Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-01-24

" Ne -. Il LII L IANs
Nashville, Jan. %, 1861.
From the New York Herald, Jan. Isth.l
The Crisis Before the People--The
Approaching New England State
Elections.
The ultimatum of Mr.. Buchanan to the
war-like requisition of South Carolina.
through Colonel Hayne, for the surrender of
! Fort Sumter. has concentrated the public at
| tention upon the issue thus made up of peace
| or war. Anticipating bloody collision.
which may summon the whole country to
arms, we apprehend that our readers of all
| parties are thus brought to the opinion that
prompt measures, calculated to avoid war,
| without sacrificing the honor or the prestige
of the general government, are much more
| important now than any sectional move
ments, propositions or concessions for the
| salvation of the Union.
Admitting the force of this opinion. but
still entertaining the hope that war in the
| interim will be avoided. so as to leave the
| incoming administration free to make its
| election between Cancellation and coercion.
we have the whole field of the argument
| peace or war. Cancellation coerci N, Union
| or disuniou--still open before U.s. Our re-
publican contemporaries admonish u that
1.-The first question to be decided is whether
mand, too, that the rights and the integrity
| of the COVER nment of the Union shall first bc
vindicated in the eDfol cement of the laws.
| before any propositions involving further
concessions TO slavery can be entertained
Nor can it be denied that the moral strength
of this government materially depends upon
its capacity to enforce, if nee essary, its con-
stitutional rights againt domestic usurpa-
tiOns, well as in resistance to foreign ag-
gressions.
The powers of the federal government
are well defined. They are the powers sur
rendered 10y the States for the general wei
fare; and so far they make the United States
| a single sovereignty. Furtb, rmore, as Ghtre
is nothing in the constitution L, cogniziug the
right of Slate to secede from The Union.
| and as there are no exceptional constitution
al provisions, making any discrimination be-
tween acts of rebellion against the federal
government under State authority and SINH
lar acts without any such authority. we must
concede the power of the government to en-
force the laws of the Union not less today
in South Carolina than in New York. But
the exercise of this power, and the conditions
and the extent Of its exercise, at crisis like
this. and considering all the stubborn facts
with which we have to deal, involve US in
duties and dangers of the most difficult and
delicate nature. There is the duty of exc
precipitating civil war. in which all laws.
all political rights, all safe guards of society,
federal and local, may be destroyed.
The trainers of the Constitution never
dreamed of the possibility of sectional revo-
lutionary imbroglio such as thi>; but for al
causes OF State or sectional complaints against
the general government the needGul remedy
was provided in the ways aud means ordained
for the revision of the constitution. This
hrin f0 ha 81 art5
Gle, to wit that if we maintain relations of
peace between the general government and
each and all of the Southern States for a
month or two longer, we may arrive at some
manifestations directly from the people of the
North which will bring the administration of
Mr.. Lincoln and the republican party practi-
cally to the work of such concessions to the
South as viii save the Union.
A State election will come off in New
Hampshire on the 18th of March; in Connec-
ticut on the LIST of April, and in Rhode Is
land on the Sd of the same month, compre-
bending in each case the election of members
of Congress. Beginning with New Hamp-
shire, let the advocates in that State of con-
cessions to the South for the sake of the
Union prepare, upon this issue, for a trial of
strength with the republican party and their
Congressional candidates. Let the friends OF
a compromise in New Hampshire begin with
duOptiuS sOmSiuluS tihe The STlbtc0OP0 Dr0
positions OF pacifcation as the platform of
their Congressional ticket; and we believe
that upon this test the people of that State
will do their duty for the Union. We believe
they will give verdict in favor of Union
saving compromise that will create at once a
general Northern reaction, and convince Mr.
Lincoln, his Premier, his Cabinet and bis
party, that if they would save themselves
they must sacrifice their offensive anti-slavery
distractions upon the altar of the Union.
Upon the test and with the result indicated
in New Hampshire, it is morally certain that
a similar response would follow the same ap-
peal to the people OF Connecticut and Rhode.
Island. The pressure of this fearful crisis of
suspense and suspension, of political dcraage-
ments and business disasters. has brough the
people of New England to some appreciation
of the cash value of the Union. and of the
South under our general government. We
therefore conclude that after another month
or two of this crisis they will be in proper
frame of mind to abandon their impractical
Bile doctrine of s.human freedom, and negro
philanthrophy, for the sake of that rich
Southern market for their more sub stanfiai
yankee notions" which will be lost with
the separation of the South from the Union
We have appealed 10 the President elect,
and to his appointed Premier, to come for
ward to the rescue of the country. They
have responded IN vague and indefinite pro-
misses of conciliation, and in dark and omi,
nous hints OF coercion. in which we find very
little of hope or encouragement. We have
appealed TO Congress. and both houses of
Congress have practically confessed their In
ability TO grasp or to understand the causes,
the tendencies or the dangers of this novel,
startling and incomprehensibIe Southern re-
volution. We have appealed to the State
authorities of the great central States of New
York and Pennsylvania 10 Call in each a
State Convention in behalf of the Union, and
the only response We hear is the .en,oree-
ment Of the laws Meantime, the strong
approaching each other, and how are we 10