January 11, 1861. |
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loose ten millions of dollars, and saved many first-class mercantile houses from failure.
General John A. Dix, of New York, soon afterward
succeeded Cobb as Secretary of the Treasury, and confidence in its management and soundness was restored.
The portentous clouds of a commercial panic were dispersing when South Carolinians declared the Union to be dissolved, and there was an equipoise in the mind of the people of the Free-labor States, in view of their financial condition, which made them strong and hopeful.
While, as we have observed, all, and especially heavy merchants and manufacturers, deprecated national disturbance, and were willing to make costly sacrifices for the sake of peace and quiet, there were seen in the North great calmness, firmness, and steadiness among the masses of the people, which indicated confidence in their material and moral strength, and a consciousness of having done no wrong to the constituents of their turbulent maligners, the politicians of the South.
They were sensible of the existence of sufficient virtue to save the Republic, and they resolved to plant their feet firmly on the Constitution, and fight manfully against the banded enemies of our nationality.
The people, after the opening of Congress, had no hope of aid in the impending struggle from the Chief Magistrate of the nation, then sitting in the chair of Washington and Jackson; but their hearts were amazingly strengthened by the oracular utterances of the accredited organ of the President elect, when it said:--“If South Carolina does not obstruct the collection of the revenues at her ports, nor violate another Federal law, there will be no trouble, and she will not be out of the Union.
If she violates the law, then comes the tug of war. The President of the United States, in such an emergency, has a plain duty to perform.
Mr. Buchanan may shirk it, or the emergency may not exist during his administration.
If not, then the Union will last through his term of office.
If the overt act, on the part of South Carolina, takes place on or after the 4th day of March, 1861, then the duty of executing the laws will devolve upon Mr. Lincoln.”
1
1 The Journal, published at Springfield, Illinois, the home of the President elect.
Scanned printed text.
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