The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-02-07
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY +, 1851

1t is not to be supposed that the Peace Congress,
as it is termed has the remotes expectation of be-
ing able TO agree upon any compromise which
will be Immediately satisfactory, to the
Central as well to the Cotton States
The precipitation with which the latter have
acted indicates their readiness TO dissolve the
Union forever, and the step which they have al
ready taken to maintain their position proves that
they are seriously bent upon establishing new
Confederacy in the South. 1t may be assumed,
therefore, that it will require the strongest pos
sible inducements to persuade them to renew their
ALLEGIANCE to the present Federal Government, and
that they will not be content with concessions
which would amply satisfy the Central Slave
States. If, then, the country expect the Com
missioners at Washington to unite upon any COM
promise that will at once be acceptable TO the
whole South, it is safe to predict that such hopes
are doomed to speedy disappointment. But
it is not probable that the Conference will at
tempt to do more than effect some adjustment
which will arrest the secession movement before it
can 90 further. If Virginia can be kept in the
Union, then kentucky and Tennessee and North
Carolina will remain also, and there is every rea-
son 10 hope that the old relations between
all the States may, in that case, lie ulti-
mately re-establishqd; but if Virginia be COM
PEELED to withdraw and link her destinies
with those of South Carolina, the days
of this Republic are numbered, and it will soon
cease TO be known among the nations of
the earth We believe, therefore, that the
Southern Commissioners will not insist
terms such as the Gulf States would demand
if they were represented in the Conference, and
that the Commissioners from the North will make
every effort to give the Border States the guaran-
ties they require. These are certainly as mode
rate as they are just, and if the North refuse to
yield thus much, fearful responsibility will rest
upon its people. Moreover, the course of the
Border slave States has been such as to entitle
them, not merely to fair, bit to most considerable
treatment. They have manifested their love for
the Union by the loyalty with which they have
clung to it since this storm broke upon us; and they
have shown how earnestly they desire to uphold
the Constitution for though they feel that they have
been deprived of the benefit Of its provisions they
have steadily rebuked their brethren who too pre-
cipitatey sought to overthrow what they feared
was about to become a burthen instead Of a bles-
sing. If there ever was just cause earth, it
is that for which the Border slave States con-
tending, and there never was a people, which, in
demanding its rights, stood in a nober attitude
than the people of Virginia do to-day. We are
unwilling to believe that justice will still be de-
MED them. Certain it is, that the preserya-
ton of the Union depends upon the question
whether or not the demands of Virginia
granted, and this is the only issue which we be-
lieve the Washington Conference is likely to con-
slider, Or can decide.