New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-20
IMPORTANT EVENTS BEFORE US.

OP THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY-PROS-
PECTS OF THE PEACE CONGRESS.
From Our Special Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1S, 1851.
This and the coming week are going to be
among the most eyentful Of the Winter We
have had of late lul in the political atmosphere,
but it is only that which follows one gale and
precedes another. Within the period named, the
so.called Peace Convention will break up, and
we shall have heard definitely from the new
Southern Confederacy.
The one is likely TO do nothing beyond recon-
mepdinc National Convention. 1t has not yet
begun its political wranglng in earnest, OF which
it will have given amount to do. II 1t can
get through with it this week. it will make I'M
usual dispatch. The Confederate States" VIII
lay down their programme, and we shall KNOW
all about their intentions. There caD however,
be no question as to what they are They mean
war, or the capitulation of the Federal Govern
ment to their demands. They will accept us
into their Union, on their terms, but they VIII
refuse to come back into the one they nave ieiI'
These Southern Shareholders have for years
given the law to the United States while acting
within our Union. Does aSybOdy suppose they
will abate any of their pretensions now that they
have left i'll Not bit Of it. They have risen
in arms against peaceablc, Constitutional tri'
umph Of their political adversaries. They nave
rebeLed, because having never submitted 10 con-
troll within the Union, they do not now mtend
10 submit out of it. II we ask them to do 30,
they will show fight Does anybody doubt 1t
Let them wait and see.
/ Now, then, we have q truculent set to deal
with. None the less so because they have stepped
outside the door. How shall they be dealt With
is the question. How have they always been
dealt with, ,cithin the Unionl Why, by letting
them have their own way. We shall do the same
thing now, shall we not And if not, why not 7
Don't all the parties in opposition demand they
shall be allowed to have their own wayf Don't
trade and commerce demand it Don't some Of
our own and our old Republicans demand 1t !
Why, then, won't they have it Is anybody
going to fight to prevent it That is something
we shall see also.
think in the course Of short time 1t Will
begin to be understood what is meant by the
Federal Government being on trial. Things have
been quiet for some weeks, and stocks have run
nimbly as monkeys up the list. But war 10 close
upon us. Some sort of war, beyond all question.
How great, how long, who shall tell II We
had an able and energetic military man at the
head of affairs in whom the people had full con-
fidence, it might be comparatively brief. With
timid counsels, or divided counsels, or Delphic
counsels, who lie going to tell anything about 1t
As Daniel Webster once said on far less mo-
mentuoua occasion, '"The Ship Of State is on
her beam ends, and the helm nesds strong
hand" Up to the Ath of March there is but lit
tie for the Republicans to do but to watch and
| pray. Let us hope when that time comes, that
| we shall have reason to feel the grasp OF the
strong hand at the helm, and that the Old Ship is
beginning TO right.
But our brisk fighting masters down at Msnt-
gomery will be prompt in showing their spurs,
whatever be done up in these colder regions.
They are "goiDg in for muss." If it brings
on q fight, they are even 80 willing. They
believe in that sort of thing Very ardent, very
fiery, very chivslrc, very dramatic, very cock
turkeyish, they would not exactly like to set
their machine running without some sort Of a
fight They ache to display pluck and prowess
These be their jewels. If there is no fight in
them, then there ia nothing. They might as
well almost have no Secession, no Disunion,
| no revolution, no national dismemberment no
scoundrelly spectacle before the world no humil-
! iating record for the Muse of History to make,
and to blush and weep over, as to have no gun
| fights, no sword fights, no cannon fights, no saw
age and bloody issues thereto. What is their
glorious, brutal PHILOSOPHERS and desires They
wrench asunder the fairest fabric Of human gov.
| eminent that the world las seen established in
ak thousand or ten thousand years, and furious
ly blurt their crime into the crimsoned face Of
mankind, and hail the ruin they have wrought.
1t is but fitting that bloody orgies should accom-
pany and illustrate the foul deed.
They who represent the nobler destnies and
humsner sentiments Of great free people, by
official position, at this period, have imposed
upon them the critical and difficult task Of deal.
| ing with these semi barbarians for their deeds.
That duty should be discharged from no COM
mercial or sentimental point OF view, but only
upon the solid and enduring basis Of Right and
Wrong. Let US hope that the Government and
the people will prove equal to their situation. Let
US also be charitable, for the way Is neither in-
viting nor clear. We stand ct the meeting Of
the tides in great historic currents, where the
highest skill Of the navigator, and the profoundsst
knowledge and prudence of the pilot, are indis-
pensable TO q safe issue from the rocks and the
That anoo.pra.oeno