The national Republican., 1861-02-18
FUTURE ACQUISITIONS OF TERRI.
TORY.


FUTURE ACQUISITIONS OF TERRI.
.I- . TORY. ,.v
In considering the probability Of obtaining
the assent of three.fourths Of the States TO such
On amendment of the Constitution - will re.
quire the concurrence Of more than mere ma.
jority in Congress TO the future acquisition of
ssrritoey, public attention seems 70 be confined
10 projects of acquisition on the side of Mexico.
II may turn out that NO acquisitions in any
other direction will ever be made, but the i'm.
preston that the annexation Of the British
Provinces is possible and desirable, has so
much foothold in the public mind, that it will
certainly create opposition to any restriction
which shalll make such annexationI Inore diff.
6cult.
The bearings Of constitutional amendments
ars % various, that some of them will probably
b overlooked in any scheme Of amendments
gotten up here pnder the whip and spur Of
evolutionary crisis. But nothing will be over.
looked in the deliberate and searching discus.
sions which will take place in the States, and
the most likely result Of anything which may
be devised here, is Q failure to command the
final support Of the number Of States who must
concur in amendments Of the Constitution.
AFFAIRS IN THE PEACE CONGRESS.
The position of affairs in the Peace Con.
gress, - We get it from various concurring
sources of information, is As follows:
The committee, to whom the subject Of an
adjustment had been referred, had concluded,
1.-THE end Of last week, to report Q plan dividing
the existing territories by the line Of 36' 30>,
south Of which slavery was to be permitted and
ION one construction) recognised, but this d.
vision to have no reference 10 territory heresf.
ter to be acquired.
To this plaa, three of the five Virginia Com.
missionsrs, viz Messrs. Tyler, seddon, and
Brockenborough, declared their vehement and
uncompromising objection, even going so far as
TO threaten to 60 home, if nothing better could
be obtained. Their ultimatum is the Critten.
den platform, including the Africanization of
Mexico, and, TO this, Mr.. Seldom adds the right
of shareholders to hold their slaves in the free
States, for the purposes of transit and temporary
sojourn.
Nessrs. Tyler, seddon, and Brockenborough,
are ell Democratic secessionists per se.
The feelings of the Tyler family were frankly
expressed BY the son, who lives at Norfolk, and
who, upon the occasion Of firing salute in
honor of the withdrawal of South Carolina, said,
"Les tie Union 90 to h-ui" The father is an
original Calhoun nulli6er.
Nr. Seddon is . member of the present Vir.
ginia Legislature, which has adopted resolu.
tons declaring that Virginia ought to and will
60 with the South, in any event, and without
reference to compromises.
Mr.. Brockenborough is Federal oficehold-
er, fact in itself almost conclusive Of secession
propensities, as nobody not known, or believed
to be secessionist per se has been appointed
to Office at the South since President Folks
time.
If the Peace Congress come to no conclu-
sion, the responsibility will rest entirely upon
these Democratic politicians, who compose the
majority of the Virginia delegation. And not
only because the terms which they propose are
notoriousy inadmissible, but because any other
terms, upon which the Peace Congress might
be disposed to agree, may not be proposed, in
consequence Of their not being accepted by the
representatives Of the largest Southern State.
An adjustment requires the concurrence Of two
parties, and one party may not offer what an
other party rejects in advance.
Many persons believed at the outset, and
this opinion is being strengthened by current
events, that this whole scheme of . Peace Con.
gress, although ostensibly intended for patriotic
objects, was really nothing more than cum
ming device to disrupt the Union, by deluding
the honest portion of the Southern people into
the belief, that certain men desired to compose
existing difficulties, who never desired any such
thing, and who have got themselves into posi-
tions where they can defeat any composition
which is at all practicable. The Legislature Of
Virginia proposed this Conference, but clogged
it with conditions which made adjustment i'm.
possible, and then crowned the work Of mis-.
chief by electing Democratic secessionists, as
the majority of their Commissioners.
The Union,loving people Of Virginia may be
relied upon to see through all this trickery, and
to defeat the men engaged in it. If there is no
adjustment here, they will understand exactly
where the fault is, viz: in the selection by
thsir Legislature Of men, determined that no
adjustment should be made.
From the time this session of Congress com.
menced to this hour, no obstacles have existed
IN rosults In the con ntrv excent inch