The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-28 00:00:00

[stamped, ld. Additional.]

AMERICA.

(nom ova [exam.

NEW YORK, Dec. 12.

The President's Message is, of course, the chief
topic of discussion just now, and will continue to be
so for some weeks to come. Its remarkable feature
is the offer of an amnesty to the insurgents, with the
exception of their high civil and military function-
aries. Aa this offer of amnesty is the very thing which
the opposition has been strenuously calling for ever
Linoe the fall of Vicksburg, with the certainty and,
perhaps, I should add, the hope that Mr. Lincoln I
would never make it, its appearance has taken
them greatly by surprise. The World characteris-
tically denounces the message as a bid for re-elec-
tion, inasmuch as it throws a sop to the radicals by
refusing all concession as to the emancipation pro-
clamation, while it seeks to conciliate the conserva-
tives by the manner in which it endeavours to pro-
vide for the return of the revolted States into the
Union. To enable your readers to appreciate the
message properly it is necessary that I should at-
,tanapts short sketch of the controvarly on which it,
bean. One of the leading pobitstelffspnWirbathij
leading one, is as to the manner in which the re-
volted States shall be dealt with after their subju-
gation. Every time the revolt has seemed near
its termination, the disputes on this subject have
waxed loud and furious, and as there now seems
a greater certainty of the approach of that termina-
tion than ever, the earnestness of the contending
parties has increased in proportion. The radicals,
headed by Sumner, insist upon it that every State
in revolt has, by the mere act of revolting, com-
mitted suicide, and lost its place in the Federation ;
that it is henceforth nothing more than a tract of
land with a certain number of men upon it,
and that when occupied by the United States
troops, it becomes simply conquered territory, the
political and social organization of which the Fede-
ral government may regulate as it pleases. The
radicals have been, I think, influenced in taking
this ground by the fear, from which since the
beginning of this war they have never been wholly
free, that the conflict might end in a compromise
by which the North would concede fresh guarantees
to slavery, and even lend a hand in its extension,
for the sake of peace. They feared, and not un-
reasonably I think, the effect of an offer of condi-
tional submission from the rebels upon that large
body of persons at the North who have been only
recently converted to anti-slavery doctrines, and
whose opposition to the institution is due rather to
" • military necessity" than to moral principle.
And in addition to these is another large class,
of course, who, though opposed to slavery,
are not sufficiently hostile to it to render
their faith equal to the trying ordeal of
protracted war. The prospect of peace, if it could
be had on condition of returning to the old state
of things, or even on condition of soothing the fears
of slaveholders by the addition to the constitution
of fresh guarantees for the security of their pro-
perty, might cause on the part of this class a
strange forgetfulness of their early convictions of
the unlawfulness of holding men in bondage as
cattle.

The conservatives, on the other hand, some from
• liking for slavery itself, and some from a dread
of the consequences of any departure from the
ancient ways, have always maintained that it was
not possible for a State to destroy itself, or for any
one else to destroy it ; that the rebellion was
simply the rebellion of persona, but that the State
organisation existed, though in abeyance, through
it all, and that on the cessation of the war it sprang
into activity of itself, and the Federal government
was bound to recognise it.
Mr. Lincoln has in the message and the proclama-
tion of amnesty managed to go far towards meeting
the demands of both parties. The conservatives
maintain that it is the dread of coutiscation and
subjugation that keeps the Confederates in the
field ; that if a prospect of pardon were held out
they would lay down their arms. Pardon is there-
fore offered them on condition of their taking the
oath of allegiance, and the existence of the States is
recognised in the fullest manner, and a tenth part
of the voters are allowed to put the machinery of
government in motion.
The radicals, on the other band, are reassured as
to slavery, by a deliberate and firm refusal to
withdraw the emancipation proclamation, or
to return into bondage any slaves who may
have gained their freedom under it. And, finally,
the men of medium views are tranquillised by the
assurance that the validity of the Confiscation Act,
as well as of the proclamation, will be reviewed
by the Supreme Court. Ido not think, however,
that the proclamation of an amnesty will have
much effect at the South. It is at the North that
its influence will be mainly felt, as shadowing forth
the policy of the government touching the great
question of settlement; as between the Federal
and Confederate governments, all points in dispute
have to be settled by the sword, and can be settled
by nothing else. When the Southern armies are
scattered we shall be ou the verge of peace,
and the intentions of the Federal government
will be eagerly sought out in the Slave
States; but, in my opinion, not a minute
sooner. The offer of amnesty will not be generally
circulated, although it is pretty sure to find its
way into the army, and even if it were, the pride
of the slaveholders is still too strong and the
capacity for resistance still too great for it to pro-
duce much effect on them. Its offer of security
against the loss of all property, except property in
slaves, has no charm for them, inasmuch as slaves
form the only species of property on which they set
any value. The government has practically se-
cured the power of continuing the war as long
as it can keep the field, inasmuch as it has nearly all
the ablebodied men under arms, and possesses the
power of impressing supplies. Jefferson Davis and
his associates have no motive whatever for putting
au end to the struggle, and they have every
conceivable motive for continuing it ; and
I am satisfied, therefore, that they will
never gibe up as long as they can keep men enough
together to offer battle to a Federal force with
even the most distant prospect of success. It must
not be forgotten, too, that with the thiveholders
their peculiar social position is at stake as well as
their political influence. Amnesty or no amnesty,
if the North succeeds, they descend from the
position of "patriarchs " to that of simple citizens,
with the same rights before the law as the men
whose backs they are in the habit of "paddling,"
and whose wages they filch. There is nobody who
knows anything of an aristocracy who does not
know that this loss of social position is a far
more bitter pill to swallow than loss of political
power. The gentialumme can reconcile himself

