The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-22 00:00:00

GOVERNOR SEYMOUR'S MESSAGE.

At the opening of the State Legislature of New
York Governor Seymour sent in a long message.

The only portion of interest to English readers is
the statement of the Governor's views on the contest
between North and South. He says :
The disorganisation and destruction of the South are not
io save us from the cost of the war. The plan for the future
government of the seceded States demands the maintenance
of armies and a continued drain upon the persons and pro-
perty of our people. Whenever one-tenth of the voters of
either of these States shall submit themselves to the condi-
tions imposed they may form governments with new or old
names and boundaries. This inconsiderable minority is to
be supported in the exercise of power by the arms and trea-
sure of the North. There will be no motives on their part
to draw the remaining population into the support of the
governments thus created. There will be every inducement
of power, of gain, and of ambition, to perpetuate the con •
dition of affairs so favourable to individual purposes. It
will also be for the interest of the National Administra•
tion to continue this system of Government, so utterly at
variance with a representative policy. Is not this the same
mistaken theory upon which other nations have tried to
govern their dependencies ? Has complete subjugation for
centuries produced the quiet, the obedience to law, the
order, the security to life and property, the kindly feelings
or the mutual contributions to prosperity which belong to

real peace ?
Governments thus formed would represent not the in-
terests of their citizens, but the wills and interests of the
power that creates and sustains them. The nine states thus
controlled would balance in the House of Representatives
in the choice of President, and at all times in the Senate,
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Massa-
chusetts, Missouri, Kentucky, and Wisconsin, with a united
population of 16,533,383, which is more than one-half of
that of our whole country. The 1-10th, who would accept
the proclamation for the price of power, would not only
govern the States made by executive decrees, but they would
also govern the North. While the plan is harsh to the body
of the Southern people, it is still more unjust towards the
North. Fourteen hundred men in Florida would balance
in the Senate of the United States the power of New York.
Less than 70,000 voters in the nine States named in thePro-
sident's proclamation would wield a power sufficient to
weigh down that of the nine most populous States in the
Union.
We should thus have, with the nominal states of Eastern
and Western Virginia, a, system of rotten boroughs
which would govern.theUnion and destroy the representa-
tive nature of our Government. This, in connection with
existing inequalities in state representation, would be a
dangerous invasion of the rights of a majority of the Ame-
rican people. It would enable an administration to per-

petuate its power.
It is a fact full of significance that every measure to con-
vert the war against armed rebellion into one against pri-
vate property and personal rights at the South has been
accompanied by claims to exercise military power in the

loyal States of the North.
The proclamation of emancipation at the South, and the
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus at the North ; the
confiscation of private property in the seceding States; and
the arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, and banishment of citi-
zens of the loyal States; the claim to destroy political or-
ganisations at the South, and the armed interference by
Government in local elections, have been contemporaneous

events.
These acts at first were justified upon the ground that
they were necessary to save the national existence. We
now find that new and more extreme claims to arbitrary
power are put forth when it is declared that the strength of
the rebellion is broken, and that our armies are about to
trample out every vestige of its incendiary fires. More pre-
rogatives are asserted in the hour of triumph than were
claimed as a necessity in days of disaster and of danger.
The doctrine of Southern disorganisation and revolu-
tion is a doctrine of national bankruptcy and of national
ruin; it is a measure for lasting military despotism over
one-third of our country, which will be the basis for mili-
tary despotism over the whole land. It does not contem-
plate the return of our soldiers to their families, or relief
from the cost and sacrifices of war. It will make an endur-
ing drain upon our homes, and impose crushing burdens
upon our labour and industry. It will open a wide and last-
ing field for peculation and fraud, It tends to perpetuate
power by making and unmaking States, as the interests of
factions may dictate. It will be a source of internal disorder
and disquietude, and national weakness in our external re-
lations. It will give dangerous allies to invaders of our
soil.

