The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-04-06
1t is now apparent that fearful crisis

| United States Senators from Kansas.
| |
1t is now apparent that a fearful crisis is clost
upon US. All the events which have transpred
within the past few days, point to but one con
clusion and the opinions of observers at the Fede
raj Capital and of our contemporaries throughout
the country, coincide upon this point. 1t is evi.
dent that the administration has at last determined
to adopt decided line of policy, and it is equally
clear that any course looking towards coercion,
whether in the shape Of blockade or a lombard
ment, will precipitate civil war. The North
does not mean to make any concessions, nor does
it intend to recognise the Southern Confederacy,
and peaceable solution Of our difficulties is, in
such case impossible. Under these circumstances,
any movement on the part of the Government
can only fill US with the gravest forebodings; and
the Government, it Seems is now about to move.
When people talk of ''the Government of the
''UNITED STATES" they use cherished and fa-
miiar phrase, which, from custom and long rev.
erence, has become sacred household word to
them, 1t imports not only the grandeur and
power of the nation, but the union, assent and
equality of the whole people. 1t means a gov
ernment not of one section over another, but re-
presenting all sections, supported by all sections
and in its administration knowing no section. So
long as ii means these things, it is what it was
made for. But the moment that it signifies any
thing more or less, it is but another word for the
grossest Of impostures, and men deceive and be-
tray themselves who respect what it is, out of
For hot Z bo
the General Government be once converted into a
machine for sectional domination, so that one
section can WELD the resources of the whole
in the name Of the whole, to rule over
another section, and it thenceforward becomes
more powerful FOR evil than, in its best estate it
can possibly be powerful for good 'Great
'ihings," says Mr.. De ToCQUEv1LLE- -prophesying
just such ontingency-"great things may then
'be done in the name o: the Federal Government,
''but, in reality, that government will have
''ceased to exist" The very use of lis honored
name will be a fraud. 1t will be 'sthe Govern
"ernment of the UNITED STATES no longer but
only the government of the section or interest
which it represents, and of which it is the crea-
ture and the instrument. 1t may command, for
a time, the allegiance of those who suppose the
Union and the Government to be one and the same
thing, but sooner or later it will be felt as usur-
patton, and. resisted oppression
How much longer it will require the public
mind in the Border States to become sensible of
the certainty with which the present Admins
tration is fastening towards the results of which
we have spoken, it is hard to tell. Our normal
condition at this time appears to be that of judi
cal blindness and torpor. We refuse to anlici-
pate facts which rushing upon us, like visible
whirlwind; we decline to believe them until they
have been consigned for at least a month to his
tory, and when it is at last impossible for us to
avoid stumbling over them, we protest against
| considering them, because we are satisfied they
are unconstitutional. Secession is against the
fundamental law, and therefore we insist that the
seeded States must be in the Union, although
they are in fact out Of it. Our trade is anniha-
ted; our industry langushes and starves; capital
is disappearing; commerce furls its useless sails
energy and enterprise stand idle, with folded
arms; and yet ''nobody is hurt" because
the damage has been unconsttutionaly done.
If we pass into wreck and ruin, we will
enjoy the consolation of having done so ac-
''not, after all.' says MoLIEREs doctor, "that
''your daughter will not die but you will have
"the satisfaction of knowing that she has died
according to the forms.' Such being the prac-
| teal frame of mind, in which so many excellent
people among US are disposed to deal with the
facts of startling and, to great extent con-
summated revolution, we hardly know whether
they can be expected to recognize, in the General
Government, as at present administered, any fea-
lures which distinguish it from all the Admins
trahons that have gone before. And yet, to eye;
not wholly blinded, it does seem to glare all over
| with the most defiant and exclusive sectonalism
1t is the North, governing the Middle States. and
seeking to govern the South, under the guise O.
the Constitution and in the prostuted name O
the UNION. We are told by the supporters of thu
party in power, and the Northern sympathizers
of all parties, that the government heretofore has
been in the hands of the South, and that tn,
whole secession movement is but the self-pre
serving effort Of Southern politicians ousej
from federal control. Yet who ever heard o
any administration, down to this time, which ex
cuded the whole people of the North and Eas
from all the high Offices of the National Govern
ment at home and abroad-in fact from all par
ticipation whatever in that Government? We d
not speak of mere plunder and place, but of thos
high trusts, the distribution of which, as a matte
of right, among the distinguished and able me
of all sections, makes the Government represer
all, and gives it the confidence ofall Of the fou
Democratic Presidents since General JAcKso,
only one, Mr.. Polk, has been a Southern maj
OF the two Whig Presidents elected as such, OF
was from the South, the other from the Nortl
Mr.. FILLMORE, elected as Vice-Presdent, with IL
Southern President, was Northern man in II
full sense of the word. In the Cabinets of q
these Presidents-in their appointments of Mini
ters abroad-who ever complained of sections
preferences? Both the Wing and the Democrat
party, whatever their differences, agreed in ,hi
that they belonged to the whole UNION and rest,
upon the confidence and support of all parts of
1t is not a little strange that the AdministratiC
which comes into power upon the broadest asse
ton of nationality, as the constitutional theory
the Government and the basis of its coercive a
thority should be the first to ignore nationali
altogether in the beneficial exercise of its fun
tons.
We have already called the attention of O
readers TO the fact, that with the exception of
PEARcE, of Maryland, who is left at the head
the Committee on the Library, not one Senat
from Border State is chairman of any comm
tee in the Senate; while, on the other hand, elev
of the twelve New England Senators are charm
of the most important ones Need we furth
note the extraordinary fact that with the exec
h ton of CAssIUs NJ. CLAY, of Kentucky, not one
dividual from Slave State has been commission n
as Minister or Envoy? In the construction of t
Cabinet, who can have failed to observe that
two officers not actually classified as Northern mt
that is to say, Mr.. BATES and Mr.. BLAIR, are be
} from Missouri-the farce of calling the latter g
tleman from Maryland being too stupid 10 be ey
laughed al? In the appointments to the army
,R fill the vacancies ca used by resignation, can
shut our eyes to the fact, that Northern and ]
Border State men, are both called and chos
An administration taking such course, at g +
ment when it is appealing or pretending to
peal to the confidence and allegiance of those
}. the Slave States, which are still members of
UNION, can be guided by but one OF two opinio
1t must either regard the intelligence and sens
ity of the people of the Border States as bene
contempt, and their support not worth conci
ting, or 1t must have made up its mind to the
manent disruption of the Confederacy, and b