News Dispatches. though no definite proposition grew out of ject are hailed by the friends of the Union as liar- and to Senators Douglas, Seward and others. In EVENTS of the closing Outside Pressure for week of January, tended to Compromise. demonstrate the improbability of any settlement of the vexed questions between the North and South. A very strong pressure was brought to bear on Congress, by petitions, by letters, by special deputations, and by eminent men who gathered at the Capital to lend their influence to compromise. A delegation of thirty-three citizens, from Philadelphia, representing fifty thousand working men of that city, visited Washington January 30th. In a call upon Senator Crittenden, they stated their object to be to testify their love for the Union and their desire to urge the adoption of the Crittenden Compromise by Congress. Delegations were "The Boards of Trade of Milwaukee and Chicago also present from New York and Boston, un-paid their respects, to-day, to President Buchanan derstood to represent the commercial interests of those great business centres. They, too, favored the Crittenden propositions, and urged powerful monetary reasons why a settlement should be made. Great influence was exerted by the voice from Wall street. A conference of members of the Border States was held, January 30th, at the request of the delegation from New York city. The delegation urged that, as the Republicans would not receive the Crittenden resolutions, some other practical proposition should be devised which did not require any surrender of principle at their hands. second thought of the people,' if adjustment measSeveral members from the Border Slave States ures shall be presented, will induce them to resume expressed a willingness to accept the Corwin their connection with the Federal Government. propositions, "with proper modifications,” "The friends of the Union are much encou and even the lately belligerent Rust, of Ar-raged by the prompt responses to the invitation kansas, is represented as having exhibited a for Commissioners from the several States to meet conciliatory disposition-so humanizing and in Convention here on the 4th of February, and it is harmonizing was the power of gold. Al-believed the action of the Convention will command their interview with the President he said: “If Mr. Lincoln shall enjoy his accession to power as much as I do my retirement from it, he will be a happy man." Senator Seward, in the course of his conversation with the Members of the Boards, said: Heretofore the cry has been raised to save the Union, when the Union was not in danger. I tell you, my friends, the question of Slavery is not now to be taken into account. We must save the Union. Then we save all that is worth saving. the Union is to avoid all pretext for a collission by The great point now aimed at by the friends of the Seceding States, in the hope that the sober, POSITION OF MR. LINCOLN'S PARTY. 289 the support of a large majority of both branches of Congress. "It is now certain that private letters have been received from Mr. Lincoln, urging his friends to conciliation and compromise, and it is stated that he indicates the Border State resolutions as a reasonable basis of adjustment. The assurance is given that this information is reliable. Soon after the Electoral vote shall be counted in the presence of the two Houses of Congress, on the second Wednesday in February, Mr. Lincoln will acquaint the public with his views on the pending crisis. Here The same journal added, as to the real attitude of the party : "This is not only to be taken as Mr. Lincoln's declaration of his own views, but it amply expresses the conviction of every unshaken Republican as to the duty of the hour. First inaugurate the new Administration and determine the question of questions whether we have a Government, or only a Mexican anarchy; and when that problem is disposed of, it will be time enough to consider and settle matters of inferior consequence." The speeches made, dur tofore he has not felt that it was proper for him, in ing the week, by leading Position of his Party. advance of the official declaration of his election, to take a prominent part in the direction of political affairs." Mr. Lincoln's Position. This latter dispatch created much remark, particularly in Republican circles, with whom compromise by concession was rapidly becoming unpopular. It received, however, an early rejoinder from Springfield, Ill. The Journal, of that city, understood to speak for Mr. Lincoln, in its issue of January 29th, said: "The country may rest assured that in Abraham Lincoln they have a Republican President-one who will give them a Republican Administration. Mr. Lincoln is not committed to the Border State Compromise, nor to any other. He stands immovably on the Chicago Platform, and he will neither acquiesce in, nor counsel his friends to acquiesce in, any compromise that surrenders one iota of it." This was confirmed by an editorial in a leading Republican journal of New York city, which, in its issue of the 30th, said of the news dispatch: Republicans confirmed this view. Wilson, of Massachusetts, Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, Adams, of Massachusetts, Seward, of New York, Conkling, of New York, and others, while they deprecated a course likely to precipitate matters, still were so firm in their Union sentiments, and so resolute in demanding the fullest obedience to the laws, that the country felt their minds were made up against concessions to the extent demanded. Both Messrs. Seward and Adams were eminently