years preceding they had acted in political
alliance. Had that cooperation and support been
promptly given it would not only have strength
ened the bonds of sympathy and union between
the Northern and Southern opponents OF Demo
cratic reckIessness and misrule, it would have
efectualIy detected that Pedagogical movement,
ard thereby fOrestalled the occasion and neces-
sity for the organization of the existing kepdb-
lican party. The unfortunate and mlsJudged
abandonment on that occasion by the Southern
OPPOSITION of the dictates both of justice and
political wisdom was the first step toward bring
ing the South into that position of antagonlsln to
the Constitution and the Union in which an ul-
ira and desperate faction are now seeking to
place her. Nor, while thus cutting themselves oil
from their former Northern connections, did the
Southern Opposition succeed in galnlng-lf such
had been their object and expectatI0n-any addl-
tiona weight and influence at home. So far
from it. they were almost completely swallowed
up by the Democratic party, and their local po-
litical strength was diminished nearly in the
same ratio with their national Importance.
This lesson ought not to be lost. That great
body Of intelligent Southern citizens who constl-
tute the natural opposition to the system OF p0-
litical trickery and corruption which, under the
popular name of Democracy, aSpires to control
our politics, local and national, ought not to sui
fer themselves to be- fooled and made tools OF a
second time. The men who are plotting disso-
luton Of the Union, and a Southern Conlederacy,
ton of the South and even of the Cotton States,
must reluct against their projects. But they hope
that under the idea Of improving the present op-
pOrtunity TO force concessions from the North,
even those citizens of the South who are ut
terIy opposed to dissolution of the Union, and
who form an undoubted majority in tho larger
part Of the Southern States may he gradually drawn
in to the support Of their movement aud that,
being thus drawn in, they will find themselves too
far committed to recede. We trust that the in
telligeLi citizens of the South will not suffer
themselves to be caught in this trap. Those who
intend to stand by the integrity of the Union,
must, if they wish to make their intentions OF
any avail 20 in for the support OF the Union,
without any reservations conditions. Hay-
ing done that, having eilectually cOUperated in
putting down the present disorganizing move
ments, they will then stand in favorable posi-
ton to ask of those with whom they have acted
in this great work, any such joint exposition of
the rights of the States and Of the Federal
Government under the Constitution, as shall,
upon due consideration, seem likely to settle on a
fair basis existing differences of Interpretation.
The project of dissolution, it is to be observed,
is exclusively and peculiarly Southern move
meni, and as such ought to be met and resisted
by Southern men. A Jealous cooperation on the
part Of large and weighty body of Southern
citizens in sustaining the undoubted constitutional
right of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the
Union to which he has Just been elected and
decided exhibition Of patriotic dscouutenance Of
the dsoroauiZing schemes OF State spce ssiOu now
III vogue in the Gull States, based on the fact of
his election would go vastly further than any
thing else to reastabhsh, as between the North
and the South, that mutual confidence and good
feeling which the events of the past six years
have done 20 much to shake, and the restoration
of which il is now generally felt is essential to
the stability and perpeuty of the Union. In
doing this, Southern men would yield nothing
whatever. All their peculiar ideas to the
true Interpretation of the Constitution-all their
reclamations against the North for alleged vo-
lations of State rights under that Constitution
would remain to be- insisted upon in Il regular
way, as occasion might offer. All they would
yield would BE- that submission to the result of
an election duly and constitutionay held, with
out which it is impossible for either national
or our State Governments to continue to exist.
As 10 the conditions sought TO be imposed on the
Republican party by way of penalty for having
exercised the constitutional right of voting for
aud eecting a President of their own choice.
there are considerations which, wholly apart
from any question as to the character of those
conditions, render any such arrangement utterly