The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1862-01-16

eulogy OF Floyd, who in the extent and in
fanny OF his treachery certainly excelled his
ieilow-traitors in the Cabinet, makes this
plain avowal: "All who have attended tc
the developments of the last three months
and knew aught of the movements of the
buchanan administration up TO the time Of
fIoyd's resignation, will justify the asser.
tlon that the Southern COnfederacy would
not and could not be in existence at this
hour, but for the action of the late Secretary
of War.
The plan invented by General Scott to
stop secession was like all campaigns de.
vlsed by him, very able in its details and
nearly certain of general success. The
Southern States are full of arsenaIs and
forts, commanding their rivers and strategic
points: General Scott desired 10 transfer the
army OF the United States to these forts as
speedily and as quietly as possible. The
Southern States could not cut off commune
cation between the Government and the for
tresses without a great fleet, which they can
not build for years; or take them by land
without one hundred thousand men, many
hundred millions of dollars, several cam
Palgns, and many a bloody siege. Had
Scott been able TO nave got these forts in the
condition he desired them to be, the Southern
Coniederacy would not now exist"
THE TRAITORS WHO HAVE BETRAYED US.
Such is the truth fairly stated by the
Baltimore Examiner, in the interest of the
rebels. The Union has been severed, not
by violence from without, but by treachery
within. 1t has been convulSed from its CEN
ire to It's circumference, not from any inter-
nal weakness in our Federal system, but by
the internal villany of our Federal rulers.
Traitors have betra yed the Union, traitors
have betrayed our forts and the betrayal no
more proves moral weakness In the one case
than 1t does material weakness in the other.
There Is no fortification so i~mpregnable but
thai a traitorous governor may yield it with
out a blOw-neither is there any government
on Gods earth that secret treachery may not
enfeebIe or temporarily overthrow.
"If," said Webster, those appointed to
defend the castle shall betray it, woe betide
those within. Let us hope,' he added, and
how vain the hope as regards ourselves,
" that we shall never see the time when the
Government shall be found in opposition to
the Constitution, and when the guardians of
the Union shall become its b~etrayers.'
L do not mean to say, gentlemen, that
President Buchanan, who at the close of his
administration partially redeemed It's char
acter, by calling to his counseIs those brave
iiIh anu nut pdsllOl>, VI IlOlL ana Neneral
Dix, was personally privy to the designs of
the false secretaries whom they replaced but
1t is nevertheless true that he is the man who,
under the Constitution, is directly response
bic to the American people for the acts of his
administration.
In his position timidity was treason and
~inaction was crime. He alone could execute
the laws, he had the power to execute them,
and he did not execute them; and for the
simple want OF their non-eXecution the coun-
ny drifted rapidly toward destruction. This
vas a case which the founders of our repub-
&c had not anticipated. AS Mr.. Sherman
IF Ohio aptly said, The Constitution pro-
'ided against every probable vacancy in the
'ffice of president, but did not provide for
liter imbecility."
| am aware that Mr.. Buchanan's friends
Ittribute his conduct in the whole matter to
m amIable creduiity and a humane desire to
void the shedding of n drop of blood. | am
ure that none of us would wish to deprive
Inn of whatever benefit he may derive from
he plea of %virtuous motives, but allowing
hem all the force they are entitled to, we
must still exclaim -
"Curse on his virtues, they've undone his country ~
For no other of the confederates in this
reat villany will the candid historian VEN
IRE with success the apology of mental i'm
ecility or moral cowardice. They are men
Tho make the boast that for long wears il
as been the aim of their existence to over
lrow, not by open and honorable opposition,
ut secretly, traitorously, and by subornation
t treason, the most benignant government
4 the world, and one to which they were
ound by solemn odths and by sacred honor.
hey are men who, pretending to the gentle
len, have made conspiracy a trade and per- !
Try a habit. They have blended professions
patriotism with the practice of treason,
mixed the duties of a senator with the posi-
on OF a spy, and made a seat in the Cabinet ]
lie office of a thief. With a refinement of c
that could belong to no chivalry [
1t that of slaveholding, and would be prac- q
sed by no knights save those of {" the
Circle" they have to the last moment S
avn their official salaries from the nation ?
ey were betraying; they have perfected S
cir schemes of plumber in the very capital ?
hich they were seeking to cripple, and #
meath the folds of the flag that they were t
to support and plotting to humble. a
hey are men in brief-for the subject is a s
one-who, initiating Judas and riv- t
ing Arnold, have made their daily life SIM
= and purely a daily lie.
oGREss OF THE PLOT AND RISING OF THE fl
PEOPLE. d
Did time permit me, | would like briefly c;
refer TO the national events that, following b.
quick succession, have interrupted what c;
r. Seward happily calls the majestic
lrch of our national progress ;" the success d.
e seizure of Southern forts, in obedience w
kilograms from the Senate-chamber; the NJ
cad of Southern treason like the wiId-fre
the prairies. the CONSERVATION of the peo- tn
}, the apathy of the Executive. the plot to bl
ze the capital, intended to be executed in tie
and repeatedly postponed till the st
empt involved too serious danger, the sys- ha
latic efforts in the departments of the to
of the interior, of war, and | fear he