The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1862-05-17
FRANCE AND THE AMERICAN TREASON

.91f4E-- -
When, some weeks eince, it was ~announc-
ed that the French Minister had gone to
Richmond, great curiosity was manifest all
over the country, to know whether that Wis
it was made in the interest Of France, or of
mankind, or more strictly of the American
people. The N. Y, Times, after the lapse
of more than two weeks from the date of
the aforesaid visit, speaks as by authority,
and says it was not in the interest of trade,
it was not in the interest of rebellion that
the important visit was made. Ire French
Minister went by direct instruction of his
master to tell the insurgents that mankind
regarded their experiment as having ended,
and that, in failure /; that, having measured
material resources and material attributes
with the National Government, they had
been found unequal to the conflict that a
further prosecution Of a bootless war would
be q damage to the world, which other ma
tions were not called upon to suffer gratui-
tously !; and that its continuation by the
only means which the rebels now propose,
namely, the destruction of the crops, the
devastation of the country, and the licens-
ing of innumerable marauding and g%uerril-
la parties, is an outrage. upon civilization,
which cannot for o moment be Suffered
The strict adherence of the National Exec
utive to the programme laid down by Mr..
LINCOLN at the outburst Of the war, is
pointed out to the rebel Government. His
emancipation policy is commended as a
proper basis of accommodation between
the two sections the North Withdrawing all
proposals for immediate m%anumission, and
the South undertaking to provide for the
prospective and gradual liberation of all its
slaves. On these general principles the
Emperor, through NJ. Mercier, declares the
contest should be terminated and to frame
an equitable adjustment be implicitly ten
ders his service as arbiter. The rebel gov
eminent is left to infer that in declining
such pacific settlement, it will incur the ad-
verse opinion of mankind, in the presence
of which no nationality can perpetuate its
existence.
The importance of this diplomatic inter.
vention it is impossible to ~exaggerate. 1t
must dissipate the last hopes of the rebels.
Against a world thus practically in arms
against them, they cannot make head. The
'obstinacy of the insurgents 10 a cause bad
at once and hopeless cause which par
.alyzes the industry, and starves the working
classes Of Europe, which presents to civil.
lied humanity the spectacle of atrocities,
from which savages in this nineteenth CEN
fury abstain, which in a word destroys the
political balance of the world, and all under
pretence of perpetuating q domestic insti-
tuition, from which philanthropy r%evolts;
these conditions of the struggle annot be
sanctioned by Christendom even through
acquiescence ; and hence the propriety of
the Imperial protest. If the rebels persist
in fighting, they must be prepared to fnd
their antagonist backed hereafte. by al
there is good, and great, and powerful on
the face of the earth.
VuA pASSCus otuuu- pOAub ~ Is lm.
possible to tell what influence the represen-
tations of the French Envoy may have ex-
cited. Have they anything to do with the
precipitate adjournment Of the rebel Con-
gress, the evacuation of New Orleans, the
rumored withdrawal Of Beauregard from
Corinth, or the evacuation, of Yorktown !?
Is the basis of submission SO far arranged
that it only requires a preparation of the
Southern mind for the act, through a series
OF reverses, demonstrating the utter hope
~lessness of resistance, and the certainty OF
subsection? On these questions, the events
of the next few days will throw great light.
1t is not at all Impossible that the leaders
of treason will yield to the force of circum-
stances and external PRESSURE, and seek full
restoration to the Union upon the terms
prescribed by Mr.. Lincoln. A different de-.
cision they must at last see to be suicidal.
HOPE LEFT"