The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-02-04

hnaIe Of the Washington and Alabama Conven-
tons will certainly be, that Virginia and Mary
land will both secede from the Union, and,
with their withdrawal, that the city of Wash
ington, invaded or not, will cease to be the
capital Of the American Union :.
Only a short time ago, Congress had this
whole question in it's hands. The South de-
handed comparatively little from It. Every
one knows that five-sixths of the vast masses Of
our population, North and South. are conserva-
tive in sentiment OF those who are entitled
to vote, eight out of ten deplore the agitation
by which the popular surface has been tossed
to and fro, and they execrate the demagogues
who have brought us to the present stage of
deplorable national crisis. Public feeling de
tioDal tyranny, from whatever quarter it may
be arrogated. If the voice of the intelligence
worth, integrity and wealth Of the majorlties in
the States could make themselves hoard, an
unequivocal cry would re-echo from New York
to Louisiana, and from tho Atlantic to the
Pacific coast, in favor Of the preservation OF
he Union, at whatever sacrifice, Of mere patty
and platform interest Slowly and inevitably,
however, the conviction has forced itself upon
The conservative masses, that the vis inertiG OF
republicanism in Congress would prevent its
doing nytbing-tbat the abolition strength
there preferred the disruption of the republic
to conciliatory legislation. With this convic-
ton, evaporation has increased south OF the
Potomac, and offers would be rejected now that
might have been joyfully accepted few
months ago. just as the colonies secured terms
IN 1883, which, previous to the declaration oil
independence, might, if agreed to, have bound
them with bands of adamant to the mother
country, secessionists have raised their demands
in proportion to the reticence of their aboli-
ZIONIST adversaries.
In face of the two conventions at Washing
ION and Montgomery, the waves of popular ex-
element are daily rising higher and higher.
Insurrection at the South has passed out of the
of an unruly, uncomfortable populsce. Con-
gress can still pour oil upon the troubled sea;
but it must do so without any stint, in order to
be of avail. Crittenden, Biger and other COM
promises are bygone pallatives. Our national
representatives must concede all that the South
ern States demand; they must abandon every
plank of their rotten, i'll constructed platforms,
or the Union must go to pieces. The incoming
administration might, weeks ago, have gained
for itself eternal fame, and have instantaneously
quelled the dins and clamor that have obtained
such hideous supremacy everywhere, but its
mouthpieces have allowed the period Of proba-
lion to expire in silence, or contenting itself
with ambiguous utteraDces. If the followers Of
Mr.. Lincoln do not at once make up their
minds to concede everything that the South
ask, no resource remains excepting a disrup
ton Of the confederacy, or civil war.
Will the people of the North, however, per-
nit civil war? We answer, no. We live
neither in the seventeenth, the eighteenth, nor
any but the nineteenth century. Tho people of
this country, with the experience of ages to look
back upon, will not imbrue themselves in each
others blood. The dynasty of the Stuarts
persisted, and who conquered? The people.
The dynasty of the Bourbons crumbled into
dust, and who were the victors? Neither their
adversaries nor their supporters, but the peo-
ple-those who supply tho mind, the means,
the bone, the sinew the being to the common
wealth The people of the United States re-
probate civil war; they loathe the thought of
internecine strife upon paltry issue, created
by Northern despotism and fanaticism, and
they have already issued the fat that il the
States of the Union must separate, they shall
do SO in peace, but that they will hold those
demagogues responsible who have produced
such result.