Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1862-01-11
From the LoSdon Times, Dec. II.
THE pRESjDRNTvS MEcCACE.

with the fortunes of the Republic. Instead of the
jolly rocking periods of former days each of which
seemed to suggest at its close stave of Hail Co
lumbia" we have now got a dscursive and colloqual
essay, illarranged and worse expressed Nor does
the matter redeem the style. 1t is really wonderful,
when consider the present state of the American
Republic, how any one placed IN the position or Mr.
Lincoln could have taken the trouble to produce so
strange medley, SO incomposite a rhapsody. There
are several sui ects on which we earnestly desire
information, and on no one is it afforded Above
all things, we wan: to know what view the AmerI-
can Cabinet takes of the affair of the Trent, what
advice it has received from its legal counSeors ana
with what feelings it approaches the coming con-
troversy. On this point there is not word. Then,
we should like to hear little of the financial mea
| sures by which the equilibrium between revenue
and expenditure is to be preserved in the face of so
vast all outlay.
We should like TO know what measures the Pres-
dent proposes to adopt with regard to the slave pop
uation of the Southern States whether, with one
half of his Cabinet he is for emancipation or, with
the other half of his Cabinet for maintenance of
the rights of the siareowner. On all these points
oracle is silent. But if he tells very little
that we want to know, he amply indemnfies US by
| telling US great many things in which we have no
interest He has plan for adjusting the circuits
of the judges and for the codcatlon Of the statute
| law. lie is very minute on the receipts and dis
| bursements OF the Post. Office. He is anxious to
extend the District of Columbia into Virginia. He
| has something to say the Exhibition of 1862.
lie has, in common with most of his predecessors,
plan for getting rid Of free negroes by system of
colonization and has room for an argument to show,
! not he wishes that labor is independent of cap
ital how little progress of the most ordinary doc
trneS of political economy have made in the higher
circles of American politicians.
| 1t is not easy to see why Mr.. Seward should have
| omitted from his speech all notice of the case OF
the Trent. If ne means to give up the persons il
| houa DJUicp
precaution to prepare the public mind for such
| decision. If he means to keep them, we cannot
understand why he does not grasp at all the popu-
larity that is to be had in exchange for present
war and future ruin, instead of allowing it to be
picked up by obscure Members of Congress embark.
ing in contest whether the transcendent merits OF
| Com. Wilkes would be best rewarded by thanks or
by gold medal. Possibly the simple solution may
he that the President has as yet arrived at no sou
ton at ALL and that perplexed by the divisions Of
his Cabinet, he has been content to let the matter
alone till events shall determine for him that which
he is unable or unwilling to determine for himself
| He will not have long to wait. Each successive
mail brings the report of some instance in which
the American nation is, step by STEP committing
itself to war policy with England, till, when cha
lenged for its final decision, it will probably find
that has gone too far to have any power of retrac
tion The Government has received the Admiralty;
has thanked Commodore Wilkes and Congress has
now given the seal of its appreciation to proceed
ing deeply offensive to Great Britain 1t Is hardly
possible to imagine Government sunk so far below
its duties and responsibilities to allow all this to
go on and make no sign either of assent or dissent.
The President is bound to lend his aid in guiding
the Legislature to a true decision on matter so
nearly touching the duties and the character of the
Executive. He ought TO set before it the principles
involved IN the question: and to give it every oppor-
tunity in his power of arriving at a conclusion con-
formidable to the real interests of the country But
hah has &c Ill and has hur6 mad
the vessel of the State to drift helpless before the
gale of popular clamor.
The President has given u.s. instead of tie inform
alton desire, his opinions on the real cause Of
this present war. The North, he says, are fighting
for the integrity of the UEion-that is as Lord
Russell said, for empire, to compel the South, by
force of arms, to live under a government which
they deteSt The South, on the other hand, are
fighting against the rights Of the people-that is,
against the rights of the people OF the North to gov
ern them against their own consent This descrip-
ton ought to put end to the statement so often
repeated that slavery is the main matter in dispute.
But the South have done Still worse, and not con-
tent with questioning the right of the North to
govern them, they have even gone to the extent OF
questioning the wisdom of certain Northern nstitu.
tons. Thus persons actually found who wish
for restriction of the suffrage; to contend in spite
of the evidence afforded by the North OF the purity
of election and the high moral and intellectual quail
tiles secured by such a process that it is better
elections should be confined to legislators and not
extended to magistrates; and some have even been
heard to pronounce the horrible name of Mon.
archy."
No wonder that Mr.. Lincoln, luxuriating in the
Paradise to which the will of unbridled democra-
cy has introduced him, and looking forward to a
desperate struggle with England brought about ap
parently by the cause, should feel pious hor.
ror of those who venture to think such experience
not conclusive and the existing Constitution Of the
Ia
nothing to say for slavery, but if Mr.. Liucolns de-
scrption of the South is indeed true if she is fight
ing to emancipate herself from the blind tyranny OF
degraded mob from the elective Judges and elec-
tive Governors, he has given his antagonists bet
ter title to European sympathy than they have
hitherto possessed and thrown upon his govern
ment the stigma of fighting to impose upon others
institutions, which have already brought it to the
verge Of ruin
But the most remarkable part of Mr. Lncon's
speech is that in which he touches the relations Of
his government with foreign countries. The fact
seems, on his showing, to be that all foreign cOun
tries have hitherto preserved strict neutrality
that they have resisted all applications from the
South to make common cause with it against the
North; and that they have quietly submitted to
blockade which previously Injuries their commerce
and manufactures. These facts would have called
forth from the chief of any other government in the
world, Republican or Monarchical, a gracious anC
courteous acknowledgment of the respect and for
bearance with which nation, not remarkable fol-
carrying either of these qualities to excess has beer
treated by all other nations in its hour of trial.
Nothing can be more ungracious, more contrary t.
the usual conditions Of international courtesy, thar
the language with which President Lincoln repay!
the consideration extended to him: "These ma
tions," he says, appear yet not to have seer
their objects that is, the restoration of commerce
-" more directly clearly through the destruction
than through the preservation of the Union"
This is broad insinuation that foreign nation!
are actuated by the meanest and most selfish mo
tives and Mr.. Lincoln is content as he cannot deny
that we have hitherto done right, to express sus
pcion that we did so for reasons we cannot avoW
without shame. Is it not wonderful that notict
of foreign relations begun in this spirit should
in the exhOrtation with which we are already famil
lar in the circular of Mr. Seward to forfy the sea