The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-07 00:00:00

PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON SLAVERY.

The following report of an interview which took
place at Washington on the 20th of June, between
the President and a delegation from the religious
society called the Progressive Friends, on the sub-
ject of a gene:al emancipation, will be read with
interest :

The delegation was composed of Thomas Gar-
ret, of Delaware; Oliver Johnson, a well-known
Abolitionist of New York ; Alice liatnbleton' Dinah
Mendenhall, William Barnard, and Eliza Agnew,
of Pennsylvania ; and was presented to the
President by Senator Wilmot, accompanied by
Representatives Kelly, Davis, and Campbell, of
Pennsylvania. Mr. Johnson addressed the Presi-
dent, and said that they did not come representing
any personal or party interest. Their clients were
4,000,000 slaves, who could not speak, but lifted up
their chained hands in agonising supplication
for freedom, which prayer it was in the Presi-
dent's power, in this solemn crisis, to grant. Re
then read a memorial adopted at a late meeting,
calling on the President to issue a proclamation free-
ing all slaves, and stating that in his speech de-
livered at Springfield before his election to the
office of chief magistrate, the President expressly
declared :

" A house divided against itself cannot stand. I
believe this Government cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. Ido not expect the Union
to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall,
but I expect it will cease to be divided. It will
become all one thing or the other."
After the memorial had been read, the President
said, as he had not been furnished with a copy of
the memorial in advance he could not be expected
to make any lengthy remarks. He was pleased
that the delegation had not come as office-seekers,
for they occasioned him much trouble and per-
plexity. The next most troublesome subject was
slavery. He agreed with the memorialists that
slavery was wrong, and differed only in respect to
the ways and means of getting rid of it. The extract
_ _

from his Springfield speech in the memorial he said
was incomplete, not including the sentence in which
he had indicated his views as to the effect upon
slavery itself of resistance to its extension. If a de-
cree of emancipation would do the work, John Brown
would have done it at Harper's Ferry. The Con-
stitution was binding upon the people of the South,
but it could not be enforced at present. Did
they think a decree of general emancipation
would be any more effective ? Mr. Johnson said:
—" True, Mr. President, the Constitution cannot
now be enforced at the South, but you do not for
that reason give up the struggle, The memorialists
believe that the extinction of slavery would attain
your object." The President said he felt the magni •
tude and importance of the task before hint, and
hoped to be rightly directed in the embarrassing
circumstances surrounding him. He felt deeply his
need of Divine aid and guidance, and had some-
times thought he might be an instrument in the

hands of God in accomplishing a great work, and
certainly he was willing to be one. Perhaps God's
way of accomplishing the end which the memo-
rialists had in view was different from theirs ; at
any rate, he should endeavour to do his duty with
firm reliance on the Divine arm, and seeking fer
light from above to do his duty. The delegation
then retired.

THE NEGROES OF THE UNITED STATES.

(From the Money Market Review.)

A practical and at the same time humane sug-
gestion, has been made by Denmark to the Federal
Government through its Minister at Washington,
and there is a report that it has been favourably
received by the latter. The proposal is-
1. To employ in the Danish West Indies, and
especially in the island of St. Croix, persons of
African extraction and negroes found on board
vessels captured by cruisers.
2. Denmark invites the United States to enter
into a convention, whereby the contemplated emi-
gration may be placed under the protection and
guarantee of the two Governments.
3. Free transport is offered to all who will en-
gage to work on the sugar plantations for three
years, at the same rate of compensation as the native
population; after that period they will be entirely
free. Recaptured Africans, however, being semi-
savages, are to undergo apprenticeship.
This offer is at once so humane and businesslike
that we see no reason why all in this country who
wish to benefit the African race, and also to obtain
an increased supply of cotton, should not urge on
our Government to make a similar proposal to the
United States Government. Such an arrangement,
could it be effected, would be attended with vast
benefit, not only to the negro and to tb.e United
States Government, but likewise to our West India
Islands and to our cotton interest, for it would
afford a certain means of increasing the growth of
cotton.

