The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-02-11
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY IL, 1861

on Saturday, 10 the late effort OF MI HENRY W IN
TER DAVIS in the House of Representatives, we
took occasion to say that it would be regarded as
one of the most Objectionable speeches which even
Mr. DAVIS himself had made. This was PUTTING
the case strongly, admit, for the pablo life of
Mr.. DAVIS has certainly furnished large margin
in the matter of violent aggressive and pernicious
discourses. Never before, however, did circum-
stances place him in a position which appealed
one half so strongly to his craftsmanship, his
good feeling and his patriotism. Never before
had he the 1.-THE of an opportunity to do so much
good or so much harm by the expression of his
opinions. The magnitude of the situation and of
the chances which it afforded him, must conse-
quently be the measure Of his failure or success,
and VIC are sure that we express the Judgment Of
nine-tenths of the community which he processes
to represent, when say, that to speak of the
speech, so measured, merely as a failure, is 10
deal with it in a mcrciul spirit which it does not
deserve. With much less than Mr.. DAVIS usual
ability, it has even more than the usual amount
of his salient pecularities-his extreme and often
sive statement of doctrine, his dogmatc selfasser-
ton and his reckless and vindicve partisan asper-
ty To these it adds what in view ofthe occasion, is
worse than all other things together-an incapacity
or unwilngness to comprehend the solemnity of
the issues upon which the nation is divided
and total absence Of that spirit of kindness and
Cancellation, without which no man, dealing with
the present crisis, can be regarded as right-mn5ed
or true in heart. Sometimes, when considering
the public efforts Of Mr.. DAVIS, we are inclined
chartably to suspect that the offensive traits to
which we have alluded, are, TO some extent at
least, matters of style. He has evidently great
fancy for the Homeric march and the Pindaric
sweep, in oratory, and he is apt to mistake the
tramp of heavy adjectives, with an occasional
flourish of defiance from some explanatory trum-
pet, for the vigorous march of solid and effective
ideas. For ordinary purposes and the common
skirmish of political debate at the tribune or on
the hastings, all this may be well enough, but
when it comes to discussions which involve the
destinies of Republic like ours, there is no room
for phrases or phrase-makers, and the heart and
hopes of the people turn from them to those earn
est and true men, be their opinions what they
may, who able to forget themselves, their pas
sions, prejudices and resentmens, in the one great
holy, and common cause.
1t is not our purpose to enter at length into a
discussion of the views presented by Mr.. DAVIS;
for, except in few particulars, it is really not so
much in his ideas as in the time, occasion, temper
and manner of their presentation that the objec-
tionabIe character of his speech consists. There
are multitudes-a very large majority, doubtless,
of the public men, as we'll as the people of the
countrywide concur with Mr.. DAVIS in the opin-
ion that secession is not a constitutional right
and that the power TO execute the laws of the
Union, in any seeding State, is consttutionally
vested in the Federal Government. There are no
doubt some members of Congress, Of the Republic
can party, with which lie is acting, who believe
with him-and good many more who would say
without believing it-that the complaints of the
South groundless altogether, and that there is
nothing necessary to be done for the peace of the
country, but to inaugurate Mr.. LINCOLN and
distribute the offices. Beyond question there
are many persons, in Congress as well as
in more reputable places, who think very
i'll of Mr.. BUCHANAN, Mr.. CoBB, Mr.. THoMP-
son, and the Administration and its Cabinets,
both past and present-and who embrace South
Carolina, and secessionists generally, in the same
decided reprobation. All these things are matters
of opnion-of honest, conscientious opinion, if
you please-on the one side, as well as the other.
1t is the difference of opinion, upon these very
questions, which is now couvulsing the Union
and has already rven its soil and the affections and
ties of its people. Gentlemen, in public position,
who discuss the practical issues before us, may hon
estly feel it due to themselves that there should be
no misunderstanding as to their own personal views
upon the principles which are likewise in controyer
sy But we insist that no man who is reasonably pa
triotic and right-minded can approach the solemn
questions in which the integrity and duration of
the Republic at stake, without feeling that 1t
is moral treason to embarrass their peaceful solu
ton by one wicked or irritating word-one ag
gressive or threatening announcement or sugges-
ton of opinion or policy. And we insist, further,
that no man in Congress, who is other than a sheer
and incurable partisan and demagogue has parti-
cpated in the discussion of our differences with
out, in some sort, weighing his opinions and mea-
surfing their utterance. Whatever plans of ad.
justment they may have advocated or suggested,
and no matter how far short of the occasion and
its necessities their schemes may have fallen they
have at least recognized the gravity of the i'm
pending catastrophe, and have dealt with it as
perilous and momentous thing. There is scarce
Senator or Representative among those with
whose names ir. DAVIS ought to desire that his
own should be associated, who has not willingly
foregone all the temptations Of recrimination and
attack, and sometimes even of defence, rather
than embitter and complicate a struggle already
bitter and embarrassing enough. With the issues
not only of our national existence, but Of life and
death in their hands, one would indeed
think that men might consent to be moderate and
prudent, at all events for once, and be at least
conclliating and humane, if they did not know
how to be wise. Protesting to represent State
ike Maryland, confessedly more deeply interested
than any other in the preservation Of the Union
and bound to all its sections by every tie of asso.
citation and interest, Mr. DAVIS, above all others,
ought, we think to have felt, that he was the last
from whom word should fall, to quicken the blood
already burning or widen the breach already
almost impossible. We cannot conceive the mad
ness of the spirit with which, in utter forgetful-
ness of all this, he scatters his ire-brands upon
every side, and stirs to its very bottom the cal
dron of discord Can our readers picture to
themselves, in the absence of the fact, a gentle
man in his position, commencing speech at this
time, in Congress-almost within hearing of the
Peace Convention-with diatribe and bravu-
IA like the following:
We are at the end of this insane and rabid system
which for thirty years. has in the United States
the mask and only remains to close
the masquerade with the dance of war; Whether the peo
pie will tread that measure of their will remains yet
to be seem"
Can they imagine a Statesman-with people
all around him. crying out for peace and reconcilia-
ton and bread-following up such an exordium
as this, by an onslaught the very people who are
to be concated, and a bitter denunciaon of the
Administration, for not shaving already opened the
food-gates of blood? Can they understand
what Mr.. DAVIS MEANS when he talks about the
Governments disbanding the troops of the sece-
ding States and sinking their ships, "without
"war?" Do they know what idea he designs to
convey when he asserts that the States which have
seeded are Sustained by only small portion of
"their people?" Can they comprehend him, when
he makes the following as statement of fact?
.In the South the mischief has been done at home;
the mischief has been done by the violent struggles
ofparsans by plotting first at the
North then going South and imputng them to the North
ern people,"
Do they believe he that is dealing gravey with
them when he suggests the following as the re-
medy for all the difficulties that exist?
"a great deal of the misapprehension which exists
- ia A.