The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-17 00:00:00

triumphantly, " any question that by the law of war
property both of enemies and friends may be taken
when needed ? And is it not needed whenever the
taking of it helps us or hurts the enemy ? Armies,

all the world over, destroy enemies' property when
they cannot use it." According to this reasoning,
Mr. Lincoln's Generals, instead of freeing the
enemy's negroes, might destroy them, just as they
would the enemy's horses or pigs, or any other pro-
perty they could not consume or carry away. Of
course Mr. Lincoln intended to convey no such mean-
ing, although some of his Generals, in placing negro
regiments in positions where their annihilation was
all but certain, with the object of proving to the
world that negroes could fight if they pleased, have
acted as if the destruction of such " property " were
quite as allowable as the destruction of stone walls.
On the general principle of the employment of
negro soldiers Mr. Lincoln's reasoning is as satisfac-
tory as it is unnecessary. There is no just reason
why the free negroes of the North, and those who
have made themselves free by running away from
their Southern masters, should not, for the military
purposes of the Federal Government, be placed on a
footing of perfect equality with white men. Neither
the law of the Northern States nor the Federal Con-
stitution forbids their employment as troops, and if
military necessity or political expediency requires
their services the Northern people would be unwise
if they did not use them to the utmost extent.
But the objection to negro soldiers lies among white
soldiers, and is social and ethnological, not legal or
constitutional. Though white brigadier-generals,
colonels, majors, and captains are willing enough
to command negroes, white private soldiers obsti-
nately refuse to serve along with them. The ne-
groes must be kept scrupulously apart or the whites
will mutiny—a state of affairs which remains
wholly unaffected by Mr. Lincoln's vindication of
his undoubted right to enlist soldiers without re-
ference to the colour of their skins. Tile negroes
are quite aware of the prejudice, and although they
offer themselves in sufficient numbers to form three
or four regiments, there are more white candidates
for the higher posts of command over them than
there are black soldiers to be commanded.
Although it is asserted that this letter is wholly
Mr. Lincoln's own composition, and that Mr.
Seward more especially has been prevented either
from mending or marring it, there are indications
that some other hand than Mr. Lincoln's has re-
vised and endeavoured to elevate its style. When
the Federal navy is described as " Uncle Sam's web-
feet" the world may be sure that the image is Mr.
Lincoln's own, but when with a rhythmical cadence
it is announced " that the father of waters again
flows unvexed to the sea," the hand of Mr. Seward,
or of some other quondam schoolmaster of the
Cabinet, may be suspected, if not positively traced.
The whole composition will no doubt be as widely
read in Europe as in America. In its concluding
prayer North and South might well agree. " Peace
dces not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will
come soon, and come to stay, and so come as to be
worth the keeping in all future time." Without
sharing Mr. Lincoln's belief that peace is any nearer
than it seemed to be at any period of the war, not
only North and South but the whole civilised world
may say " Amen to this sweet prayer."

Another and a much shorter letter of the Presi-
dent, characteristic of the simplicity of his mind
and the original kindliness of his nature, excites
attention, and inspires hopes that he has at last
seen the error of his ways in his constant interfer-
ence with the plans of his Generals. It is addressed
to General Grant, thanks him in cordial, though
not:in eloquent terms for the victory achieved at
Vicksburg, and admits that several times during the
progress of the operations that were ultimately so
successful he had his misgivings that the General
was wrong, that he (Mr. Lincoln) would have acted
otherwise had he been in the same position. The
President candidly admits that in all this he was in
error. Taken in connexion with the fact that in his
letter to the Springfield Convention Mr. Lincoln,
for the first time, admits that General M'Clellan
gained a -victory at Antietam, and that that battle
was as " bravely done" as Murfreesborough or
Gettysburg, people are inclined to hope that Mr.
Lincoln will for the future remember that he is only
an ornamental and nominel Commander-in-Chief;
that he knows nothing of the art or science of war,
and ought, therefore, either to leave his Generals
untrammelled by his advice until, for cause assigned.
he and his Cabinet see fit to remove them. The
tribute to General Grant is honest and hearty. That
to General M'Clellan seems to be an accident—due
to a slip of the pen rather than to a studied desire
to do justice.
The draught in the cities cf New York and Brook-
lyn and the towns and villages of Staten and Long
Islands has been brought to a close, and in a fort-
night or three weeks the Government will be able
to count how many men it has produced. No dis-
turbance whatever has occurred during its pro
gress, except one provoked in a ginshop by a
drunken major and a drunken colonel, and of which
a drunken Irish lad of 20 was the victim. The
presence of 50,000 men, and the reliance of the
poorer conscripts that the city would pay their ex-
emption fee, has kept all things quiet, and, in spite
of the irritating presence of the soldiery, they are
likely to remain so. The Mayor and Controller
have publicly advertised for 10,000 substitutes, to
each of whom, if accepted, they offer the sum of
300 dols., so that the conscription has resolved itself
at last into a system of volunteering, with the only
difference that the city of New York provides the
funds for the purpose of paying the bounty money,
instead of Mr. Chase. Sensible people think that
' the Government would-have acted more wisely if
it had saved itself the odium of the proceeding,
even although Mr. Chase may be a gainer of three
millions of dollars by the transaction. It is notice-
able that very few native Americans consent to
serve personally, either as original conscripts or as
substitutes. The five substitutes shot for desertion
last week in presence of the Army of the Potomac,
and of 25,000 shameless civilians, who ought under
no circumstances to have been admitted to the spec.
tacle, were all foreigners—GLreaans, Italians, and
Irish. Out of every 100 substitutes who offer them-
selves not three are American born, but mainly
Irish and Germans, some of them newly arrived,
who have not been 10 days in the country, and
others discharged volunteers, whom the war has
unfitted for honest industry.
There are yet no signs of the withdrawal of the
army of occupation, although not the shadow of a
necessity exists for its presence. The well-known
author and introducer of the Act of Conscription,
Mr. 'Wilson, shoe manufacturer, of Massachusetts,
and senator for that State in the last and present
Congress, custodian of the conscience of Mr.
Lincoln, and prime mover in all the projects
that have for their animus the laying waste
of the South with fire and sword, and
the extermination of all its people, with
the sole exception of the negroes, has, however, in
a speech made at Brunswick, in Maine, given a rea-
son for the invasion of the peaceful community of
New York, which may well make the citizens shud-
der. " There are," said he, " forty-four regiments
in New Yorh to help the Government to enforce the
draught, and there is not a soldier among them who
would not rather shoot a Copperhead, put a bullet
through his brains, than he would shoot a rebel."
Mr. Wilsen took the trouble to repeat this asser-
tion twice, in order that there might be no mistake.
If by
" Copperheads" he meant all those who dis-
approve the war and the policy of the Government
ttelase who form a large majority of the people
Copperheads"
Repub-
licans and Abolitionists everywhere except in New England—and if these
entertain towards the Black Reptile-
sag u hn
estelloeefdboai office,ndgnse bOnofue at r sides, d rendere s ,
Federa
sts half of the hatred and malice
o
s powergive titre reavnecret,
Mr. *Wilson frequently and Secretary
to which
Stanton sometimine
of the ballot-box, ystiTnhgis bitterness ofa
Copperheads,will f are i
l 1
with the party
from their
se:,torthany other,
seats
le. presenta..
ece
otnn,,.is on
a social
contractori nte, r
a-
enes :1 America as
occupants
place of resPiodiesno
and " war Christian. gou or
Dahomey to every one but a soldier,
disagreeablectheurisne increase
rf
le:ds e a
Secretary of State,

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