Opinions of the Press.
The New Orleans Delta thus speaks the day after the reception of the election news:‘ We have anticipated it from the moment the Southern people became divided into warring factions, and have had no hope for the South but in the vigorous and manly attitude of the great agricultural population of our section. Nothing now remains to us but to consolidate the power and influence of this class, so as to produce a harmonious and effective movement in behalf of the freedom, safety and sovereignty of the South.
’ In that event we must look to the great Cotton States to lead, direct and control. They have the deepest interest, to them the peril is greatest, and the other classes of our population must co-operate with them or take sides with our sectional enemy. All parties are now extinct, except the party of the South and the party of the North. The old quarrels and contests, the ancient grudges and prejudices, must be offered up on the altar of our country and our rights.
Men, parties and partisan traditions must alike be consigned to oblivion. Our homes, our firesides, our social system, our honor, our liberty, are enough to engage our undivided affection, care, solicitude and devotion. The South must consult, deliberate and determine with the grave dignity and serious purpose of a people who stand on the brink of a great peril --who are compelled to choose between a dishonorable submission and capitulation to a haughty and uncompromising enemy, for a temporary peace and the security of certain material interests, with an ever present and increasing peril to even these, or accept all the responsibility, danger and honor of a united resistance at all costs and sacrifices, to the dishonor and eventual ruin which are inevitable from our acquiescence in the government of the fanatics and sectional demagogues to whom the Northern masses have committed the powers of this Government. This is the issue now presented in the South, and we shall await, with deep anxiety, the action of the leading States of our section upon it.
The N. O. Picayune opposes disunion. It says:
‘ Those who to-day refuse to make the victory lost a cause of revolution would be the first to resent and resist an open, undisguised violation of the rights reserved to the States.-- They are not less true to the South because also true to the Union. They do not less see danger because they are determined to meet it in the Union. And it is because of their devotion, both to the State and to the Federal Government, that they will not make an issue which cannot unite the people of the States who will all be imperiled by it, in every material and social interest.
’ A Southern Confederacy cannot be formed by States while in the Union. It is forbidden by the Constitution, as is any association of States for any such purpose. The secession of one State without concert with others is a species of dictation to its co-equals of the South. Difficulties of every character surround the subject, and it requires deliberate preparation before a single step be taken. In the meantime we shall see what necessity may exist for action. We can judge whether this Government has proved a failure, and all hope of freedom is lost.
Such we believe will be the decision of the people of the South, and we look for the excitements of feeling to give place to a sober, intelligent and deliberate purpose to take no hasty step, yet to be prepared for whatever the future may have in store.
The Alexandria (Va.) Sentinel favors a Southern Convention. It says:
‘ Suppose the South were in such manner to unite in solemn league to stand by each other. Suppose they then united in a firm and temperate statement of their rights and their ultimatum of delay in having them recognized. Suppose they demanded, by direct appeal to the fourteen Northern nullifying States. the prompt repeal of their injurious laws, and the discharge of their covenanted duty. Suppose, in case of refusal by any of these, they then appeal to the separate or collective authority of the several States, to exercise the converse right of secession --we mean the power of exclusion. Suppose such exclusion from the Union be demanded against States that refuse to perform their obligations; that thus the guilty, not the innocent, may suffer. Would these things, or would any other expedient, present any hope? If so, let us try them. And let no time be lost, for there is no time to lose. Let no man delude himself with the idea that the Union will stand in the present position of issues and the present rapid working of things. It is simply an impossibility; and he who would save it, should go rationally and instantly to work. Delay is disunion, swift and sure.
’ A dispatch from Montgomery, Ala., dated the 11th inst., says:
‘ A mass-meeting of the citizens of this city was held here last night. All parties were represented. The merchants, bankers, planters and politicians, are all decided in favor of a dissolution of the Union.
’ Gov. Moore, Mr. Yancey, and other prominent public men from all parts of the State, were present and made speeches in favor of disunion.
The Governor has decided to have the Convention meet on the first Monday in January. The people desire it to be held sooner, but he does not feel authorized by the resolutions of the last Legislature to call the Convention until the electors have cast their votes for President in December.
On Wednesday he will publish a letter, stating the time on which he will issue his proclamation, and calling on the people to nominate candidates for the Convention. It will be a strong disunion document.
There was much excitement at Winsboro', S. C., when Lincoln's election was ascertained. A dispatch dated the 7th, says:
‘ The Minute Men have as much as they can do, for they are compelled to hold from two to three meetings a day to initiate members; the blue cockades are common here. Guns, pistols and swords are in demand, and if the feeling manifested here is general throughout the State, South Carolina will soon be out of the Union, and a Black Republican President will never lord it over the old Palmetto State.
’ The Toronto (Canada) Leader says:
‘ The returns indicate the election of Lincoln and Hamlin for President and Vice-President of the United States. If this should turn out to be the case, some of the Southern States appear to be ready to make a move towards carrying out the threat to withdraw from the Union. The Governor of South Carolina invited the Legislature to arm the State, but the latter had put the question off till it should be ascertained definitely whether Lincoln be really elected. It is folly to talk about arming for the purpose of bringing about a dissolution of the Union; for if dissolution cannot be obtained without resorting to arms, it cannot with it. If it once comes to fighting it is all up with the South. The North would crush her as easily as a giant crushes a fly. A Southern Convention there may be; but the supposed necessity for the South arming is the dream of a madman.
The action of the South will be watched with intense interest, for the great crisis in the history of the Republic has arrived. It is for the interest of humanity that the great experiment of self-government, which the Republic is making, should succeed. A dissolution of the Union would not necessarily prove the failure of that experiment, but it would be quoted as proof of failure by despots and reactionists in Europe. It would be a melancholy thing to see a dissolution of the Union arising out of the struggle to extend slavery, and brought about by the aggressive party. For these-reasons a dissolution of the Union is, under present circumstances, to be deprecated; but if it should come, we cannot afford to admit that it proves a failure of the great experiment which the United States are making. There is too much that is bad in the governments of the world to justify any friend of freedom in going into raptures over the supposed failure of an experiment in self-government, such as, take it all in all, the world has never before seen. We have no preference for Republicanism; the contrary; but it is so much better than most of the existing governments of the world, that we are not justified in depreciating the American system in the crisis of its fate.
’
[by Telegraph.]
