The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-27
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 81, 1861.

mems opinions to be measured by one s'aloaro-
to be subjected to the Procrustean test ana 10 be
favored or condemned accordingly IL men
under Republican form of Government, jealous
of their liberties, and in duty bound to exercise
over them an eternal vigilance-if such men are |
not permitted to declare frankly their convictions,
and to warn their ellow-citzens against tae in |
sdous encroachments of power, Of what ~ are |
the institutions, and the privileges they hive in
herited, and the freedom which their ancestors
not only underwent privations and bardships, but
shed their blood to secure? We believe that this
war is a fratricdal war; we believe that it will
exasperate the bitterness that now prevails between
the two sections; that IT will widen the gulf that
separates them, and make reunion impossible.
The unity of the States fora special purpose; the
harmonious cooperation of every member OF the
COnfcderacy established in 1888, and the power,
progress, and prosperity, TO which these fraiernal
relations gave rise, grew ont of the recognized
equality of membership, and of that series of COM
promises by which all sectional differences were
merged. Peace, and the cultivation of the arts of
peace, have made us what we are. Will war bet
ter our condition? Will war taxes and oppressive
tariffs; ruined commerce, a stagnant trade,
shattered credit, and all the evils that follow in
the train of large armies, improve our morals,
add to our capacity for se-government, or en-
courage in those who rule in the Cabinet or COM
mand in the field any reverence for the Constitu-
ton they are daily violating, or any respect for
the laws they have broken with IMMUNITY? Who
are these men are called upon to fight? They
inhabt more than half the settled territory of the
old Union. They number more than eight mil
lions of populations; they peers in the
Senate and the House of Representatives. What
have they sought? A redress of grievances, or,
failing that the right TO separate from the old
Conederacy and TO set up new government for
themselves. The North declares that they have
no grievances, or none which might not
have been remeded within the Union. But
the North has no authority TO decide this
question. 1t cannot be both judge and exc
cutioner. 1t seeks to extend sectional rule over
them; to bring them back into the Union
without their consent. What says the Declara-
ton Of Independence this head? GAN govern
"ments derive their just powers from tile consent Of
''He gocerned." Mr.. LINCOLN may think differ
entity now; but there was time when he held
firmly enough to this doctrine. In this year of
teachings. In l848 he declared in Congress, and
his speech may still be read in the Congressional
Globe, vol. 10, page 95, that-"Any people, any
''where, have the right to shake off the govern
'ment, and form a new one that suits them bet
''ter. This" he added, with emphasis-"is
"most valuable, a sacred rigM' We appeal from
President LINCOLN, to LINCoEN the Representative;
from the proclamation calling out vast army TO
subjugate the South, to the Declaration of indie
pendence. We stand by the old time-honored
landmarks. We accept, though not to the full
extent Of his doctrine, Mr.. LINCoLNs avOwal in
lS4S, because it is in consonance with the theory
upon which our Government founded. We
reject his new dogmas, because they are utterly at
variance with it. Is it reasonable for us to stand
now where he stood in, 1S48? His speech is on
record. 1t was made, not On the hustings, in the
heat and recklessness of a closely contested
political campaign but calmly-prepared per-
haps, beforehand-in his capacity of legislator,
and, in all probability, was revised and corrected
hy himself before it appeared in print. But the
North it is alleged, has no such designs upon the
South as those that are imputed to it. The Hon.
JOSEPH HoLT has come forward its voucher.
Mr. HoLT is Southern mana Kentucan-a
brilliant orator, in the Western acceptation of
that term. His speeches are bold, fiery, fervid,
and-wth the exception of their somewhat ex-
travagant imagery-eloquent. This gentleman
is now the chosen defender Of the war policy of
the Administration. All that has been done, or
is about to be done, is right and just in his eyes.
Shall we believe him? Let Us look back at his
record. In the Presidential campaign of 1856,
Mr.. HoLT took the stump in vigorous opposition
TO the Republican nominee. He then declared
that the Republican movement was directed ''by
subscriptions politicians, who, resolved to rule
cor ruin, had asserted principles without nation
"ality, and set on foot measures, whose success,
Chased alone upon the triumph of sectional
'prejudices and passion, have but one
''termination-that of the aggrandizemem Of the
"North, and the absolute submission Of the South.''
Looking forward few years to the spread of the
Northern movement, he warned the people of Ken
lucky that, ''uuder the shadow of this overhang-
cling colossal power, pervaded by the electric
"fires Of an undying anaticism the South acould
'Hpe as beneath the suspended socord Of DAMoCLEs
Tor rather as one ho dsoells upon the slopes Of some
"rolcano, arhoSe hearings and mmtered MuadcrS
"readr his days heagy agih anxiety and his nights
"Sleep7ess arhh horror" Strange 10 say, Mr.
HoLr now earnestly invites the South to accept
the destiny, the imposition of which, but five brief
years ago, he so vehementy called upon her to
resist 10 the uttermost ''What," said he-'swhat
'may we not expect aehen Black Republican shall
''preside in the White House, and over both
"branches of the National Legislature, swayed by
"resistless majorties of thesame sable faith when
''they shall be seen climbing to the Supreme
"Court, and swarming in all the civil and mill
''tary Offices which of Executive appointment
# it 'It requires no prophet to
"foresee that, in some moment of unmastered pas
f'sion, the North acM cry ariyder than ecer trent
'uo from the embattled plains Of the Crusaders,
',colld precipate her .tanotcaI hordes as an a0a-
'lanche upon the South, trompling dorm her insttu
't'ons as the suD trGmples tie sea-aceed anon the |
'Shore." Is it possible that the JOSEPH HoLT, who
in July, 1856, was possessed of such clear insight
as to foreshadow, with the utmost minueness, The
evils that are upon US, can be the same man who |
now denies that the South has suffered any wrong
and who is, or was recently, making speeches at |
the North in favor of vigorous prosecution Of |
the war? 1t is but too true. He has recanted his |
former opinions, at the very moment of their real
izatiou, and now calls upon the sectional party, |
which he once spurned from him with loathing, |
and whose future course and arrogance of spirit |
he so graphically described, to chastise and over
whem the South, for not submitting, in his own
language, ''to have her institutions tramped
'down as the surf tramples the sea-weed upon the
tshore.'