The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1862-10-11

, Mlsslsslppl giving access to all its tributi
ry streams, and the exposed front of VII
ginia, Tennessee and Arkansas, giveampl
; base for extending such proclamation
ResuMing the advance o1rselvee, wit
augmented forces, we shall find one hal
their force for garrisoning the cotton States
whilst of the remaining 800 900, larg,
numbers will necessarily fall out to replac
the industrial support of their familie
along the border. State by State, as it il
occupied and liberated, will recall for sub
reliance upon slave production. The 300,
900 will speedily become 100000, and in
stead rf concentrating back upon thei
reserves, massed in imposing column, a:
has heretofore been their policy wher
temporarily checked, the very condition o.
the South will require wide dispersion o.
their forces. Conquest suppression will
thus be rendered matters of absolute Ger
! tainty The double result of immensely
diminished numbers in the confederate
armies, and Of such separation into broken
columns for local surveillance over all
threatened slave territory, is thus seen to
How from emancipation rs a war measure
SWEEPING ARGUMENT AGAINST TIE ?ROCLA-
NATION BY REPUBLICAN PAPER
From the New York word.I
President Lincoln has swung loose from
the constitutional moorings of his inau-
gural address and his messages at the
opening of the two successive sessions of
Congress under his administration. He is
fully adrIft on the current Of radical ia.
naticism. We regret for his sake, we
lament for the sake of our country, that
he has been coereed by the insanity of
the radicals, by the denunciation of their
presses, by the threats of their Governors
and Senators that he should resign, into a
proclamation which on its face violates
the constitution, is contrary to the gene
raj current of civilization in the conduct
OF war as it has run since the Crusades, is
in opposition TO the solemn declarations
made by our government that this Was
not TO lie war Of subjugation, and in
manifest obstruction of the reunion of
those States for which the nation has
fought, and is ready 70 lavish its blood
and treasure.
We demand TO be informed whence the
President derives his power 10 issue any
such proclamation as he has now publish
ed? Not from the constitution, surely. for
it is in plain violation of some of its lead
ing provisions. Not from the laws of war,
for the laws of war tolerate no such pro-
ceedinC Not even from the so called
confiscation act, which the President was
at one time on the goint Of vetoing. for
the proclamation does not conform TO its
provisions. This proclamation is made in
pursuance Of that higher law-that is to
say, that open defiance of law-which has
distinguished the tribe of pestilent aboli-
tion agitators from the beginning. Their
moral notions are Sc sublimated and
transcendental that they do not recognize
the obligations of a compact, or the bind.
ing force of an oath, or the authority OF =
constitutional law duly enacted They
acknowledge no law but their own i'm
pulses. Sectional hate, party spirit politi-
cal passions infanled TO diaLolical fury
these are the higher law" of these
wretched zealot- in com parison with which
the sacred obligations Of the fundamental
law of the land. and the public law of
nations, are as light, in their estimation,
as the feathers of a gossamer's : wing In
obedience 20 this higher law Of unrea-
soning passion they undertook, many
years ago, 10 anrul one distasteful but
minor provision Of the constitution; now
they give loose reins TO their fanataci.m
and drive with coach-and six through
the very BODY of the instrument
The constitution confers on the Federal
government no power to change the do
mestic institutions of the States: this
policy makes changes of the most violent
and sweeping character, changes which
even the republican party in its national
conventions disclaimed any inteation of
making and admitted to be unconstitu-
tional The constitution protects the pro,
perty of all citizens from forfeiture bv
c,,ssl bn, fr,a al nd OF,
this policy intlicts heavy penalties without
even the pretence of trial, inficts them
on all the citizens of whole States without
even the pretence of any discrimination
between the innocent and the guilty,
blending them all into one indistinguish-
able mass, without any regard to whether
they had borne arms against the govern.
ment or were non -combatants, or whether
they had gone into the rebellion volun-
tarily or had been coerced into it by the
terrorism which has prevailed at the
South. The constitution describes the
crime of levying war against the United
States as treason, and makes certain broad
regula tions respecting its punishment;
but the policy in question assumes to
punish levying war in different way
from what the constitution allows it to be
punished, by Furnishing it under some
other name. A man cannot be constitu-
tionaily punished as q traitor till he has
been first tried, but this policy attempts
to circumvent the constitution by intiict-
ing the punishment under some other
form than as penalty OF treason. uni
versal confiscation OF the private property
of non.combatants throughout the whole
States, without trial, without any attempt
to odistingu;sh between innocent and guilty,
or between the property of full grown
male citizens and that of minors and
orphans, held by guardians or trustees, is
alike contrary to the constitution and to
the laws of civilized war, which respect
the private property of non-combatants.
If we descend from the constitution to
the confiscation act, We shall find this ex-
trcordinary proclamation indefensible even
on the principles of that act That law
does not act on the gross population Of
areas of country, but Oh individual persons
The forfeitures it denounces are confined
to persons in rebellion against the govern
ment What can be more preposterOus,
or a more monstrOus perversion of justice,
than to make the guilt or innocense of an
individual depend on whether the State
in which he happened to be born shall
Representatives in Congress on the first
day of January. 1t would be sufficiently
monstrous to make mans right to his
property depend on his own exercise OF
the elective franchise. Never was there
SO degrading satire on the republican
institutions as the compulsory voting re
quired by President Lincoln. But when
mans property Is made to depend moi
on whether he chooses to vote himself
but on whether his fellow -citizens chooses
to vote and whether the number voting
under the executive compulsion happens
to be majority, we are lost in astonish
ment that Chief Magistrate Of free
country should undertake to make citizens
perform what ought to be their freest act
under coercion, and to convert the oaiiot
ho~ into a criminal tribunal. What has