IMMINENT DANGER OF CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES.
Is there sufficient statesmanship within the remains of the Ameri- can Federation—not to preserve the Union—but to prevent it from being torn to pieces by armed men. This is the question forced upon us by the tenour of the most recent communications from New York and Washington. The storm sweeping over the whole of the States grows daily more violent. The shrill cry for secession is heard above the up roar and the cry for compromise is reduced to a faint whisper breathed here and there by men who cling to an Union whose Value they have experienced, whose strength they have felt. Those who look back with pride and affection to the infancy of the nation, who view the statesmanship of those days with won- der, and who have nurtured themselves on its maxims, have eagerly sought for some plan whereby the Union may be saved. But to most of these the hours of the Union must appear to be numbered, and the splendid constellation of the West eclipse& The Union men, really bound together by nothing stronger than what we may call Union-worship, have been silenced by the screaming of the tempest blowing furiously from the South. One plan of compromise after another is only devised to be rejected, and. the saviours of the Union can only look sadly on the wreck of vain hopes and fruitless devices. It is clear that every man of them would have to bend his energies not to save the Union, but to prevent internecine war. The latest advices show how near to the verge of the dread calamity the State had been hurried. Several causes have been at work to frustrate a peaceful settlement. First of these is the trenchant character of the revolution in South Carolina. The mob soon got the upper hand in the State Convention, which ruthlessly destroyed the temple built three quarters of a century since ; and the mob, impelled by fanaticism, severed at once every tie that bound the State to the other States of the Union. The threatening aspect of the city, the gathering numbers of armed men led to another incident which tended to inflame the popular passions. Mr. Buchanan acted on the supposition that, if he abstained from reinforcing the handful of soldiers in Charleston harbour, the people would respect the Federal pro- perty; and, Major Anderson, being deserted, and placed in a false military position, with a soldier's instinct rectified it, and aban- doned what he could not defend. Spiking his guns and burning the carriages, he drew nearly the whole of his forces into Fort Sumpter; and, from its unassailable ramparts, he saw the na- tional flag torn down and the Palmetto flag flying in its place. This incident has had, immense effects. It has increased the virulence of the secession fever all over the South. It has led to faint imitations in Georgia and North Carolina, whose State offi- cials have seized the national forts. It has brought to Charleston recruits from all sides, and it has given the coup de grace to the Union men. One unlocked-for effect of the secession movement is the prominence which the sturdier part of the "white trash"
have taken, and. one result of secession seems likely to be thoroughly revolutionary, insofar, as it brings the scum of
Southern society to the surface. But, if the whe2Isale measures of the South Carolinians have given a violent impetus to the rage for secession, they have also, unexpectedly, called up a spirit of resistance. Hence, the danger of a collision.
The North-West has taken a most decided course—New York State and the North-West have brought their influence to bear on Mr. Buchanan. Deserted by Mr. Cobb and Mr. Cass, he is now deserted by Mr. Floyd. How strong a hold the secessionists had upon the Cabinet, and how much they must have warped the conduct of Mr. Buchanan may be inferred from the fact that Mr. Floyd had actually given a pledge on the part of the Government that no reinforcements should be sent to Charleston, and that Major Anderson should rest quietly in a position which tempted attack and which he could not defend. Mr. Floyd tried a last effort to maintain an ascendancy in the Cabinet, and he failed.
Mr. Buchanan determined to fulfil the pledge he gave in his mes- sage, and gave orders for the defence of the forts and property of the United States at Charleston and the colleotion of the revenue ; moreover, he refused to enter into negotiations with the envoys of the State in rebellion. What could have induced this change ? We are inclined to think it could only have been brought about by the resolute interposition of the Union men of the Border States, the sturdy dwellers in the great North-West--who will not give up the Mississippi—and the energetic intervention of the democrats of the North. At the eleventh hour, Mr. Buchanan makes a stand for the Union,' and makes his stand on the law. But it is a thousand pities he did not take the advice of General Wool tendered to the Cabinet through Mr. Cass a month ago, and reinforce the military posts in the South, instead of leaving them unguarded, and a positive temptation to frantic mobs. A month ago, the North was cool and silent. It did not flaunt its victory in the face of the vanquished. Men did not believe any State would secede, and thought the bluster of the South would spend itself in words. Now the Federal authority is actu- ally in arms against a State wdich has usurped its functions, and
which, by its impetuous movements, and the contagion a ex-
ample, has hurried other States far on the path of that new species of rebellion, termed secession. The North, hitherto silent, cries treason, and even democrats—one bearing the ominous name of Spinola—offer the Federal authority thousands of armed men, to be employed in asserting Federal authority ; and the North-west, grim and comparatively quiet, clearly manifests its determination to fight for the outlet to the Gulf of Mexico. And thus the poli- tical problem has rapidly changed. Yesterday, it was, how to save the Union. Today, it is, how to avoid a civil war. The progress is rapid. What may it be tomorrow ? It is strange that we should hear so little of the real cause of this fearful quarrel. Hardly a whisper is breathed of the slaves. Dark words are uttered in some quarters, and one shudders to realize their import. But, in the main, the noisy, truculent, pas- sionate disputants rage together, as if there there were no crea- tures with passions more fierce and brutal than their own, toiling, listening, perhaps conspiring in their midst. The great public discord goes on brawling in the light of day, but, to the thought- ful ear, it cannot drown that potent but subdued bass which / groans under the whole. There are the slaves in their millions. The Southerners may secede from the Union, but they cannot secede from the slaves, neither can they run away from the ter- rible consequences involved in the taint which slavery has infused into the blood of freedom.
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