The New York herald., 1862-09-27

Slavery Proclama tion-"The Pope's
| Bun Against tho Comet"
The special deputation which recently waited
upon President Lincoln, with . memorial from
an abolition meeting in Chicago in favor of ma
tional emancipation, have rendered no small
service to the country in procuring in advance
of its issue, the Presidents sensible views of his
late comprehensive proclamation on the sub
| ject. Thus the truth il made manifest that this
proclamation, beyond the enforcement of the
| Confscation act is only tub to the abolition
whale, the President regarding it as ''necessa
| riy imperative like the Pope's bull against
| the comet
lie very pointedly and properly asked of
| this aforesaid committee, "What good would
proclamation of emancipation from me
do, especially as we now stand Would
my word free the slaves, when l can
| not even enforce the constitution in
the rebel Statess Is there q single court,
| or magistrate, or individual, that would
| be influenced by it there? And what reason is
there to think it would have any greater effect
| upon the slaves than the late act of Congress
| (Confiscation), which Iapproved, and which Of
fers protection and freedom to the slaves Of
rebel masters who come within our lines! And
suppose they could be induced by proclama-
ton Of freedom from me to throw themselves
upon us, what should we do with thems How
| can we feed and care for such multtudey
| General Butler wrote me few days since that
| he was issuing more rations to the slaves who
| have rushed to him than to all the white troops
under his command. They eat, and that is all
though it is true that General Butler is feeding
| the whites also by the thousands; for it nearly
| amounts to a famine there" These remarks of
| President Lincoln clearly show that he has no
faith in the miracles which his Chicago com
mittee so eloquently assured him would finish
up this rebellion with proclamation ofemanc-
patton.
| But to silence the clamors Of our shrieking
and bowling abolition faction, and to put them
| to the test of their PROMISES including new
batch Of nine hundred thousand volunteers for
the war, President Lincoln has issued his pro
| camation of emancipation. He declares that
af'er the first day Of January next all the slaves
| in every State. or in any designated part there
of. which shall be then in rebellion against the
| Union, shall be then, thencelorward and for
| ever Free" There, good people, is your pro-
clamation. 1t practically signifies nothing; but
much is gained if you will only stop this in
tolerable clamor. Very true, in the interval to
| the 1st of January, the armies Of the rebellion
may be pushed down into the cotton States
| and then, with the advance of our forces,
our abolition fanatics may anticipate the
practical work Of sweeping emancipation.
But there is no occasion for sensible men
to apprehend any such thing. With the
northern frontier line of the rebel armies push
ed down into the cotton States, there will be an
| end of the rebellion. Further resistance in the
exhausted cotton States, when placed between
our victorious armies on the land side and our
ironclad gunboats on the sea side, will be mad
ness, and those States, with their institution of
slavery, will be saved by seasonable capitula-
ton.
Such are doubtless the expectations Of the
President, and hence these three months grace
which he allows to the States involved in this
rebellion to save themselves and their domestic
institutions. Slavery as local affair in the loyal
border slave States, remains untouched and
respected, and it will be respec ted in every re-
bellious State which shall have returned to its
allegiance and be represented in Congress
| by the lst of January. The President
thus expects to reclaim, and not to
destroy, the people of our rebellious
States. He has, we dare say, not the remotest
| idea that this conditional proclamation Of
emancipation will 60 into practical effect. He
| expects this rebellion to be suppressed before
the expiration Of the present year, and that thus
the question of slavery under the constitution
will be restored to the absolute control of each
Of the States directly concerned in the main
| tenance or removal of the institution.
These three months grace to our rebellious
| States have secured to the President, let US
| hope, a three months armstice from our besotted
abolitionsts. And If, during this interval they
in good faith cease TO embarrass and torment
him. and cease TO intermeddle with the plans
and movements Of our armies, we have no
doubt that Honest Abraham Lincoln's great OBJ
ject of restoring the Union in its integrity will
be consumma ted before the end of the year.
THE REBEL ACCOUNTS or THE BATTLE OF An
TlErAx CREEK.-we published yesterday the
first rebel accounts of the battle of Antetam
creek, from the Petersburg papers and Richmond
| kilograms. From these extracts it is apparent
| that the battle has been most serious blow to
the rebels. and that they have concluded to re-
linquish all hope Of reclaiming Maryland. OF
course they claim the result Of the battle as
rebel victory. They do that with every battle,
no matter which way 1t is decided. They fail to
explain, however, how such victory was fol-
lowed by SO disorderly retreat across the Po-
tomac. They admit that the loss during the
brief raid into Maryland was greater than in
any previous battles since the time Of Napoleon.
We have the best authority for stating that our
loss in killed and wounded in the several bat