February 15, 1861; The Charleston Mercury
WASHINGTON, February 12, 1861.
At a single bound, we have leaped from thrilling regions of thick ribbed ice into the heart of the tropics. The heat is almost intolerable. Great masses of thick clouds are floating overhead; the streets and avenues are alive with dashing vehicles and well dressed promenaders. Hired soldiers, arrayed in the uniform of the United States, are visible everywhere. This is the day for counting the votes, and of course the mercenaries are on the alert.
The Virginia Convention meets in Richmond tomorrow. Instead of sucking its thumbs in peace till the conclusions of the Peace Congress are reached, it will begin at once a fierce war in regard to State politics; and it will not be the fault of BOTTS, LETCHER, and STUART, if in the end the Old Dominion is not divided in twain. These men will stickle at nothing to accomplish their purpose of personal aggrandizement. Encouraged by the late election in their State, and greatly elated by the result in Tennessee, they will join hands with ANDREW JOHNSON to keep the people where they now are, completely under their feet. Indeed it is but too apparent that they have sold their Motherland into bondage to SEWARD and DOUGLAS.
In the course of the Senate debate on yesterday, in regard to the bill authorizing the government to build seven steam vessels of light draught and heavy armament, KING and FESSENDEN came out openly and above board in favor of coercion. KING was peculiarly fierce. His age and enormous bulk preclude the possibility of fighting; he can well afford, therefore, to talk terrifically. GREEN, of Missouri, obtained the floor, and will reply to the ferocious New Yorker today. GREEN is a man of considerable natural ability; unpolished, though; and careful rather of his points than his rhetoric. He is true to the South.
The anti abolition party in the Border States are by no means content with a single defeat. They are ready and willing to make another struggle to rescue a noble people from the dominion of LINCOLN. Some predict a happy issue out of this struggle. Others, less hopeful, look for a second overthrow. It will be the last. The best, the truest, and bravest blood will leave as quickly as possible, and the Border States will be abandoned to the mercy of the anti slavery hordes.
Leading men here are deceiving themselves and their friends in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, with the idea that JEFFERSON DAVIS will exert all his powers to reunite the Confederacy to the Empire. Insulting as this idea is to President DAVIS, it will do immense harm to the Border States. Nothing short of a practical illustration of Southern independence will suffice to dissipate this hurtful fallacy.
I presume you Carolinians are preparing with fortitude to see ANDERSON reinforced; your harbor filled with steam gun boats; Castle Pinckney in the hands of federal marines; and Charleston knocked to pieces by bombardment. SCOTT is not ready yet. Wait for him. May be you will get Sumter without a fight. Don’t be bloody minded.
SEVEN.