The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-03-01
Doubtful Things Becoming Mighty
Uncerta designs of General
Breakup among the Ultraists Of
Both Sections.

Both Sections.
Editorial Correspondence OF the Pioneer and Democrat
WASHINGTON, February Is.
1t is dificu 1t to say which side is in the
worse condition, just now-Northern Re.
publicanism or Southern Ultraism. The
affairs of both are becoming awfuly mixed,
and both are already the victims Of an in.
ternal irrepressible conflict.
The few select members of the Cotton
Confederacy don't get along with that de.
gree of harmony which it would seem rea-
sonable to expect in government less than
a month old. The provisional Constitution
adopted at Montgomery forbids forever the
importation of slaves from any foreign
country, except the slave states of the old
Republic, and an act passed by the Pro-
visional Congress, adopting all the laws of
the United States, enacts, in its sweeping
terms, the tariff of 1857, which has been
one of the special grievances of South Car
DINA. So South Carolina protests that the
whole object of secession has already been
defeated by the seceders themselves. Seces-
sion was precipitated to vindicate the legal
and moral rights of slavery and the first
step taken by the seceders is to place that
institution indirectly under the ban of the
paramount law. Another great object of
secession was to relieve the Cotton States
from the oppressive burdens under which,
it has been contended, they have always la
bored, through the unjust discrimination of
our tariff acts and the second step taken
by the Provisional Congress is to place in
force that of 1857. Against all which the
Charleston Mercury, which is South Caro-.
lima, just as the London Times is England,
enters its indignant protest, and more than
intimates that, il this is foretaste of what
is to come, it will not be long before seces-
sion itself will be seeded from. And so
they are going down South.
At the North, the temporary hope engen.
dered by the conservative position of Sew
ARD, CAMERON, and WEED, has been
dampened, if not utterly destroyed, by the
tone of L1NcoLN's Indianapolis speech. As
interpreted here by all classes, it means CO.
ercion in advance of compromise. If this
shall prove to be the policy of the incoming
administration, it is difficult to see how civil
war can be avoided. This policy is con-
demned, not only by the Unionists of the
Border Slave States, but by the better
classes of the Republicans. The inaugura-
ton of such policy, in a mere partizan as
pect, will be to rend the Republican party
in twain, and to leave LINCOLN unsupported
by quarter of his northern constituency.
How he will sustain himself under such
circumstances is problem which it is left
for time to solve.
1t is admitted, even by the partizan
friends of the incoming President, that he
has not sustained his reputation in the
speeches made thus far on bis route to the
Capital. They convey no just appreciation
of the magnitude of the crisis in which the
country is now involved, nor of the temper
of the people. They have lost to the grow
ing Union movement, North and South, all
that had been gained by the elections Of
Virginia and Tennessee. Judge CARUTHERs,
of the latter State, to whom, next to AN
DREW JOHNSON, is due the magnificent trib-
ute to the Union which was rendered at the
late election, said yesterday that be now
saw no hope for the ultimate restoration of
the Union except though the withdrawal
of the balance of the Slave States, and the
subsequent reconstruction Of the Govern.
ment. So much for adhering to party dog
mas and platforms without reference to, and
in spite of, the circumstances surrounding
the times. Every days events give color
to the fact that Republicanism does not
possess within itself governing elements and
power. The country must fall back for
safety upon the old Democracy, and upon
the conservative classes, who, at the late
election, temporarily united with the radi-
calism ofthe North. And to this end all
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