The Portland daily press., 1862-10-24
They Refuse to Meet the Issue.

IL is 10 bC ltSIStttN tHdl. iOi ItdSDDs
best known to themselves. the opponents of
that proclamation dodge the real issue, and
continually thrust forward false issues-issues
subordinate in their character, and which ap-
peal not to the latent patriotism of the people,
and their willingness to make sacrifices for
their country's good, but rather take hold of
the crueleSt prejudices of the common mind,
and the lowest motives which can influence
community in an hour of common danger.
1t is now nearly two years since one State
South Carolina-like a lawless planet, flew
from the orbit in which for more than half a
century it had revolved, severing, so far as its
own act could, the bond which, like gravita-
tion in the solar system, had held it in proper
allegiance to the common center of the sys-
TEN Of which it was part. That act of in
subordination was soon followed by kindred
acts on the part of other States, and in the
April following the rebellion against law and
constitutional authority-up to that time blood
less in its progress-culminated in open, de-
fant, bloody war upon the flag of our coun-
tryand the forcible capture of one Of the FORTS
the common property of the nation.
1t was then that the rebels, flushed with vic
tory, and Intoxicated with their inglorious sue
cess, through their cabinet minister's threaten
ed to occupy the national capital, and to die
tate law to the country from the federal city,
on the then approaching 4th of July, and to
run up the symbol OF their rebellion on the
flag staff of Faneuil Hall! 1t was then that
Ill aoI Io- t,la
of the capital, and the nation first became fully
alive to the terrible consciousness that its very
existence was threatened, and that every en-
ergy must be taxed to prevent the erasure of
the American Union from the map of the
world.
And for what was all this? What caused
this fearful attempt of wicked men to over
throw the government Of their fathers? Grant,
II the opponents of the means adopted to put
down the rebellion demand it, that slavery has
had nothing to do with inaugurating our trou-
bles, still the fact exists that the troubles are
upon us, and the further fact stands out that
the rebellion was commenced the very day af-
ter the Presidential election, and it was openly
and plainly declared to be because of the re-
suit of that election, and of the determination
of the rebels not to submit to the rule of Off
GERS elected by the Republican party. In
other words, it was blow aimed at Consttu-
tional authority and Constitutional liberty
the liberty of the people, through the Consti-
tional voice of the majority, to select their own
rulers and to govern themselves. 1t was a
blow at the vital element of all genuine prac-
tical democracy-the right of the majority to
govern, within the prescribed limits of the
Constitution. Such being the fact, the rebell-
ion stands forth without excuse, without justi-
fable cause, a bloody, wicked, diabolica revolt
against the freest and best government on the
face of the earth.
In the progress of the war forced upon the
government by the disunionists, il has become
plainly and painfully apparent to the Presi-
dent of the United States, that the institution
of slavery has been the great source OF strength
to the rebel states; that i. has enabled all the
white strength to be pressed into actual strife,
and that to destroy this institution in such
states, would be to strike rebellion in its most
vulnerable point, and to open vein through
which would flow its vital blood. He has
come-in common with large proportion OF
the best thinkers of the country-to the con-
clusion that the sidre potcer is the potcer of
the rebellion; that it is arrayed against the
authority of law and the Constitution, and
to strike 1t is to strike the rebellion itself
and it is because of his convictions on this
point, and not from any abolition synpathies,
that he has issued his Emancipation Proclama-
ton.
As a statesman, as the Executive head of
the nation, or as Commander-in- of the
army, it is admitted that the President has no
right to be controlled by mere sentiment, by
his sympathies. or by his moral convictions
alone, and he has not been. He has been forced
up to the step he has taken by no fanatcal
spirits, by no radical politicians, by no aversion
to slavery per sc, by no sympathy for abolition
or anti-slavery, Though we do not believe he
Is cold or dead to such feelings,) but he has
been forced by his conviction that SLAVERY is
the po,cer behind the rebellion, from which it
derives its strength and sustenance, aud with
out which it would become nerveless and inef-
1t has been inaugurated
Now the plain question before the people
involved in the proclamation-is, not whether
freedom will benefit the negroes, whether
emancipation is desirable, whether the negroes
in freedom will support themselves, whether
emancipation will increrse the taxes, whether
1t will overrun the free States, whether il will
interfere with northern labor, whether it will
take from the industrial productions of the
dit is none of these nor all combined,
but the question is, will the emancipation of
the slaves in the rebel states, reduce the
strength Of the rebellion itself, and render its
subjugation an easier task? Will it be step
towards subduing the rebellion? This is the
real issue. Emancipation may not be desirable
to some people, but if it will aid in comquering
peace, is not that desirable? 1t is not to
benefit the slaves that emancipation is 10 be
decreed, but to benefit the country. Does any
one say the negroes will overrun the north. if
freed, and that this would be an evil? But
are not the rebels themselves trying to over
run the north, to rob and destroy,-and is not
this greater evil? Are armed, murderous
rebels less to be feared than harmless-even if
indolent-blacks
If the opponents of n,-emanci-
patton not SO much for emancipation's sake as
for the conntry's sake,-would confne them
selves TO the real issue, it would be better for
the public peace and they would do less mis-