The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-05-25

t,ba cotton prowersusiu the condition OF COM
mercial and financial vassaage against which they |
have revolted Every body knows that the South
has Keen subordinated to the North in all its deal
ings. All the valuable staples of the Gulf States
have gone TO enrich Northern merchants and man
ufacturers and shipmasters. 1t was species of
bondage which free people might well regard
as irksome and degrading; but so long as those
who grew wealthy on the products of slave labor
showed some disposition to respect the rights of
the slave owners the latter were reluctant to
sever their connection with UNION in which, if
they had suffered some grievances, they had also
experienced many blessings. When, however,
the North, in the arrogance of its strength, under
took to encroach upon the prerogatives Of the
South to virtually deny to the latter equal rights
in the UNION; TO treat with undisguised contempt
the decisions of the Supreme Court; to render the
tenure of slave property insecure, and finally nom
mated and elected a sectional President upon
purely sectional ISSUE what wonder is it that the
Southern people should resolve to cut themselves
loose from Confederacy in which, if they re-
manned, they were no longer to be regarded as
co-equals? 1t was not until this purpose found
expression in the actual separation of the Gulf
States that the Northern mind began 10 compre
| bend the magnitude of the crisis. Five months
ago Mr.. SEWARD confidently predicted that the
storm would blow over within sixty days. When
those sixty days were just about expiring, Mr..
LINCOLN in those extraordinary waysde speeches
of his which so clearly indicated the calibre of
the man, complacently told his auditors that
IL.
issue was "merely difference Of opinion, and
more than intmated that he intended to settle
matters as soon as lie was indicted into the Prcsi-
| dency. Comforted by such assurances, the North
quietly awaited the progress of events. The
''srong government" went into operation, and
| so did that of the Southern Contederacy. The
storm did not blow over. Mr.. SEWARD must now
admit that fact. On the contrary, greatly TO the
Arrangement, and not little to the consterna-
ton of the North, it went on deepening, and
darkening and extending its area, until it
comprehended eleven of the fifteen slave States,
and shook, and still continues to shake three
others with Ominous perturbations. This
aspect of affairs, so wholly different from what
| Mr.. SEWARD predicted, or Mr. LINCOLN taught his
admirers TO anticipate, has at length aroused
the North to a profound consciousness that the
Southern people are really in earnest, and that
Southern wealth will no longer go to swell North
ern profits, unless the seeded States can be re,
duced to their former condition by wagng agains,
them "short sharp ana successful war. We
hear nothing more now about slavery. The negro
has played his part, and is ANONYMOUSLY thrus
aside. The cry is now for The preservation of the
| UNION and the enforcement of the laws The
UNION; what UNION? The old UNION has ceased
to exist. Eleven States have solemnly abjured it.
and they cannot Re induced to re-enter it upon any
terms which the North might now think it polite
to offer. They must be subjugated, then. We
hold that to be an impossibility. But suppose
they are subjugated, how are they to be held
AS conquered provinces, to be kept in order by a
standing army and ruled by pro-consuls? That
were at once to divest them of all their rights as
members Of the Confederacy. Would they be so alb
iect as to submit? Would they consent to send
representatives to Congress- yield obedience to the
Federal judiciary, and, with more than Chinese
| servility perform the ko-tow to Mr.. LINCOLN and
implicitly observe his "vermillion edicts % Lei
any sensible man answer these questions for him.
self. We say that the conquest Of the South is q
matter of impossibility that fighting, as the
Southernpeople do, in defence of the right of self;
government, of their hearths, their homes and in
opposition to sectional domination, they are irwin
chile, and will eventually triumph in the conflict
that is now impending. In such a struggle, the
great heart of Maryland pulsates with sympathy
for her Southern sisters; and the day will come
when in spite of fraud, and treachery, and force,
she too will shake herself loose from the letters
which now restrain her, and take such action as
the world shall acknowledge to be worthy of her
ancient renown.