[TWOPENCE

readily enough to surrendering the government
into other bands, but that the government
should place him on the same footing
as the Muria., is always intolerable. I
do not think many people at the North take a
very different view of the matter from this one, or
look for decisive results from anything but the
operations in the field; and the message is there-
fore in the eyes of the greater portion of the public
simply a statement of the policy which Mr. Lincoln
will pursue in case he should be in office when the
war comes to an end. There is nothing is it to
which any party can object, except the expression
of determination to stand his ground on the ques-
tion of slavery, and to carry out the policy of
emancipation. This will doubtless, therefore, form
the "issue" between the two parties at the next
election. The democrats will make a desperate
effort to secure for the South conditions of
peace that will permit of its return to the
Union with slavery untouched, and they will
be met by most energetic resistance on the
part of the vast and daily increasing body who are
.determiaed, now thinp
_have gone so far,
slake a dean sweep of It. "We are deter-
mined," I heard a leading politician say at a social
gathering a few evenings ago, "to have no MAU-
, tution in America after this war is over that a
man may not talk about with perfect security in
any part of the Union," and there was a burst of
applause from his hearers. Every hour that the
war lasts this opinion gains ground. Most of the
generals, including Grant, share it, and the
thinking men of all parties all over the country
have long been converts to it. If we are to have a
lasting Union we must have homogeneity in our
institutions, is now what one hears from the de-
fenders as well as the opponents of slavery. After
so much blood has been abed any other result than
this would be paltry and absurd.

There would be, I admit, great danger that this
result would be imperilled if the question of the
validity of the emancipation proclamation were now
submitted to the Supreme Court, as Mr. Lincoln
and everybody else acknowledge it may be. There
is not a more able and respectable tribunal in the
world than it is ; but the questions which have rent
this republic for the last twenty years have been too
vast and too exciting for any court of justice to
decide calmly sod impartially. It is impossible for
any man, let his mind be of ever so judicial a cast,
to approach such a subject as slavery in America
without more or less of human passion and pre_
judice. That the members of the Supreme Court
are not exempt from this weakness was made pain-
fully apparent in the Dred Scott case, and
I do not know of any changes in the court
since that period sufficient to lead to to
think that its bias is changed. The men
who gave judgment in the Dred Scott case would
not be likely to accept the plea of " military ne-
cessity" as a legal justification of a measure which
is likely, if tarried out, to destroy all property in
slaves ; and I must say I think, if the President's
emancipation decree came before them now, it
would stand a very good chance of being declared
unconstitutional. But we are saved all anxiety on
this point by the fact that before the question will
be brought before them, if ever it is, it will have
been decided by " the march of events." In other
words, if the war lasts a little longer, the slaves
will be all free, and all inquiry as to their sight to
their freedom will, therefore, have by that time be-
come purely speculative.

I find the following commentary on Mr. Davia's
administration in the Richmond Whig of Dec. 3 :

We have • Department of Stake that ham not bees able fa
nearly time years to establish relations with any other
State ; a Treasury Department that has failed to keep its
trances from running to ruin ; • War Department in the
bands of • chief whose whole studies and course of life bays
bees purely and peculiarly civic ; • Navy Department with.
out • navy ; • Post-015os Department with a very shackling
ordered mails ; a Department of Justice vacant.
This is all strictly and literally true.