The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-23 00:00:00

The Presidential Contest in America.

The following is the text of General M'Clellan's
letter accepting the nomination to the Presidency
from the Chicago Convention :

Orange, N.J., Sept. 8.

Gentlemen—l have the honour to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your letter, informing me of my nomination by the
Democratic National Convention, recently assembled at
Chicago, as their candidate at the next election for Presi-
dent if the United States. It is unnecessary for me to say
to you that this nomination comes to me unsought. lam
happy to know that when the nomination was made the
record of my public life was kept in view. The effect of
long and varied service in the army, during war and peace,
has been to strengthen and mike indelible in my mind and
heart the love and reverence for the union, constitution,
laws, and flag of our country impressed upon me in early
youth. These feelings have thus far guided the course of
my life, and must continue to do so till its end. The exis-
tence of more than one government over the region which
once owned our flag is incompatible with the peace, the
power, and the happiness of the people. The preservation
of our Union was the sole avowed object for which the war
was commenced. It should have been conducted
for that object only, and in accordance with those
principles which I took occasion to declare when
in:" active service. Thus conducted, the work
of reconstruction would have been easy, and we might have
reaped the benefits of our many victories on land and sea.
The Union was originally formed by the exercise of a spirit
of conciliation and compromise. To restore and preserve it,
the same spirit must prevail in our counsels and in the hearts
of the people. The re-establishment of the Union in all its
integrity is, and must continue to be, the indispensable con-
dition in any settlement. Su soon as it is clear, or even pro-
bable, that our present adversaries are ready for peace upon
the basis of the Union, we- should exhaust all the resources
of statesmanship practised by civilised nations, and taught
by the traditions of the American people, consistent with the
honour and interests of the country, to secure such peace,
re-establish the Union, and guarantee for the future the
constitutional rights of every State, The Union is the one
condition of peace—we ask no more. Let me add what I
doubt not was, although unexpressed, the sentiment of the
Convention, as it is of the people they represent, that when
any one State is willing to return to the Union, it should
be received d
rights.t Inf ce
a ,withfrank a,
earnest, full
guarantee of all its constitu-
tional
nest, and persistent effort to
eivea once,
e
obtain these objects should fail, the responsibility for ulte-
rior consequences will fall upon those who remain in arms
against the Union. But the Union must be preserved at all
hazards. I could not look in the face of my gallant comrades
of the army and navy, who have survived so many bloody
battles, and tell them their labours and the sacrifices of so
many of our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain—
that we had abandoned that Union for which we have so often
perilled our lives. A vast majority of our people, whether in
the rrmy and navy or at home, would, as I would, hail with
unbounded joy the permanent restoration of peace on the
basis of the Union and the constitution, without the effusion
of another drop of blood. But no peace can be permanent
without Union. As to the other subjects presented in
the resolutions of the Convention, I need only say that I
should seek in the constitution of the United States, and
the laws framed in accordance therewith, the rule of my
duty and the limitations of executive power ; endeavour to
restore economy in public expenditure, re-establish the supre-
macy of law, and by the operation of a more vigorous na-
tionality resume our commanding position among the nations
of the earth. The condition of our finances, the depreciation
of the paper money, and the burdens thereby imposed on
labour and capital, show the necessity of a return to a sound
financial system, while the rights of citizens, and the rights
of States, end the binding authority of law over President,
army, and people, are subjects of not less vital importance
in war than in peace. Believing that the views here ex-
pressed are those of the Convention, and the people you
represent, I accept the nomination. I realise the weight of
the responsibility to be borne should the people ratify your
choice.

Conscious of my own weakness, I can only seek fervently
the guidance of the Ruler of the Universe, and, relying on
His all-powerful aid, do my beat to restore union and peace
to a suffering people, and to establish and guard their liber-
ties and rights.—l am, gentlemen, very respectfully, your
obedient servant,

GEO. B, M'CLELLAN.
Hon. Horatio Seymour and others, Committee.
Mr Lincoln's acceptance of the nomination by
he National Convention, sittting
at Baltimore, is
couched in the following terms :--
Executive Mansion, Washington, June 27.
Hon. William Dennison and others, a Committee of the