conciliatory; both strove so to harmonize feelings as to place the responsibility of further revolution on the Border Slave States. But, the stern fact that South Carolina disdained to be represented at the "Peace Congress" [see page 256,] and, speaking for the States soon to gather at Montgomery to establish a new Confederacy, gave indications that no settlement was wanted or was possible,* the declarations of withdrawing members, and of Pryor, of Virginia, proving that concessions would prove futile "We do not hesitate to say that these statements are false and calumnious. We have the best author-25th, ity for saying that Mr. Lincoln is opposed to all concessions of the sort. We know that his views are fully expressed in his own language as follows:" 'I will suffer death before I will consent or advise my friends to consent to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privilege of taking possession of the Government to which we have a constitutional right; because, whatever I might think of the merit of the various propositions before Congress, I should regard any conces sion in the face of menace as the destruction of the Govern ment itself, and a consent on all hands that our system shall be brought down to a level with the existing disorganized state of affairs in Mexico. But this thing will hereafter be, as it is now, in the hands of the people; and if they desire to call a Convention to remove any grievances complained of, or to give new guarantees for the permanence of vested rights, it is not mine to oppose." " *The Charleston Mercury, in its issue of January expressed the feeling of its partisans as regarded compromise in these words:-"What remains to us still, to be surrendered by compromise? Our homesteads, agriculture, slaves, wives, and children. And these may very soon go, where a people are represented by those who seem to have compromised away their own manhood. Verily, the attitude they now exhibit, supplicants at the feet of Black Republicanism, for simple words of fraud and evasion, which will enable them still to compromise away the rights and securities of a people, strips them of all claim, whether as men of sense or men of honor; and, if Black Republicans should spurn them, as Antonio spurned and spat upon Shylock, their proper speech would be, in the language of Maworm in the play: We loves to be contemptible!'"' to restore the seceded States-all tended to confirm the conviction prevailing, to a great extent, in all the Free States, that compromise would not only prove useless but would savor of weakness, and must, therefore, in no small degree, commit the new Administration to a line of policy at once embarrassing and humiliating. Mr. Lincoln's position unquestionably was wisely chosen, so far as he was concerned; and daily the public mind became convinced that his "non-committalism," at least, was prudent and sagacious. 66 The appointment, by the Governors and Legislatures of the several States, of "Commissioners" to the "Peace Congress," pretty clearly indicated the character of that assemblage of men. As a general thing conservatives" were chosen. So decidedly did the cool and cautious element predominate that it was called "the Old Gentlemen's" Congress. The appointments, as announced, were as follows: Pennsylvania: Wm. M. Meredith, Ex-Gov. Pollock, David Wilmot, Judge Thos. White, Thos. E. Franklin, A. W. Loomis, and Wm. McKennan. Ohio: Ex-Gov. Salmon P. Chase, Hon. Thos. Ewing, Judge J. C. Wright, Wm. Groesbeck, Judge Reuben Hitchcock, Judge J. T. Backus, and V. B. Horton. Kentucky: Hon. James Guthrie, Gen. Wm. O. Butler, Ex-Gov. Wickliffe, Ex-Gov. Moorehead, Joshua F. Bell, and James B. Clay. Maryland: Reverdy Johnson, Aug. W. Bradford, Wm. S. Goldsborough, Jno. W. Crisfield, and J. Dixon Roman. Missouri: Waldo P. Johnson, Judge Hough, Col. Doniphan, Judge Berckner, and John D. Coulter. Indiana Hon. Caleb B. Smith, P. A. Huckleman, G. S. Orth, E. W. H. Lewis, and T. C. Sloughton. Massachusetts: Jno. B. Goodrich, Chas. Allen, Ex-Gov. Boutwell, M. Forbes, Francis B. Crowningshield, Theo. P. Chandler, and Richard P. Waters. New York: David Dudley Field, Wm. Curtis Noyes, James C. Smith, Amaziah B. James, James S. Wadsworth, Erastus Corning, up under Mr. Lincoln's supervision. They were adopted February 1st, and read as follows: Whereas, Resolutions of the State of Virginia have been communicated to the General Assembly of this State, proposing the appointment of Commis sioners by the several States, to meet in Convention on the 4th day of February, 1861, at Washington. "Resolved, by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring herein, That with the earnest desire for the return of harmony and kind relations among our States, and out of respect to the commonwealth of Virginia, the Governor of the State be requested to appoint five Commissioners on the part of Illinois to confer and consult with the Commis sioners of other States who shall meet at Washington; provided, that said Commissioners shall at all times be subject to the control of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois. "Resolved, That the appointment of Commissioners by the State of Illinois in response to the invitation of the State of Virginia, is not an expression of opinion on the part of this State that any amendment of the Federal Constitution is requisite to afford to the people of the Slaveholding States adequate guarantees for security of their rights, nor an approval of the basis of settlement of our difficulties proposed by the State of Virginia, but it is an expression of our willingness to unite