Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-31
The Way the BORDER State Convention is
- LII


will be associated with Northern Democrats
both weak and reckless whose weakness
will also be called conservatism, and whose
reckless game to reconstruct their party BY
degrading the Constitution and their section
is called patriotism; and who are seeking tc
force the Republican Party to take the odium
of putting that in the Constitution, which
the Northern Democracy split their party by
refusing to put in the platform at Charleston,
because they knew it would be fatal to that
party in the North.
The South-to its honor be it said-never
trusts its interests to neutral weakness,
under the name Of patriotism, Union,
conservatism, or any other name. There
is one section yet left where emasculate
timidity and cowardly surrender of rights
are not elevated into the attributes of
patriotism and craftsmanship; where no
politician dare talk of surrender of rights
except surrender to the South. These Com
missioners will meet in Convention with
those who have all the frmness of conscious
power, aud the imperiousness which has
resulted from political associations in which
their demands are the recognized measure
of the others concessions.
Let no one pretend that we say this out of
enmity TO the South, or to their peculiar do
mestic relations. We honor them for this
trait in their character. When their de-
msnds are met by nothing but the talk of
submission and concession, the natural rela-
tiops of the two sections are recognized and
established by the North and inasmuch as
constitutions are founded in natural rela-
tons, it is no matter how soon this is put in
the Constitution. If it is patriotism on one
side to obey, it is equally patriotism in the
other to command. We thank God that
there is one section where the race which
won its liberties so bravely, has not so de-
based itself and the English language as to
make surrender Synonymous with patriot
ism. If this is the effect Of universal free
dom, then does the Richmond Enquirer say
truly that free society is failure, and is in
capable Of perpetuity.
The Commissioners from the free States
will be hurried into Convention on the 4th
of February, TO deliberate under the fear of
an immediate revolution of all the border
and the rest of the Southern States. They
will deliberate under fear and terror, and
they are to be selected of those who can be
operated on by such influences. They will
assemble on call from Virginia, which, if
strictly construed, lays down certain de-
mands as condition Of their assemblage;
and it will be insisted on as virtual recog-
milton of the terms of surrender.
If they submit to the terms, the Legis-
latures Of the free States will be required to
approve them as amendments to the Consti-
tulion, immediately on the pretext that the
salvation of the Union depends on instant
action. If they refuse this, the Northern
Democracy have card which they propose
to play, by calling State Conventions to ap-
prove the amendments, whether the Legis-
latuTes consent to the call or not They
think that by rushing the question on the
Secession panic, before the people have time
to learn what the surrender is, and by call
ing it some specious name, such as missouri
Compromise" they can carry it, at least in
form.
BUTT is not intended by those who are deep
est in the Secession plot that the Northern
Commissioners shall submit; and care will
be taken 10 make the demands as humiliat-
ing as possible, to prevent their submission,
if that is possible and this anxious haste
which is to frighten them into anything to
save the Union, is all arranged so as to act
before the 18th of February, on which day
the vote for President is to be opened and
declared by Congress.
On the instant that they refuse the terms it
will be telegraphed throughout the South
that the North refuses to- make any compro-
mises, and is determined on the irrepressibe
conflict to crush out the domestic relations
of the South, and the only recourse left to
save tine liberties of the South, and the Con-
stitution, and the Union as our fathers form
ed it, is to secede at once, seize the Capital
and the Government, declare the people of
the free States rebels, and bring them to such
terms as rebels deserve; Just as Toombs, by
a dispatch declaring that the Committee of
Thirty Three had failed to offer any COM
promise, carried the elections in Georgia for
secession.
Even if the movement is not Immediately
begun by force, or if fintimidated by the prepa-
ration Of General Scott, the Border States. if
they adhere to the position which they have
taken, will secede as soon as the Northern
Commissioners refuse to submit to their
terms, and the Withdrawing of their delega-
tiOns from Congress will leave it without a
quorum to do business, or declare the cleo
tion of President.
This is all arranged; and forces are organ
lied in Virginia Maryland and other neigh
boring States, that will make resistance out
Of the question, with the small force that
Gen. Scott will have, and only useless de-
struction of life and property. This is the
programme which our interesting Legisla-
ture is helping to carry out, under the name
of conservatism" Sinking the partisan in
the patriot" and Injecting the patriotic
Union men of the South in a conciliating
and patriotic spirit" They are playing their
part inthe Secession drama by the cue just
as true to the programme as Yancey's secret
societies have played it in the Cotton States,
and are now playing it in Kentucky, Ten
nessee, Virginia and Maryland. They pre-
cipitated the Cotton States into revolution,
and now the Republican States of the North
are brought into the play to precipitatS the
| Border States into the revoIution