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


LINCOLN will neEer consent TO any concession or
compromise by the North but will inexorabiy
exact 1t OF the South. In further support of this
position, the Tribune quotes ''two remarkable
articles which appeared in the Springfield Jour
maj, OF last week." and which, it confidently
asserts, "were obviously inspired by the Pres-
'dent elect, if not actually written by his own
hand" Those articles demand that the South.
whose people are stigmatized as "traitors," shall
concede ''that they are in rebellion; that it is
tine DUTY OF this Government to put down re-
belllon, and that slavery is the creation of local
Flaw" 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
10 re-garrlson 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 DxoN's line, and would be the signal for the
commencement of the bloodest 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 optimists,
or the most radical of Republicans, can derive
any consolation from the indianapolis speech Of
Mr. LINCOLN. The National Iatelligencsr, 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 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.
So far as those remarks are applicable to the ex-
isting state of affairs, they are entitled to be re-
garded, in the language of the National Itelligen
Ger, 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 90. 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 by
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 maintained silence from any want of real
anxiety, for there is nothing going wrong.
III consolng circumstance, that when 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 it judge that all want is time and
patience and reliance that God who has never forsa
ken the people,"
| In one breath he declares that his silence mus
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 man just
emerged from the back-woods and utterly ignorant
of the progress ofeyents for the past three monthsl
Nothing going wrong" when seven States have
| seeded from the UNION, and separate and indie
pendent Confederacy has been organized Nothing
going wrong, when committees have been appoint
ed by both Houses of Congress TO take into con.
slderatlon the national troubles, and if possible
to agree upon, and report some plan of adjust.
ment. Nothing going wrong, when CRITTENDEN
and CoRwIN, 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 10 Congress-
praying the adoption of satisfactory measures oil
compromise; when a thousand troops and several
batteries of artillery 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
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 ippantly, we are at loss tc
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" il
follows, as a logical consequence, that there
is "nobody hurt" and "nobody suffsring';
| and that such is the fact he has blandly assured
US. If, then, we have confidence in what he saws
we must believe that, politically, we are
| enjoying halcyon calm, and that com
mercialy, there is no stagnaton of trade
no suspension of banks no mercantile fail
ures, no depreciation of values, no suffering
among the aboring population. To do this we
must utterly ignore the truth of the reports which
reach US from every section of the UNION, con.
frmed 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
| to deal with issues so momentous. In tbe
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 undeceved.
NEW BOOKS RECEIVED.
"The History Of the United Netherlands, from the
death of William the Silent to the SYNOD of bort. %