The Portland daily press., 1862-07-28

vent freemen from being made slaves; not to
destroy an institution, which a portion of us
only considered bad. but to save institutions
which we all alike consider good l am salts
fed you would not ask from any of your fell
low-citiZens a sacrifice not, in your Judgment,
imperatively required by the safety ofthe coun-
try.
At time like the present, when all the sands
of national feeling seem to be changing, it may
be preposterous to make any prediction in re-
lation to the future, but to our mind the sla-
very question is receiving its solution, and
from power superior to that of Congresses,
Presidents or even the armed hosts which
make up the armies of the Union. If the war
continues year longer, in spite of all the eff
forts of the government to save it, the slave
institution will become thing Of the past.
Every days experience shows that war; what
ever the design of those WOO inaugurate it, is
a great cipationist-the great antagonism
of aristocracy-the great leveller, which not
only brings lofty heads to the block, but melts
the chains that bind the oppressed in the dust.
War may have its peculiar despotism, but it
swings wide open dungeons doors, and RACES
Bastiles level with the earth.
The President has foreseen the sure results
of the present struggle upon the peculiar prop
erty of the South. He has been exercised by
no vandal spirit, and would save the rights of
every man who remains true and loyal to our
common country. Foreseeing the ruin likely
to come upon the Institution of slavery, know
ing that the element of slavery is what mainly
gives vitality to the rebellion, if feeling sure
that if the Border States would free themselves
from this element they would no longer either
sympathize with the South, or be a coveted
prize for rebel conquest, the President hit up
on the idea of gradual compensated emancipa-
ton as the shortest and surest way to cut the
gordian knot, to save the rights of loyal men
in the Border slave-holding States, and at the
same time, not only to extinguish rebel SYM
pathy within their borders, but also to save
them from the destructive raids which the
slave spirit of the Cotton States might contin-
ne to instigate.
The last Congress possessed the temper to
carry out the Executive suggestion, had the bor-
der State men seized upon it. and labored to
bring their people up to an early realization of
its benefits. Compensation to the loyal slave
holders of the Border States, in Government
scrip, would have created bond of interest
on their part in the perpetuity of the Union
that could not easily be broken. To the ex-
tent of the Governments Indebtedness to them,
upon which they would receive yearly interest,
they would have been under bonds to preserve
the peace, to oppose secession, and to fight all
the enemies of the Union, whether from abroad
or within our own borders.
But the golden moment has teen lost-al-
lowed to slip. The Border State Congressman
have refused to listen to the voice of friend.
and, in our Judgment, the opportunity so late
ly within their grasp, by which to convert
their unstable property into a more substantial
and enduring interest. has been lost forever
Days work revolutions. and before December.
necessity may require the adoption of policy
as war measure, which will forever exclude
the idea of compensated emancipation. 1t
is doubtful If ever again will be found a ses-
sion of Congress willing to vote one dollar to
pay for slaves. The doom of the institution
will be settled in another way While the reb-
els stand ready to emancipate their slaves to
secure the friendly recognition of European
powers, it will not be strange if emancipation
should be deemed expedent, by the federal
Government, to prevent that kind of interven-
ton, as well as to take from rebellion its most
vital element. And we are not sure that the
President will not need to act promptly in
this thing, to prevent such action being anti
cipated by the rebel government ITSELF On
this question we have no theories. The slogic
OF events travels faster than human reasoning.
The nation may as well be prepared for start
ling events, for the ''signs of the times" indi-
cate that they cannot long be delayed.