Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-09-26
THE PRESIDENTS TRIUMPH.

dSOSIldtil Ill Wlldl lUdlltlCE lilSl NONiH
their affectionate fidelity to the president
since he won HIS VICTORY over the rebelllon'
The modesty of most of them has somewhat
moderated their enthusiasm, while other
causes may have contributed in some degree
to the solemn and profound silence on this
subject which pervades all of them. Here
and there, at rare intervals, claw of the
cloven foot comes into the light, and is then
withdrawn; but for the most part the ex-
pressed sentiment of the country upon the
now settled national policy of Freedom, is
either of joyful exultation or of dutiful and
patriotic acquiescence.
This is sufficient reward for the faithful la
borers who went into the vineyard when la
borers were few, and the work severe. 1t is
within the memory of the living, though
measured by the marvellous progress of
events it seems ages ago, when a merciless
prescription rested upon every advocate Of
the policy which Mr.. Lincoln-GOd preserve
and uphold him till his work is finished has
now lifted to the dignity of law and history.
Men of faith and self-sacrifce,-w have
seen the seed which they planted in sorrow
become stately and fruitful trce-now stand
upon their feet tirmly,-by the event OF this
week, the event of this epoch, approved and
justified before mankind They were mar
tyrs; they will be heroes. They were cast
out from the favor which belonged to them;
they will return to confound the usurpers and
recover their rightful throne. The mob, the
riot, the prescription which have followed
them for a generation will hereafter share the
infamous memory of the prosecutions which
have always attended the birth and infancy of
ideas.
Two controlling reasons commend the pres
ident's proclamation to the approval of all who
are truly loyal-its NECESSITY and its JUSTICE.
Whatever quietists and doubters might have
feared, every intelligent person knows it was
slavery that had garroted the republic, and
held it at its mercy. Except here and there
upon the sea coast, and within the lines of a
small portion of our army, that organized sys-
TEN of compulsory labor had for a year and
half poured its vast productiveness into the
storehouses and magazines of the enemy, to
be used for the overthrow of the liberties of
us all. The president, oppressed by re-
sponsibilities to which he was not accustomed,
bnrdened and not strengthened by the multi
tude of his counsellors, slow
ITO inform his unacquainted feet
In the blind mazes of this tangled wood"
waited with marvellous patience for the time
to come when he could give public reason
for the policy which the matured convictions
of his understanding and the best impulses of
lis heart inclined him to adopt. To many
honest and sagacious patriots the time seemed
fully ripe many months ago. Atlast it seemed
ripe to him. He has indicated his sagacity
and wisdom in his own time. He has disap-
pointed only those whose confidence in him
begun earliest to fail. The public safety he
has made his law, in obedience to which the
government which for eighty years had stood
between the slave and his freedom now
stands between the slave and his master
This beginning Of a salutary revolution, this
newness of national life, for its relation to the
public welfare alone, will give to the admin
istration of Mr. Lincolna glory for which the
fairest statesmen in history would gladly ex-
change their own. 1t may with truth be
said of him as the younger Pitt said of Lord
Shelburne in the crisis of his ministry,
through the difficult path that is before him he
can afford to be firm in the dignity of his chos-
en- purpose, conscious of having contributed
to the public advantage, and if not always at
faO6aJ with tl,o fuIcOy,o ,,lo IS
still possessed of the substantial and perma-
nent satisfaction arising from the habitua APP
probation of an upright mind.
And as the political wisdom of the act, Sc
curing freedom in its inevitable consequences
to the African race on this continent, will ul-
timately commend it to all patriots, so its sub
lime humanity will commend it to all the
world. Whatever benefits individuals, bene-
fits mankind. There is no human creature
so mean, so humble, so crushed, who is not
better as freeman than as a slave. 1t is his
right to be ree-depending not upon prece-
dents, not upon the concessions of the strong,
but upon the original nature of things He
cannot be for one moment robbed of his right,
without wrong to him, and arrangement of
the natural economy of the race. He must
some time come to his own, peacefully if it
will be allowed to him, violently if men will
blindly stand between him and the inspiration
which commands him to be free. Happy is he
upon whom the power has descended, to open
peacefully way out of this fearful danger, and
lead the meanest and poorest by the hand out
Of all the wards of his prison. The presi-
dents proclamation is the promise and begin
ming of this new revolution. 1t is the lever
by which the degraded and oppressed race
driven for generations to do the labor and ex-
ecute the will of people hostile to their own
shut out from all ordinary means of intelli-
gence and all inducements to seif-elevation,
useless for good, unwillingly the instruments
of incalculable evil to the country which they
would have gladly served, and to the posterity
they were compelled to bring into the utter
darkness of this world-will be lifted in time
into the light which belongs to them, into the
life to which they were born.
The nation has not cried in vain, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? The
Towering Of the bloody harvest is coming in
the appointed time, and every stone shall fall
where it is due. We may not truly estimate
the severity Of the struggle through which