Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1863-01-10

| the despair of a discomfitted host 1t is bold and
manly to issue 1t Just on the of the imposition
of the severest test on Northern loyalty-the con-
scrpton and just in time to affect unfavorably to
the Administration the October and November
elections. The same steamer which brings the
news OF the proclamation Of freedom to the enc
slaved brought also the intelligence that the fire.
white citizen and voter had been deprived of the
rgnt 10 the writ OF habeas corpus during the pen
dency OF the draught. This is the act Of a Gov
ernment which is conscious of its strength and
does not cover before the consequences of its own
acts. In the performance of this solemn historical
act Mr.. Lincoln has eschewed any approach to
that chcane and petty cunning which are apt to be
the the oesetting sins of lawyers who have turned
The new policy should be welcomed even by
those among US whose sympathies on this occasion
are with the slave-owner for all parties in England
concur in the desire for the restoration of peace
The policy OF emancipation brings matters to q
crisis II the North can ever subdue and occupy
the South she will be able to do so now. If, on
the other hand, the and high spirit of the
Southerners are more than match on their own
territories for the Federal armies then the conyic-
ton of this fact will begin to dawn upon the North
from this day forth. Hitherto defeats, and dsap-
polntments more numerous than defeats have not
shaken one Jot OF Northern resolution or impaired
their faith in their ultimate success. The secret
OF this equanlmity has been the knowledge that
they held In reserve one of the most effective
weapons OF war, which hitherto they had allowed
the enemy to WELD against themselves. So long
as this was the case a military reverse was without
moral or political significance to them. Under the
former conditions there was nothing to prevent the
war from dragging on for ten years Expensive as
all wars are, /" Conservative I" war is the most
wasteless and proftless of any. Henceforth the
war becomes a revolutionary one. Revolutionary
wars, while they are impregnated with the bitter
ness partake also of the shortness and decisveness
OF civil revolutions. Burying its guilty hopes of
compromise, the North summons up its whole ener-
gies for supreme effort. The Confederates, with
a heroism which we do not seek to disparage, have
held at hay the more populous and richer North so
long as they have been able to rely upon the unn-
terrnpted labors of their human chattels Will
they be able to do so when this prop is knocked
from under them? We know not; the future of
the Union is obscure, but one event is clear. The
delicate and poisonous plant of American slavery,
If it be not torn up root and branch, will emerge
from the storm which now threatens its existence,
shorn of its once luxurant foliage and of most of
the qualities which gave it so banefu an ascend
ancy on the Western Continent, and therefore on
the whole civilized world. Should this be So civil
lizaton will receive a solid permanent gain in COM
pensation for some severe temporary losses occa-
stoned by the war of the second American Reyolu-
tion.