Year: 1861

The New Orleans Crescent OF late date
has the following


Every effort that has been made at Wash
inpton TO obtain from the Administration
some indication of its policy with regard to
the Confederate States, has, thus fer, proved
o failures That Administration has been in
power four weeks to day, and no pne can
say positively whether they mean to make
war upon The Southern States or not. We
are disposed to think they do not know
themselves, what they are going to do.


Attempts have been made in various ways
to draw them out, but neither the President
nor any member of the Cabinet nor any
Senator in the confidence of the Administra-
ton, opens his mouth except to use vague
indefinite, ambiguous phrases which leave
the main question more clouded with doubt
than ever. That they desire the coercion of
the Confederate States is plain enough-but
that they have settled down upon any fixed,
well-defined policy, is altogether improba-
BILE.


The truth is, there is hardly a man worthy
of the title Of statesman In the ranks of the
whole Black Republican Party. 1t is made
up of men without irmness Of character, and
without that stern, rigid, inhexible purpose,
in the absence of which no great achieve
ment in craftsmanship is possible. Seward
possesses certain amount of cunning, OF
shrewdness, and of capacity to say rough
things in .velvety language-but be is not,
and never was, man of nerve or a man OF
action, He is as bold as lion until he gets
into the presence of danger or responsibility,
and then his courage foTsakes him. The re-
mainder of the Administration is composed
of men who regard the offices of the Govern
ment as the chief end of ambition, and are
lost in amazement, and trembling with ter
ror, at the grave duties which those Offices
devolve upon them.


They thought that to win the Presidency
was ALL but, like the man who won the ele
phant in rattle, they do not know what to
do with the Presidency now that they have
| got it. Except to partition out the crumbs
of Office to the ravenous crew of lazzareni
who hang around the purlieus of the White
| House, not a move seems to have been made
with respect to the administration of the
| Government for the ensuing four years. In
stead of promulgating some manly, decisive
| open policy with regard to the Southern
| States, whether it be of defiance or of con.
ciliation, they have kept studiously silent
budding together in tinorous alright, like
young chickens when they see passing
hawk, afraid to act for fear of committing
blunder, and shamefully avoiding the reSpon-
sibilhies of the position for which they have
so long and so lsboriously struggled.


We say this in no spirit of complaint or ap
prehension. The Confederate States arr
amply prepared for either alternative thu
North may choose to present, whether it b,
peace or war, and are almost Indifferent a


to which it shall be. But it is sickenng Il
witness the timid, weak, wishy- washy con


duct of the Northern Administration. 1t II


disgusting to know that the places which
have been filled by Washington, Jefferson


Madison, jackson, Polk, Fillmore, and theil


couDsellors and advisers, are now occupied


by men without either brains or backbone


who have neither the capacity to determin


their future course of action nor the will t


execute it if they knew what they wished Il


do. There is no other Government upo
earth, the ministers of which, if challenge


to proclaim their policy, would refuse to d


so, as Lincoln's Administration has done


blinking the question, lodging around cor


ners, and tremulous with trepidation lest


from their conscious inability to be''master


of the situation" they add still further {


the contempt into which they have fallen


some act of copsummate folly, or some ridiC
ulous and conspicuous blunder.


If they mean war upon the South, the
would, it they were honorable adversarie


say so in distinct and emphatic TERMS Eve


effete and demoralized Mexico made no secrt


of her intentions, but defantly threw dow
the gage of battle to us when we sent ou


troops to the Texan frontier. But IL the


mean peace, it is still more dishonorable an


cowaIdly in them to subject the Confederat
States TO the expense and labor of preparin


for battle and of concentrating troops, whe


there is to be no employment for them.
) either event, the Administration at WASH


ington has acted in a manner which mus
! excite the contempt Of every civilized an
honorable nation.


But for the thorough and unlimited cont


depce which the people of the Confedera


States have, in the brave soldier and COO
: ssgacious statesman who presides over the
Government at Montgomery, it is not at a
unlikely that popular impatience would hay
! solved the question before this, and severe
the Gordian knot with the sword. 1t is onl


that they know it is all for the best, in tt
opinion of those best qualified to judge, tbs
they have consented to see their Commi
3 sioners detained in Washington upon frivt
l lous pretexts, unable to get any reply
their demands, and dancing attendan'
: upon an imbecile Administration WhiC
d steadily refuses to proclaim its policy.
We much mistake the temper of Il
Southern people, however, if this thing
: allowed to continue much longer. Tin
9 enough has already been given to the A
: ministration at Washington to define
. position with regard to the Confedera
States; and longer indulgence would see


to be almost crime instead of virtu


Foreign flags, the emblems of neither W
= nor peace. have hoated in the Southel
= breeze about long enough. Ifneither the hop
lessness of the enterprise of Southern su
lection, nor the lack of means in a baGkru
> treasury, will suffice to cause the withdraw
: of Northern troops from the soil of t
: South, there is one other arbitrament
. which but little is now needed to provo
: the united and determined people of t
u Confederate States. Ftt