The Portland daily press., 1862-09-18

THE WAR A WAR OF FREEDoM.-What
some Of our impatient abolitionists are so slow
to recognize, that this is essentially and of ne
cessity, war for liberty, is better understood
by the people of the border slave states. Says
the Cambridge Intelligencer, an influential pa-
per published in Dorchester county, in the
worst slaveholdng sections of Maryland:
''We have never doubted that the war which
the rebels have inaugurated would prove to be
the destruction of slavery. We warned the
people at the time that it begun. and events
have already proved the truth of our predic-
tions. It's truly, on the part of the rebels. a
war of freedom TO the black men of the South
But this is not all. There is another sense in
which this is a war of freedom. There are
other men in the South to be freed as well as
black men. The white men of the South need
the strong arm of the Government to lift the
yoke from their necks. These have endured
slavery far transcending that of the blacks
The social system of the South has never been
anything short of despotism - tyranny
equal to any of the age. The mind has forever
been bound here. Freedom of opinion has
never been tolerated below Mason's and DIX
ons line. Men have not been permitted to
hold, much less express their own opinions
A man might conscientiously have believed
slavery to have been a burden upon the State.
but he dare not let the public know that such
were his convictions. He would at once be
prescribed In his business, and happy, indeed,
might he be, if he escaped without coat of
tar and feathers. Freedom of speech. and
the press was thing unknown in the South
We shall never accomplish our magnificent
destiny until these are free. The war is un-
binding them. The true glory of the war is
not that it liberates the black but the white
men of the South. They are already begin
ming to shout for joy. And when the war
closes, they will join their voices in one loud
hallelujah to the God of liberty for their deliy-
erance. We look with pride and joy to the
good time coming when American freemen
shall be free in deed, as well as in name.
To the same purport was the speech of the
gallant Gen. Wilcox one of Corcoran's COM
panions in southern dungeons, at Detroit the
other day. He said:
Freedom of speech is not allowed in the
South. The questions of the day are not al
lowed to be discussed in the press. Now the
Ignorant and the oppressed hate not only the
North, but all her institutions. They hate her
schools, colleges, manufactures, and the en-
terprise which has given to the country so
much success, which has aided to give us, the
North as well as the South, a nationality If
they succeed in their rebellion, it is the inten-
tion of these men to fight eternally against our
institutions. Now have nothing to say with
regard to the politics of the question, as far as
slavery is concerned. | see this scaly monster
which has risen up in our midst, and with his
terrible grippe intends to crush us out, and that
monster is slavery. / was democrat, and |
am democrat still. / say that this monster
Is slavery at the bottom, with that scum of all
the earth, southern chivary, at the top. We
democrats and abolitionists can shake hands
on that subject. This war r,with its thunder and
It's revolution, is crushing out slavery. Mr..
Davis and his compeers do not wish you to do
anything else than TO raise the banner Of eman-
cpation. Make this an emancipation war and
you unite The South. The president is right.
and stand by him as long as he carries out
his policy.