The Policy of Silence
New Orleans Daily Crescent,
November 28, 1860
Some of the quasi-conservatives of the Northern States have been calling
upon Lincoln to make an authoritative exposition of what will be his
policy as President. They believe that if he will give assurances to
the South that its Constitutional rights will be respected, it would
go far to calm the Southern people and kindle within them a fresh flame
of loyalty to the Government.On the other hand, the Abolition papers
promptly object to such a course on his part. They say that he is not
yet President, and it will be time enough for him to indicate the tenor
of his administrative policy after he has been duly installed in the
Presidential chair. They declare that it will be proof of weakness and
timidity, if the President elect yield to what they call “pro-slavery
clamor,” and declare his intentions, before he assumes the robes
of office.
Mr. Lincoln has decided the question himself, and he has decided it in accordance
with the advice of his Abolition allies. The other day a great celebration
of their victory was had at Springfield, Illinois—the place of Lincoln’s
residence. The “coming man” was of course called on —of
course made a speech. But, instead of giving any inkling of his policy, he
was, in that respect, as mute as an oyster—what might be called eloquently
silent. His discourse was full of stereotyped expressions of gratitude, of
common-place verbiage, of meaningless platitudes. His friend, Trumbull, was
rather more explicit—but even Trumbull failed to meet the issue, or
to say anything that was positive and practical. An assurance that the rights
of the South would be respected amounts to nothing, unless he had defined
what those rights are, and the mode in which they are to be observed. People,
North and South, differ widely in their construction of the Constitution,
as affecting the rights of each section. And Trumbull, who is very far from
being a fool, knowing this fact, knows also that his vague assurances are
not worth the paper upon which they are printed, and that the South will derive
no satisfaction whatever from their utterance. The time for evasion and subterfuge
has passed, and the South wants a plain, positive, distinct recognition of
what she conceives herself entitled to, and she will take nothing else. If
she cannot get this in the Union, she wants to know it, and to know it at
once.
But, the truth is, there is no need for Lincoln to declare his policy.
We know well enough what is to be. The party that elected him would
not have done so if they thought he would cheat them; and they had him
sufficiently committed upon the record to be satisfied he would prove
true to their doctrines. If Mr. Lincoln had gotten up and told the people
that his Administration would protect the rights of the South as understood
by the Southern people, he would have subjected himself to universal
contempt, and made himself worthy of the brand of personal infamy and
dishonor—because everybody knows that he was elected by a party
organized upon the basis of hostility to those rights as universally
understood by the Southern people.Trumbull says that the rights of all
shall be respected—but, how about the right which Southern men
claim of going into Territories with their property? Does Trumbull concede
this? If he does, he has been imposing upon his own people for many
a long year. How about the right to recapture fugitive slaves—a
right expressly guaranteed by the Constitution? Possibly they may concede
this abstract right—but when they throw obstacles in the way which
render the right worthless, it is an insult to the South to concede
it. As well tell a man, condemned to imprisonment for life in our State
Penitentiary, that he has a right to mine gold in California. How about
the right which the South claims, to be free from oppressive duties
and Government bounties to special Northern interests? How about the
right to be free from John Brown raids, Abolition incendiaries burning
our towns in Texas and elsewhere, and vagabond emissaries from the North
instilling insurrectionary poison into the ears of our slaves? Does
Trumbull mean these, when he talks about conceding the rights of the
South? If he does, he has been guilty of hypocrisy heretofore, and if
he does not, his declarations are utterly worthless and even positively
offensive.This is no time for clap-trap, and vague, indefinite generalizations.
Words will not do. The South, so far as her political and social rights
are concerned, cannot feed, like the chameleon, on air. It is a mockery
for Lincoln or his friends to say her rights will be respected, when
we know that their interpretation of our rights is exactly the
reverse of our own. Compromises have failed to settle the questions
in issue between us—expostulation and entreaty have done no good—a
generous forbearance on our part has been interpreted into fear and
cowardice—and now the catalogue of remedies is exhausted, with
one exception only. If anybody is in doubt of what that last remedy
is, a few weeks of time will soon tell the tale.
