New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-12-03


Such an issue is at length prese.ted in the result
of the recent Presidential election. Be IT OBJ
served, too, that II is issue made by the North,
not by the South upon whom, therefore, must
rest the entire guilt of the present disturbance.
| With the choice between three national can
| dfdates, who have more or less divided the votes
| Of the South, the North with unexamped unanim-
| ity, have cast their ballot for candidate who il
| sectional, who represents party that is Sec
| tional, and the ground Of that seCtionaism, pre-
| iudice aaainst tho established and constitutional
rights ana inmunities and institutions Of the South.
| What does shis decisre-what can it declare, but
that from hepceforth this u to be government OF
section over section; a government using conSti-
tutional forms only to enbarrass and divide the
section ruled, and as fortressss through whose en-
brasuTes the cannon Of legislation IS to be en-
ployed in demolisaing the guaranteed institutions
Of the South2 What issue is more direct, gon-
crete, ineligible tran this? ] shank God that,
since the conflict must be Joined, te responsibility
of this issue rests not NTH Us, who have ever acted
upon the defensive; and that 1t is SO disembar-
raised and simple that the feebest mind can I'M
/ derstand it.
The question with the South to-day 10 not what
issue sha she make, but how shall she meet that
which ia prepared for her: Is it possible that we
can hesitate longer than moment? In our natural
recoil from the perils of revolution, and With our
cIingng fondness for the memories of the past,
we may perhaps look around FOR something to
soften the asperity of this issue, for ground
on which we may defer the day OF evil, for some
hope that the gathering clouds nay not burst In
fury upon the land.
Ii is alleged for example, th3t the President
elect has been chosen by fair majority undsr
prescribed forms. But need say, to those who
have read history, that no despotism IS more abso
lutte than that OF an unprincipled democracy, anu
no tyranny more CALLING than that exercised
through constitutional formulas? But the plea is
idle, when the very question we debate is the per-
petuation Of that constitution now converted into
| an engine of oppression, and the continuance of
that Union which is henceforth to be our condition
| Of vassalege. | say it with solemnty and pain,
| this Union OF our forefathers is already gone. 1t
| existed but in mutual confidence, the sends of
which were ruptured in the late election Though
It's form should be preserved, it is, in fact, des-
troyed. We may possibly entertain the project of
| reconstructing it, but it will be another Onion,
resting upon other than past guarantees " In that
we say new covenant we have made the first old,
| and that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready
to vanish away 80 Eesture it is folded ap.n
For myself say that under the rule which threat
ems us, Throw off the yoke of this Union readily
| as did ancestors the yoke of King George I'll,
and for causes immeasurably stronger than those
| pleaded in their celebrated Declaration.
| It is softly whispered too, that the successful
competitor for the throne protests and his pr
pose to administer the Government in a conserve
| tive and national spirit. Allowing him all credit
for personal integrity in these protestations, he is
in this matter, nearly as impotent for good he is
| competent for evil. He is nothing more than
| figure upon the political chess board whether
pawn or knight or king, will hereafter appear
but still silent figure upon the checkered squares,
moved by the hands of an unseen player. That
player is the party to which he owes his elevation;
party that has sgnalized its history by the most
unblushing perjuries What faith can be placed in
the protestations of men who openly aYow that
their consciences are too sublimated to be re-
strained by the obligation of covenants or by the
sanctity of oaths? No we have seen the trail of
the serpent five and twenty years in our Eden
twined now in the branches of the forbidden tree,
we feel the pangs of death already begun asits hot
breath is upon our cheek, kissing out the original
falsehood eye shall not surely die"
thar M ave ypt he
| alarmed by these demonstrations of the South,
may not cast the black ball which dooms their
country to the executoner. It is forlorn hope.
