The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-02-15


LINCOLN Will neEer consent 10 any concession or
compromise by the North but will inexorabIy
exact II OF the South. In further support of this
posluon, the Tribune quotes ''two remarkable
articles which appeared in the Springfield Jour.
maj, of last week, and which, it confidently
asserts, ''were obviously inspired bv the Presi-
''dent elect, if not actually written by his own
hand" Those articles demand that the South,
whose people are stigmatized as "trators'' shall
concede 'that they are in rebellion; that it is
1.-THE duty of this Government to put down re.
"oelllon, and that slavery is the creation of local
law" In the same spirit Mr.. LINCOLN init
mates, IN his speech at Indianapolis that for the
| UNITED STATES to wrest from the seeding States
the forts and arsenals and public property which
are within their limits, and of which they now
hold possession, or collect the duties on foreign
importations, or withhold the mails, is not coer-
cion. But who does not know that if he attempt
| to regarrison the Southern FORTS and collect the
revenue on board of armed vessels, in Southern
| harbors, such acts, however Interpreted at the
North, would come within the definition of coer
clon as understood by every State south of MASON
and DIxoN's line, and would be the signal for the
commencement of the bloodiest civil war that ever
desolated country? If, then, the policy of the
President elect be a policy of force in scorn of
consequences, he may call that policy by any
name he thinks proper; but, in its essence, it is
| coercion, and its practical assertion would be
| tantamount to a declaration of war None
therefore, but the most credulous of optimsts
or the most radical of Republicans, can derive
any consolation from the indianapolis speech Of
Mr.. LINCOLN. The National Latelligencer painfully
conscious OF the unfavorable impression which
that speech has produced, is disposed to question
Its entire accuracy; but all doubts on this head
are set at rest by the statements in the Herald
and Tribune. Both these journals endorse the
correctness OF the report and assert further that
the speeches to be made at all the principal points
between Springfield and Washington were care
fully studied and committed to paper by Mr..
LINCOLN before he entered upon his Journey.
At Cincinnati he contented himself with quot
ing some portions of a speech which was
made by him in that city year previous
to the Presidential election, and which was
especially addressed to the people of Kentucky.
80 tar as those remarks are applicable to the ex-
stlng state of affairs, they entitled to be re-
garded, in the language of the National Intezligen,
cer as of IA pacific and fraternal character" But
what do they amount to? Merely to declaration
that the people of the slave States 'have as good
''hearts in their bosoms'' as the Republicans claim
to have; and that the latter have no desire to in
terfere with the institution of slavery in the States
where it now exists. Beyond that Mr.. LINCOLN
does not go. He adheres to the doctrine of the
extreme wing OF his party, that ''slavery is the
creature OF local law, " and is wholly mute as 10
the right of the South to carry this species of
property into the Territories. He is silent because
he will not concede the right. We now come to
his last recorded speech-that which he made at
Columbus on Tuesday last, in the presence of the
members of the Ohio Legislature He begins bv
modestly informing them that task has fallen
upon him more difficult to execute than any that
ever rested upon the Father of his Country. He
gives his reasons why he has so long remained ST.
lent in relation to the policy of the new Admins
tration, and still thinks he was right in keeping
his lips closed. The rest we quote.
81 have not maintained silence from any want Of rea,
anxiety 1t is good thing that there is no more than
anxiety, for there is nothing going wrong
1t is consong circumstance, that when we look out
there is nothing that really hurts anybody We enter
tam different views upon political questions but nobody
Is suffering anything This is most consong circum-
stance and from jud ge that all is time and
patience and reliance that God who has forsa
ken the people,
In one breath he declares that his silence must
not be imputed to any want of real anxiety, and
in the next, alleges that no cause for anxiety ey
lists, for, says he, ''there is nothing going wrong"
Is this statesman speaking; or is it a man Just
emerged from the back-woods and utterly ignorant
OF the progress ofevents for the past three months?
Nothing going wrong" when seven States have
seeded from the UNION, and separate and indie
pendent Conederacy has been organized Nothing
gong wrong, when committees have been appoint.
ed by both Houses of Congress to take into con-
sideration the national troubles, and if possible
to agree upon, and report some plan of adjust
ment. Nothing going wrong, when CRITTENDEN,
and CoRW1N, and ADAMS, and KELLOGG, and DoUG-
LAS, and RICE, and the members from the border
States have submitted such propositions as seemed
to them respectively the best adapted to bring
about a reconciliation; when petitions containing
IN the aggregate, over two hundred and fifty
thousand signatures have been sent to Congress,
praying the adoption of satisfactory measures of
compromise; when a thousand troops and several
batteries of artillery are concentrated at Washing
ton, ostensibly for the defence OF the Capital,
and when Commissioners from twenty-one
States are in session in that city, charged
with the same high and solemn duty
which of right devolves upon Congress, but which
Congress has so signally failed to perform. If
these are not evidences sufficient to prove
that not only is there something wrong,
and radically wrong, in the present condition of
AFFAIRS but also that the crisis is of too grave
nature TO be treated fippanty, we are at loss to
understand what signs and portents would satisfy
the President elect that the country is in peril.
This, however, is not all. As, in the opinion of
Mr. LINCOLN, there is 'nothing going wrong" it
follows, as logical consequence that there
is "nobody hurt and "nobody suffsring'':
and that such is the fact he has blandly assured
u.s. II, then, we have confidence in what he SAYS,
we must believe that, politically, we are
enjoying a halcyon calm, and that, COM
mercialy, there is no stagnation of trade,
no suspension Of banks, no mercantile fall
ures no depreciation of values, no suffering
among the laboring population. To do this we
must utterly ignore the truth of the reports which
reach US from every section of the UNION, con-
irmed as they are by the evidence of our own
senses 1t is strange that such opinions should
have been publicly expressed by one who has
10 deal with issues so momentous In the
little which he has said, thus far, he has shown
either wilful blindness to the perils which en-
viron the Government, or dangerous contempt
for them. In the present temper of the country,
no man who claims to be Statesman would dare
to treat these matters lightly; and if Mr.. LINCOLN
imagines that, when clothed with Executive au.
thority, he can easily control the storm and re-
duce the seeding States to submission, by the
adoption of any measures that bear even the
sembance of coercion, he is destined, we fear, be-
fore long, to be fatally undeceived.
NEWBOOKS RECEIVED.
"The History Of the United Netherlands, from the
deaf of