January 10, 1861 (Thursday)

Compromise:  Fitting Together

"It seems to be conceded that the Congressional attempts to compromise our sectional difficulties, have failed.   Nothing but failure could be expected from efforts marked by suspicion and coercion from either side. 

Suppose the Missouri Compromise were to be restored, under whip and spur, by the present Congress, how long would it be before the whole controversy would be reopened by one section or the other?  There is no authority on either side to bind its constituents.  Nor does our past experience encourage us to hope for any permanent peace from such compromises as these.  They have been tried over and over again, and in each and every instance the controversy has been broadened, and sharpened, and made worse instead of better.  What reason is there to hope for any better issue, from similar compromises now?

The time for compromise will have arrived when the discontented States begin to feel the value of the Union to themselves, their industry, their commerce, their domestic peace, and the safety of their institutions.  That the result of their present experiment will bring them to such a conviction we have no doubt; and we confess we see no other way by which they are at all likely to reach it.  If the difficulty be healed now, they will always be regretting they had not seceded, -- they will never know how thoroughly they would have failed, -- and will be renewing their plots of Disunion from year to year.  The country cannot afford to keep going with all these disruptions to national unity.  The troubles must be settled finally. 

The Southern States are beginning to understand that peaceable secession is impossible.  We are inevitably being swept into a whirlpool of war.  They are preparing for hostilities.  And not one of them is ready for such actions.  They have neither money, nor credit, nor arms, nor food.  Their people will not submit to taxation, because taxation involves their ruin.  Maybe each section will have to suffer enough to bring both down from their high places of pride and selfish ambition:  and both will be better prepared to appreciate the Union on which both are so largely dependent for their prosperity. 

But this is a harsh process:  it brings peace at a fearful cost:  it incurs tremendous risks for a contingent good.  True, -- but we see no better way.  And any other peace would only be a delusion.  The disease is serious, -- it has taken hold on the very roots and secret springs of the nation's life; --for such deep-seated maladies, there is no such thing as an easy and speedy cure. 

We shall not perish, -- individuals may suffer, temporary interests may be engulfed, --the nation will live and be all the purer and all the stronger for the fiery trial which tests and purifies its virtue.  Compromises we need will come precisely when they are needed most.  Either the South will be ready to accept what the North can grant, __ or the North will be disposed to grant what the South may require."  (Compromises for the Crisis, New York Times editorial, January 10, 1861)