The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-12

1here appears to be just now lull in the polit-
lcal atmosphere. The uproar and excitement in
which the country has been kept for three months
past have, for the moment, sensibly subsidized
During the last few days no new event has &C.
CURED, nor have the indications of the next change
in the aspect of affairs been sufficiently definite to
concentrate public attention upon any single
point. Every one is awaiting with a feeling of
vague but painful anxiety the next act of as mo.
mentous drama has ever heretofore been
played upon the worlds great stage. Since the
first of December the fears, hopes and expectations
of the people have been alternately wrought up to
the highest pitch. There has scarcely been
an hour when they could not foresee
clearly some important occurrence that was
about Immediately to happen, or when they
We're not excited by some transaction that
mad just taken place. Mr.. BUCHANAN's Mes
sage; the secession of seven States successfully;
the capture of fort after fort belonging to the Fed
eral Government; the proceedings of the Committee
of Thirty-three, and of the Border State Commit
tee; the various propositions offered in the Senate
and the House of Representatives, looking to the
Cancellation coercion of the South: the Peace
Congress; the organization of the Southern Con-
ASNAASyi thc AuureSS OF MT. LINCOLN.
all these succeeded each other with rapidly that
left the public no breathing time. Now, however,
Mr.. BUCHANAN and Congress have gone their re-
specuve ways Mr.. LINCOLN is quietly installed in
office; the hum of hostile preparations is in a mea-
sure hushed; Virginia has intmated her intention
to take no decisive step at present; and the Cam
missioners from the Confederate States have not
yet announced to the Government their ultmatum
No one can surmise what tomorrow is likely to
bring forth. We are in the midst of tenn
porary calm, but which is, we fear
OF the nature of that ominous stiffness
upon which sailors suddenly come in the
very centre of a cyclone Before we again reach
the point where the whirlwind and the lightning
may roar and flash around US, we should avail
ourselves of the opportunity to take a reckoning.
Where are we now, and what have we lost since
the dangers which threaten us first beset us four
months ago?
A very brief review Of the struggle between the
South and the Republican party as far as it has
already gone, will show, we think that the coun-
try has suffered permanent damage and that much of
the responsibility for the disasters that have over
taken US, is fairly attributable to the mistaken
policy adopted by the people of the border States.
We do not propose here TO review the history of
the past few months, but we may be permitted to
say tharlooking back to the course we have pur.
sued IN this crisis we find, that score no cause
for to regret. We thought we saw at the outset
that the Republican party was animated by the
most uncompromising hostility towards the South,
and that twas prepared to assa the institutions of
the slave States the very moment it could strike
N ga atv cd }1,o a.,
In the writings the sermons, and the speeches of
every prominent man in it, from SEWARD and
GREELY and BEECHER, down TO LovEJoY and Hell
PERand CHEEvER; and we learned its purposesin the
aggressions had perpetrated from the time it ap-
proved the Personal Liberty Bill of Massachusetts,
down to the hour when it endorsed the Chicapo
Platform. W did not believe that its assaults
upon the institutions of the South were merely
part of an inscriptions system of party tactics
which was to \ abandoned as soon as victory
was secured; but we were impressed with the con-
vlction that the Republicans were deliberately
oent upon lnaugurating lifelong crusade against
slavery, and that the adoption of the Chicago
platform was the first step in plan of operations
winch was already matured, hut which it
would require many years to carry out
The conduct of the Republican party since
the election of Mr.. LINCOLN has satisfied us
that we have done it no injustice. It could
in the early stages of this controversy have settled
The whole difficulty and have prevented the seces-
sion OF any State except perhaps, South Carolina
and all this it could have done without sacrificing
Its ostensibe principles. II it had frankly and
promptly given the people of the slave States the
required security that their recognized rights
should not be endangered in future, and had
three months ago permitted them, if they so de-
sired, to 60 into territory in which slavery con-
fessedly exists already, the South would have been
contented But the Republican party declined to
give up dogma of the Chicago platform, which
was so clearly in contravention of the decision of
heSupreme Court that in order to maintain the for
mer it was necessary to repudae the latter; and it
insisted that New Mexico and Arizona were use
less to the Southern people, as they would inevi-
tally be free States within a year or two, but
still it refused to surrender those barren terrific
res 10 the South. What made the Republican
party endanger the Union rather than abandon
an unconstitutional party PLATFORM and give up
strip of worthless territory? A principle is en-
bodied in that platform which is 70 be deveoped
hereafter, and that is why the integrity of the
platform was maintained-it is necessary TO drive
slavery from the territories before it can ever he
attacked in the States the outwork must be seized
before the citadel can be besieged and that is the
reason why New Mexico and Arizona were not
yielded up. We honestly believed that the in
tentions and projects of the Republicans were
such as we have indicated, and we think the
course OF that party, since the first of December
is consistent with no other hypothesis
Under these circumstances, therefore, as soon
as it became apparent that the people of the far
South would resort to extreme measures in order
to resist the domination of the Republican party.
we urged upon the border States the necessity of
taking some prompt end decisive action if thew
hoped to see the Union preserved We have
never advocated secession, but on the contrary
have uniformly condemned the preciptate course
of the seeding States. But we realized the pal
pabe fact that they were in earnest in their deter
mination to secede, and were strong enough to
defy any attempt to prevent them, and we there
fore advocated interposition on the part of the
border States. We recognized, too, the Justice of
the complaints of the Southern people, and the
reasonableness of their fears, and we thought it
right, as well as prudent for the border States to
intervene and compel the North to give the South
such guarantees for the future as the latter was
lawfully entitled to demand. On these points
the people of the border States have THOUGHT
proper to entertain a different opinion.
They have refused 10 take any decisive
step to bring the extremists on either side to
terms. They have been content to express n luke.
warm sympathy for the cause of the South, and to
put in feeble protest against the conduct of the
North Their Intervention has been characterized
by such hesitancy and want of unanimity that it
has been productive of no good. The Republican
party has carried its point and the Gulf States
have seeded What course events may now take
it is impossible to predict but the most sanguine
scarcely venture to do more than hope that our
position will become no worse The most we can
expect is, that the struggle may come to an end
and leave matters as they now stand, the UNION |
being virtually dissolved, and the slave States
which remain in the larger portion of it being at
the mercy henceforth of aggressive, unscrupu-
lous and triumphant party. Such is the situation
of affairs at present, and it is not improbable that
our condition may be for years to come precisely |
what it is to-day. In that case the gains and |
losses on either side can be easily estimated: and
while the responsibility for the destruction of the
Confederacy will rest mainly with the Republican |
party, some portion of it will attach to the people
of the Rorder STATES who failed In mako .py