National Union Convention.
Gentlemen,—Your letter of the 14th inst., formally noti.
Convention
fying me that I have been nominated by the
you represent fur the Presidency of the United States for
tour years from the 4th March next, has been received. The
nomination is gratefully accepted, as the resolutions of the
Convention—called the platform—are heartily approved.
While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republi-
can goveinmentupon the western continent is fully concurred
in, there might be misunderstanding were I not to say that
the position of the Uoverr.ment in !elation to the action of
France in Mexico, as assumed through the State Depart-
neat and Indorsed by the Convention, among
the measures
and acts of the executive, will be faithfully maintained as
long as the state of facts shall leave that position pertinent
and applicable. I am especially gratified that the soldier
and the seaman were not forgotten by the Convention, as
they for ever roust and will be remembered by the gratefu
country for whose salvation they devoted their lives.
Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in
which you have communicated the nomination and other
proceedings of the Convention, I subscribe myself, yours,
&C. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
During an interview of the President with Gov

vernor Randall and Judge Mills of Wisconson, Mr
Lincoln spoke as follows :--
Sir,—. . . The slightest knowledge of arithmetic will
prove to any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed
by Democratic strategy. It would sacrifice all the white
men of the North to do it. There are now in the service of
the United States nearly 200,000 able-bodied coloured men,
most of them under arms, defending and acquiring Union
territory. The Democratic strategy demands that these
forces be disbanded, and that the masters be conciliated by
restoring them to slavery. The black men who now assist
Union prisoners to escape are to be converted into our
enemies, in the vain hope of ga ning the goodwill of their
masters. We shall have to fight two nations instead of one.
You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to them
ultimate success ; and the experience of the present war
proves their success is ineNitable if you fling the compulsory
labours of millions of black men into their side of the
scale. Will you give our enemies such military advantages
as insure success, and then depend on coaxing, fi ittery,and
concession, to get them back into the Union ? Abandon
all the posts now garrisoned by black men, take 200,000
men from our side and put them in the battle-find or corn
field against ue, and we would be compelled to abandon the
war in three weeks. We have to hold territory in inclement
and sickly places; where are the Democrats to do this ? It
was a free fight, and the field was open to the War Demo-
crats to put down this rebellion by fighting against both
master and slave, long before the present policy was inau-
gurated. There have been men base enough to propose to
me to return to slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson
and Olu- tee, and thus win the respect of the masters they
fought. Should Ido so, I should deserve to be damned in
time and eternity. Come what will, I will keep my faith
with friend and foe. My enemies pretend lam now carry-
ing on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as
I am President it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of
restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue the
rebellion without the use of the emancipation policy, and
every other policy calculated to weaken the moral and phy-
sical forces of the rebellion. Freedom has given us 200,000
men, raised on Southern soil. It will give us more yet.
Just so much it has subtracted from the enemy, and, in-
stead of alienating the South, there are now evidences of a
fraternal feeling growing up between our men and the rank
and file of the rebel soldiers. Let my enemies prove to the
c)untry that the destruction of slavery is not necessary to
a restoration of the Union. I will abide the issue."

The Emperor Napoleon and the Kingdom

of Italy.

We reprint from The Sun of Sept. 26, 1862, the
following copy of the letter of the Emperor of the
French to M. Thouvenel, which the Constitutionne
reprinted yesterday :

May 20, 1862.
Monsieur le Ministre,—The more the force of circum-
stances maintains us, as regards the Roman question, in a
line of conduct equally distant from the two opponent par-

ties, the more necessary is it that that line should be dis-
tinctly defined to prevent henceforth the accusation, inces-
santly renewed, that we incline now to one side, now to the
other.

Since I have been at the head of the Government of
France my policy has always been the same towards Italy :
to ascend national aspirations, to induce the Pope to be-
come their support rather than their adversary—in a word,
to consolidate an alliance between religion and liberty.
Since the year 1849, when the expedition to Rome was
decided upon, all my letters, all my speeches, all the de-
spatches of my Ministers, hava invariably manifested that
tendency, and, according to circumstances, I have main-
tained it with a deep conviction, either at the head of a

limited power, as President of the Republic, or at the head
of a victorious army on the banks of the Mincio•
My efforts, I must own it, have hitherto been thwarted
by obstacles of every description, in the presence of two
parties diametrically opposed, absolute in their hatreds as in
their convictions, deaf to the counsels inspired by the sole
desire of their benefit. Is this a reason not to persevere,
and to abandon a cause grand in the opinion of all men, and
which must be beneficial to the welfare of mankind ?
It is urgent that the Roman question should be settled,
for it is not only in Italy that it disturbs public opinion--
everywhere it produces the same moral disorder, because it
touches upon what is most dear to man—religious and poli-

tical faith.
Each party substitutes its own exclusive sentiments in
the place of the real principles of equity and justice. Thus,
one party, forgetting the recognised rights of a Power
which has lasted for ten centuries, proclaims, without any
consideration for so ancient an acknowledged institution,
the fall of the Papacy ; another party, without regard for
the legitimate claims of the right of peoples, condemns
without a scruple a portion of Italy to eternal stagnation
and oppression. Thus, one party disposes of a still exist-
ing Power as if it was defunct, and the other of a people
that supplicates for life as if it was dead.
However this may be, it is the duty of statesmen to study

tha means for reconciling the causes which the play of
passion alone has rendered irreconcileable. 'Should the at-
tempt fail, it would not be inglorious, and under all cir-
cumstances, there is an advantage in frankly declaring the
object in view.

