The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1862-09-27

the issue OF Proclamation Ornancipoting
all the negroes in the rebel statsaL The
proclamation, (Which il publ,shed in an
other eolumn,) declares in substance, that
in all states or parts Of states that shall b
in rebellion on tho LIST Of January next,
the slaves shall be free, and if those slaves
| rise in rebellion against their masters the
government will do nothing to discourage
| them in it that if there be any loyal men
| in those states, he shall recommend that
they be compensated for their loss ofprop.
erty; and while this proclamation is not
intended to affect loyal slaves states, yet
to those states he earnestly recommends
the acceptance of the liberal offer hereto-
fore made them Of compensation If they
will declare for general emancipation.
The proclamation as We have said, 10
stunning and alarming" because IN our
honest judgment, it is not only net war
rented by. but subversive Of the constitu-
ton" Hitherto the profession has been,
that the present war is waged to uphold
the consultation. Are We not justified
then, in applying those terms to presi
dental act which abandons that object,
and threatens to make it war to free
the negro1
The government Of tho United States,
under the Constitution and laws, can deal
with rebels only an individuals. Rebels
in arms eau be met by the government in
arms and shot down if they refuse to sub
nit they may be pardoned, paroled, re-
tanned, or exchanged a. prisoners of war,
or tried and hung for treason, or punished
by the confscatiop Of their property. But
. stote, in its corporate capacity, in rebel
lion against the government of the U. 8.
is thing unknown to the constitution or
laws. To recognise state IS standing in
that attitude, is to recognise it's independ-
ence; is to recognise the dissolution Of tho
Enion Is fact accomplished; and the war
against the south As not waged to punish
and subdue traitors, bat to ssbjugate indie.
pendent, hostile states.
The con6scation act proposed to PUNISH
traitors. Tho idea was, that, Is rapidly -
our army entered rebel state, the prop
erty of known traitors should be seized
and conhscated for the use Of tho army,
aud their slaves declared emancipatsd and
sent to the rear. Under this law, il it had
been necessary that our army should
overrun every Southern state before the
rebellion could be subdusd, of course the
end Of the would have seen the end of
But the slaves would have been
liberated. The conhsea-
ton would have been inflicted. in each
case. as a punishment of the individual
tr.iter. on undoubted proof of his treason.
TIE Proclamation, however, while the
President himself admits that it will ke
not one whit more rapid and sfficacious in
freeing slaves than the act, directs its aim
At slavery As an INSTITUTION Of the rebel.
lious states, and, regardless of the guilt or
innocense of the slaveholder individually,
abrogates the institution and repeats or
nuliiies the laws to those states. The
distisctIon between the t<o is broad and
vital: the one Furnishes t~diuiduals as rebels,
the other states As rebcllious.
The effect will be, of course to change
the whole character 0f TIE gar. The
Union - It was, II this proclamation Is en-
forced, is gone forever. beyead the psssi-
bility Of restoration. Under the oon6s- |
cation act, our .1~y might have liberated
every rebel slave in Virginia, Geoesi., or
all the southern states yet the ssoere,9sfy
of the state would haveremained untouch-
ed bat this Proclamation abrogates that
sovereignty, and reduces the state 70 =
conquered province. This is overriding
tho constitution and multiplying its most
vital provision; and as the only plea OF
the northern government for enforcing /,
obedience to the constitution upon the ,
rebels has been, that We ourselves have |
kept the mutual compact unbroken, this
fatal Proclamation xbasd that plea, and /
sccords to the rebel states the long cove !
ted justification Of . mutual breach for
their treason.
1t is true the proclamation does not 60 !
into immediate effect-it is, As yet, only
threat, and as NO one can foresee what
three months may bring forth, it may yet
prove harmless. For the present, tho ap-
ologists of the president defend it by argu. ,
ing that, if our armies succeed in demon.
stratins by the Let of January, their ability
to overruu the whole south, it will insure
the submission Of the rebels by that date
to save their property. The hope will
prove delusive. The rebels know very
we'll that whether they submit sooner or
later, their right to hold slaves will never
be taken from them. II they ever return
to the Union, nothing il moro certain
that they will return with their state SOY.
srsignty intact. All thought Of their ever |
returning must be forever abandoned, il it
is expected to enforce the proclamation |
to the letter. This involves the annihila- |
ton of the south, and is the converse
proposition to the restoration of the Union
Such Is our honest conviction. The
proclamation il useless, for it will never be
enforced. while as threat We have no faith
in it. Such men IS make up the back
bone of the South are osly irritated and
assadened, never sabdued by threat
The south will only fight the harder.
Yet We hold ourselves open to convic-
ton Ivy The logic Of essants. Uufaltering
a. is our faith still in the honesty and
good intentions Of tho PRESIDENT. We shall
be IS pleasingly disappointed IS any man
can be, if his threat shall be productive of
good. Least Of all, while No earnestly
deprecate and deplore it, will We mike
even that error (for We can only regard it
a such) the occasion for ceasine to exhort