New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-06
AN .,NT,uEly INCUBATION.


luminous old gentlemen now assembled at Wash
ington at the call of Virginia, to incubate over
q neat full of compromises, we beg leave 10
suggest to them, before proceeding further with
their setting, to give more careful inspection
of the eggs under them than they seem to have
deemed necessary. 1t would be- well to ascer-
tain. first. how many Of them are added
already; secondly, how many are chalk; and
thirdly, how many are not honest eggs oil the
cross or compromise feather desired at thus mo-
ment but are the production of vpers, crocodiles,
adders, and other reptiles OF treacherous and
altogether disngreeable character, which II would
be for the good of the country to incontinently
smash rather than to hatch. We do not wish
to startle these elderly persons by any dis
agreeable suggestions, but we certainly believe
that they are only breeding mischief, and not
honest chickens, such as should come out OF our
national bird. The examination, on our part. of
any particular compromise is quite uncaled for,
inasmuch as we can only conjecture as to what
special scheme is likely to be received with most
favor Nor, indeed, do we think it very much
matters, for the mischief is in any compromise at
all. Let US consider. --.'~-
The purpose of any compromise or concession is,
in the well.chOsen words of Mr.. Seward, in his
Detroit speech, Z" to adjust and establish Fede-
"ral policy for the regulation Of the subject OF
Slavery in its relations to the Union" AL
these attempts, as We all know, and as Dir.
Seward himself says and shows. have been
" signal and lamentable failures" And signal
and lnmentable failures they always will be, so
long-again we quote the strong terms of the
distinguished Senator--as they defy the moral
'opinions of mankind oyerturn tho laws and
systems of our fathers, and dishonor their
memories by declaring that the unequaled and
glorious Constitution which they gave us car
" ries with it, as il attends our eagles, not Free
"dom and personal rights to the oppressed, but
Slavery and hateful and baleful commerce in
" slaves, wherever we win a conquest, by sea or
"land, over the whole habitat globe" 1t is
waste of time aud effort, then, to attemP to
patch up again a new peace on the old terms.
1t is putting new wine into old bottles, new
cloth into an old garment. II il waste OF time,
because a considerable period must and ought to
elapse to give opportunity for discussion before
any Compromise proposing amendments to the
ConstitutiOn--and it is not even pretended that
any others can b. Of the slightest seryice-can
come before the people for their ratiii-
cation. That ratification it must be allowed on
all hands, is very uncertain, if the concession
proposed should be one in the least degree likely
to concilate the most moderate of tho Slave
States. The conseDt Of three, fouIths Of the
States, it should be- remembered, is requisite 10
amend the Constitution. The vote Of twenty
four States, then, is necessary; but Of the whole
number of thirty-four, We may fairly calculate
that six will not vote at oil; for it is morally
impossible that any compromise can be consented
to, even at Washington, either in Convention or
Congress, of which the Secession States would
condescend to take any more respectful notice
than, possibly, to permit the common hangman
to burn it. These States. therefore, will not be
counted ut all, and We can reckon confidently on
only the nine remaining Slayeholding States and
NewJersey 10 these ten votes fourteen more
must be added to make the requisite number of
twenty-four But where are they TO come FRONT
Every one Of these States gave Republican
majority at the last election. Is there a man
mad enough in the whole country-nay is there
q man weak enough in Washngton-to believe
that there are FOURTEEN Republican States that
by direct vote Of the people viii reverse the
decision of last November However it may be
with individuals, men in masses do not so easily
forget and repudiate the cherished conscientious
convictions which have grown with their growth
and strengthened with their strength.
But suppose we have got so far as to have
taken the vote and rejected the amendment, then
where are we! We have gained the loss Of all
the precious intervening time, to be at last pre-
cisely where we were at first, with the aggraya.
ton Of disappointment and the growing exaspera-
ton Of the people TO complcate the difficulty.
In the mean while, the commercial interests of
the nation will have come to grief, for the sol.
vency Of any country is mere question Of time,
and trade when in utter stagnatiOn, like stag
uant pool, testers and breeds corruption. Already
Compromise will have done its perfect work, and
we shall have reached again that point of the
&" divergent course" from right, which, as Mr..
Seward remarks, in his speech delivered of De.
troit only last September, is ga point where,
amid confusion, bewilderment, and mutual re.
" ordinations, it seems alike impossible to go
4" for ward or return"
Such must be the result as regards the Free
States, or rather as regards the refusal of the
Free States to commit themselves again to one
of those "sgnaI and lamentable failures" which
for forty years have illustrated the fatal at
tempts to reconcile Slavery and Freedom JUS
tice and injustice, right and wrong, black and
white, oil and water, light and darkness But