with the State of Virginia in an earnest effort to adjust the present unhappy controversy in the spirit in which the Constitution was originally framed and consistently with its principles. Resolved, That while we are willing to appoint Commissioners to meet in Convention with those of other States for consultation upon matters which at present distract our harmony as a nation, we also insist that the appropriate constitutional method of considering and acting upon the grievances com plained of by our sister States would be by the call of a Convention for the amendment of the Constitu tion in the manner contemplated by the fifth article of that instrument; and if the States deeming themselves aggrieved shall request Congress to call such Convention, the Legislature of Illinois will and does concur in such call." COL. HAYNE'S FINAL DEMAND. Addison Gardiner, Greene C. Bronson, Wm. | Government that it would inE. Dodge, Ex-Gov. John A. King, and Maj.- | evitably lead to immediate hosGen. John E. Wool. tilities in which property on all sides would necessarily suffer. Iowa, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and North Carolina were also properly re presented. Warlike Attitude of Charleston Harbor. Affairs at Fort Sumter remained unchanged at the assembling of the Confederate Congress, February 4th. Anderson's industry had enabled him to mount sufficient guns, bearing on the opposing fortifications, to make a stern defence in event of an assault. Works continued to go up on Morris,' Sullivans' and James' Islands. The activity of South Carolinians betokened a stubborn spirit of war. Among other instruments of offense a floating battery was under construction, during January, which gave promise of proving a formidable engine of destruction. It was designed to mount a number of heavy guns, and to be worked at any convenient point. Being constructed of green pine and palmetto logs and ribbed with heavy railroad iron, it was regarded as impervious to shot. Its construction, as well as the erection of several elaborate batteries and defences on the islands named, proved that the beleagured eighty men would experience the hazard of a terriffic assault, when the word was given to open fire on Sumter. Colonel Hayne, the South Carolina Commissioner to the Federal Government, made his final demand of the President, Thursday, January 31st. His first call was made on the President, January 15th [see page 244.] He was, however, induced, by the influence of Jefferson Davis and nine other Senators, to make no formal demand, as at that time his orders seemed to require; and the telegraph to Charleston was freely used by these parties, in their endeavors to hold the matter in abeyance. These gentlemen opened, in the stead of Colonel Haynes, a correspondence with the President, which was turned over to Secretary Holt to answer [see page 254, &c.] Colonel Haynes' final demand, however, was made January 31st. The concluding portion of his letter to the President read as follows: . 291 Col. Hayne's Final Demand. South Carolina has every disposition to preserve the public peace, and feels, I am sure, in full force, those high Christian and moral duties referred to by your Secretary; and it is submitted that on her part there is scarcely any consideration of mere property, apart from honor and safety, which could induce her to do aught to the prejudice of that peace, still less to inaugurate a protracted and bloody civil war. She holds her position on something higher than mere property. It is in consideration of her own dignity as a sovereign, and the safety of her people, which prompts her to demand that the property should not longer be used as a military post by a Government she no longer acknowledges. She feels this to be her imperative duty-it has, in fact, become an absolute necessity of her condition. Repudiating, as you do, the idea of coercion, avowing peaceful intentions, and expressing a patriot's horror of civil war and bloody strife, among those who were once brethren, it is hoped that, on further consideration, you will not, on a mere question of property, refuse the reasonable demand of South Carolina, which honor and necessity alike compel her to indicate. Should you disappoint this hope, the responsibility for the result surely does not rest with her. If the evils of war are to be encountered, especially the calamities of civil war, elevated statesmanship would seem to require that it should be accepted as the unavoidable alternative of something still more disastrous, such as national dishonor, or measures materially affecting the safety or permanent interests of a people; that it should be a choice deliberately made and entered upon-war and its set purpose. But that war should be the incident or accident attendant on a policy professedly peaceful, and not required to effect the object which is avowed as the only end intended, can only be excused where there has been no warning given as to the consequences. I am instructed, further, to say that South Carolina cannot, by her silence, appear to acquiesce in the imputation that she was guilty of an act of unpro voked aggression, in firing on the Star of the West. Though an unarmed vessel she was filled with armed men, entering her territories against her will, with the purpose of reenforcing a garrison held within her limits and against her protest. She forbears to recriminate by discussing the question of the propriety of attempting such reenforcement at all, as well as of the disguised and secret manner in which it was intended to be effected, and on this occasion she will