New York Herald, December 5, 1860

The President's annual Message to Congress is before our readers. At this extraordinary and alarming crisis in our political affairs this important State paper will be read with unusual interest by all sections, parties and classes of the American people.

As the closing regular exhibit of Mr. Buchanan's administration, we had expected a good report, and we should have been disappointed had he failed to meet the sectional discords and dangers of the day with such arguments and recommendations for the preservation and perpetuation of the Union of these States as his position, the occasion and the public expectations demanded. So far, however, from being in any degree disappointed upon these essentials, we are delighted with the calm, patriotic, consistent and convincing views thereon of this admirable annual Message. The last from Mr. Buchanan, it is his best, good as its predecessors have been each in its adaptation to the requirements of the time.

The first and absorbing topic discussed in this Message is, of course, the revolutionary crisis in our political affairs, which has followed so quickly the late Presidential triumph of our Northern anti-slavery republican party. While "the country is eminently prosperous in all its material interests," Mr. Buchanan's first inquiry is: why is this Union, the source of all these blessings, threatened with destruction? The cause is at hand. It is "the long continued and intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States." But the immediate peril comes from the danger of servile insurrections in the South, from the "vague notions of freedom" which the slaves have imbibed under this incessant Northern anti-slavery agitation. Hence it appears that among our Southern brethren "a sense of security no longer exists around the family altar," but that "many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and her children before the morning." This is the great cause of danger to the Union; and how is it to be removed? This is the question; but it will be presently answered.

The Message takes the just ground that the election of Mr. Lincoln, in itself, involves no provocation for disunion, and that the South, from said election, is in no immediate danger of any Northern aggressions through the action of the general government. But Northern nullification acts and acts of resistance to the Fugitive Slave law are justly complained of, and, if not redressed within the Union, will afford a sufficient cause for "revolutionary resistance to the government of the Union." Secession Mr. Buchanan considers a revolutionary act. He denies the doctrine of constitutional secession. The general government is not a rope of sand, but a great and powerful organization, contemplating no separation of any of its co-partners short of revolution; but this is a right which underlies all constitutions.

Mr. Buchanan next contends that the federal government has no authority to coerce a seceding State into submission, and that coercion, in any event, is utterly impracticable. What, then, is he to do in regard to South Carolina? Her federal law officers having all resigned, he, to the extent of their jurisdiction, is estopped from doing anything. He may still at Charleston secure the collection of the federal revenue from foreign imports; but there are the federal forts, the property of the United States, placed in his charge. Is he to give them up on demand or hold them at all hazards? He says:—"It is not believed that any attempt will be made to expel the United States from this property by force; but if in this I should prove to be mistaken, the officer in command of the forts has received orders to act strictly on the defensive. In such a contingency the responsibility for consequences would rightfully rest upon the heads of the assailants." But the power to coerce a delinquent State back into the Union was tried and rejected in the Convention forming the constitution, so that the only remedy for secession is reconciliation.

Thus, with this case of secession on the part of South Carolina in the foreground, Mr. Buchanan still thinks that the Union may be saved through an explanatory amendment of the constitution, embracing these concessions to the South, viz.: 1. An express recognition of the rights of property in slaves. 2. The recognition of this right in all the Territories during their territorial condition; and, 3. Universal good faith in the restoration of fugitive slaves. And we fully concur that some such constitutional remedy is demanded by the evil of the day. Let this movement be initiated, and let South Carolina quietly go out, if she will not remain in the Union, and in the event of a new treaty of peace between the North and the South, we may rest assured that, tired of being solitary and alone, outside in the cold, South Carolina will come back to the family table.

Meantime we are admonished that this alternative of an amendment of the constitution, or a break up of the confederacy, will surely bring its troubles upon the country. We may escape dissolution and a civil war; but the processes incident to any change of the constitution will require a period of at least two or three years. In this interval of uncertainty, agitation and reconstruction of parties and Northern opinion, we apprehend such a prostration, in all our monetary, commercial and business affairs, as we have never suffered heretofore. The beginning of this revulsion is now upon us, and during this winter we fear that the suspensions of manufacturing establishments and the general loss of employment will create such masses of destitute and desperate men as may put in peril the peace of many Northern communities. And such are the consequences, upon us and before us, of the "irrepressible conflict," which is only to end with the downfall of slavery.

It appears that this Message of Mr. Buchanan, in Congress, satisfies neither the North nor the South. We suppose this means impracticable Northern republicans and Southern disunionists. But we still hope that the patriotic views and suggestions of the President will create such a reaction for the Union, in Congress, and in the North and in the South, among Union loving men of all parties, as will be sufficient to arrest the work of Southern disunion, to put an end to Northern abolitionism, and to save the country. Mr. Buchanan has laid down the required landmarks for action. Now let our Union men, North and South, come up to the work of a revision of the constitution. After seventy years of wear and tear, can we wonder, all things considered, that it fails to meet the necessities of this day.

Touching the regular operations of the general government in all its departments, and the policy of Mr. Buchanan on the tariff question, the affairs of Mexico, &c., we can only to-day commend to the reader a careful perusal of this eminently satisfactory Message.