It is a very embarrassing question with the Fede-
ral Government as to what is to be done with the
slaves when they obtain possession of them. One
idea was to re-ship them to the republic of Liberia,
but this would entail on the Federal Government
an enormous expense, and when these wretched
beings arrived there they would be subjected to
the serious hardships of an uncertain existence,
whereas, if they were transported under proper
regulation?, either to the colonies of Denmark or
to our own West India Islands, an immediate
demand for their labour would exist.
We commend this matter to the earnest atten-
tion of Mr. Baxley and the Manchester interest.
There is now coming into view the greatest oppor-
tunity that has ever presented itself for at once
obtaining a supply of cotton labour, and emancipat-
ing the negro under hopeful conditions. Such ari op-
portunity may never occur again. The cry of the
West Indies and of several of our colonies has
always been—" We could grew as much cotton as
Manchester requites if we had but labour." Here,
then, it is not only labour, but skilled labour of the
very sort that is required, and it may almost be
said to be going a-begging. Let the friend of the
African race be up and doing. Let them urge on
the British Government to make the same offer as
that said to have been made by the Government of
Denmark; let them, too, if necessary, urge the
Government of France to do the same. The black
cloud which has hung so long over the negro race
seems at length to present a silver lining. There
would appear to be now at hand the only oppor-
tunity practical men have as yet seen of putting an
end to slavery, for a convention with the Federal
Government, suoh as is proposed, would go far to
accomplish this result, since free labour would be
made cheaper in the long run than slave labour.
We shall hope to see the English press take up
this important subject. It will be curious to ob-
serve what Manchester will do, and what the
Cotton Supply Association will do. A convention
with the Federal Government would accomplish
more good and provide more cotton than can be ob-
tained by even the most liberal distribution of seeds
and cotton gins. It would distance, in its benefi-
cial effects, all the treaties for the suppression of
slavery. Let us lay ourselves open to the attacks
of the worm that gnaws ceaselessly—the remorse
which arises from " neglected opportunity." Now
is the time to benefit the negro ; now is the time to
obtain more cotton by procuring an increased sup'
ply of skilled labour. The further the Federal
forces penetrate southwards, the more encumbered
the
will they become with fugitive slaves,
and the
will be the embarrassment of tmhied
the North,
ment how to deal with them, for, amid
philanthropic professions of the all the
there is deeply rooted in their
71 They '6l antipathy to " the skin.
uoity of social
the coloured people to 'Pee:: soulsi.i
never an innate
adm i
t
an
cebc.las they can do totole-litical rights; it is as 11113
amongst them. It is vain. to
rate their presence
argue upon a matter of deeply-rooted feeling like
this. The best and only permanent remedy will be
to remove this portion of the population—under
thoroughly effective regulations and guarantees, be
it remembered—from a region where they are hated,
o t
to theywould be welcomed and most
be a strange and a contradictory
spectacle
if England
where
twrb remains gasping for cotton and
ufref
ricuanolte.ted cotton
svin letoaeioll ur at the very time when America is
f
sence of thousands upon thousands of cotton labourers
of whom she would gladly rid herself.

INTERNATIONAL CHESS CONGRESS.

