The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-02-20


the Radicals.
The signs of the times indicate speedy
and overwhelming reaction, which will
rescue the President from the thraldom
of the Radicals, who have so long tyran-
nized over him and almost ruined the
Union cause. Their last card, the negro
army delusion, will soon be played out {;
when the reaction will have full force to
restore the ascendancy of Conservative
influences in our National Councils.
The Radicals promised that, if the Presi-
dent would only issue the emancipation
proclamation, they would enlist by thou
sand and hundreds of thousands to fight
against the rebels, and would utterly
exterminate that whole race of miscreants.
The President had no faith in the efficiency
of a proclamation for the abolition of slav-
cry, as was shown by his irreverent COM
parison of it to the Pope's bull against
the comet; but he did believe the
Radicals were honest and in earnest. He
issued his proclamation, giving the rebels
three months notice, that they might know,
that, if they did not abandon their rebel
lious warfare before the 1st of January,
1868, he would, on that day, let loose the
whole Abolition party of the North against
them.
But, the Radicals were afraid that the
proclamation might be recalled; so they
declined enlisting until they were sure the
day of jubilee had come. That day did
come. The slaves of all rebels were, from
that day, declared free men. But, the day
came in vain. The abolitionists, to secure
whose loyalty the proclamation was issued,
remained indisposed to enlist. The thou
sands and tens of thousands they promised,
have not yet appeared. Even Radical
Massachusetts,, so far from redeeming its
oft-repeated promises to throng the high
ways leading to the seat of war, under the
impulse of emancipation, still remains in
default some nineteen thousand of its
quota under the old levies.
The Radicals, in fact, backed down alto
gether; and now insist that the white
man Of the North can never conquer the
rebels. They excuse themselves for their
failure to enlist, in this way: AS it would
be folly for white men to attempt longer
to subjugate the South, and as Radicals
are white men, they cannot, reasonably,
be expected to redeem the promises they
made to induce the President to issue the
proclamation. They affected to believe,
also, that the best fighting material with
which to whip the rebels was the negro !;
and that, indeed, it was the only material
that could be safely relied on.
Taken altogether, these premises fur
nished the Radical conscience with avail
able excuses for failing to furnish the Pres
ident with an emancipation army. But it
is evident, already, that the Radicals have
no faith in the fighting qualities of the ne
gro, any more then they have in their
own; and that they are resorting to the
negro-army device, ionly for the purpose OF
bringing the war to a speedy and disas-
trous close; when they will openly advo-
cate, and do their utmost to force, the re-
cognition of the Southern Confederacy.
They are, in truth, secessionists doing all
in their power to divide the North from
the South. They are the approved instru-
ments of JEFF. DAVIS at the North, and
his best allies They, therefore, favor
measures at once the most violent and the
most impotent.
These Radicals are now all believers in
the disunion heresies long advocated by
LLOYD GARRISON and WENDELL PHILLIPS,
who have become the acknowledged apos-
ties of their political faith. Their organ
here, the Press, re-echoes their rawlings in
the following language:
We have ceased, at last thank God to fight
for the monstrOus cheat and lie of Union OF
irreconcileable opPosites; for compromise OF
fire and water-Of Hell and Heaven.
So, the old Constitution and Union,
formed by the sages and patriots of the
Revolution, were mOnstrOus cheat and
lie." Such terrible utterances as these,
while they shock the ears of all patriots,
can yet be listened to with complacency,
when we reflect that they cannot be other
than the rawlings Of lunacy; and that, from
the necessities of our condition, if not from
the demands of our virtue, they presage a
speedy reaction, which will drive all Radi-
calism from the surface of public affairs,
and enable Conservative influences to save
the Union.
Tie Relations Of the Government
TO the Indian 'rrfbpS.