The Portland daily press., 1862-11-04

iNpNfaiCbt
endorse the emancipation proclamation, which
| is equivalent to mans declaring his intention
to feed the hungry who gives an excellent din
ner to his laboring men and then applies the
stomach pump. They will tell many wonder
full things, and they will persistently seek to
impress the public mind that when the 'outs"
are in and sins" are out we shall have a settle
ment of all our difficulties and a very celestial
era till time shall be no more.
Do you believe it?
What would the South say? When they
have spoken it has invariably been in the most
contemptuous terms OF their former allies.
They reckoned upon the opposition of the Re-
publicans, but they counted upon a divided
North; and it is too late for those whom they
expected to find open avowed friends to throw
off the mask, if they have been wearing one,
or to change their tactics. Let us suppose
that, rather than to see this war prolonged,
there should be party rise up which would
offer to guarantee the South all it ever claimed
for slavery if they would come back into the
Union. What would it avail? The leaders
of this rebellion have taught the people to be-
lieve that separate and glorious coniederacy
was to be the enid of this war; they have infla-
ted millions with the hope that when peace
came they would be monarchs of the soil, with
negroes on every hand to do their bidding
If the leaders of the rebellion, worn out by
the hopelessness oftheir cause, which they keep
carefully concealed were to entertain the idea
the infatuated people, if they accepted or re-
jected such proposition, would feel equally
inclined to adjust their claims for what they had
suffered by making the leaders forfeit their
lives. The rebel Generals know today that
they have but one future. Ifthey fail, flight to
some foreign country, or death, stares them in
the face. Would such men accept any propo-
sition which would inevitably be their ruin
They would spurn any offer ofcompromise, of for
they have raised the whrlwind and they must
ride on it. What has the North to do? Is not
our duty plain? Can any true patriot fail to
see that to support the President is not his du-
ty merely, but his only way to crush designing
politicians at home and secure for his children
a land to live in.
We have no afliation with the Abolition
lists, and never have had-though to be called
an abolitionists has no terror when used as
term of reproach for sustaining the Presidents
proclamation. We have not sat at home grow
ling at Generals, or viewing the different cam
paigns anxious for this mans rise or that mans
fall. We have rejoiced as a friend to General
Mcclellan in his victories, and we have only
had words of censure when we have seen the
offerings of the heart blood and treasure of the
people poured, as we have thought at times
into the laps of men who were trifling through
selfiishness with the fate of the nation. We
have been patient and long suffering people );
we have hoped in vain that the south might
feel that the majority of the North, so great
that the minority may almost be called by
name, would wake from its dream and under
stand that it never was intended to interfere
in any way with their right to slavery where
it existed.
We see now that we can have peace when we
are conquered or have conquered. Ii is folly
to delay. Let the attack be made where the
knife will cut the keenest-for it is justice to
ourselves, or if you please selfish desire, not
TO form part of a conquered race. 1t is war
which is to decide our national existence. 1t
is the law of self preservation which appeals to
us, for such is the malignant spirit which per-
vades large majority at the South, there is
no question offered us to discuss, no way open
to avoid our own humiliation, degradation,
and possibly humiliation, but to use all means
to blast and wither. We are aware that this
seems unchristain, but we are dealing with
fends. Let them but complete fleet of iron
clad steamers-and they are working hard to
build or buy one-and what mercy would they
show to Northern city if they could lay it
successfully under contribution? We of the
present have no hopes of their clemency for
the evil they would accomplish would oaly be
limited by their power to execute, while for the
millions yet to people this great country, let
us see that the foot prints which we leave are
those of strong men faithful in their day and
generation to the great burden which we are
called upon to bear
We are not attempting to make any plea in
behalf of the Republican Party, as political
organization, by presenting these views to our
readers, or to gain votes for any man for any
OluCe. Ii we call succeed III awakening the
thoughtful men to consideration of the whole
subject we know their votes and their money
will not be given to aid in the reconstruction
of an old party whose mission has concluded,
and which has no vitality to-day save in the
selfishness of those who seek to obtain lost
power. We feel that no true patriot can join
an organization which is controlled by men
who openly confess their opposition to the adj
ministration, and who were the main stays of
the government then in power which tamely
submitted to every insult from the South, and
withheld single thunderbolt, which would
have crushed secession almost ere it took
breath. 1t is true conservatism now to do
nothing which can encourage the South it is
true patriotism to do everything which can
make Abraham Lincoln feel that the strong
arm of the nation is ready to sustain him.
From our Regular Correspondent
Letter from fhe Stata Cap;taI