April 4, 1861; The Charleston Mercury
WASHINGTON, April 1, 1861.
Northern politicians, not bound hand and foot to the Abolition Juggernaut, begin to decry the indecisive policy of the LINCOLN Administration. It takes strong ground neither on one side nor the other. Cabinet councils are held, and the duration of their sittings is proclaimed with a loud flourish of trumpets; but when you come to the hard, practical question–what has been done, what is to be done, to meet the demands of the country?–you hear only the hollow, unsatisfactory sound which has been heard daily since the 4th March last. Therefore, all men not interested directly or indirectly in official plunder, experience difficulty in restraining their indignation. It is too bad, they say, that the vital interests of the people are to be made subordinate to the vile, sinister intrigues of a faction.
The only explanation yet vouchsafed upon the subject serves to deepen the shade of infamy in which it is enshrouded. What is it? That to accomplish party purposes in Connecticut and Rhode Island, the solution of the Sumter and Pickens difficulty shall be deferred until the elections have taken place. The fact that the alternative, peace or war, appears to hang by a thread over the country, matters not to these miserable leaders of a miserable party. Intent upon calculating only their own chances, they leave the great issue to drift before the wind and tide of a tempestuous sea. They have the wish, but the folly and failure of the attempt are too manifest to warrant it.
Thus, though each day furnishes a full proportion of rumors, you speedily discover that all proceed from the same tainted, unreliable source. The coinage of lies has not even the merit of novelty to recommend. And those whose business it is to visit the departments in search of intelligence, and to make a salaam before the great men of the government, shake their heads sorrowfully when the task of sifting the true from the new is ended.
The common belief that this do nothing system results from Executive incapacity, is, however, repudiated by some whose reputation for sagacity and fullness of information entitle them to speak with a degree of authority. By these it is held that under cover of indecision really lurks treachery; that whilst apparently countenancing delay, the President and his advisers are, in truth, bent upon misleading the Southern people, with a view to the accomplishment of ulterior military and naval purposes. Upon this supposition, more readily than any other, may the shilly shally course pursued toward the Southern Commissioners be explained. According to those distinguished gentlemen, all the credit that is claimed for them on the score of inactivity, its immediate benefits are not obvious. And there are reasons for thinking that it is the very policy which the LINCOLN Cabinet may be supposed to favor, as most in harmony with their convenience. The worst thing that could befall the rulers of the Northern Union would be, just now, to be compelled to determine their conduct in relation to the Southern Confederacy, and to abide the consequences. If inactivity mean complete passiveness, it is the very condition for the prolongation of which Messrs. LINCOLN and SEWARD devoutly pray. It postpones the finality of Southern Independence.
The landing of troops at Tortugas and Key West albeit inconsiderable judged in regard to absolute strength, is proof how like the Administration heeds the spirit of the understanding on which the Southern Commissioners desire to rely. In the quietest way, but with as much effect as it can command, the government is preparing for the last appeal; and if it fail to accomplish the design at Pensacola, the circumstance must be attributed, not to the good faith of the Black Republicans, but to the vigilance, the energy and the wisdom of Southern leaders. But Tortugas and Key West are the strongholds on which LINCOLN and SEWARD will fall back.
The shout of exultation with which the dominant party here received the reported exploits of Ex-Governor HOUSTON, and the haste with which the retention of Federal troops in Texas to sustain his treason, was recommended by the Northern press and individual members of the government, cannot be omitted from any account of Executive treachery. Knots of Black Republicans yesterday chanted the praises of HOUSTON and his letter; the Intelligencer this morning spreads it before the community, and a very decided disposition is manifested to succor the Texas rebel to the extent of existing opportunities. In this manner, it is contended, Mr. LINCOLN may most easily assail the Confederate States. Without troops or money, with Northern commerce and industry prostrated, and the Northern people divided, Mr. LINCOLN’S aim is, rather to foment mischief within the Confederacy than to assail it with open war. The do nothing policy plays into their hands.
The Union saving press and politicians are all proceeding on the same idea. They are trying to persuade themselves that secession is distasteful in the seceded States; and on this hypothesis they would construct a policy looking to the nurture of a Union party amongst the people of the Confederacy. With this view, HOUSTON and HAMILTON are to be assisted in Texas, COBB is encouraged in Northern Alabama, and efforts are promised to produce trouble in Louisiana. The folly of these plans does not lessen their criminality. They are not less hostile because certain to end in failure. And they form a key to the tactics of the Government, and the integrity which guides it in the execution of its pacific understanding, through third persons, with the Southern Commissioners.
Private letters from Kentucky report the growth of a strong Southern sentiment in that State. Of that fact, however, Mr. BRECKINRIDGE’S demonstration in the Senate might be taken as prima facie evidence. But they look, of course, to reorganization.
From Virginia, too, the intelligence is gratifying. Meeting after meeting pronounces in favor of immediate secession. But the Convention will do nothing. Its knavish majority, for the most part elected on false pretences, repudiate instructions, and will do their utmost to hand over the State to Black Republican control. The true reliance is upon the honest instincts of the people, and these are manifesting themselves unmistakeably in all quarters.
Desertions are constantly going on from the ranks of the federal soldiery stationed in this city. The prevalence of disaffection has been no secret for some time past; and now, privates are following the example of their ablest officers by transferring their allegiance to the flag of the Southern Confederacy.
The departmental guillotine is hardly yet in full play. The clerks already decapitated, however, form a cloud of witnesses, whose testimony is conclusive against the prevailing mania for subordinate government employment–it is at once the most damaging and the most unprofitable pursuit extant.