Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-01-23
SLAVERY AND THE WAR.

II is becoming painfully apparent that an
opposition is being systematically, by precon'
cert, organized against the administration Of
President Lincoln, in the loyal States. The
opposition is composed of those who insist
that the Government should proclaim in the
most distinct and undisguised manner, that
the object and end of the present war against
the seeded States shall be the emancipation
Of the slaves. The leaders of the opposition
insist that the President shall renounce his
policy as proclaimed in the Republican Plat
form and in his inaugural message, and in his
subsequent annual message to Congress, and
instead of making the declared and real pur-
pose of the war to be to retake possession of
the stolen property of the Union in the Sc
ceeded States, and to re-establish its author
ity and supremacy therein, leaving the re-
bellious States after their restoration to the
Union, to control their local institutions in
their own way, they clamor for an avowed
policy which shall have for its end and pur-
pose, not the restoration of the Union as it
was, but the total and immediate abolition of
slavery, reg ardless of the Union, and of all
Interior consequences.
Though we fully admit that slavery is the
cause of the present rebellion; that those who
have engaged in the attempt to destroy our
Government have done so in the hope and
expectation, if they are successful, Of
strengthening and perpetuating the insttu-
ton for all time, upon this continent, we are
compelled to believe that their object will be
as completely frustrated by the restoration of
the Federal Constitution and authority, sim.
ply, as it would be by the remuneration ofthe
Constitution on our part for the purpose Of
waging direct warfare upon the institution
itself The theory upon which President
Lincoln is conducting this war, is founded
upon the assumption that the Union as not
broken up-that the Constitution is still IN
force an all of The rebeitious States, and so long
as this theory is maintained, as it must be,
by those who are looking hopefully for
speedy restoration of the authority of the
general government, it will not do, ON our
part, who stand by the Constitution and in
sist upon its being enforced, to overlap its
provisions ou,selveS We who 5nSist others
shall obey the Constitution under the penalty
Of hanging as traitors, must not at the same
time violate ii on our part.
Look at it Our armies are on the eve of a
grand combined movement. Suppose our
military operations are successful, and the
South is subdued within the next three or
six months, and made TO resume her allegi-
ance, as we fondly hope, and have been con-
stantly predicting she will do, if the military
power which has control of her destinies for
the time being is eftectually checked, broken
and vanquished. In such an event should a
majority of the people of the seeded States
decide to resume their old place in the I'M
ion, who would not for the sake of peace,
welcome them back into the sisterhood of
States, with all their rights of local Selfgov-
eminent, under the .Constitution unimpaired,
and in the same vigor that they existed, and
were recognized by the Republican Party in
its platform adopted at Chicago? But if the
emancipation policy be adopted we would
~"i'"d to reject the offer of the So.
ceaes States to return upon the cop0i''" "a
A.. oasort 70 the terms of the Constitution
Ava we ready to hazard that : Is It MOI
enough that peace on such terms would place
us in as good a position as if the rebellion haC
never taken place '~that we should have
REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION that th'
mower of slavery would be entirely and for
ever destroyed as an aggressive propagan
dis. institution So it seems to us. No on
would dare to invoke the prolonged and IN
tprmInaDle h0TfOf5 Oh wal III TO wv AN'N -
pulsive phases of civil and insurrechonar
strife, If peace may be obtained upon sue
terms. Therefore it is we commend th
policy of the President. 1t is the polio
which looks to speedy termination OF tt
war, and the gradual Abolition and ultima
extinction Of slavery in the good providen'
of God. The opposite policy is that of a
archy, of an indefinite prolongation OF t
war, of the permanent disruption OF the u
ion, of the inoonoeivable horrors OF serv
insurrection, attendant upon immedi'
emancipation.
In another view does thei emancipau
policy appear to US to be futile and mlschi'
Gus. Shareholders have declared for mon
and years that the object of the Republic
party after attaining to power, would be
immediate enfranchisement OF the slaves
This has been the theme of the press and