That object is to come to a combination by which the
Pope would adopt what is great in the idea of a people that
aspires to become a nation; and, on the other hand, the
people should recognise what is salutary in a Power the

influence of which extends over the whole universe.
On a prima facie view, considering the prejudices and
hatreds, equally violent on either side, a favourable result
seems to be despaired of. But if, after examining into the
question, reason and common sense are appealed to, it is
gratifying to believe that truth, that Divine light, will
finally penetrate into every m;nd, and show the supreme
and vital interest which induces, which obliges the partisans
of the two opposed causes to come to an understanding and
to a reconciliation.

First of all, what is the interest of Italy ? It is to put
away from her every danger that threatens her, to diminish
the enmity she has caused, to upset everything which op-
poses her legizitnate ambition of reconstituting herself. To
overcome so many obstacles they must be taken coolly.
Italy, as a new State, has against her all those who hold
to the traditions of the past ; as a State which has called
revolution to her assistance, she inspires di,trust to all men
of order. They doubt her power to put down anarchical
tendencies, and hesitate to believe that a society can firmly
find a basis upon the very elements which have upset so
many others. Finally, at her very gates she has a formid-
able enemy. whose armies and easily understood,
will for a long time be an imminent danger.
These antagonisms, already so serious in themselves, be-

come dcubly so supporting themselves upon the interests o;
the Catholic faith. The religious question adds onside•

ably to the gravity of the situation, and multiplies the
adversaries of the new order of things established beyond
the Alps. Not long ago the Absolutist party was the only
one opposed to it. Now, the majority of the Catholic
population in Europe are hostile to it ; and that hostility
not only thwarts the benevolent intentions of the Govert-

ments attached by their faith to the Holy See, but stops
the favourab e intentions of the Protestant or schismatic
Governments who have to dual with a considerable fraction
of their subjects. Thus, everywhere it is the religious idea
which cools the public feeling for Italy. Her reconciliation
with the Pepe would obviate many difficulties, and rally
round her millions of adversaries.

On the othe hind, the Holy Sea has an equal interest

if not a stronger one, in this reconciliation ; for, if the
Holy See has zealous supporters among all fervent Catht-
lies, it has against itself all the liberals of Europe. In
Politics it is looked upon as the representative of the pre-
judices of the ancien regime, and in the eyes of Italy as
the enemy of her independence, the most devoted partisan
of reaction. This is why the Pope is surrounded by the
most violent adherents of fallen dynasties, and this com-
pany is not of a nature to procure for him the sympathy
of the people who upset those dynasties. Nevertheless,
this state of things does less harm to the Sovereign than
it does to the Head of Religion. In Catholic countries,
where new ideas have a great hold, men who are
most sincerely attached to their faith feel troubled
in their conscience and doubts enter their minds, not know.
ing bow to reconcile their political convictions with religi-
ous principles which seem to condemn modern civilisation.
If this state of things, so pregnant with danger, should be
prolonged, there would be a tisk of political dissensions
leading to lamentable dissensions in faith itself.

It is, therefore, in the interest of the Holy See, as well as
in that of religion, that the Pope and Italy should be recon-
ciled; for it would be a reconciliation with modern ideas,
it would keep 200 million Catholics within the pale of the
Church, and give a new lustre to religion by showing faith
supporting the progress of mankind.
But upon what basis can so desirable a work be founded?
The Pope, brought to a reasonable view of the state of
affairs, would understand the necessity of accepting every-
thing which can bind him to Italy ; and Italy, ceding to
the counsels of a wise policy, would not refuse to adopt
the guarantees necessary for the independence of the Sove-
reign Pontiff and for the free exercise ofihis power.
This double object might be attained by a combination
which, maintaining the Pope master in his own domain,
would remove the barri:rs which now separate his States
from the rest of Italy.
To be master in his domain, independence must be insured
to him, and his rule freely accepted by his subjects. It roust
be hoped that it would be so—on the one hand, when the
Italian Government would take the engagement towards
France to recognise the States of the Church and the limi-
tation line agreed upon ; on the other hand, when the
Government of the Holy See, returning to ancient tradi-
tions, would Panction the privileges of the municipalities
and of the pnivinces in such guise that they would, so to
say, govern themselves—for then the power of the Pope,
soaring in a sphere elevated above the secondary interest of
society, would be free from that responsibility which is
always heavy, and which only a strong GOvernment can
stand.

The above general indications are not an ultimatum
which I pretend to impose upon the two opponent parties,
but the basis of a policy which I think I ought to endeavour
to establish by our legitimate influence and by our disin-
terested advice.
Whereupon I pray God to have you in His good keeping.
NAPQLEQX,