The Portland daily press., 1862-10-24

President desires to compensate loyal men for
! their slaves. Ii he has to pay for only one
million, or only one fourth part of the whole,
one can determine how many hundred mil
lions of dollars will be required This in adj
dition TO the war debt may well cause men to
ask how can it be paid?
The above is from the Machias Union-a
violent secession-sympathizing paper, which
has become notorious for its opposition to the
war, and its clamors for compromise and con-
cession. 1t is full confession to the efiicen-
| cy OF the Proclamation for emancipatng the
slaves, for it sees as the fruits of that proca-
nation the labor OF all the slaves taken from
the civilized world. The non-production ar
gument is full confession that emancipation
would become general. But don't the fact
also stand out that rebellion, rampant and un-
subdued, is preferable to>short crops, to high
prices, and to increased taxation ?-and need
we argue that he who will sell his country. or
his country's honor, or his country's freedom,
or his country's rightfu authority, for big
crops, for cheap merchandise. or for low taxes,
is no better than a traitor? The point is too
plain to require Illustration or elaboration.
We havn't time to prick this objection and
let all the wind out of it-and it contains moth
ing else-but a single consideration will show
its absurdity. 100000 of slaves are now
at work in the South adding to the produc-
tions of the country, it is equally true that
nearly 100000 of whites are in idleness, sub
sisting upon the products of those laboring
blacks. Now if the blacks stop work and their
productions no longer support an indolent
white population, then that white population
must itself go to work and become produces,
for it is sure much as they dislike work they
would dislike starvation more. 1t comes to
this, them that in the very worst aspect of
the objection, the number of the laborers will
not be reduced, nor will their productiveness,
but the white people will be compelled TO per-
form labor now done by the slaves; and if
work is a blessing then we await the proof that
any great curse would result unless to the
blacks.
But the whole objection is a bugbear un-
worthy lodgment in any intelligent brain. 1t
is not only baseless objection in Itself, but it
comes OF a traitorous spirit, which would see
the government overthrown to secure cheap
living and avoid high taxes.
The Advertiser ofWednesday contained a
similar objection, couched in different Ian
guage, but born of a kindred spirit. Said that
article:
Argue reason, hope, desire, threaten, and
persuades will, "to this complexion does
it come at last Abolition of slavery, or Alb
clifton of the Union.
What then? If the abolition OF slavery or
the abolition of the Union must come-and
this is the assertion of the above--we require
not a moment to decide where we will be
found. We say, sare the Union though sa-
very, and all who uphold or apologize for it,
are ground finer than impalpable powder. If
such be the fate that awaits us, the editor of
the Advertiser must take sides, and he can
scarcely shrk the responsibility of doing so by
saying, though he do it thousand times and
with ever SO much solemnity:
Our readers need not be told anew, be the
consequences what they may to us, or ours,
that we are now, and forever, unaterably and
eternaly, openly and Enthusiastically, against
both propositions.
If the question is reduced to the abolition of
the Union or the abolition of slavery, and one
must come, it is a very awkward position for
any man acknowledging this state of things to
say he is uncompromisingly opposed to both.
Hesmay say so, but who will believe him /? or
who can give him credit for patriotism in such
a neutrality?