The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 23, 1861

in service, or which are under contract and approach-
ing completion, are believed to exceed in number
those of any other Power. But while these may be
relied upon for harbour defence and coast service,
others of greater strength and capacity will be
necessary for cruising purposes, and to maintain our
rightful position on the ocean.
The change that has taken place in naval vessels
and naval warfare since the introduction of steam
as a motive power for ships of war, demands either
a corresponding change in some of our existing navy
yards or the establishment of new ones for the con-
struction and necessary repair of modern naval
vessels. No inconsiderable embarrassment, delay,
and public
of n
ecti injcuroyvehramveentbaele
establishments
The from the
s.oine necseusistiatbyleof place upon unpavoyn-ythaerd,;tloafurnished,
at
has on repeated occasions been brought
to the attention of Congress by the Navy 1)e
partment ; and it is again presented in the report of
the secretary, which accompanies this communica-
, tion.

think it my duty to invite your special attention
to this subject, and also to that of establishing a
yard and depot for naval purposes upon one of the
western rivers. A naval force has been created on
these interior waters, and under many disadvan-
tages, within a little more than two years, exceed-
ing in number the whole naval force of the country
it the commencement of the present Administra-
tion. Satisfactory and important as have been the
performances of the heroic men of the navy at this
interesting period, they are scarcely more wonder-
ful than the success of our mechanics and artisans
in the production of war vessels which has created
a new form of naval power.
Our country has advantages superior to any other
nation in resources of iron and timber, with inex-
haustible quantities of fuel in the immediate vicinity
of both, and all available and in close proximity to
navigable waters. Without the advantage of public
works, the resources of the nation have been de-
veloped and its power displayed in the construction
of a navy of such magnitude which has at the very
period of its creation rendered signal service to the
Union.

The increase of the number of seamen in the pub-
lic service from 7,500 men in the spring of 1861, to
about 34,000 at the present time, has been accom-
plished wifhout special legislation or extraordinary
bounties to promote that increase.
It has been found, however, that the operation of
the draft, with the high bounties paid for army re-
cruits, is beginning to affect injuriously the naval
service, and will, if not corrected, be likely to im-
pair its efficiency by detaching seamen from their
proper vocation, and inducing them to enter the
army.

I, therefore, respectfully suggest that Congress
might aid both the army and naval service by a
definite provision on this subject which would at
the same time be equitable to the communities more
especially interested.

I commend to your consideration the suggesti las
of the Secretary of the Navy in regard to the policy
of fostering and training seamen, and also the edu-
cation of officers and engineers for the naval service.
The Naval Academy is rendering signal service in
preparing midshipmen for the highly responsible
duties which in after life they will be required to
perform.

In order that the country should not be deprived
of the proper quota of educated officers for which
legal provision has been made at the Naval School,
the vacancies caused by the neglect or omission to
make nominations from the States in insurrection
have bee❑ filled by the Secretary of the Navy.
Toe school is DOW more full and complete than at
any former period, and in every respect entitled to
the favourable consideration of Congress.

can be done now. Augmented interest is given to this sub-
ject by the actual commencement of work upon the Pacific
Rifiroad, under auspices so favourable to rapid progress and
completion. The enlarged navigation becomes a palpable
need to the great road,

I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioners
of the Department of Agriculture, asking your attention to
the developments in that vital interest of the nation.

REVIEW OP TIIE WAR.
When Congress assembled a year ago the war had already
lasted nearly 20 months, and there had been many conflicts
on both land and sea, with varying results; the rebellion had
been pressed back into reduced limits, yet the tone of public
feeling and opinion at home and abroad was not satisfactory.
With other signs the popular elections then just past indi-
cated uneasiness among ourselves, while, amid much that
was cold and menacing, the kindest words coming from
Europe were uttered in accents of pity, that we were too
blind to surrender R hopeless cause.

Our commerce was suffering greatly by a few armed ves-
sels built upon and furnished from foreign shores, and we
were threatened with such additions from the same quar-
ters as would sweep our trade from the sea and raise the
blockade. We had failed to elicit from European Govern-
ments anything hopeful upon this subject.
The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in
September, was running its assigned period to the beginning
of the new year. A mouth litter the final proclamation came,
including the announcement that coloured wen of suitable
condition would be received in the war service. The policy
of emancipation and of employing black soldiers gave to the
future a new aspect, about which hope and fear and doubt
contended in uncertain conflict.

According to our political system, as a matter of civil
administration, the Government had no lawful power to
effect emancipation in any state, and for a long time it had
been hoped that the rebellion could be suppressed without
resorting to it as a military measure. It was all the while
deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and
that if it should, the crisis of the contest would then be pre-
sented. It came, and, as was anticipated, was followed by
dark and doubtful days.

take another review. The rebel borders are pressed still
we are permitted to
Eleven months having now passed,
further back, and by the complete opening of the Mississippi
the country dominated by the rebellion is divided into two
distinct parts, with no practical communication between
them.

