The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-18
THE DAILY EXCHANGE,
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, MARCH Is, 1851.

No man is fit to deal with grave political uues-
tons who listens only to the crude and passionate
counsels of the hour and refuses to be influenced
by the calmer teachings of the past. In those
faithful chronicles which History has compiled for
our use and instruction, many precept and ex-
ample is recorded which may be profably studied
for all time 10 come. Scarcely any phase of ma
tional prosperity or national disaster can present
itself, to-day, to which we cannot find counter
part in the annals of extinct or existing States. 1t
BELTS u.s. then, amid the changes of the present. TO
turn continually to these memorials of departed
ages, and learn from the errors of bygone genera
tons, how to avoid the consequences of like mis-
takes on our part. 1t especially behooyes the
American people to give heed TO the lessons of the
past; for as their institutions oppose little or no
barrier to the will of the majority, and their rest
less and self reliant character renders them partial
to extreme and untried courses, they are pecu-
liarly liable to be drawn, in some rash moment,
into political predicament from which extrica-
ton may be impossible. We are even now upon
the verge of such situation, and any false step
that we make may be a fatal one If, therefore,
we are wise we shall profit at this juncture by the
experience of those who have gone before us, and
who have in their time been involved in precisely
such perplexities now environ as. IF we are
disposed to do this we need not look far 10 find
the lesson which may be read to the most advan-
tage at this critical moment. Brief as our his
torical records are, they nevertheless furnish us
with more than one chapter which ought to
be diligently and thoughtfully studied in con-
nection with the questions of tie day. We have
referred more than once already to the beginning
of the momentous contest between this country
and Great Britain in 1774-5, as presenting in
many respects singular analogy to the struggle
now going on between the North and South
The situation of our Federal Government now is
strangely parallel to that of the British Govern
ment prior TO the breaking out of actual hostlties
between the latter and this country ejghty-ve ears
ago. Upon one point particularly, the similarity
between the positions of the two governments is
perfect. Neither appears to have been able 10
realize the magnitude of the controversy in which
it was engaged, nor to have appreciated the lem
per and determination Of its opponents. Both
seemed to think they had a mob to deal with, or
at the worst local rebellion to suppress, when,
in fact, they had a whole people to conciliate or
to conquer Both higgled about terms and dis
puted over technicalities when they should have
grappled with existent facts; and they talked
about their determination to enforce the laws,
when in reality they were about to engage in a
war with a powerful nation. England tried to
carry out her theory, and she lost an empire and
the Federal Government threatens to adhere to
the same policy, and still hopes to save the Union
1t is an instructive though painful task to read the
debates in the British Parliament during the pc
riod to which we have referred, and to note the
blunders committed by the Ministry and people of
that day, and then to compare those speeches with
few of the more far-sghed British statesmen plead
for compromise and Cancellation. Very many of
the opponents of the Ministers admitted that
America might be legally taxed, and conceded
that the American people had resored to many
unjustifable modes of resistance, but they
insisted that the coonists were in earnest and
that they were too strong to be conquered. They
urged the Ministers to preserve the union
between America and the mother country
and they averred that this could not be done by
coercive measures. They saw the distinction be
tween lawless population and an insurgent PEG.
pie. As far back as 1869, BURKE had said in the
House of Commons, eff yoa have not party
"among two millions of people, you must either
"change your plan of government or renounce
'tyour colonies forever" Five years later, in point.
ing out the folly of regarding nation in revolu-
ton merely as so many individuals guilty of high
treason, he exclaimed that he knew not chow to
''draw up an indictment against whole people,
CHATHAM also took a comprehensive view of the
question, which the narrow-mnded parsans
around him were unable to understand. When
abiding to those who approved of coercive mea-
sures because the Coonsts had offered England
many provocations, he said that che felt that pro-
''vocation could no longer be treated as such
'when it came from one united province, and
"when it was supported by eleven provinces
"more." But neither the arguments nor the ap-
peals of the few enlightened and dispassionate
statesmen of that day could avail to wiring any
concessions from the people or government of
England. The Americans, ii was said had viola
ted the laws, and had assumed rebelious attitude
and it was necessary that the authority of England
should be maintained land the dignity of the Grown
indicated before it was proper to talk about con-
N'AA"t4Oh' Lulu 1NOltu ouHOuHCeu ludl EUpanu
would compel her rebel subjects to submit The
world is familiar with the result of the experiment
Does the history Of that epoch teach no lesson to
the men of this generation? fit does not, and if
the Federal Government is bent upon pursuing to-
wards the seeding States the course that England
adopted towards far weaker Confederacy,
we can venture 10 predict the consequences.
If Mr.. LINCoLN's administration attempts to
blockade the Southern ports, or interfere
with their commerce it will bring on
civil war; if it undertakes to conquer the Gulf
States, it will ANONYMOUSLY fail; if it simply con-
tnues to keep sullen watch upon them, and re-
fuses to come to any terms with them, then they
are forever lost to the Union. The administration
has but one thing to do fit hopes to restore and
preserve the integrity of the Republic 1t must
make up its mind to the fact that the Southern
people are sufficiently in earnest and sufficiently
strong to defend their rights in their own way.
and that they will stay out of the Union or have
what they think reasonable guarantees for their
safety in it. All his Mr.. LINCOLN will be forced
eventually to realize, and the sooner he does So
the better it will be both for himself and the couu-
try.