The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-01-28


ments we're TO fair extent.
Two Confederacfos or . Compromise
The Hitch ut Springfield.
The secession on Saturday of Louisiana from
the Union the conservative speech of Cassius
M. Clay, delivered in Washington on Satur-
day evening, and the reports from our
Springfield correspondent, which We publish
this morning, reaflrming coercion a. the policy
Of the incoming administration, are the facts
which in this article we purpose briefly to
consider, in connection with the momentous
issue of a Union compromise or two confede-
racies.
Louisiana, by the overwhelming vote in her
State Convention of lis to IT, has been de-
clared "a free and sovereign republic" This
emphatic manifestation Of the public sentiment
of the State in behalf of Southern indepen-
dence is very significant; for in throwing of
their allegiance to the government Of tho
United States, the people of Louisiana sacrifice
the federal protecting duty of twenty -four
per cent, which adds to the cash value Of their
sugar crop from four to five millions of dollars
But what are four or five millions, they say
weighed in the balances against the comprehen-
sive advantages of Southern confederaoy, .
homogeneous political system, free trade, and .
free and unlimited field of expansion
This is the underlying idea which, in such
rapid succession that it has astounded the
world, has carried Florida, Mississippi Georgia,
Alabama and Louisiana into the disunion ex-
Of Ea 70
last of it. The Texas Convention on the sub
ject meets to-day, and doubtless before the
expiration of the week that Convention will
have adopted an ordinance repeating the act
of annexation, and all other acts recognizing
that State as one of the members of our federal
Union. On this day, too, the delegates to
State Convention are to be elected in Arkansas;
so that we may pretty safely conclude
that before the end of February not only will
the eight cotton States have withdrawn from
the Union, but that meantime, in their General
Convention, which few days hence is to as
semble at Montgomery, Alabama, they will
have formed an independent Southern confede-
ration, including the needful provisions for the
election Of President and Vice President
thereof
The border slave State, and the two great
conservative slave States adjoining the border
tier, to wit: North Carolina and Tennessee, are
also in great danger of being carried away by
this resistless tide of revolution swelling up
from the cotton States. The conservative ele-
ments of all those intervening States are re-
duced to the last resort of delay; for only
through delay can they prevent a general
union of the South around the plucky, intracta-
BILE and belligerent little Commonwealth of
South Carolina Nor can this Union saving
policy Of mastery inactivity" be much longer
maintained in the border slave States, unless
some encouragement in behalf of compromise
shall be speedily extended to them from the
republican party. In default of any such en-
enlargement, 1t is by no means improbable
hat before the end Of the first month Of his ad-
ministration President Lincoln will find the
tobacco States the active, armed allies of the
cotton States in resisting his authority within
the limits Of this impending Southern confede-
racy.
Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky, understands
the case. A radical anti-slavery republican,
whose life has been devoted to the cause of
negro emancipation, and under perils and diff
culties among the slaveholding people Of his
State which have established his courage and
consistency, he has not the reckless hardihood
to stand still and let this Union 90 to pieces.
He has the sagacity to see that the republican
policy Of coercion is the policy of destruction,
and he would save the party in saving the
country. He therefore manfully comes forward
at Washington for compromise. A Southern
man himself, he knows something Of Southern
public sentiment. He comprehends the drift
of these secession movements and the folly of
attempting to arrest them, except in nego-
tiations for peace; but we fear that he comes
too late with his appeal to the republican
party or that he has made it in the wrong
quarter.
The great difficulty to any propositions of
compromise from the republican party is not
located at Washington, but at the little village
of Springfield, Illinois. The President elect Is
this difficulty. The magnates, the managers and
all the Wide Awakes Of the republican camp,
look upon Mr.. Lincoln now as their foun-
tdiu Vi nuthoiityf PoWch ohu oPViiS. lucy
esteem him as sort of General Jackson, man
with will of his own, and they think it wiser
to follow than to attempt to lead him. En-
couraging this impression, Mr.. Lincoln, except
in the matter of his Cabinet squabbles, remains
undisturbed in the midst of all these disastrous
Southern revolutionary events. He has no
compromises to make. He was elected upon
the Chicago platform. He will stand fast. He
will enforce the laws. II will be his duty to do
| 70, and as President Of the United States he
will discharge this duty fearlessly and faith
| fully. From time to time, down to our latest
| reports from Springfield, this is the substance
of our news from that quarter The President
elect stands firm; and thus the republican mem
Der of either house of Congress, who may
have ventured, in mild form, to suggest a