Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-10-02
From the N. Y. Times.


Our secession scribes deal very gingerly
with the Presidents proclamation. They
say much less terrible things about il than
they threatened in advance. 1t is not to
be supposed that they have experienced any
change of heart in regard to slavery; but
they evidently consider it somewhat more
dangerous than it used to be to praise and
glorify the peculiar institution. They croak
IL little, it is true, about making this II war
for abolition, but they do it family and with
evident misgivings. Like Macbeth's amen,
it ''sticks in their throats."
The proclamation is simply weapon of
wHrfare,-pertectly legitimate and perfect
ly proper. From the very moment when
the slaveholding aristocracy raised the ban
ner OF rebellion against the Government, it
has been perfectly competent for the Gov
ernment to resort to emancipation as II
means of crushing their hostility. We had
just AS much right TO free their slaves, as
we had to take their horses, to seize their
ships or destroy their lives. 1t was ridic-
ulOus and absurd to say that we might
wage war against them,-that we could
lombard their towns, kill their troops, con-
fscate their goods, occupy their lands, for
teit their cattle, their crops, and everything
else that they possessed, but that we
could not strip them of their slaves. What
form of property or of labor? No: the
Constitutiou-for it does not even, in ex-
plicit terms, mention its existence. What
Was there that thus cousecrated, beyond all
reach of punishment, the very root and
cause for this gigantic crime?
The whole question of dealing with Sla-
very has, from the very beginning, been
one OF expediency. We had a perfect right
to decree its abolition--to strike fatal
blow at its Observation-Disclosures it could
be done with advantage to the Union cause.
1t was to be decided like any other move
ment of the war, like the planning of a
campaign or the direction of an army,
purely by considerations of public expedi-
ency. Whenever it would produce more
good than harm, it was to be done. Until
then, it would have been impolitic and
therefore unwise.
The Proclamation has done great COOL
already. 1t has had good effect upon the
public mind in the Northern States. Ii
has carried the conviction everywhere that
the Government is in earnest in its contest
in its contest with rebellion,-aud that il
has ut last Il policy, a clear and distinct
system of conduct, by which it seeks to
crush it. 1t has met strong and fervid
aspiration of the Northern heart, and
given new life and vigor to the determined
purpose of the Northern mind. 1t iu-
creases the motives for perseverance in
this gigantic contest. 1t holds out the
hope that besides restoring the Union, We
shall eXtiuguish forever that dire curse
which poisoned the very fountain ofliberty
and detracted infinitely from the value o
the Union itself. 1t holds out the promis,
of re-establlshiug the Constitution in all it:
old supremacy, and at the same time of re-
moving that dreadful evil which has weak
eued its authority and prevented it from
securing the blessings it was intended tC
confer on ourselves ana our posterity.
One thing only now remains:-let US pusl
forward onr armies, clothed as they arr
with this new and terrible power. Let u!
carry them into the very heart of the slave
holding States, that they may there give
full and complete effect to this edict o
emancipation. Let US crush the military
power which is the only bulwark of sla
very at the present moment, and at thu
same time put an end to the rebellion its
elf. Hencelorth t.ey must stand or fal
together.