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Special Despatch to the N. Y. Tribune
WASHINGTON, March 17. —The decision in regard to the withdrawal of Major Anderson’s command now rests exclusively with the President. He has had the fullest oral and written opinions of General Scott and the most skillful officers of the army, and the spoken and written counsel of every member of his Cabinet. No determination was reached yesterday. Mr. Lincoln is fully sensible of the important responsibility which rests upon him, and will decide finally with the full knowledge that he is to bear it before the country.
It is known that after a deliberate investigation of all the facts, the Cabinet, with one exception, approve the military judgment of Gen. Scott, and yield to it as a necessity which cannot be avoided. This almost unanimous concurrence on the part of men who have been supposed to regard this subject from opposite standpoints, and to hold different views of policy for its treatment, is sufficient to show that there must be the most sufficient reasons for this conclusion.
The condition of the country demands action. A “masterly inactivity” policy is the wisest for some emergencies, but it is not adapted to our present needs. The Government must vindicate its power in the face of treason and rebellion, or its destruction is as certain as that the law of gravitation will execute itself. The demoralization of public sentiment now in progress as to the power and efficiency of our National Government must be speedily arrested, or no earthly power will be able to avert the ruin that threatens it. We are not for making war upon the people of the seceding States, but we are for enforcing the laws everywhere within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. If men choose to make war upon the Government for the proper exercise of its Constitutional prerogatives, that is a matter for which they alone are responsible. As the upholders of the Constitution and laws, it does not devolve upon us to discuss the question of war at all. That burthen rests upon those who trample upon the one and resist the execution of the other. Government does not make war upon a murderer when it arraigns him for trial, establishes his guilt and executes him. It is simply performing one of its legitimate functions, the neglect of which from any cause whatever, would be an end of civil order and of government itself The effect is precisely the same in kind, if not in degree, whether it be the case of a single culprit, or of a whole community of criminals. The majesty of the law must be vindicated in each case, or the government has practically vacated its functions and ceased to exist. It is a delusion and a snare, therefore, to talk about the Administration making war upon the Seceding States, so long as it confines itself to the exercise of those duties for which it was created.