say nothing as to the manner in which Fort Sumter was taken into the possession of its present Col. Hayne's Final companied yours now before Secretary Holt's 'I have determined to send to you the Hon. J. W. Hayne, the Attorney-General of the State of South Carolina, and have instructed him to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston to the constituted authority of South occupant. The interposition of the Senators who have addressed you was a circumstance unexpected by my Government, and unsolicited, certainly, by me. The Governor of South Carolina, while he appreciates the high and generous motives by Carolina. This demand I have made of Major Anderson, and which they were prompted, and while he fully approves the delay which, in deference to them, has taken place in the presentation of this demand, feels that it cannot longer be withheld. I conclude with an abstract from instructions just received by me from the Government of South Carolina : The letter of the President through Mr. Holt may be received as the reply to the question you were instructed to ask. As to his assertion of his right to send reenforcements to Fort Sumter, you were instructed to say to him, if he asserted that right, that the State of South Carolina regarded such a right when asserted, or with an attempt at its exercise, as a declaration of war. If the President intends it shall not be so understood, it is proper to avoid any misconception hereafter, that he should be informed of the manner in which the Governor will feel bound to regard it. If the President, when you have stated the reasons which prompt the Governor, in making the demand for the delivery of Fort Sumter, upon the pledge you have been authorized to make, should refuse, you will communicate that refusal without delay to the Governor. If the President shall not be prepared to give you an immediate answer, you will communicate to him that his answer may be transmitted within a reasonable time to the Government at this place, (Charleston.) The Governor does not consider it necessary that you should remain longer in Washington than is necessary to execute this, the closing duty of your mission, in the manner now indicated to you. As soon as the Governor shall receive from you information that you have closed your mis he will consider the conduct which may be necessary on his part.' "Allow me to request that you will, as soon as possible, inform me whether, under these instructions, I need await your answer in Washington, and if not, I would be pleased to convey from you to my Government information as to the time when an answer may be expected in Charleston." which I now make of you, is suggested, because of my earnest desire to avoid the bloodshed which a persistence in your attempt to retain the possession of that fort will cause, and which will be unavailing to secure to you that possession, but induce a calamity most deeply to be deplored.' "The character of the demand which was authorized to be made appears, under the influence, I presume, of the correspondence with the Senators to which you refer, to have been modified by the subsequent instructions of his Excellency, dated the 26th and received by yourself on the 30th of January, in which he says: If it be so, that Fort Sumter is held as property, the rights, whatever they may be, of the United States can be ascertained, and for the satisfaction of these rights, on the pledge of the State of South Carolina, you are authorized to give the full scope.' The precise purport of your instructions, as thus modified, you have expressed in the following words: I do not come as a military man to demand the surrender of a fortress, but as the legal officer of the State, its Attorney-General, to claim for the State the exercise of its undoubted right of eminent domain, and to pledge the State to make good all injury to the rights of property which arise from the exercise of the claim,' and lest this 6 sion, and the reply, whatever it may be, of the President, explicit language should not sufficiently define your position, you add: The proposition now is that her (South Carolina's) law officer should, under the authority of the Governor and his council, distinctly pledge the faith of South Carolina to make such compensation in regard to Fort Sumter and its appurtenances and contents, to the full extent of the money value of the property of the United States delivered over to the authorities of South Carolina by your command.' You then adopt his Excellency's train of thought upon the subject, so far as relates to the suggestion that the possession of Fort Sumter by the United States, if continued long enough, must lead to a collision, and that an attack upon it would scarcely improve it as property, whatever the re The reply to this communication was not made until February 6th, when it was answered, at some length, by Secretary Holt. It is an important paper in all its bearings, in defining what must be the relation of the Federal Government to its property everywhere, what its rights of jurisdiction, and the nature of its political supremacy. We therefore give it at length: sult and if captured it would no longer be the sub ject of account. "The proposal, then, now presented to the Presi dent, is simply an offer, on the part of South Carolina, to buy Fort Sumter and contents as property of the United States, sustained by a declaration in effect that if she is not permitted to make a purchase, she will seize the Fort by force of arms. "As the invitation of a negotiation for the transfer of property between friendly Governments, this |