The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-02-16

The administration of Mr.. BUCHANAN, now so
rapidly drawing to an end, is destined to figure
in history as one of the most eventful, and it is
painful to add, one of the most ngorious that the
country has ever known. 1t began auspiciously
enough, for it found the Commonwealth prosper
Gus and at peace, and it closes, after four brief
years, amid scenes of disaster and disgrace unpar-
alleled in the annals of the nation. The Treasury
is bankrupt, business is paralyzed civil war is
imminent, and the dissolution of the UNION al
most an accomplished fact. Such picture of
public ruin and private distress has never before,
in peaceful times, been witnessed within the borders
of the Republic. For all this however the retiring
President is not responsible. The revolutionary
movement which swept so suddenly, and with
such resstless force over the South, has been the
chief cause of our present troubles, and this he
had no power effectually to control. He might
have attempted to repress the instruction by force
but he would have thereby lighted up a flame
which blood alone could have quenched, and he
knew it. He therefore, mercifully and wisely we
think, absained from precpitating hostilities that
were likely, in any event. to break out too soon;
and having no authority himself to make any
compromises by which the existing Federal laws
would be abrogated suspended, he earnestly
urged Congress to interpose and adjust the dis.
pute. He was unwilling to take the decisive
steps which would have brought all pend
ing questions at once to issue, for he saw that
the issue which would present itself would be civil
war; and as the legislative department of the Gov
eminent could relieve the Executive from the forlorn
duty imposed upon it, the PRESIDENT had every
riult n In bn eytri Tod E,1
position. He has, it is true, displayed, in dealing
with this difficult subject, much vacillation and
weakness, but we cannot see that his conduct in
this particular has been productive of any positive
harm to the country. He could have done little
more than be has done TO settle the unhappy diff
ferences between the sections, or to prevent the
struggle from assuming a more desperate shape;
and the responsibility for all our distresses, pres
ent and to come, rests mainly with those to whom
the PRESIDENT has so often and so vainly ap-
pealed. If, then, Mr.. BUCHANAN should be here
after recognized the last President of this Re-
public his name will not necessarily suffer re-
proach from connection with that fact
But if history does not hold Mr.. BUCHANAN to
severe accountability for being the last of an illus
trious line Of rulers, it will compel him to answer
III lii0 1SnOhluy WHICH, lis administrator
closed. And upon this point no defence that he
can bring forward will be likely to avail him.
The record of his term of office is not that which
Statesman would care to transmit to posterity.
1t contains nothing to indicate that the PRESIDENT
has busted himself with comprehensive schemes
OF policy or, in the discharge of his arduous du-
ties, has been animated always by lofty motives
and lntiamed by an honorable ambition On the
contrary, we have only dreary catalogue of the
manGuvres adopted TO sustain a party, and the
means awaited of to acquire popularity. Partisan
squaooies, partisan projects, and partisan tri-
umphs have monopolized the PRESIDENT and Cab
met alike; and the history of this administration
would have been indeed dull one, but for the
fact that, when the political waters have been
Stirred some mass of corruption has generally
risen to the surface, thus afordng the public ma
teral for much exciting speculation The in
stances in which the evidences of official miscon-
duct have thus been brought 10 light need not be
here recapitulated, nor is it necessary to demon
strate that Mr. BUCHANAN is responsible for the
mlsdeeds that have brought his administration
into disrepute. Whenever an iniquty has been ex-
posed he has done his best to shield it, He had no
word Of rebuke for the jobbers and punderers who
sold Fort Smelling, or swindled the Government
on coal contracts, or farmed out the New York
Navy Yard, or participated in similar knavish
schemes. lie had no right, then, 10 be surprised
at the disgraceful and dishonest conduct of Mr..
FLOYD, and he will have no reason to COMPLAIN if
portion of the infamy which his trusted agents
and councillors have incurred should attach hence.
forth to him and his administration,