Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-03

are constantly cited, and any one Of them
who should allow himself 70 be dictated to
by his Cabinet would excite the contempt Of
every party in the State. We can we'll con-
ceive, then, that the message of Mr.
aBuchanan has given dissatisfaction both to
the Southerners and their opponents. Df
the politicians who have held the Office of
President since Gen. Jackson, Mr.. buchanan
Is looked upon as possessing the most vigor-
Gus mind. He is one of the few eminent
men who have, in later times, attained to the
highest office in the Republic.
He was always outspoken and uncompro-
missing, and before his elevation might have
been reckoned IN extreme politician. One
would expect that such man wonld enun-
ciate some clear doctrine, and take some
decided course in a crisis like the present.
When General Jackson was President, south
Carolina played similar game to that she
seems to be now prosecuting so successfully.
jackson brought the ''Nullihers' to reason
by the threat of using the Federal forces
against them. On the present occasion,
either the South has no cause Of discomfort,
or the North has not acted in the spirit of
the Constitution. In either case, the Presi-
dent, who Is the Chief Magistrate and the
sworn guardian of the Union, would seem
bound to express his opinion boldly, and use
all the means in his power TO curb the
uthubbIOuE anu Dlluk hllhoA w " UNIV
of their wrong-doing.
But the message is apparently an evasion
of all responsibility. The President knows
that bis term Of Office is near its close, and
he is determined to take no steps which can
embarrass his successor, or give either party
the power of saving that be complicated mat
ters, and made reconciliation impossible.
Perhaps this course may be the wisestin the
end. There are times when the most mas
terly policy is to do nothing, and Mr.. Bu-
chanan may be right in preaching nom
intervention. But, though the policy of the
President may prove worthy of his reputa-
ton, it is impossible to praise the document
| in which he propounds it. The message is
not only nugatory, bat contradictory. Not
only does it announce that the Executive is
| powerless to control either of the contending
parties and preserve the most cherished
| possession of the American people, but it at
once charges the Southern States with po-
litical crime, and declares that they may be
| justified in their conduct.
1t is, in fact, plain that this part of the
document has been the work, not of a single
man, but of the Cabinet. Mr.. Buchanan,
whose opinions are said to be strongly in IA
vor Of preserving the Union, and who may
possibly have leaned toward the use of Wig
! orous measures, has been forced to adopt O
| milder tone by the remonstrances of his
| Southern advisers. 1t is well known that al
1 least two of the Cabinet are extreme South
erners, and disposed to further secession
should the North persist in its Abolitionist
legislation. After several long and lively
| debates, the message has been brought into
| its present form, and, as is usually the case
| the emendations and corrections have left II
weak in purpose and almost unintelligible ir
argument.
The London Globe observes:
President Buchanan's Message (as far a.
we can make out from the telegraphic sum
| mary(, takes middle course between the
extreme party at the North and the fanatic!
at the South. Until we read the words o
the message itself we can not estimate thu
meaning, or balance of meaning, in the two
| passages-one denying the right" of Stat,
to secede, and another denying the right
of the Federal Government to coerce
seeding State. The whole blame of originat
ing the dissension seems, however, to be at
tached to the North, and its 'intemperate in
! reference with the slavery question. II
this award of blame TO the free States tn
President follows out the line of policy al
ready indicated in the middle slave States, o
| building up compromise out of CONCESSION
extorted from the North.
1t rather diminishes the hopes of such
result when we find, by the latest news, tina
the first attempt to induce the Northern
| States to begin these concessions has failed
! The Legislature of Vermont has rejected, b,
a majority of l25 TO SO, the proposition 70
the repeal of the Personal---very. Law O
that State.
The question which Washington and tb
men of his day could calmly discuss, regard
ing slavery as an evil, but not seeing clea
way to its abolition, is now a cause of quar-
rel embittered by intense fanaticism, MI
Lincoln holds with Washington, both as re
CARDS the moral evil of slavery and the in
advisability of laws nullifying the constitu
onal right of the master to Tecapture. hi
save.
The Juror at the extreme South caused b.
this return to the practical wisdom of Wash
iugton, indicates all the moral degeneratio
which years of slaveholdng have caused i
the Cotton States; but the flame of "DiS
union at all risks might be left to burn il
self out-trusting, too, to the reaction
conservatism in the South, indicated by th
fear of "cowardice of a Convention" ex
pressed by the Georgia leaders of secession
were the question not seriously complicate
by the declaration of Kentucky, Virgins
Tennessee and several other central slav
States, that the South ought to secede unleS
the North makes concessions, which, accord
ing 10 the estimates we have presented, al
most likely to be refused. On that formi
refusal, as the question now stands, tn
United States may be distinctly divided, {
far as material interests and moral feelin
20, into two hostile sections-North an
Southland the preservation of their polit
cal union will be difficult indeed. r