Whether we should counsel such breach of faith in
them or take refuge in their treachery-whether
such result would give President chosen by the
/ people according to the Consttution--are points
will not discuss. But thatit would prove cure for
any of ills who can believe? 1t is certain that
| it would, with some show of Justice, exasperate
party sufficiently ferocious; that would doom US
to four years of increasing strife and bitterness;
and that the crises must come at last under issues
| possibly not half so clear the present Let US
not desire to shift the day of trial by miserable
| subterfuges of this sort. The issue is upon let
us meet it like men and end this strife forever.
But some quietest whispers; yet further, the ma
jority is accidental and has been swelled by acces
sions of men simply opposed to the existing Ad-
ministration; the party. is utterly heterogeneous
and must be shvered into fragments by its own
success. l confess, frankly, this suggestion has
staggered me more than any other, and ! sought
to take refuge therein. Why should we not wait
whose elements might devour each other in the
very distribution of the spells? Two consider.
atoms have dissipated the fallacy before me- The
first is that, however mixed the party, abolition
ism is clearly its informing and actuating soul ;
and fanaticsm is o bloodhound that never bolts its
track when it has once Tapped blood! The ele-
walton of their candidate is far from being the con-
summation of their aims 1t is only the beginning
of that consummation; and if all history be not a
lie, there will be coercion enough till the end of
the beginning is reached, and the dreadful banquet
of slaughter and ruin shall glut the appetite. The
second consideration is a principle which cannot
blink. It is nowhere denied that the first article in
the creed of the new dominant party 3 the re-
striction Of slavery within its present limits 1t is
distinctly aVowed by their organs, and in the name
of their elected chieftain, as will appear from the
following extract from an article written to pacfy
the South and to reassure its Fears.
5saThere can be no doubt whatever in the mind
of any man that Mr.. Lincoln regards slavery as a
moral social and political evil, and that it should
be dealt with as such by the Federal Government
4 in every instance where it IS called upon to dea
with it at all. On this point there is no room fol
question: and there need be no misgiTing as to his
official action. The whole influence Of; the Execu
5 tive Department of the Government, while in hi
: hands, will be thrown against the extension o
: slavery into the new Territories of the Union ant
: the reopening of the African slave trade. o.
$ these points he will make no compromise nor yiel
one hairs breadth to coercion from any quarter
j. in any shape. H does not acceds to the alieget
It decision Of the Supreme Court that the Consti
il tuition places slaves upon the footing OF othe
l. property, and protects them as such wherever II
jurisdiction extends nor will he be in the least de
gree governed or controlled by it in his Executive
It action. He will do all in his power, PERSONAL.
|. and officially, by the direct exercise of the power
e of his office and the indirect influence inseperab
l. fram it, to arrest the tendency to make SLAYER
l. national ard perpetual, and 70 place it in pre-
!? cisely the same position which it held in the earl
days of the Republic and in the view of the found
G ars of the Government"
l. Now, what enignnas may be couchedin this laf
n lssentence-the sphinx which uttered them can PSI
s. haps dive but the sentence in which they oesn
is as big the belly ofthe Trojan horse which hi
r the city of Prian in ruins.
o Thess utteranees we have heard 30 long aia
3. they fall stale upon ths ear ;.bus never baiog
y have they haes sueh significance. Hitherto, tho
n have come from Jacobin conventisles and paihif
L. fromathe rostaam, from the hustiags and frsm
ID halls of our national Congress : bnt always as II
e, uttezances CT irresponsible men or association
lie mea. But ROW the voice comes from the thru mi
already, befoEe eladwith the sanctities of oiiae
If tia anoindng oil IS poured upon the naGns rcf
er lead the decree has gone forth that the list n
a. af SoutE8rn slaEsry shall be constrained with
st assigned, limits. Though nature and Raarsiden
S. should send foafh its branches like aAe Banyi
I'd tree, to take roat in congenial soil here pow
n superior to boSh, that says it shall wiaae and
OF within its own charmed circle.
es What say you to this to whom this great prov