Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-11


Pacific Policy Va. WarIike Policy.
Among the generalities of the times in
vented to serve as substitutes for ideas, or as
the symbols of party f~allacies, is the term
Pacific Policy, as applied to the course of
Mr.. Lincoln's Government. The President
is implored to pursue a pacific policy; Dem
ocratic journals urge a pacific policy, and
threaten terrible events as the consequence
Of any other. Grave statesmen and owlish
politicians ~anslyze the sentences Of the In.
a%ugural, to discover whether or not it ex-
hibits O balance in favor of peace. The
speeches of Mr.. Seward are subjected to the
same process, and nothing that drops from a
member of the government is too insigni6.
cant or too equivocal to escape the attention
of the hunters after the elements of political
divination in respect to peace or war.
The opposite of the pacific policy is naturally
the warlike policy. 1t is assumed, of course,
that Mr.. Lincoln will pursue the one or the
other. Now the question naturally arises;
What is pacific, and what a warlike policy2
If we could only find out the features Of the
one, we might, perhaps, gain some idea of
the character of the other. But in what
these different forms of policy are to con-
sist, or how we are infallibly to know at the
outcome which one has been pursued, is a
matter upon which there is no distinct in
formation. Nay, go much are we afloat upon
the subject that words and acts, which, to
some, appear to indicate an appetite for Bit
ter and relentless war, are, by others, con.
strued into signs of the most benign and pa
cihc intentions.
In reality, the Administration has done
nothing, and said as little. Up to this time,
its doings have probably been confined to
such acts as were necessary to complete its
organization. Its only authoritative words
are those of the Inaugural; and these do
not, and evidently were not, intended to
indicate any line of policy, pacific or other.
wise, as the n to be pursued. The address
is amiable in its tone, and equally patriotic
and general in its suggestions; and all the
hours spent in efforts to give it a construc.
ton beyond this, are so much time thrown
away.
But the day is rapidly approaching when
it will devolve upon the Administration to
determine a point upon which an issue may
be raised. Commissioner appointed by the
Southern Congress will call on Mr.. Lincoln
tomorrow, to demand from him the recogni-
ton of the Southern Confederacy as an in
dependent nation, and the surrender of the
remaining military posts within its territory.
They have not gone to Washington to treat
of compromises of a settlement of difficulties,
or of a reconstruction of the Union. To
them, if not to us, things have progressed
beyond these points. They go to negotiate
as the agents of one nation negotiate with
those of another. Not only so, but they go
with, preceding them, the authoritative de-
clsration that a refusal on the part Of the
United States to conform to their require
ments will be regarded by them, and by the
Government they represent, as equivalent to
a declaration of war. To fail to receive and
confer with these individuals, will be re-
garded as a still more fragrant insult, TO be
avenged accordingly.
1t is evident that if the President shall re-
ceiVe these Commissioners, in their official
capacity, he by the same act recognizes the
existence Of the Southern ~Confederacy as a
government de factO, thereby not only rem
dering Legitimate every proceeding, civil
or military, by the authorities of the United
States within its territory, but virtually ad-
hitting that the holding of Forts Sumter and
and Pickens is an offense against the rights
Of a ~neighboring nation. This recognition
on the part of our Government will be fol-
lowed Immediately by that of all the Euro
pean powers; and in fifty days diplomatic
agents from London and Paris will be found
at the court of President Davis, nor will we
under the circumstances have the shadow of
q right to complain. The disputed posts
will be given up as s matter of course and
in full possession of every right which be-
longs to a nation, the Southern ~Confederacy
will DO complete.
The alternative, and the only one, as It ap.
pears to us, presented TO the President, will be
TO refuse toJeceive the Commissioners; an act
which, as they affirm, will be holden equiva-
lent 70 a declaration of war. And in this
they are correct. If the Southern Confed-
eraey is a nation, as it suppOses itself to be,
the holding of Forts Sumter and Fickens by
the United States is an act of hostility; and
the Government Of the Oonfederacy must
proceed instantly to gain possession Of those
Notifications, or stand before the world con-
fessedly unable to maintain the integrity of
its wi territory; nor can the wal end hon
orably to the South until the conquest is
accomplished.
Now, what do gentlemen who advocate a
pacific policy require; what in this case,
would they adviser Should Mr.. Lincoln re-
ceiye the Commissioners and recognize the
existence Of the Southern Oonfedsracy as one
Of the nations Of the world, equal in respect
to all international rights to our oWn2 Our