Tennessee and Arkansas have been substantially cleared
of insurgent control, and influential citizens in each, owners
of slaves and advocates of slavery at the beginning of the
rebellion, now declare openly for emancipation in their re-
spective States. Of thesa States not included in the emanci-
pation proclamation, Maryland and Missouri, neither of
which three years ago would tolerate any restraint upon the
extension of slavery into now territories, only dispute now
as to the best mode of removing it within their own limits.

Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebel-

lion, full 100,000 are now in the United States military ser-
vice, about one-half of which number actually bear arms in
the ranks, thus giving the double advantage of taking so
much labour from the insurgent cause, and supplying the
places which otherwise must be filled with so many white
men. So far as tested it is difficult to say they are not as
good soldiers as any. No servile insurrection or tendency to
violence or cruelty has marked the measures of emancipa-
tion and arming the blacks.

These measures have been much discussed in foreign
countries, and contemporary with such discussion, the tone
of public sentiment there is much improved. At home the
same measures have been fully discussed, supported, criti-
cised, and denounced, and the annual elections following are
highly- encouraging to those whose official duty it is to bear
the country through this great trial. Thus we have the
new reckoning. The crisie which threatened to divide the
friends of the Union is past.
Looking now to the present and future, and with a refer-
ence to a resumption of the national authority in the Sta' es
wherein that authority has been suspended. I have thought
fit to issue a proclamation—a copy of which is herewith
transmitted. On examination of this proclamation it will
appear (as is believed) that nothing is attempted beyond
what is amply justified by the Constitution. True, the form
of an oath is given, but no man is coerced to take it.
The man is only promised a pardon in case ho voluntarily

takes the oath. The Constitution authorises the Executive
to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute discre-
tion, and this includes the power to grant on tern's, as is
fully established by judicial and other authorities. It is also
proffered that if in any of the States named a State Govern-
ment shall be recognised and guaranteed by the United
States, and that under it the State shall, on the Coustitu•
tional conditions, be protected against invasion and domestic
violence.

The constitutional obligation of the United States to gua-
rantee to every State in the Union a Republican form of Go-
vernment, and to protect the State in the cases stated, is ex-
plicit and full. But why tender the benefits of this provision
only to a State Government set up in this particular way ?
This section of the Constitution contemplates a cas3 wherein
the element within a State in favour of Republican Govern-
ment in the Union may be too feeble for an opposite and
hostile element external to or even within the State, and
such are precisely the cases with which we are now dealing.
An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State Go-
vernment constructed in whole, or in preponderating part,
from the very element against whose hostility and violence
it is to be protected, is simply absurd. There must be a test
by which to separate the opposing elements so as to build
only from the sound, and that test ;s a sufficiently liberal
one which accepts as sound whoever will make a sworn re-
cantation of his movements.

But if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the
political body, an oath of allegiAnce to the United States,
and to the Union under it, why not also to the laws and
proclamations in regard to slavery?
Those laws and proclamations were put forth for the pur-
pose of aiding in the suppression of the rebellion. To give
them the fullest effect there had to be a pledge for their
maintenance. In my judgment they have aided and will
further aid the cause for which they were intended.
To now abandon them would be not only to relinquish a
lever of power, but would also be a cruel and astounding
breach of faith.

reprieves and pardons for offences against the United Statta,
except in cases of impeaehment ; and
Whereas, a rebellion now exists wh6retty the loyal State
Governments of several States have for a long time been
subverted, and many persons have committed and are now
guilty of treason against the United States; and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason,
laws have been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and
confiscation of property and liberation of slaves, all upon
terms and conditions therein stated : and also declaring that
the President was thereby authorised at any time thereafter,
by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have parti-
cipated in the existing rebellion in any State, or part
thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at
such times and on such conditions as he may deem expe-
dient for the public welfare ; and
Whereas, the Congressional declaration for limited and
conditional pardons with the well established judicial ex-
position of the pardoning power, and
Whereas, with reference to the said rebellion, the Presi-
dent of the United States has issued several proclamations
with provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves, and
Whereas, it is now desired by some persons heretofore
engaged in the said rebellion to resume their allegiance to
the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State Govern-
ments within and for their respective States ;
Therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to,all persons
who have directly cr by implication participated in the
existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full
pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with
restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and
in property cases where the rights of third parties shall have
intervened, and upon the condition that every such person
shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep
and maintain said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be
registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the
tenor and effect, following, to wit : _ . .

" I, --, do solemnly swear in presence of Almighty
God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union
of the States thereunder, and that I will, in like manner,
abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed
during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so
long and so far as not 'repealed, modified, or held void by
Congress or by decision of the Supreme Court, and that I
will in like manner abide and faithfully support all pro-
clamations of the President made during the existing re-
bellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not
modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court,
So help me God."

The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing
provisions are all who are or shall have been civil or diplo-
matic officers or agents of the so-called Confederate Govern-
ment; all who have left judicial stations under the United
States to aid the rebellion ; all who are or shall have been
military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Go-
vernment above the rank of colonel in the army, of lieute-
nant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States
Congress to aid the rebellion;

All who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the
United States, anl afterwards aided the rebellion, and all
who have engaged in any way in treating coloured persons
or white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully
as prisoners of war, have been found in the United States
service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity.

