The New York herald., 1862-08-21
The AudacIty OF Sorthera DlsaAio..

tefday Dltch or feFo,uti0nary lotters, VIII
ten by three abolitionists, one OF them, ID.
Plumb, being in prison for his disioyalty,
where the other two-Wendel! Phillips and
Horace Greeley--ought to be. The usual way
/ with governments is to strike first at the heads
| of revolution. In this case the order Is re-
versed, and the tail is seized, while the chief
offenders, who have Influenced and inspired the
herd Of followers, ore allowed to 60 at large.
In Shakspere's day, under a monarchy almost
absolute, the rule was, that what was but /" .
choleric word" when uttered by the captain,
was, in the mouth Of the common soldier, fat
blasphemy." In our own day, and in repub-
lie in which all men claim to be equal, the
same rule appears to hold good, and the great
criminals go unwhipt Of justice, while the
minor offenders are snapped up with fiery zeal.
Mr.. Plumb, writing from the Fifteenth ward
station house, avows his disloyalty, and, by his
admissions, fully justifes the action of the OFF,
Ger who arrested him. He says he did state
that it was wrong for the government to adopt
methods to force men into the war whose con-
sciences would not let them fight on such q
policy"-a policy which had "wasted our
armies, consumed hundred millions Of money,
and protracted the contest through weary
months without any definite and clear gain to
the Union" Where did Plumb get hold Of these
ideas. SO discQuraging to enlistments in the
Union army From the speeches of Wendell
Phillips and the articles and letters Of Horace
Greeley. For proof Of this assertion the reader
need not go back very far.
The letter of the chief orator Of the abolition
lists, which we publish to-day, is not at all diff
fersnt from his speech, though he objects tech
nically to the charge of "discouraging enlist
ments." II is true he does not say in SO many
words to the people-"Don't enlist" Neither
does Plumb. But Phillips does what is more
efectual, for he says the war cannot succeed,
and that it ought not, for it is "a murderous
war" He admits that he has been "disunion-
ist" for eighteen years, and "sought to break
this Union," and then proceeds to say:-
accept webster's sentiment-"Liberty and Union
and forever one inseparable." Gladly ,OOuld
that Union, giving musk, acord, voce pe'sthe best
haze But the Union, ohich has for twenty-five years barred
" I S Sy hat do.r n NV w. s @ and
this administration clings to policy chich, think, makes
life lest in Virginia and every dollar noo spent
Union and administration.
Here he uses Webster's words in totally
different sense from that great statesman, from
whose mind nothing was further than abolition.
Webster meant "liberty" to the white man.
Phillips means liberty to blacks; and he goes
on to say that for Union whose cardinal prin-
ciple Is the abolition of slavery he would WELD
musket, sword, voice, pen; but for Union
whose principles are to be found in the
present "pro-slavery constitution" he is de-
barred from fghting-lives lost Sor it
are cutter waste" and he declares he cannot
support such Union nor the administration
which sustains it. Is it not clear, therefore,
that Phillips, az we'll in his letter as in his
speech, does, in the language of Horace
Greeley, condemn the struggle now making
for the Union as unprincipled and futile, and
does discourage enlistnents in the Union
armiesi"
And what is the position Of Greeley himself7
He has the impudence to write an offensive let
ter to the President-as offensive a. the corrs-
spondence of the rebel General Lee returned
by General Hslleck-a letter which he pre-
tends he has been commissioned to write by the
whole population of the Northern States. He
entities It "The Prayer of Twenty Millions"
The action Of the three tailors Of Tooley street,
who assembled in garret and passed resolu-
ton with the preamble, "Whereas, we, the peo-
pie Of London" &C., is modesty itself compared
with the letter Of Horace Greeley, in which be
claims to utter the voice Of twenty millions,
when Il il but the shrill voice of q
miserable demagogue in garret in Spruce
street, of no more weight than one of the
speeches of babbling Thersites, in the Grecian
army. 1t is the President himself, and not an
abolition politician, who is entitl cd to speak
the voice of the people. "We require Of you,' y
quoth Greeley to the Chief Magistrate. The
motto of Danton, in the French Revolution, was
"Audacity, audacity, still audacity." Without
the dignity, intellect or power Of Danton
Greeley initiates his audacity, but in such a
'forciblefeeble" style as to provoke laugh
Again, he says" We think you are unduly
Influenced by the counsels, the representations,
the menaces,r &c. "We complain that the Con.
iscation act which you approved is habitually
disregarded by your generals, and that no word
of rebuke from you, &C., while Halleck's No. 8
forbidding fugitives from slavery to rebels to
come within his lines with scores Of like ten
dency, have never provoked even your remon
STRANGE" Like Mr.. Plumb, Greeley spreads
himself on "Halleck's No. B." though that
General has long since explained that his OBJ
ject was to keep spies out Of his lines, and the
order was issued before the passing Of the con
flscation act.
Again says Field Marshal Greeley, "W'
complain that large proportion Of our regular
army officers, with many Of the volunteers,
evincs far more solicitude to uphold slavery
than to put down the rebellion" Is not this
! libel Cd the army and the government dis
couraging enlistments with vengeance IL
paragraph seven of his letter Greeley says