From Washington.
[special Correspondence of the Dispatch.] Washington, Jan. 17, 1861.
So Virginia is to act as mediator between the parties belligerent.
But does not this estop action?
Kentucky members tell me that the very fact of Virginia's disposition to remain inert until Lincoln comes in, has impaired the Southern movement in their State.
If, when it comes to a settlement, Virginia will put up with not one whit less than her entire equality, and the power — guaranteed by constitutional amendments — to enforce that equality, well and good.
Settlements are doubtful things Time and time again we have been told that this or that compromise was the "finality of the finality." In vain!
There is but one settlement with a moment's consideration, and that is a restoration of fraternal feeling between the two sections and a common understanding as to the nature of our government.
This is the one, sole, true, lasting foundation for the Union; without it, all else is but a cheat and a snare.
So fixed is the Northern mind in the belief that the Federal Government is paramount to the States, that I am told by Mr. Vallandigham that there is not now in all the populous State of Ohio a single State Rights paper One will shortly be established.
He says, more-over, that he has lately heard Democratic Congressmen of Illinois declare that they owed no allegiance to their State whatever, but to the Federal Government directly, solely, entirely.
While we of the South hold doctrines precisely the reverse of these entertained by the North on this all- important point, (for out of it the whole theory of coercion has grown,) how is it possible for us to get along in a common government?
The only conceivable plan is that advocated yesterday by Mr. Garnett in the House — to wit, distinct governments for the two sections, and a league of customs, with an alliance offensive and defensive.
Mr. Crittenden, aided by Mr. Wm C. Rives, who is now here, does not yet despair of his Compromise, so utterly defeated yesterday by the Abolitionists in the Senate.
Seward & Co. are scared somewhat, and will give back a little — just enough to "placate," (that's the Tribune's slang phrase for "please" or "soothe,") the Border States.
It seems a pity that Northern and Middle men cannot be brought to realize the fact that the Southern Confederacy is a fixed thing, and act accordingly.
All the friends of the South at the North are eager for Southern unity, as the best position in any event, whether of final separation or reconstruction — best for themselves and best for us.
Patrick Henry, in 1788, foresaw and predicted the trouble which would arise from giving the Federal power absolute authority over the forts and arsenals within the States' limits.
Among other things to be settled, this is one of the very first moment.
Before long, I will send you a quotation from Henry's speech on this subject.
Gurley, of Ohio, once a Universalist preacher, and notorious for his pusillanimity, made the bitterest coercion speech of the season in the House on yesterday.
One of his colleagues complimented him, at the close of his tirade, for so far departing from his religious convictions as to give his Southern brethren a plentiful supply of that subterranean fire in the existence of which he did not for a moment believe.
Holt is foaming at the idea of Washington being invaded by Virginians at the time of Lincoln's inauguration.
The very thought of such a thing, is said to make him tremble with rage.
What the Scott-Buchanan dynasty intend to do at Charleston, is not known certainly.--Some say they will back Anderson with his whole power.
Others say they won't send another man. I hear that Anderson himself is utterly opposed to the coercion system, and would gladly resign if he could do so with honor.
If he had known of the understanding between the South Carolina authorities and the President in regard to the maintenance of the status, he would never have put himself and his men to the trouble of fortifying Fort Moultrie; still less would he have gone to Sumter.
This I get from first rate authority.
Two of Anderson's wife's brothers are in the South Carolina army, and, as I have perhaps already told you, he is himself a large slaveholder.
Zed. 