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that
whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisi-
ana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida,
South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons,
not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such
States, at the Presidental election of the year of our Lord,
1860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having
since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election
law of the State existing immediately before the so-called
act of Secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish
a State Government, which shall be republican, and in no-

wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognised as the
true Government of the State, and the State shall receive
thereunder the benefit of the constitutional provision which
declares that
" The United States shall guarantee to every State in this
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect
each of them against invasion, on application of the Legis-
lature, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be
convened, against domestic violence."
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that

any provision which may be adopted by such State Govern-
ment in relation to the freed people of such State which
shall recognise and declare their permanent freedom, pro-
vide for their education, and which may yet be consistent,
as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as
a labouring, landless, and houseless cla s, will not be ob-
jected to by the National Executive.
And it is engaged, as not improper, that in constructing a
loyal State Government in any State, the name of the State,
the boundary, the subdivisions, the Constitution and the
general code of lawb, as before the rebellion, be maintained
subject only to the modifications made necessary by the
conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not
contravening said' conditions, and which may be deemed
expedient by those framing the new State Government.

To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that

this proclamation, so far as it relates to State Governments,
has no reference to States wherein loyal State Governments
have all the while been maintained. And for the same rea-
son it may be proper to further say, that whether members
sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats
constitutionally,rests exclusively with the respective houses,
and not to any extent with the Executive,
And still further, that this proclamation is intended to
present the people of the States wherein the national autho-

rity has been suspended, and loyal State Governments have
been sutverted, a mode in and by which the national autho•
rity and loyal State Governments may be re-established
within said States, or in any of them.
And while the mode proposed is the best the Executive
can suggest with his present impressions, it must not be
understood that no other possible m)de would be acceptable.
Given under my hand at 'the city of Washington, the
eighth day of December, A. D., one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United
States of America the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. [L.S.)

STATE OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER, Dec. 22,—The yarn market has
been very quiet today, and to effect sales lower
prices would have to be taken, but spinners, as a
rule, being pretty well under contract, show no dis-
position to press sales. There are exceptional in-
stances to the contrary, but they are not numerous.
Most of the spinners appear to think that at the
turn of the year we shall have more activity, as it is
well known that many Wets are in the hands of
export houses, which for the present are kept back.
The market for home trade yarns is quite ae flat as
last week, and, as manufacturers are disinclined to
operate, prices are against producers. Sellers re-
port that there is a good deal of irregularity on
the part of the spinners, who are anxious to
realise, and buyers who have tested the market
pretty actively say that in some descriptions of
cop yarn there is a great difference between the
rates which spinners are willing to accept rather
than not Bell. In the cloth market we have also
had a flat day. There is no disposition on the
part of buyers to operate. Many of them are
understood to hold orders, and some of them pretty
considerable ones, but at limits which are far below
what manufacturers are disposed to accept at pre-
sent. At the same time, a considerable concession
would be made by manufacturers on last Tuesday's
rates, but they find so few who are really disposed
to buy that it would be difficult to arrive at a cor-
rect quotation of the concession which would lead to
business. There is a rumour of advises of a dis-
couraging character from Bombay having been re-
ceived by the China mail. The market closes with
declining prices both for cloth and yarn, and a great
curtailment of production is expected. Messrs. John
Slagg and Co. report of the cloth market :—" Buyers
still keep oat of the market, or only offer prices too
low to be entertained by manufacturers. We may,
on the whole, quote the market lower than last
Tueeday, but tire transactions have been so few, and
at prices so irregular, that our quotations can only
approximate the actual value of goods."
LEEDS, 22d.--Though there was not much woollen
cloth sold in the cloth halls to-day, the market was
oheerful, both manufacturers and merchants being
without complaints either as to the condition or the
prospect of trade. The purchases were of a miscel-
laneous character, including a small quantity of
heavy as well as light goods. The demand for good
black cloths is scarcely so brisk as it lately was, yet
that branch of trade is in a satisfactory state, first
rate productions not being difficult to sell by the
manufacturer. The wool trade is moderately active
and prices of both wools and cloths are steady. The
flax trade, so far as the demand for yarns and threads
is concerned, is a little quieter than it was, but the
manufacturers aro well employed. On account of
next Saturday being partially kept es a holyday
here the cloth markets usually held on a Saturday
will this week take place on Thursday.
ROCHDALE, 21st.—The flannel market to -daY
was much the same as last week. The attendance
r
of buyers was not large, and they purchased railoere
carefully, though in the aggregate ratli.v
mare
goods changed hands than on the precete
e tiding
ket day. In Yorkshire goods a
wis done. Prices of flannels andl:"dihraer goods in
is other
complaint of
this market keep steady.
'Theref lturere. The wool
want of work among the manu
but' 'Etta: prices are firmly
market is rather quiet,
me,intained.