Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-10-17

deserve it not for themselves; and, under
just God, cannot long retain it"
By this sweeping Legislation of congress, by
this far reaching proclamation of the chief
magistrate of the United States, the nation is
d now openly and actively placed against the
longer existence Of the implacablc, relentless
memorable enemy OF its interests, its honor,
its peace and its life. After eighteen months
of civil war, this rent and torn, bruised
wounded and bleeding nation DEGREES the
doom of its deadliest foe, whose malignant
hate .'cannot only by annihilating die
This decree of emancipation, in the reDci
states, born of military necessity. proclaimed
by the president in the full exercise OF war
powers, is now the settledand irrepealable law
of the nation, to be observed, obeyed ana
enforced" by army and navy and by the voice
of the nation. The enforcement OF TINS proc
lamation will give peace and order, freedom
and unity to a now distracted country; the
failure to enforce 1t will bring with 1t discord
and anarchy Observed Union and a broken
nation The issues are clearly and distinctly
drawn by this proclamation between law and
order and freedom and united nation on the
one hand, and anarchy and diScord and slave
ry and shivered and dishonored Union on
the other. Freedom, humanity and religion,
the unerring voice of patriotism, pronounceS
all attempts to defeat the enforcement of this
proclamation, decreeing the freedom Of all
slaves in rebel states, as unpatriotic, as Grim
inal, aye, and as reasonable, too, as were the
efforts to defeat the final establishment of the
declaration of the +th of July, l776. The
men who sought to defeat the consummation
of that proclamation of the universal eman-
cipation of man from the thraldom of man"
sank into obscure and dishonored graves, I'M
der the blasting and whitening fires Of out
ragged patriotism. The fires of patriotism
burn as brightly now as in earlier days. and
the men ''who," in the words OF gallant sol
der, ''emerge from their gloom as the shadows
fall upon their country, the men who pirate of
the constitutional rights of slavery, treason
and crime, should remember the fate of the
''skulking neutrals," and the sticklers for
''righttul authority in l776, ere joining in
giving aid and comfort to the traitor chiefs,
who now mady threaten ''upon any attempt
being made to execute the proclamation of
Abraham Lincoln, to hoist the black flag
and proclaim a war of determination, to Sc
cure its withdrawal or arrest its execution"
Patriotism instinctively endorses this procla-
nation of emancipation; treason in every
fibre of its being strives with bloody hands to
throttle it. In the fiery and bloody struggles
through which this proclamation must pass,
struggles that will stir this nation to its pro-
foundest depths, patriotism will mark and
brand as traitors were they not towards the
men who care more for the safety of the
slaves of rebel masters, than for the blood of
brave men fighting the battles of the endan-
gered country-more for the perpetuity of
slavery in rebellion than for the unity and
perpetuity OF the republic.
Our country is now floating on the stormy
waves of civil war. Darkness lowers and
tempests threaten. The waves are rising, and
foaming and breaking around u.s. and over us
with engulfng fury. But amidst the gloom,
the star of duty casts its clear radiance over
the dark and troubled waves, making lumi-
nous our pathway. The duty of the hour is
as PLAN to the clear vision of intelligent pat
riotism, as though it was written in letters of
light on the bending arches of the skies.
That duty is, with every conception of the
brain, every throb of the heart, every aspira-
ton of the soul, by thought, by word and by
deed, ''to observe, obey and enforce" the wise,
far seeing, patriotic, humane and christian
policy embodied in the proclamation of the
22d of September-to ''obServe, obey and en-
force that policy, by surrounding the chief
magistrate, who proclaims it, with such men,
and such men only, as, by acts and declared
opinions, hail and welcome it-by crowding
the ranks of the armies that are to bear it on
the points of their flashing bayonets till the
nation shall
.-"hear the bells of cheer
Ring Peace and Freedom inn