Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-04-10
THE POLICY OF THE ADMINS
TRATIUN.


TRATIOH.
The iS1a Selling Of sPe IT. TEo9Ps.sThs Re.
Sumter and PIekens.
Prom the n. 7. World
We have AZ last an administration aud
government. The country will no long
er drift on, as il has done since lsst No
vember, toward destruction. There is
hand upon the helm, and already the in
visible, silent power has begun 10 act
upon the course Of our hitherSo abandoned
ship Of state. She shifts her course, We
do not know exactly whittier; and, not
knowing that, We cannot judge whether
she is inrniug from danger toward safety.
But there is hope in tue bare fsc' thar she
oseys the will Of her pilot, and that be is
taciturn.
That We have an administration and
government is shown not so much by the
activity into which ali departments OF
both services have so suddenly sprung;
which might all be, and yet possibly be all
nothing but fussy preparation, without iu-
telligent, dxcd purpose The most admi-
Tuble and hopeful characteristic of the
present attitude Of the administration is
iis discreet aud imberturbabie silence
amid all the prTing ADD the clsnior which
30 constantly beset it. Its reticepee is
absolute; and il has been able already 10
impress this feature of its policy even upon
its subordinate ofieerS-if indeed il mas
not prsct!sed its reserve upon them as
well as upon the public la thus keeping
its counsel, it is the exact opposite o. that
which preceded it; and which, in addition
10 the wrong that 1t purPoseiy inflicted
upon the country, defeated the lt,le good
that Il was forced into attempting by
~ ss-
purposes long before they could, even uu-
der ordinary circumstances, be effected
Under the last administration cabinet Sc
crets were not kept, and all that went on
NJ the White House on one day WSs known
in Charleston and New York on the next.
But SINCE Mr.. Lincoln has bten in power,
II has been hard work for the Washington
telegraphic correspondents 10 make up
their dispatches of any official Sction
except that which related to the distribu-
zion Of Office; and even Us to that the be
informed o! them have been EUievOusly at
faIt in important cases. Fort Sumpter has
been knocked about among them like a
shai;lec0rk and IN the daily dispatches
OF sensation" newspapers it has been
again and again announced that orders
had been given for its evacuation the
fact really being that no person ut all has
the President and the Cabinet, General
Scott, and Major Anderson. At this very
day, nobody out Of that circle knows
whether Fort Sumter is to be held or evac-
uatei and the stories that are Tod, of or
ders sent on to abandon it on certain
day OF on certain conditions, are Just as
likely to be unfounded as the most ridden
ious one that Major Beauregard has sent
SOrd to Major Anderson lhrt, unless
he sursenders within forty-eight hours.
he will be driven out with bo-lb-sheiIs!
rumors of war are rife to-day: but fouu-
datiOn for them is visible only 10 the su-
peEfcial eye. We give reasons elsewhere
which are conclusive againSt the initiation
OF a war policy at Washington; reasons
which equally show the belief IN the cab
met thai aggression is not the probable
policy of the secessionists.
OF this all OF US may be sure, Whatever
our political views, that so sagacious and
experienced statesman as Mr. Seward
viii not in this emergency be either pre-
cipitate or supiue, and that he will trust
tie Justification Of lis policy to what he
does. not what he says. Both he aad Mr.
Lincoln will remember the regulation con-
spicunuSly posted and vigorously enforced
on all meteorological passenger vessels,
Don't speak to the man AZ the helm