In the programme first arranged by the committee for
their series of performances, it was settled that Thursday
last should be appointed as the day upon which there should
be played a match between London and Paris by means of
the telegraph, and it was not before Wednesday that theY,
were made aware of there being any obstacles in the waY
this arrangement. A message was, however, on that
9,0' Mr,
received which postponed the match until Saturday,
changes were made to suit this postponement. On Satur-
day there was another disappointment, for it was notified
to the congress that sufficient notice had not been given to
the French authorities to allow of their responding affirms'
tively to the request, for that to do so would necessitate the
giving up of the entire use of one wire for the period re-
quired, and this, if not properly prepared for, would be at-
tended with great inconvenience. On Saturday, therefore,
the committee were again compelled to improvise a day's
programme, and they decided that, as they had been put to
the expense of bringing the telegraph wires into the to
wherein their sittings were held, they would not be baulked
of their purpose to play by telegraph, even if the match
were carried on within the precincts of London itself. Even'
tually it was arranged that Messrs. Andersson and ralliSett
should be stationed at the London Chess Club, at Corolla's
wnd that they should take part in a consultation agnillst
Messrs. Lowenthal and Mongredien, at St. James'
Whilst the preliminaries were being arranged at Corn'
hill, Anderssen volunteered to play a match, in order to tlll
and the
up the time, against several players simultaneously,
following gentlemen sat down to a contest against him

1. Sir John Blunden, Bart.
2. R. F. Hunt, Esq.
3. J. 0. Howard Taylor, Esq.
4. J. F. Gillam, Esq.
4. A. S. Pigott, Esq.
6. W. H. A. Mundall, jun., ER(I•
7. Signor Aspa.
To each of the above gentlemen Herr Anderssen 811:
knight, and played the games in a rapid off-hand niannhe;
rather with the view of affording amusement to thei
standers than to exhibit any particular proficiency or sdon
'S
in combinations. The results were that Sir John 131111/0
won, Mr. R. F. Hunt lost, Mr. J. 0. 11. Taylor's gal:a°
drawn, Mr. Gillam lost, Mr. Pigott's game was drawn'

Mr. Mundell lost.
Afeesrf4
The consultation game was then begun between --
Rog.
Lowenthal and Mongredien on the one side, and 30e;vere
Anderssen and Paulsen on the other, but the e3cPv—Af the
m
made very slowly, and for soe time before the close
no
y
sitting it became obvious to ever one that there rpnejs
possibility of the game being concluded. was at '—
adjourned. the
There were also, simultaneously with the preee'3l'lo.
four following single games, played by means of the
graph, between the English and the foreign players

Hannah against Steinitz. -
Campbell „ Faulkbeer.
Kennedy „ Dubois.
_ _ _

Medley „ St. Bon. nit virs°
In this, as well as in the consultation game, no roe-
n tele.
arrived at on Saturday, because of the time spell, " 7 ved
graphing the various moves. Ino!Aeed we ineY say'sedita
much as the Irishman did when ',le was
p put into the ,
chair with the bottom out---P at but for the look 411.,,,e.
thing, the ordinary mode oc, •dedl9
rocedure was dect r
ferable.
r 4
Only one of the ge.mes in the grand tournament pla
itsriase
yesterday calls for special netice—that between Dir• '"a"ooe
and Mr. Blackburne. The latter gentleman bad theigore°
and ()tiered his opponent an open game, which -sir'
B declined to accept, adopting the Sicilian defellee_i
ego
arnes appeared to hold the opinion that the lireitelt,s. tO
rienoe of Mr. Blackburne could not have enabledt no
master the subtleties of end game. He therefore 1050101 i
opportunity of changing off his pieces, and in a °gore the
time the game was reduced to a contestof pawns.
long experience, careful study, and practised saw,deek
Barnes
became apparent, and Mr. Blackburne nver,,,,'
move that would have given him a draw, was n,dvs.
disadvantage, overthrown, and conquered.
occupied three hours, the interest being confined to
game. eat the
The public sittings of the congress having nowclosoo
remainder of the matches will be continued at the Tititivgl)
London clubs. The Problem Tourney, for which 11°.-oele
problems have been entered, will not be completed for s
904
olor//
little time, as the work of examining them is both sic)
tedious. On Thursday the banquet will take playa
the presidency of Lord Lyttelton, and during the 0
general meeting will be held for the revision of the Woof
~.
-' chess. Throughout the sittings of the congress, the
tesy and excellent arrangements of Mr. Loweyth
manager, have given universal satisfaction.