ulous
farce of a negotiation between the President and a state, for the
surrender of forts, and arsenals, and sovereignty. Congress can
do nothing, for the laws now are sufficient, if executed. Impeachment
is too slow a remedy. The constitution provided against every
probable vacancy in the office of President, but did not provide
for utter imbecility.

"The people, alarmed, excited, yet true to the Union and the
constitution, are watching with eager fear, lest the noble government,
baptized in the blood of the Revolution, shall be broken into
fragments, before the President elect shall assume the functions
of his office.

"What pretext is given for this alarming condition of affairs?--
for every treasonable act has its pretext. We are told that the
people of the southern states _apprehend_ that Mr. Lincoln will
deprive them of their constitutional rights. It is not claimed
that, as yet, their rights have been invaded, but upon an _apprehension_
of evil, they will break up the most prosperous government the
providence of God ever allowed to man.

"We know very well how groundless are their apprehensions, but we
are not even allowed to say so to our fellow-citizens of the south.
So wild is their apprehension, that even such statesmen as Stephens,
Johnson, Hill, Botts and Pettigrew, when they say, 'wait, wait,
till we see what this Republican party will attempt,' are denounced
as Abolitionists--Submissionists. You know very well that we do
not propose to interfere in the slightest degree with slavery in
the states. We know that our leader, for whose election you rejoice
has, over and over again, affirmed his opposition to the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia, except upon conditions that
are not likely to occur; or to any interference with the inter-
state slave trade, and that he will enforce the constitutional
right of the citizens of the slave states to recapture their fugitive
slaves when they escape from service into the free states. We know
very well that the great objects which those who elected Mr. Lincoln
expect him to accomplish will be to secure to free labor its just
right to the territories of the United States; to protect, as far
as practicable, by wise revenue laws, the labor of our people; to
secure the public lands to actual settlers, instead of non-resident
speculators; to develop the internal resources of the country, by
opening new means of communication between the Atlantic