Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-12-12
A COal.DevOurIng journal on the PrssI-
dents messagc-A New Orleans View of
the Document.

A Coal.DevOuring journal on the Prssl-
dents messagc-A New Orleans View of
the Document.
Thursdays New Orleans Crescent, which,
as it is only about two-thirds pyrOphan-
ous, may be considered a coal-devouring
journal, says of the Presidents message:
Secession, says the President, is the very
last remedy-to be resorted to only when.
every thing else fails. This is exactly what
the South says, and has always said. We
have tried every thing else, and every thing
else has failed-and it is precisely because
this "last resort" only will save us, that we
have determined to employ it. The ''ebb and
flow" in public sentiment, which Old Buck
relies on, is a nice thing to talk of on the eve
of an overwhelming and unprecedented ex-
preston of public opinion, just one month
ago, in every Northern State except one, in
favor of q sectional administration of the
Government, looking to the present domina-
ton and the eventual overthrow of the
South, her institutions, her rights, and the
honor of. her people. The South recognizes
the fact that what she proposes is, as the
President says, last resort. 1t is only be-
cause tits the last resort that she has now
taken position upon it, and will stand or fall
upon the justice Of her cause.
But the Constitution can be amended, says
Mr.. Buchanan-and he goes on to suggest
what those amendments should be. He says
this has been done before, when defects were
discovered in the organic law. We suppose
the Old Public Functionary is not aware
thattimes are not the same now as they
were sixty years ago. Then there was no
| fanaticism such rs now eXists-no such
| hatred between the two sections--no small
| politicians and corrupt political gamblers and
trcksters in the high places of the nation,
But the very guarantees he wishes given, he
admits, have already been decided to exist
by the high authority of the Supreme Court
and he weakly supposes that the people o.
the North will concede these guarantees Of
their own free will and accord, if they are
allowed to pass upon them as States, though
they do not now recognize them as decided
and established by the Supreme Court.
If the door were once opened for amend
ments to the Constitution, there is no telling
where it would stop. We might be pledged
to the observance of q Constitution openly
destructive of our equality and our rights
The present Constitution is good enough 70
US, and its provisions plain enough.
All we require is, that those provisions b
observed. And if Mr.. Buchanan, instead O
suggesting new amendments, had appealed
to the North to observe the Constitution a
it now is, he would have occupied mucl
more manly and defensible position. If h
counsclcd the North to abandon their mis-
I REPRESENTATIONS OI IiiS OOHStlbutlOu5 anu bhOi
evasion and notification of the laws passe
in pursuance of its provisions, he would hay
: done the correct thing, and have applied tn
} proper remedy for the disease. These sug
} pestions to amend Constitution, which th
, South already considers ample for her pre-
: lection, if proper observance be paid both I
its letter and its spirit, will be rejected b
every Southern State as only pitiful tritlin
: with the question.
= For the rest, the President thinks that tt
D time has not yet arrived for resistance,
e never will arrive, in our opinion, so far as
i is concerned-and that Lincoln's election
;. not, alone, sufficient provocation. The Pre-
Q ident fo1gets that it is not the mere fact
Lincolns election which the South pleads
e justification of her conduct. But this
: something which is now outside Of the que
a tion. The South has gone too far, and right
If SO, for recession. And if nobody has al
e better plan for, solution of the dificul
i than the PresideRf, the factis apparent tn
it is further from adjustment than ever.