If this war is to make a social revolution and structural
changes in great States, we have seen only its beginning•
Such changes are the work of time. If they are to be made
by military power it must be exerted through long periods.
Whether white or black troops are to b 3 used the diversion
from labour and the cost of war will be equhlly prolonged,

and we have just entered upon a course of certain cost and
uncertain results. No such changes as are now urged have

ever in the world's history been without a struggle lasting
through more than one generation of men.
What has Government accomplished in the territories
wrested from rebellion by the valour of the armies ? Has

it pacified them ? Has it revived the arts of peace ? Has
quiet and confidence been restored ? Is commerce renewed ?
Are they not held as they were conquered, at the expense of
Northern blood and treasure ? Are not our armies wasted
by holding under armed control those who, under a wise and
generous policy, would have been friend& ? The spirit which
prompts the harsh measure of subjugation has driven off
many in the Border States, who, at the crisis of our
country's fate, broke away from ancient sympathies with
seceding states and clung to the Union. States which, by
the elections of the people, rar ging themselves upon the
side of the constitution, are not allowed the free exercise of
the elective franchise. In some quartets discontent has been
increased ; and in no place has the wisdom of government

gained us allies.
There is but one course which can save us from national
ruin. We must adhere to the solemn pledges made by our
government at the outside of the war,
We must seek to restore the 'Union and to uphold the con-
stitution. To this end, while we put forth every exertion

of material power to beat down armed rebellion, we must
use every influence of wise statesmanship to bring back the
states which now reject their constitutional obligations. We
must hold forth every honourable inducement to the people
of the South to assume again the right and duties of A.meri-

can citizenship.
We have reached that point in the progress of the war,
for which all have struggled and all have put forth united
exertions. Our armies and navies have won signal victo-
ries; they have done their part with courage and success.
By the usage of the civilised world statesmanship must now
exert its influence. If our cause fails in the judgment of the
world it will be charged to the lack of wisdom in the Cabi-
net, and not to the want of bravery or patriotism in the
army. The great object of victories is to bring back peace;
we can now with dignity and magnanimity proclaim to the
world our wish that states which have long been identified
with our history should reassume their positions in the
Union. We now stand before the world a great and suc-
cessful military power. No one can foresee the latest vic-
tories or defeats which lie in our course if force, and force
alone, is to be exerted. The past has taught us the certain
cost of war and the uncertainties of its results.
In this contest belligerent rights are necessarily conceded
to the South. The usages of international warfare are prac-
tised in the recognition of flags and the exchanges of pri-
soners. It is wise to put off the end of the war and thereby
continue a recognition which tends to familiarise the public
mind in our country and in the world at large with the idea
that we aro disunited into two distinct nationalities ? A
needlessly protracted war becomes disunion.
Wise statesmanship can now bring this war td a close,
upon terms solemnly avowed at the outset of the contest.
Good faith to the public creditors, to all classes of citizens
of our country, to the world, demands that this be done.
The triumph won by the soldiers in the field should be
followed up and secured by the peace-making policy of the
statesmen in the cabinet. In no other way can wo save

our Union.
The fearful struggle which has taught the North and
the South the courage, the endurance, and the resources of
our people, have made a basis of mutual respect, upon
which a generous and magnanimous policy can build last-
ing relationships of union, intercourse, and fraternal regard.
If our course is to be shaped by Darrow and vindictive pas-
sions, by venal purposes, or by partisan objects, then a
patriotic people have poured out their blood and treasure
in vain, and the future is full of disaster and ruin.
We should seek not the disorganisation but the pacification
of that country devastated by civil war.
In this hour of triumph appeals should be made to states
which are identified with the growth and greatness of
our country, and with some of which are associated the
patriotic memories of our revolitionary struggle. Every
generous mind revolts at the bought of destroying all
those memories that cling about the better days
of the Republic; that are conyrcted with the sacrifices
of the men who have made cur history glorious by their
services in the cabinet, in the foram, and in the field.
The victories which have giver. our Government its pre-
sent commanding position were won by men who rallied
around and fought beneath the bids of a flag whose stars
represent each State in the Union. It we strike out of
existence a single State we make that flag a falsehood.
When we extinguish the name of any one of the original
13 States we dishonour the historic stripes of our national
banner. Let the treasonable task of defacing our flag he
loft to those who war upon our government, and who would
destroy the unity or our country.
Faith to our armies and to our cit;zens demands that we
keep sacred the solemn pledge made to our people and to
the civilised world when we engaged in this bloody war,
" that it was not waged in any spirit of oppression, or for