The national Republican., 1861-04-16
JUDGE DOUGLAS.

sent all over the country TO the Associated Press,
on Sunday evening:
"Senator Douglas called on the President
to night, and had an interesting conversation
on the present condition of the country.
" The substance of it was, on the part Of Mr..
Douglas, that while he was unalterably opposed
to the Administration on all its political issues,
he was prepared to fully sustain the President
in the exercise Of oil his constitutional func.
tions to preserve the Union, and maintain the
Government, and defend the Federal capital.
: firm policy and prompt action were necessary.
The capital Of our country was in danger, and
must be defended at all hazards, and at any
expense of men and money. He spoke of the
present and future, without any reference to
the past. President Lincoln was very much
gratifed with the interview"
1t is, we believe, no secret, that this dispatch
was so far prepared under the direction of
Judge Douglas that it may be taken as the
declaration which he chooses to make to the
country as TO his present position.
And so regarding it, we must express our
regret, but not our surprise, that he so carefully
limits his offers of support, to the defence Of the
city Of Washington.
The case of Judge Douglas may be disposed
of in few words.
In his Norfolk Speech during the Presiden.
tial canvass, he pledged himself to the country
to sustain whoever might be elected to the
Presidency, in enforcing the laws, and he called
public attention repeatedly afterwards to the
fact, that Mr.. Breckinridge refused to make
similar pledge.
During the past winter, however, If there has
been any difference in the positions Of Judge
Douglas and Mr.. Breckinridge, the public have
not been able to discover it.
Judge Douglas, since the 4th Of March, has
made elaborate speeches in the Senate urging
the policy of evacuating Forts Sumter and
Pickens, and so far as he has weight with the
country, he has prepared the public mind to re.
ceive with disapprobation the policy announced
in Mr.. Lincons inaugural, and now being car
ried out in practice, as Judge Douglas, in COM
mon with everybody else, knew it would be.
To the extent of his influence, which is con.
siderable, and especially in the border States
he has weakened the Administration, and taken
sides with the public enemy.
1t was his duty, as good citizen, upon our
: view of it, to have given his advice, that Sum.
ter and Pickens be evacuated, privately to the
President, instead of making it the subject Of a
, controversial speech in the Senate, to distract
} and divide public sentiment and to prepare
such of the people as look to him for their
opinions, to disapprove the action of the Gov
ernment.
And now, after our flag has actually been
) hauled down under the FIRE of rebel batteries,
instead of offers Of support to the measures
which he knows to have been resolved upon,
he limits himself to the defence of the capital.
Was that all he meant by his Norfolk speech
WHO HAVE ENCOURAGED REBEL.
i. LION.
, The leaders of the GulEState rebellion have
t been deluded, thus far, with hopes of aid from
e the Northern Democracy and from the border
8 slave States. These hopes will be soon extin-
guished, and these leaders will then see the
madness of the enterprise in which they are
involved. 1t is not to be expected that they
e will at once abandon it. They are too deeply
n compromised. But the struggle which they
!. will maintain will be the struggle of despera.
: ton, confined to leaders, and with q following
f which will sensibly diminish from day to day.
y As to the North, the conspirators have been
e deceived by such sheets as the New York Day
e Book, and New York Herald, and New York
b Journal Of Commerce, into the belief that q
revolution in the free States would follow an
f attempt to assert the national authority on the
, Gulf They have been expecting to see New
i | Vnrly ,ty tba bon a., 49, tbo
!. lican leaders hung upon the lamp posts, and
y. Marshal Rynders and Mayor Wood installed in
supreme power and extending the right hand
g of fellowship to Yancey aud Ben. Mccullough
! 1t is upon dreams like these that Davis and
:. Toombs have based their hopes.
u AS to the border slave States, their expecta
j. tions had better foundation, but will be equal
r ly disappointed. The border slave States had
= declared for the Union, but so many of the
). leaders in favor of the Union had committed
e themselves against what is vaguely called "co
! ercion," that the conspirators, not unnaturally
= looked to these States as allies, in the only
+ contingency in which they desire allies, that
r. of being obliged to resist the asserted authorit,
e of the Federal Government. 1t is thus thai
5, the politicians of the border States, who have
y been chatterng their opposition to coercion,
n have been the most efficient patrons of rebel
IS lion, by offering it the guarantee of impunity
g. The mistake of the conspirators has been in
4. not perceiving that the people of the border
y y slave States have never endorsed this trans
parent nonsense. of Government without coer
h cion, lucus non Mcendo, coercion being the
t, very essence and vitality of Government.
d Now that the proper time has come the peo