Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-12-03
The President,s message.

message The document is neither unreason-
ably long nor undressing. Therefore, it
has undoubtedly been read carefully by every
person likely to read anything that may be
written in regard to it.
The principal topic of the message is the
slavery question. The president feels and
says earnestly that the abolition of slavery is
Indispensable to the salvation and permanent
safety of the Union. Slavery is the prime
cause of our present troubles. If there were
no slavery in the land there would be no civil
war and no attempt to divide the Union. Re-
move slavery, or make it certain that the bar
baEous thing will speedily be exterminated,
and the civil war will cease, the Union will he
restored, and the ''great republic" relieved of
this element of disturbance and destruction,
will become the most powerful, prosperous,
and permanent of nations. The very landw
inhabit, as well as the national and sectional
needs of the people, demands Union; and
nothing but slavery operates to prevent it.
Such are the views of the president; and he
urges them upon the attention of congress and
the country, with great earnestness, and with
to impress, if not pursuade, even the rebels
themselves.
What the president sees so clearly is be-
coming more and more apparent to the people
of the loyal slave states. In Missouri the
people are demanding emancipation and TAX
ing measures to secure it. In kentucky,
Maryland, and Delaware, the purpose to get
rid of slavery, by some method, grows and
spreads; and, ere long, it will control their
political action. A distinguished Kentuckian,
her etofore intimately connected with the
most proslavery form of our national politics,
said in conversation, the other day cit
is clear enough that slavery or the Union
must be destroyed; and this is now so plain
that it is difficult for any man to defend and
uphold slavery without becoming a traitor"
He is now ready to eradicate slavery in order
to save the Union; and his influence will be
used to secure the adoption of the presidents
plan in Kentucky. There are many such men,
who, instead of adhering to their old position
in regard to slavery, will rise with the oc-
uasion and say with the president :-''As our
case is new, so must think anew and act
anew" and if not by the plan proposed by
the president, then by some other method,
slavery in the loyal slave states will be exter-
minated by the Union people of those states,
and that, too, long before the first day of JAN
uary, in the year of our Lord 1900.
We do not see how any really patriotic
man can fail to sympathze with the presi-
give peace and security to the republic. Ques-
tons may be raised and discussion may take
place in regard to the method of reaching
this end; but it seems to us impossible to op-
pose the end itself without being driven to use
arguments and representations that virtually
justify the rebel conspirators, and plead their
cause against the government. The presi-
dent has proposed several methods for secur-
ing the abolition of slavery in the loyal slave
states. His earnestness, however, is not in
behalf of any particular method of procedure,
but in behalf of the object to be accom-
phi shed. He renews his appeal to the border
slave tates to initiate Tor themselves the
policy of compensated emancipation, and he
declares that neither the war against the reb-
els, nor proceedings under his emancipation
proclamation will be stayed on account of the
new plan proposed in his message 1t is still
his purpose to proclaim emancipation in the
rebel states on the first day of January, 1868,
and take measures to make the proclamation
effectual The new plan is ''not in exclusion
of, but additional to" his other measures.
The concurrence of seven slave states with
all the free states, is required to amend the
federal constitution as the president proposes.
Missouri, we presume, is ready to adopt the
amendments. Kentucky, Maryland and Del
aware may be led to adopt them and Virginia,
also, represented by the loyal legislature at
Wheeling. Will Tennessee, and Arkansas,
or Louisiana, Florida, Texas, or
some other southern state be brought in
to a condition to do so? 1t is to the
Union men in the loyal slave states that the
proposition is chiefly addressed; and, if it is
adopted, they must come forward to secure
its success. But whether adopted or not,
the presidents proposition will not be without
effect. twill stimulate wholesome discussion
in the slave states, and thus prepare the way
lot cIldIClpdllOn III SOHle lOTllls anu lue ues-
sage will promote in Europe more correct
and general comprehension of the cause of
our civil war, and of thS purpose of the gov
government in seeking to crush the rebellion.
1t will strengthen the opinion and influence in
Europe that now obstruct the desire of the
French and British governments to interfere
in behalf of the rebels.
1t seems very plain, however, and probably
the president himself sees as clearly as any
one, that his most etfectual measure agains
slavery is the proposed destruction of the in
stitution in the rebel states by virtue of the
war power He will carry out this measure
without falterng; and, when it is made eff
fectual, slavery cannot remain long in any
other part of the nation.
TIE democratic factionists opened their bat
terieson the administration on the first day Of
the session. Before the message had beer
sent in, Messrs. Vallandgham and Cox o.
Ohio, and Richardson of Illinois, had theil
pet grievances before the house, and com.
PEELED division. Vallandigham's resolution
Of inquiry into the restraints placed upon the
transmission Of newspapers through the mail,