Year: 1861

Concession In America Declared Absurd
In England Alleged Weakness of the


SlavehOlding States.


The London Netcs of the 2lst ult. has the
following:


The concession of the points of difference
by the one section or the other, is the one only
condition on which the Union can be recon-
stituted. such concession is now no longer
expected of the free States, and il was always
absurd to imagine it. The question now is
whether such concession will be agreed to by
the slave States as the only alternative to
subjugation by conquest2 II is better to face
the truth Of the case, after what we have
seen of the mischief that comes of covering
it up for supposed prudential reasons.


What is the precise nature of the conces-
sion the South must make in the case sup
posed2 The answer is given by the demands
she made upon the North. The whole Union
has borne the discredit and moral and mate
rial injury of being a slaveholding nation,
while nine-tenths of the nation held no
slaves, and disapproved the institution. The
aim of the recent election was to get rid of
the disgrace and injury by taking measures
for restricting slavery within its actual
boundaries, and making it sectional instead
Of national. This indicates at once the folly
Of proposing to the majority to yield up this
aim, and the precise necessity that the South
lies under, whether she chooses war or peace.


In either case now, slavery and its liabili-
ties must be restricted within its actual
limits; and it is for the pro-slavery people
to decide whether they shall first undergo a
conquest by arms. They can not expect, of
| course, to conquer the free States. At most,
they can propose to hold their ground; and
| if they could hold their ground and estab
lish themselves in independence, they would
| be, in regard to the conditions of slavery,
precisely where they may now be, without
| fighting.


If they had lived anywhere but in slave
holding society, they would see this as the
world does; but they are ignorant of life
elsewhere, and as unconscious as the Chi
nese of the relative strength and civiiza-
| tion of themselves and other people. This
| ignorance may lead them to venture o war.
In the whole case, this is the thing to be
feared. They do not know how poor their
resources are in comparison with those OF
any other civilized country-their rotten
roads and bridges, their scanty arms, even
where men go armed about their daily bus-
ness; their incapacity for military disci-
pline, or any sort of discipline; their des-
titution of stores, such as are necessary for
warfare, and especially their pecuniary pow
erty.


They are alarmed about their negroes.
| They do feel what mill stone they have
aDOuJ Lnelr neChS IN InlS SerVlle claSS-thelT
1000, 900 of domestic foes. The "poor whites''
would make serviceable banditti, as longIas
they were not brought face to face with
Northern free laborers. When that happens
they forthwith become Northern free labor.
ers themselves. There is no other force
which could be brought into the field against
Federal troops and after a great Northern
army had swept the country, brushing away
all opposition, and possessing themselves o.
every town, plantation, ferry and fort that
they choose to take-setting the slaves free
as they went-what would remain to the
citizens2 Certainly a worse chance, as tC
terms, than they have now. They nigh
now be received back on the simple con
dition that they should keep their "peculia,
institution" to themselves, and make a really
domestic" matter of it. 1t is probable tina
even the three-ifths suffrage might be lef
to them for time. But they must manag,
their own concerns and see the nation a
large casting off the discredit of an institu
ton that the world thinks ill Of These arr
surely easy terms for rebellious people bu
4 we believe they may have them, if they Sc
in time what they had best to d. -,