The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-04 00:00:00

Congress Consistent in its Policy.

The foggy medium through which many English
see American affairs, was shown in the general con-

demnation of the war to preserve the Union, and
now in their disapproval of the measures of Con-
gress to exclude the States lately in rebellion until

they ratify certain conditions. It is asked—Why
fight to preserve that which you afterwards legis-

late to dissever? Northern writers explain--but
in vain—the causes which led to the Civil War, and
the causes which force on the reluctant Executive
the measures now necessary to secure the objects
then contended for. Those who do not, and will
not, understand the vital necessity of maintaining
the Union intact, and of preserving this Union
hereafter intact, see nothing but a contradiction
in the course taken, and in ignorance, condemn the
Legislature for acts they do not comprehend. If
they regard dispassionately the causes which led
the North to fight so desperately for the preserva-
tion of the Union, they may perceive why Congress
so pertinaciously perseveres in a course which seems
to them only a contradiction. In the first place, it
would have been madness in the nation to permit
the Southern oligarchy to establish an Empire
bordering on them for thousands of miles, and filled
with elements which sooner or later must have
produced an explosion. Such a separation would
have placed their enemy in a position to have
wrought their own destruction. An amicable
separation would but have deferred the evil
day, and have given a fresh impetus to
the evils at work which were destined to pro-
duce so much misery and suffering. It is the
policy of the United States to place the Continent
of North America under one central authority, and
the majority of the people believe that if this can
be accomplished much of the mischiefs will be
avoided which have so injuriously influenced all old
inhabited parts of the globe. The idea of dividing
the Continent into States, with their local legisla-
tures and executives, while centreing the supreme
authority in a President and Congress, is a grand
and noble conception. To extend over a vast and
fertile portion of the earth the same laws and
liberty, the same language and government, em-
braces boons so innumerable to its inhabitants as
to be almost beyond the imagination of Europeans.
A great blow would be struck at the happiness of
mankind if the United States fail in working out the
magnificent scheme. What blow could have been
more fatal than the establishment of the Southern
oligarchy founded on slavery ? The darling con-
ception of the Northern mind would in this have
been annihilated, and the noble Union, its citizens
delight to contemplate, would have passed away as
a vision. The dream of generations, taken up from
the father to the son, of a nation embracing an
entire continent formed by the work of their hands
from the wilderness, would have vanished, and in
its stead there would have remained but a great
fragment hereafter to take no higher place than
that of Russia or of France, bordered to the north
and south by other nations who might at any time
be hostile, or even inalliance with European despots.
When South Carolina attacked Fort Sumter the
North awoke to the conviction that it must fight or
surrender its cherished conception. No wonder
that the whole people turned with impatience from
the mawkish sentiment of English writers who ad-
vised a peaceful separation, and lectured them on

the horrors and wickedness of civil war. It was
not along the English borders that a hostile nation
was being built up, having for its corner-stone the
aggressive and wicked institution of slavery. The
noble scheme which for generations had leavened
the Northern being, had never penetrated into the
mind of these writers.
To the Federal the Union meant all that was
great and good ; it meant all that was grand and
magnificent in the future—it meant the freedom of
the human race and the triumph of democratic

principles. It appeared incredible to him that any
man born under this Union could seek to destroy
it, for so narrow, selfish, and miserable a cause as
that of slavery. The fact, was however, certain ;
and he was compelled to gird up his loins and ex-
tirpate the poisonous weed which had grown to such
vast dimensions as to endanger the very existence
of his cherished Union. This he did at an awful
expenditure of blood and treasure. The war
preserved the Union for the time. But
legislation only, can preserve it for the fu-
ture. The object of Congress, putting all the
paltry exigencies of party out of the question—is
to bring back the Southern States as loyal members
of the community. It is not only necessary that
they should take their former place in the
Union, but it is requisite also that they
should take it, purged from the crime which had
caused so much suffering. Congress holds that this
cannot be awomplished by giving legislative power
to unrepentant rebels whose avowed object is to
undo the work of the war. In forcing the Southern
States into such a position that they must ratify the
conditions dictated by the Legislature before re-
admission to the Union, is, instead of being in con-
tradiction to the principles contended for in the war
a direct confirmation of them. So fierce a contest
had a deep cause, which is not easily removed ; but
removed it must be, before the Union reassumes its
former aspect. In this the North is consistent, act-
ing on a simple and fixed policy—one dictated by
the commonest principles of good sense, and main-
tained with the greatest forbearance and concilia-
tion. We hold it to be beyond all question that
Slavery threatened the preservation of the Union—
that the North fought to preserve the Union, and
struck down Slavery as its great enemy that the

people recognised their crime in sanctioning the evil,
and felt that they were called on to expiate that
crime in rivers of blood and the agony of millions.
But is the nation Ni hich has endured so much, again
to sow broadcast, the seeds of another harvest of
misery ? People should view the whole breadth and
depth of the subject to understand the rigid deter-
mination of the North not to permit any considera-
tions of profit, of present national advancement, of
the mere peace and quietness of the moment, of
nature wearied out with;the endless strife—to inter-
fere with their inflexible purpose to place the future,
as far as human means can, on a firm and per-
manent basis. Many other questions are debated
which tend to draw attention from the vital inte-
rests that underlie them all. Congress may be
wrong in some of its We, and in many of its resolu-
tions, but it has the righteous cause in view—to
preserve the Union, and secure for the future uni-
versal freedom ; and if it attains these great ends
it will deserve well of the citizens of the Republic.
—Anglo-American Times.