The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-18 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, DEC. 2.
Mr. Lincoln's Message to Congress, delivered at
noon yesterday, has surprised everybody. Many
anticipations were formed respecting it. Same said
it would be " black" with Abolitionism ; others
predicted that it would be " whiter" than the pro-
clamation of freedom to the slaves; while a third
were of opinion that it would be of no colour at *all,
but vague in hue and impalpable in shape. The
document is certainly not " black" in the sense in-
sinuated by the Democratic party; and it is just as
certainly neither vague nor unmeaning. If it be
" white," it is at all events white with good inten-
tions. Ostensibly it surveys the whole field of public
affairs, but virtually it concentrates attention upon
,the one great subject of negro. slavery. -Mr. Lin-
coln is not an obstinate man. Aware, apparently,
that his proclamation of freedom to the slaves of all
who should be in rebellion on and after the Ist of
January next was contrary to the Constitution of
the Union which he desired to restore; that it was
a direct incentive to a servile war, and to the count-
less and almost unmentionable horrors that would
inevitably ensue if the negroes took up arms against
their masters; and that, moreover, it was fairly
open to the objection urged against it by the divines,
philosophers, and philanthropists of the Abolitionist
party, of permitting loyal people to hold slaves, and
of guaranteeing the existence of slavery in loyal
States, he has, without openly disavowing and an-
nulling the ill-adviseddocument, introduced another
project for the discussion of Congress, which, if
adopted, will convert the proclamation into a dead
letter, At the eleventh hour he proposes what
should haie been proposed at the first—a general
convention of the States of the Union to revise and
amend the Constitution, so as to make the action of
Congress on the subject of slavery as legal and con-
stitutional as it is now the reverse. Ho further
proposes that every State which shall under this
convention abolish slavery within its limits at any
time before the year 1900 shall receive compensa-
_

tion, at a rat© to be hereafter fixed, for every
slave proved to have been in existence by the
eighth census of the United States ; that all
slaves who shall have enjoyed actual freedom
by the chances of war or escape within the
Federal lines shall be maintained in their freedom,
whether, their misters were rebels or loyal men,
but that loyal masters shall in such cases receive
full compensation; and, lastly, that Congress may
(not shall) appropriate money and otherwise pro-
vide for eolonising free negroes with their own con-
sent in places beyond the boundaries of the United
States. Such, in brief, is Mr. Lincoln's new mode
of dealing with this great and embarrassing ques-
tion. The Abolitionists sneer at it already under
the name of " Gradualism," insisting that if free-
dom be a good thing it cannot be administered too
suddenly to the eager expectants of the boon, or the
right, and prophesying that the war will walk over

this proposition, and force the President back again
to unconditional and immediate emancipation as
the sole effectual weapon for dealing a final blow at
the Southern slaveowners and their system. But if
Mr. Lincoln have purposely worded his proposal so
as to grant compensation only to slaves proved to
have been in existence by the eighth census, which
was taken in the year 1860, his scheme has a signifi-
cance which ought to gratify the Abolitionists, if no
one else, for it virtually proposes that all negro chil-
dren born after that date shall be declared to have
been lam] free. Surely the Abolition preachers and
lecturers, who are so difficult to please, will raise loud
prens of delight when they become aware of this
nportion
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President
nte shit to aid, a
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it
fully and fait ly before the mind of the country ? If
in a kindly spirit, and before the firing of a shot,
Mr. Lincoln had, in his inaugural address, sub-
mitted such a scheme to the undivided Congress
that first listened to his official voice, he might have
preserved the Union and averted civil war. If, in
consequence of the- obstinacy of the South on the
subject of slavery, it had refused to consider the
proposal, the sympathies of Europe, and especially
of England, would in this case have taken another
direction, and been wholly and heartily with
the North. It is most probable that Mr. Lin-
coln's painfully acquired wisdom has come upon
him and upon the country too late, and that the
day has irrevocably passed when any treatment of
the slavery question that religion, philanthropy, or
statesmanship can devise will bring back the South
to a Union which the events of the last 12 months
have taught it to abhor.

Great as has been the interest excited by the Pre-
sident's Message, it has not drawn attention from
the critical position of the army of the Potomac.
The prevalent feeling is one of disappointment that
so little has been done by General Burnside, from
whom so much was expected.

People may "call spirits from the vasty deep"—
but will they come ? Presidents and Ministers may
command great generals and men of genius to emerge
from the Dead Sea of national mediocrity, but if
such generals do not exist to answer, of what use is
it to call ? People were not satisfied with M'Clsl-
lan, because he could not achieve impossibilities.
They are equally dissatisfied with Burnside for the
same reasons. It was confidently announced when
the appointment was made that he would be master
of Richmond by the Ist of December. The 2d of
December has come, and he is still on the wrong
side of the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg,
held in check, it appears, by a small body of the
enemy, while the main force has fallen back 30 miles
nearer to Richmond. The probabilities are that he
must either go into winter quarters at Fredericks-
burg after its capture, or remain until the end of
March at Acquia Creek. The rains have been all
but incessant ever since he commenced operations.
The roads of Virginia are impracticable. The Con-
federates hold all the railways by which he could
make a more rapid advance. To march on Richmond
under such circumstances would be madness. To re-
main between the Potomac and Rappahannock would
be prudent, were it not for the fact that such a hy-
bernation would inevitably end in the loss of half
the army before the spring—in disertions, camp di-
sease, fever, and prostration of hope, spirit, and
energy. Nevertheless, though the prospect is gloomy
enough, the prophets of good fortune are not to be
silenced. Cheerful voices still proclaim that Burn-
side's valour is not overpowered by his caution, like
M'Clellan's, and that he will indubitably eat his
Christmas dinner in the rebel capital, and restore
Virginia and North Carolina to the Union before the
Ist of January. Other voices, not at all cheerful,
despair of him altogether, and call for his removal,
and the World of this morning announces, as " from
a source not likely to be deceived," that General
Burnside is no longer in command, but has been
superseded by General Hooker. The report
is not
improbable, but
meedstonfirmatiori, and, if it should
pr-ov'e to be true, is more likely to oflbrr.
up an other
victim on the shrine of popular impatience, in the
person of General Hooker, than to bring the Fede-
ral army into possession of the long coveted capital
of the enemy.
It is asserted that " General" M'Neill, who so
savagely shot ten innocent persons because one man,
on whom he had set his heart, was not delivered up
to him by the Confederates, is not an officer in the
Federal army, but a guerilla leader ; and that he
will be delivered up to the military authorities of
the South, to be dealt with as Mr. Jefferson Davis
may decide. Public opinion justifies his surrender.
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