The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-01-23
BALTIMORE.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY %, 1851

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY %, 1851
The announcement of the secession of South
Carolina, though the measure had been generally
anticipated, created everywhere the most intense
excitement and anxiety, while the news of the pas
sage of n similar ordinance by the Georgia Con-
vention has attracted comparatively little atten-
ton. So rapid has been the march of political
affairs, that what were regarded few weeks since
as impossible events, have become now the ia
miliar transactions of the past; and we ac-
tuay living amid condition of things which q
few months ago we would have shuddered to con-
template as among the contingencies Of the future
Secession is now looked on as an every day occur
renee, and the final destruction of this Confederacy
is regarded by the majority of the people a not
improbable result OF the present dissensons. If
any sufficient premonition could have been given
n year ago, of the inevitable approach of doom
so fearful as that which threatens u.s. thNro is
nothing which men would not have done to avert
it. They would have assembled together in every
quarter of the land, and amid mutual protesta-
tons of devotion TO the Republic, they would
have pledged, as did their fathers before them,
their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor,
to uphold it. There is, we believe, no sacrifice
they would not have made to prevent the dissolu-
ton of the Union, if they had realized, before it
became so imminent, the extent of the danger in
which they were so soon TO be involved. But the
storm came and the blind could not and the
incredulous would not, recognize its dread signi-
canoe. We took occasion to observe, many
weeks ago, that the pending revolution was
unfortunately always in advance of the conser-
vatiye people who might otherwise control it, and
subsequent events have proved the truth of our
remarks. In this State, for instance, the idea of
q Southern Convention was not listened to until
the moment had passed when such an assembly
could be convened the suggestion Of a Border
State Convention has only been favorably heard
that the separate action of Virginia has near
ly rendered the plan impracticable; and the meet
ing of our own Legislature has been opposed unit /
the period has arrived when it is almost useless to
summon the Legislature to meet in special session
for any other purpose than to provide for State
Convention. Never up to the exgency of the &C.
casion ourselves, we have permitted days and
weeks to elapse without taking one step to advance
the cause we have at heart; and Congress- to which
we looked for some settlement, has initiated our
inaction, and undertaking the magnitude of the
peril that threatens the nation, has scarcely made
one earnest and honest effort to turn back the tide
of revolution. Under these circumstances, it was
but natural that a movement as serious as that
which was inaugurated in the South, should gath
er strength from hour to hour and we have, there
fore, reason to be surprised at the hostile at-
tude which so many Of the Southern States have
now assumed towards the Federal Government,
however much we may lament it. The North has
heretofore. refused TO make any concession, and
five States have already announced their with
drawal from the Union and if the North shall still
decline TO recede hair breath from the unconstl-
tional position it has taken, all the other States
between the Gulf and the Ohio have plainly inti-
mated their intention TO secede. That they will
resolutely and speedily carry their determination
into effect, unless some compromise is offered, is
beyond all doubt; and it is equally certain that
they will resist, to all extremities, any attempt on
the part of tho North to them. Ouch tIie
present situation of the Republic and not only is
it one of dire peril, but it is one which becomes
more hopeless every moment that satisfactory
adjustment is delayed. Indeed, il may be ques.
toned whether the issue before the country is
not altogether different from that which was dis
cussed one month ago; and whether the recon-
struction, rather than the preservation of the Union
is not the only matter which the people are called
on TO consider If this is So then it is evident that
the work of compromise becomes hourly more diff
cult. 1t will be troublesome task to induce tn
States which have already seeded to renew their
former relations with the Federal Government 1t
will be a still harder matter, if all the slave
States renounce their connection with the
North, TO persuade them to resume it-and
it will be almost impossible, if a Southern Com
federacy is formed, to re-establish the Union
Southern States shall not only have separated
from the North but shall have formed Union
and set up Government for themselves, they will
not readily be prevailed upon to retrace their
steps. They may be persuaded now, if the North
will meet them in a conciliatory spirit, to ADAM
don the measures they have taken for the forma-
ton of a new Confederacy in the South but
when new nation announces its existence, and
when its President and Congress are fairly inau-
SuiotSu, Oil hopS vi tiiC iC SOUSlIuCtlOu vi ut
Union, on its present basis, within any definite
period, may be regarded as delusive. This, new
ertheless, is the result to which we are rapidly
tending. If Congress cannot, within a very brief
period, settle the dispute between the North and
South, the controversy will be inevitably settled
by the disruption of the Union and the downfall
of the Republic. What settlement the one section
ought to propose and the other to accept, we need
scarcely say, for we have discussed these questions
repeatedly, and in all their bearings. We have
commented on the aggressive position of
the North, and have earnestly vindcated
the rights of the South, and in this COM
munity, as elsewhere, argument on either
side has been we'll nigh exhausted We
have, therefore, for some days, abstained from
the further discussion of political affairs, in the ex-
pectation that some decisive action would be taken
by Congress which would bring the present COM
plications the nearer, one way or other, to an
adjustment. In this the public has been disap-
pointed, and it can now only await anxiously the
issue of events, in the full conviction that, with
every days delay on the part of Congress to effect
an adjustment between the slave and free States,
the final destruction of the Republic draws nearer
and nearer.