The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-02

The revolutionary crisis in the country seems
now TO have reached its eliminating point The
Peace Congress has adjourned, and the Federal
Congress will come to an end on Monday without,
in all probability taking any effective action upon
the recommendations of the former body. Mr..
LINCoLN's inaugural address, however satisfactory
in tone and lavish of promises it may be- can
nevertheless do nothing more than offer to the
nation some indefinite assurance ola future settle
ment of the pending dispute. The Southern States
which have not yet seeded will, in such case be
compelled to decide whether they will withdraw
from the Confederacy or whether they will await
the developments of the future, and take the
chance Of obtaining at some distant day the
amendments to the Constitution which they de-
mand. In either event the present struggle will
take and decisive turn. If the whole South
withdraws from the Union we shall not only hear
no more talk of coercion, but the North will
promptly offer the seeding States the amplest
guarantees, and the most liberal concessions,
or it will recognize at once their Independence
The breach between the sections will be
healed or a new nation will be acknowl-
edged by the world before the summer has
passed away, if the Southern States
pursue this decisive course. But if, on the other
hand, the border slave States determine to wait
until National Convention is called, or amend
ments to the Constitution are proposed by some
future Congress, this controversy will be brought
to almost as speedy a conclusion, and it
is not difficult to predict what that will
be. No further guarantees will then be
given to the slave States. The North, after
having resisted the pressure which is brought to
bear upon il now, will never hereafter see the ne
cessity of yielding TO the requirements of the
South. The agitation in that quarter will, TO
great extent, subsde during the period which
must elapse before any action looking to settle
ment of the disputed questions can be taken, and
the strength Of the movement in the border slave
States will be broken. The contest will be vir-
tually at an end, and any attempt to revive it
henceforth will be futile. The incoming admins.
traton will soon find adherents and build up par
ty in Virginia, Maryland Missouri and Kentucky.
These States will be preserved to the Union, and
the Gulf States will be temporarily lost. But by
the end of four years the Republican party will be
powerful enough not only to refuse any further
it will venture to insist on the coercion of tie
Cotton States. Such, we believe, will be the is
sue of events, if the border slave States do moth
ing more than demonstrate against the rejection by
Congress of the recommendations of the Peace
Congress.
We think it is clear, then, that the turning
point of the struggle, so far as the border
slave States are concerned will be reached
the moment Congress announces its determine
ton not to endorse the GUTHRIE propositions
What course those States will take in that con-
tingency it is difficult to judge, though it may be
assumed that they will acquesce in the decision of
Virginia. IF the latter should secede, Tennessee
and North Carolina would be forced out of the
UNION also; and the interests of Maryland would
compel her, however unwillingly, to follow their
example. Under such circumstances the action of
Virginia cannot but be looked for with great
anxiety.