The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-05


All which is respectfully submitted |
4 CHARLES Howard,
WIN. FL. GATCHELL,
JOHN W. DAVIS, j
----- .- GEO. WIN. BRowN,
Mayor and ex-Oicio
Member Of the Board OF Police.
FORT McllENRY, July Goth, 1861.
KEEN ANALYSIS OF MIR. LINCOLN'S
MESSAGE
From the London Telegraph, July 10
Besides the startling measures announced by The
President of the United States for the prosecution
of the war, his Message to Congress opening
this extraordinary session comprises a historical
glance at the origin of the civil war, an expana-
ton, an argument in favor of his own policy and
an announcement for the future The historical
retrospect is chiefly remarkable for the broad ad-
missions which are involved, though they are not
intended. The express object is to show that the
States which profess to have seceeded have Gre
belled." If any art is used in the composition il
is entirely employed in the endeavor to diminish
the show OF numbers, power, resolution and unani-
nifty amongst the Confederate States. Six States
are named as having joined the Confederacy; Vir-
gina is spoken of as if she were still balancing be-
tween secession and Union, consening to make
herself ga nest for invaders from the seeding
States.
Men who have been in the Federal Government
or Legislature, or in the Federal army, and have
joined the Confederation, are implicitly described as
knot OF conspirators, aiming to carry off muskcts
belonging to the central government, and to put
pressure upon their own individual States in order
to suborn public opinion. In Short the aim OF the
message is to represent the Confederation as limit
ed to a small territory, minority of macontents
within that territory, and clique assembled round
President Jefferson Davis at Richmond, the said
Richmond being mentioned as if it were'stil within
the United States This is by far the best part of
message which reminds US, unluckily, ofth worst
| compositions that have emanated from the White
House at Washington. A recent occupant of the
Presidential chair had restored something of the
correctness and elevation which at one time marked
| the messages sent in to Congress. Some few Pre-
| sidents before Mr. Buchanan acceded to office bad
not been very happy in their style; but we must
confess that the least felictous of them Dor
dered upon the very unsatisfactory character of
| the document now before u.s.
| The second portion is a volunteered explanation
| of the reasons why the Federal Government de-
Tended Fort Sumter. We do not remember that
| Mr.. Lincoln and his friends have ever been assaied
by the charge against which thew now so anx-
iously defending themselves; and their pleading is
as curious as their thus spontaneously standing in
the dock. Ifthey had not defended the fort, they
say, 'the act might have been construed by many
| as a part of a voluntary policy. WHILE at home,
it would discourage the friends of the Union, EN-
bolden its adversaries, and far to insure to The
latter recognition abroad-that, in fact, it would
De our national destruction consummated." 1t i:
ul Iie TO imagine any more exaggerated or i'm
| polite admission than the one have here-tbst
II any portion OF the Union could be "recoonized'
as an independent Stats. sour national destruction
would be contaminated" So, on the strength q
|
| Fort Sumter
| The third and longest section of the message /,
the pleading against the right of secession, con
Quoted IN fashion which would not obtain mucf
credlt IN any district attorneys office there or il
the Old Bailey here. The secession of the States
commonly called the slave States" is again men
toned as an offence, which is begging the whole
question at ISSUE and at the same time contessinG
how incapable the Federal government has shown
itself OF retaining any hold upon the Southern
members of the late Union. Yet, as our readers
are well aware. the Southern States have been onlJ
too anxious to keep open path for friendly com
munications with the North; while It'll the Fedora
government which has broken off communications
and has rendered the secession so thoroug -goins
and complete as it is.
One argument upon which Mr. Lincoln and hi
friends appear strongly to rely is that the State
never existed Independently, and that therefore the,
cannot lawfully and peacefully withdraw from thu
Union "without the consent of the Union or of an,
other States" This is an assertion directly in III
teeth OF the Constitution, which provides for an,
amendment even of the Constitution itself, on
vote taken by the Legislatures of the States or b,
Convention to be called throughout the States
that is to say any amendment of the Constitution
would become a law if it were affirmed by a speci
fled majority either of the State Legislatures or O
a N atonal Convention. Yet Mr.. Lincoln make
the astounding assertion that no State can with
draw from the Union if the withdrawal be vetoed
by any one State. Perhaps he does not mean W ina
his words express, for we must always make allow
on the score of his manifest inexperence ant
lnaptlluue IN welding the pen.
Inc argument, however, against the independ
ence OF the States in any period of their potica
growth is carried to the pitch of the sublime an
the proverbial trife beyond. If MIR. Lincoln ha
read the history of Virginia for himself, hs wou
know better than to put on record this ludicrou
essay Tor the ridicale of poserity.
The personal idiosyncracy of ''the Executive ,
as the President calls himself comes out fully in tn
concluding and shortest section of the message
where he processes to announce what is to be tn
course OF the government after its victory in tn
present civil war. If there is to be coercion an
conquest or subjugation, he does not ''perceive'
that there is to be any such thing sin just
OF these terms" y
1t is indeed impossible to follow the Presidential
bungling through all its intricaces. for, while Mr.
Lincoln is utterng for each State this broad an
unqualified right of dictatiOn, he allows that 9Th
people themselves, and not their servants, cal
safely reverse their own deliberate decision >
which is precisely what the seeding States pro
claim. If it is Mr.. Lincoln's purpose to mitigat
the mstrust and hostility which his Administration
has raised in the Southern States, by explaniu.
what course he should pursue after the conclusion
OF peace, he has most ludicrousy failed to carr,
out his own purpose. On the contrary, he has jus
alluded to the subject sufficiently to show n con
seriousness that satisfaction ought to be given t,
the public on both sides of the Potomac while irri
tatng at least the Southern States by withholding
the Information which he promises.
We can imagine one reason for this reserve
From latent sense that it is at dscord with tn
majority in the Northern as we'll as the Southern
States, MIR. Lincolns party has done its best Il
suppress the friendly overtures of the Confederate
government; and no,o Il IS endeaUoring to concsa
from the leading men IN the South the gro,cins dispo
sutton IN the Northern States to reopen the guesto,
of peaceful negotiations. Hence, undoubtedly, tn
astoundingly vague and prevaricating Language
which he employs, at the very time that he profes
ses to alleviate the uueasness in the mind of candle
men, by intimating what is to be the course of thu
government towards the Southern States after tn,
conclusion of the war.
But he promises that the war shall be dom
cheapy; he will contract to get it finished otf-hant
at "only" four hundred millions of dolars-"only'
two-thirds of the expense incurred by the who'll
War of Independence. And he thinks that hi
cute subjects will duly believe their oracle anc
autocrat, "the Executive" unquestionably making
up their minds that the bill offered to them befor
the beginning of the war will precisely tally will
the bill to be presented at the end. The Yankee
may be very obedient people, but we doubt i
they are yet quite SO much enslaved as MIR. Seward
and his President seem to think