The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-04-15

tween the two, and cast our weight and our re-
sources and hopes in the one scale, and against
the other. 1t is to this and nothing but this, that
the cry of Union Union now leads u.s. 1t car
res us over not to the UNION, but to The seciona,
and fratricidal faction, which has ruptured the
UNION, and now calls to war upon its ruins
Every honest and patriotic citizen who Is deceived
by the cry of Union into the support Of tbo
powers that be- becomes, in spite of him. an en-
listed soldier under the banner of sec,ionsl;sro
Ills patriotic impulses are played upon and fam
pered with; he is seduced, by his reverence for
what is good, into the worship of the powers of
evil. He is, TO all practical ntents and purposes,
LlNcoLN-ite, and becomes part and p.rcel of
kepuolicanism and its dynasty.
NOR are we, in thus stating the case, installing
the Republican party for the Northern people. A
great deal has been said about the conservative
masses, &C., of the North-but where are they?
| what have we seen of them? Insignificant
changes in recent elections have been triumphant
ly pointed to- as evidence of great conservative
reaction. Is any man weak enough to rely for
such evidence, upon results which have to be ex-
tracted by calculation from local election returns
If the conservative feeling which we have been
told exists at the North had, in reality, existed
there, public opinion would have uprisen like
whirlwiud and have swept over the land. Leris-
latures and politicians and platforms would have
| been driven before it like chaff 1t would have
summoned conventions; it would have madei:s
voice heard at Washington, aye and obeyed be-
Sides No administration would have dared 70
resist it, 1t is idle to say that there has been no
time for this. If the South has had time 10 form
new Union, surely the North has had double
time to take the few brave steps necessary for the
peaceful and honorable preservation of the old one
The truth is, that the conservatism appealed to
does not exist at the North, save as the exception.
a spirit of fanatical aggression upon the South is
the rule. The question, therefore, for us 10 deter
mine, is not whether we shall adhere to the Union.
but whether we shall submit to be ruled by the
Morrill, and aid it in ruling the South. II is not
whether we shall continue to share in common
government, but whether we shall consent to oe
governed, without sharing in the government
at all.
1t is thus, and thus only, that the issue presents
itself to our minds. We can see it in no other
light, and under no other FORM While the ma
jority of the people of Virginia and MARYLAND
agree TO the continuance of their existing federal
relations, it is. of course, the duty of all good
citizens, to make any opinions they may entertain
subordinate to the Constitution and laws under
which they live. 1t is, at the same, the duty of
all honest men, openly, to express, in becoming
way, the convictions which the crisis may have
forced upon them. From the comparison of opin-
ions will come enlightened public Judgment
From the preponderance of that Judgment on the
one side or the other, will come an expression of
the popular will, and, We trust, prompt and manly
action.