January 18, 1861, The New York Herald
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17, 1861.
What another day may bring forth no one can tell, but it is not believed here that South Carolina will really proceed to hostilities. Colonel Hayne has been earnestly assured by leading Southern Senators and others that an attack upon Fort Sumter will be unpopular elsewhere in slaveholding communities, and will not be sustained. On the other hand, it is believed that South Carolina is anxious to precipitate matters, in order to force Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida and Alabama to ultra measures. Governor Pickens counts apparently upon civil war to concentrate Southern feeling and render the breach between the North and South as wide and incurable as possible. Up to the present time it is clear that, notwithstanding the seizure of federal fortresses and other aggressive acts on the part of the more excited portions of the population, led on by interested demagogues, the bone and sinew of the south are still in favor of the preservation of the Union. Had Mr. Buchanan not been powerless, had Congress taken one single step in advance to save the country, or had Mr. Lincoln declared himself in favor of concessions, South Carolina would have remained alone. but there has literally been nothing to rally around.
Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, understood this when he introduced his bill proposing amendments to the constitution. They were quite reasonable – more so than his own individual tastes would have sanctioned; but he was convinced that Georgia would not back him in a secession movement unless he could put the North more explicitly in the wrong and committed against congress than it yet had been. He succeeded in procuring the rejection of his measure, which was as satisfactory to himself, probably, as success; and the consequence has been a change of feeling for the worse in the cotton States, which has aided immensely the cause of fire eating. Until within one week a direct Union movement would have found favor in the South, under proper auspices. I fear it is now too late.
The miserable wooden nutmeg Christianity of the House of Representatives is essentially warlike. It has sought all along to force, by its inactivity, the cotton States into acts of bloodshed, or, at least, to such a degree of insurrection that the administration of Mr. Buchanan would be compelled to resistance. They it would have turned round and deplored the calamities it had created, and claimed for Mr. Lincoln that the continuance of civil war had been forced upon him by his predecessor. Add to this the hope that the Eastern Tribune school of fanatics and pseudo philanthropists believe that an internecine strife would unite the North and abolitionize it, and you have one important phase of and key to the policy which the tail of Sumner, Hale & Co. have recently adopted.
I see an able editorial in a recent number of the HERALD referring to the patriotic course of Wellington, Peel and others, at the time of Catholic emancipation, to avert the dangers of civil war. If I remember right, you might have found a still more powerful appeal to the common sense and patriotism of moderate republicans in a later part of the same debate. Disraeli replied to Peel and accused him of inconsistency. Far from denying it, Peel avowed and boasted of it. He claimed for himself perfect sincerity in the part, but declared his determination not to permit the country to be deluged in blood on such a point of honor. He said that a crisis existed before which consistency must quail. If Mr. Seward would take note of this and follow so wise an example, what would he not deserve from his country?
In case things should really come to the worst and the Southern States should separate from the North, of course it will be requisite to change the seat of the national capital. Washington should be held on to as long as possible, but a transfer of some kind would be, sooner or later, expedient. Where could a better spot be chosen that New York? The counties of Kings, New York, and Bergen, in New Jersey might be ceded by the respective States, and with railroad and telegraphic communication as they are, would form, practically, the most central and secure capital that could be named. The main seat of government might be located on the Jersey side of the river if seclusion is desirable. Or, what would prevent the patriotic editor of the HERALD from yielding his own beautiful property at Fort Washington, the surroundings of which reveal so much that is grand in past history, and from which the voice of nature, in its sublimest loveliness, would inspire great and pure thoughts for the benefit of the common country? It is an idea to be thought of as the progress of revolution makes changes necessary.