March 5, 1861; The Charleston Mercury
WASHINGTON, March 1.
People being tolerably well satisfied that SCOTT with his cannon has overawed WISE with his minute men, it is likely, from present appearances, that we shall have just as large a crowd here on next Monday as on any previous inauguration day. But thousands on thousands would have come under any circumstances. The natural thirst of the Yankee and the Hoosier for office, masters all other passions, and carries them, if need be into the jaws of instant death.
We are no means at the bottom of LINCOLN’S policy yet. The obsequious Washingtonians serenaded him last night, and he told them he would give the people of the South all their rights under the Constitution. According to whose interpretation? The question was not put as it ought to have been. But the boot-licks and toad eaters of this city care nothing on earth for rights. They want quiet, repose–leisure to feed on the Federal pap until they are satisfied, if that be possible. Nothing can been more disgusting than the alacrity with which not only the poor devils of clerks, but the solid business men also, are trimming, the sails of their principles to suit the incoming political breeze. Towering above all others in this shameful movement are the old line Whigs who were born in Virginia. The truth is–and they admit it, – a Virginia Whig is naturally a perfect Republican, barring a little free soil.
You, people of Charleston, have been made famous by virtue of secession. All the papers in this country have had their spiteful curlike snap at you, and now the English papers are following suit. The last number of the London Illustrated News has a picture entitled, “The Secession movement–entrance hall to an hotel at Charleston, South Carolina.” If THE MERCURY had the appliances for cheap piracy which the HARPER’S possesses, it ought to reproduce this charming cut. The display of badly clad individuals and ponderous spit boxes is very rich. The gentlemen who frequent hotel at Charleston, would be delighted to see themselves so outrageously caricatured.
The Tribune pitches into Mr. SPRATT with great vigor; calls him “The Apostle to the Africans,” and says “reminds us of that conscientious actor who, when he was to play Othello, blacked himself all over, that his consistency might be perfect and entire,”and is otherwise most facetious over him. It is to be hoped Mr. SPRATT may survive.
It turns out that the Peace Conference Compromise, so cannonaded into glory yesterday by SCOTT and BUCHANAN, and so denounced in Richmond by TYLER and SEDDON, was passed by an alibi. If Mr. FIELD, of New York, had not been detained at the Supreme Court, the vote of his State would have been cast against it, and it would have been defeated.
A scheme is said to be on foot for carrying the great Southwestern mail so as to avoid passing through the Confederate States. The route will probably be via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Columbus, Cincinnati, and across Kentucky direct to Memphis.
A thousand and one explanations are given of the alleged plot against the life of LINCOLN. The Herald gets off the most plausible. Two sets of detective were employed by THURLOW WEED. Set No. 1 knew nothing about set No. 2. Happening to meet, they began pumping each other, both sides telling lies with the view of worming something out of the other. Hence the great hullaballoo.
I have made no mention of the report of the select committee of five choice Republicans appointed by PENNINGTON to examine into the correspondence between the South Carolina Commissioners and the President, for the simple reason that no ink has yet been invented black and dirty enough to do justice to the infamous Insolence of DAWES, HOWARD, & CO.
It is unseasonably warn and dusty.
SEVEN.