The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-28 00:00:00

THE SUR, LONDON, WED.NESOA 17_ EV.E.NING, FEBRUARY 28, 1866.

Plain, Virginia, to Brownsville, Texas, with homes and
ladges.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

The country had for its allies the river Mississippi, which
would not be divided, and the range of mountains which
carried the stronghold of the free through Western Vir-
ginia, and, Kentucky and Tennessee to the highlands of
Alabama. But it invoked the still higher power of immor-
tal justice. In ancient Greece, whore servitude was the
universal custom, it was held that if a child wore to strike
its parent, the slave should defend the parent, and by that
act recover his freedom. After vain resistance, Lincoln,
who had tried to solve the question by gradual emancipa-
tion, by colonisation, and by compensation, atlast saw that
slavery must be abolished or the Republic must die ; and
on the Ist day of January, 1863, he wrote liberty on the
banners of the armies. When this proclamation, which
struck the fetters from threo millions of slaves reached
Europe, Lord Russell, a countryman of Milton and Wilber-
force, eagerly put himself forward to speak of it in the
name of mankind, saying—" It is of a very strange na-
ture ;" " a measure of war of a very questionable kind ;"
an act of "vengeance on the slave owner," that does no
more than "profess to emancipate slaves where the United
States authorities cannot make emancipation a reality."
Now, there was no part of the country embraced in the
proclamation whero the United States could not and did
not make emancipation a reality. Those who saw Lincoln
most frequently had never before heard him speak
with bitterness of any human being ; but he did not con-
ceal how keenly he felt that he had been wronged by Lord
Russell. And he wrote in reply to another cavalier, " The
emancipation policy and the use of coloured troops were
the greatest blows yet dealt to the rebellion. The job was
a great national one ; and let none be slighted who bore an
honourable part in it. I hope peace will come soon, and
come to stay ; then will be seen black men who can re-
member that they have helped mankind to this great con-
summation."

CONTINUANCE OP THE WAIL

The war continued, with all the peoples of the world for
anxious spectators. Its cares weighed heavily on Lincoln,
and his facewas ploughed with the furrows of thought and
sadness. With malice toward none, free from the spirit of
revenge, victory made him importunate for peace ; and his
enemies never doubted his word, or despaired of his abound-
ing clemency. He longed to utter pardon as the word for
all, but not unless the freedom of the negro should be as-
sured. The grand battles of Mill Spring, which gave us
Nashville, of Fort Donelson, Malvern Hill, Antietam,
Gettysburgh, the Wilderness of Virginia, Winchester,
Nashville, the capture of New Orleans, Vicksburgh, Mobile,
Fort Fisher, the march from Atlanta, and the capture of
Savannah and Charleston, all foretold the issue. Still
more, the self-regeneration of Missouri, the heart of the
continent; Maryland, whose sons never heard the mid-
night bells chime so sweetly as when they rang out to
earth and heaven that, by the voice of her own people, she
took her place among the free; of Tennessee, which passed
through fire and blood, through sorrows and the shadow
of death, to work out her own deliverance, and by the
faithfulness of her own sons to renew her youth like the
eagle, proved that victory was deserved and would be
worth all that it cost. If words of mercy, uttered as they
were by Lincoln on the waters of Virginia, were defiantly
repelled, the armies of the country, moving with one will,
went as the arrow to its mark, and without a feeling of re-
venge struck a death-blow at rebellion. -

of the colouro4 men, and on those of them who served
our cause as soldiers ;" but he wished it done by the
States themselves, and he never harboured the thought
of exacting it from a new Government as a condition of its
recognition.

The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, as he sent
by the Speaker of the House his friendly greetings to the
men of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific slope ; as he
contemplated the return of hundreds of thousands of
soldiers to fruitless industry ; as he welcomed in advance
hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe ; as his
eye kindled with enthusiasm at the coming wealth of the
nation. And so, with these thoughts for his country, he
was removed from the toils and temptations of this life, and
was at peace.