North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1862-10-08
THE PRESIDENTS PROCLAMATION


THE PRESIDENTS PROCLAMATION,
On first reading this proclamation, we sup
posed that it referred to the sixth section o
the con6scation act, and proclaimed what the
President understood to be the legal effect Of
his previous proclamation founded on that
section. This in all conscience would have
been bad enough. On reading the proclama-
ton second time, however, we perceived
that it makes no reference to the sixth Sec
ton of the confiscation act; and ON examin-
ing this section itself, we perceived that its
subject-matter is different from that of the
proclamation, the former relating to all the
property of rebels in any State, while the
latter relates expressly and exclusively to all
the slaves of the States in rebellion. 1t thus
appears that the proclamation is not and does
not assume to be founded on the confscation
law or any other law. 1t is evidently an ar
bitrary act of the President as Commander
in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the Union.
In short, it is naked stroke of military ne
cessity.
We shall not stop now to discuss the char
acter and tendency of this measure. Both
are manifest. The one is as unwarrantable as
the other is mischievous. The measure is
wholly unauthorized and wholly pernicious.
Though it cannot be executed in fact, and
though Its execution probably will never be
seriously attempted, its moral influence will
be decided and purely hurtful. So far as its
own purpose is concerned, it is mere bru-
tums fxlaen, but it will prove only to effectu-
al for the purpose of the enemy. tits gi-
gantic usurpation, unrelieved by the promise
of solitary advantage, however minute and
faint, but, on the contrary, aggravated by the
menace of great and unmixed evil.
Kentucky cannot and will not acquiesce i'm
this measure. Never! As little will she al
low it to chill her devotion to the cause thus
cruelty imperilled anew. The Government
our fathers framed is one thing, and thing
above price; Abraham Lincoln, the tempo
rary occupant of the executive char, is an
other thing, and thing of comparatively
little worth. The one is an individual, the
sands of whose official existence are running
fast, and who, when his official existence
shall end, will be no more or less than any
other individual. The other is grand po-
litical structure, in which is contained the
treasures and the energies of civilization and
upon whose lofty and shining dome, seen
from the shores of all climes, centre the ca
ger hopes of mankind.
What Abraham Lincoln, as President, does
or fails to do, may exalt or lower our esti-
mate of himself, but not of the great and be-
nefcent Government of which he is but the
temporary servant. Tho tomple is not the
less sacred and precious because the priest
lays an unlawful sacrifice upon the altar
The loyalty of Kentucky is not to be shaken
by any mad act of the President. If fnecessa-
ry, she will resist the act, and aid in holding
the actor to just and lawful accountability,
but she will never lift her own hand against
the glorious fabric because he has blindly or
criminally sulitten it. She cannot be so false
to herself as this. She is incapable of such
guilt and folly.
The President has fixed the first day of
next January as the time for his procIama-
ton to 60 into effect. Before this time, the
North will be called upon to elect members
of Congress. We believe that the proclama-
tion will strike the loyal people of the North
IN, s,l
We know it. We appeal to them to mani
fest their righteous detestation by returning
to Congress none but the avowed and jealous
adversaries of this measure. Let the revoca-
tion of the proclamation be made the over
Swallowing issue, aud let the voice of the
people at the polls, followed by the voice of
their representatives in Congress, be heard
in such tones of remonstrance and condemna-
tion that the President, aroused to a sense of
his tremendous error, shall not hesitate to
withdraw the measure.
The vital interest of the country demand
that the proclamation be revoked, the sooner
the better, and until it is revoked every loyal
man should unite in vigorously working for
its revocation. If the President by any
means is pressed away from the constitution
and his own pledges, he must be pressed
back again and held there by the strong arm
of the people.
The game of pressure is one that two can
play at and it is no slight reproach to the
conservative men Of the country that hereto
fore they have not taken their fair share in
this game as played at the National Capital.
The radicals have been allowed to have the
game too much to themselves, We hope
this reproach win now be wiped away
Prentice's Louisville Journal.