New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-08-23
TERNrs oF sEpARATIoN.

I <
The Washington correspondent Of the Springfield
Republican reports the following. The Republican
is an intense Abolition paper, published in the
heart of Massachusetts,:
The President is very FIRM. To all who despair
of putting down the rebellion he says, remember
that it is just as necessary, to conquer the renels
TO DICTATE DECENT TERMS OF SEPARATION, as 1t IS
for the purpose of preserving the Union. II we
were TO stop fighting now, the rebels would die
tate Just such terms as they shall see fit. There
would be no living with them in peace"
So old Abe has given up all hope of bringing
back the rebels into the Union. He only wants to
whip them sonndly, so that he may get decent
terms of separation, This is considerable recess
sion from his original design and we suppose we
shall hear no more now about renstating the Fed
eral authority in the seeded States.
What, though, if the condition upon which he
proposes to dictate decent terms of separation y
should fail? What if the rebels should not be con-
quered? What if Manassas, Oak Hill and Bethel
should be repeated, over and over again, whenever
the two contending armies meet? Will not Abe's
ability to dictate those terms decline with every
repulse Will he not be finally compelled to ac-
cept terms, instead Of debating them? Had he
not better make hay while the sun shines, and take
peace now on good terms, instead of waiting until
he is forced to accept it on whatever terms may be
offered him
The South never desired war, but did everything
it could to avoid it. We sent commissioners to
Washington to arrange peaceable separation,
but they were rejected by the Federal administra-
ton. Our President proclaimed in his first message
that we desired peace, and weuld take up arms
only in selfdefence. The whole course of the
North shows that that section meant war from the
beginning--and now that they have commenced it
by invading the soil of the South, they may have
as much of it as they want. We are ready and
| able to fight it out to the bitter end.
But if our Commissioners had been received, and
an agreement for a peaceful separation entered
into how different would now be the condition of
the whole country The North would have saved
a debt of some three or four hundred millions of
dollars. The money has been expended, and for
what? Is there any greater prospect of establish
ing the Federal authority in the South now than
when the war began? On the contrary, the very
fact of making war drove three or four Southern
States out of the Union, turned Southern Unonists
into Secessionists, and consolidated the entire
South in the purpose of resistance. The war
policy, in the course of five months has cost the
Union four States, fearful debt, the stagnaton
and in some places, the utter prostration of bust
ness and, above ALL the lives of thousands of mis-
guided men whose blood has run red upon the
field Of battle. And the longer it lasts, the more
terrible will be the account. Other Southern
States will cut loose from the Union the national
debt will be piled up still higher, more victims will
fall, business in the North will be destroyed and
that section viii be nationally if not Individually
bankrupt. These results are just as certain as
fate. And yet the miserable fools who control the
affairs of the Northern Government still persist in
their mad and reckless policy.
On one account, only, does the South regret the
war and that is the loss of her brave defenders
upon the field. Whatever Inconvenience we may
temporarily suffer, whatever sacrifices we may be
called upon to make, will be small in comparison
with the grand benefits and blessings we shall Sc
cure along with our independence. The war is
running the North irretrievably, but is the pre-
cursor of the salvation and regeneration of the
South.
As for the North's debating terms of separation,
the idea is simply absurd. The terms upon which
the war will be closed are known to Abraham
Lincoln, and have been for four months; and we
may rest assured they will be exacted to their
fullest extent. In those three plain words, let
us alone,n President Davis has set forth our con-
ditions of peace. Every yestige of Federal au-
thority must be removed from the limits of the
Confederate States. The North must let US alone,
and we will let it alone There is room for two
Confederacies in place of the old Union, and there
are two; and the war will cease, and cease only,
when the North recognizes this fact and with
draws its armies from our soil.