The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-12-31
1858

The year which is Just closing has been, abroad
as we'll as at home, an eventfu one, and viii
command large space in history. Naturally
enough the scenes OF the great tragedy going for
ward in our own country have had an absorbing
interest for US, and have, 10 d considerable mea-
sure, withdrawn our eyes from events transplring
IN other countries, except so far as we have con-
sdered those events as intimately or remotely
affecting our own struggle. In the United States
the year was ushered in by the Proclamation Of
Emancipation, the most important State paper,
the grandest and most ben6cent national act,
since the Declaration OF Independence. Presi-
dent Lincoln, on the first OF January 1868, hap-
tised the new year in the glorious name Of Free
dom, and proclaimed liberty to millions of mtn'
women and children, whose necks all their lives
long have been bent benea tn the yoke of hard,
brutal and unre Quilted servitude and that day
must ever stand in our couutry's calendar next
in importance to the Fourth July, 1776. The
white race in the Republic date their official pa
pers from the earlier period, but another race, as
numerous as that which founded our Republic
will hereafter date their regeneration, the recog-
milton o! their manhood, the acknowlt dgment of
their rights, from the year 1868. And so the
year in its very birth was Signalzed by an event
which will make It illustrious forever.
This Proclamation has been followed by an
unexpected success. 1t has been sometimes said
that President Lincoln is not a leader, and has
only taken steps in advance in the great work of
Emancipation, where the people had already
preceded him and this is doubtless to some ex-
tent true. But whether the Proclamation would
have accomplished more toward the ultimate en-
tranchsement of the colored race in this country
if it had been issued sooner, or not, its value and
its:effec have been marked and decisive and there
can now be little if any doubt that it will in the
end accomplish the work of liberating every
slave under the Stars and Stripes. Public opin-
ion, not only in the Free States, but in the Border
Slave States,-if we except, perhaps, Kentucky,
which, however, is rapidly coming round to the
true faith-stands by, supports and justifes the
Proclamation, and exults in the anticipation that
il will accomplish its perfect work. Indeed now
the most servile Northern ally of Southern trea-
son sees but one way Of saving slavery, and that
IS by the success of the rebellion; and the militia
ry successes Of the last eight months make that
contamination anything but probable. The year
1868 has struck fatal blow to slavery in the
United States, and, while it may lnger in some
localities few years more, death is working at its
vitals.
The military successes of the year have been
signal, brilliant and decisive. We do not need
TO recount them. Though in the first months of
the year no marked victories cheered our hearts,
and even down to the Fourth of July the fortune
of war seemed adverse to the Union cause, vet
then the clouds suddenly lifted, and the sun of
victory-as glorious as that of Austerlitz- ilumi-
mated the ensign of the Republic at Gettysburg and
on the Mississippi. Since that moment the lin
its of the rebellion have been gradually contract
ed Gen. Banks is recovering the territory west Of
the Mississippi, and Gen. Grant, the consummate
chieftain has pushed the rebels continually toward
the Gulf redeeming ChiCkamauga by Chatta
nooga, where with wild enthusiasm, his brave
troops rushed up the steep and perous slopes o
Lookout Mountain, and in that battle among the
clouds drove before them, shattered and demon
allied, the rebel army of the Southwest. The
gallant Burnside captured and held East Tennes
see, thus rescuing long suffering people from
the murderous tyranny of rebel despotism, anC
wrestling from the Confederacy portion OF coun
try Of vital necessity to the rebel cause. If it'll,
progress has been made in Virginia, at least there
the rebellion has gained nothing, the brave Army
Of The Potomac proving more han match fo
The flower OF the rebel army under its most &C
conplished Generals. At Charleston most sub
stantial and most wonderful triumphs of scientific
warfare have crowned the Union arms, and Gen
Gilmore has made his name illustrous by hi
brilliant successes Fort Sumter has been re
lQced to a heap of ruins and Charleston is nov
daily put in peril and fright by the shells from
Federal batteries which are almost constantly be
ing thrown into that nest of treason. 10 a word
treason has everywhere received the severest an
most damaging blows during the past year it
arrniss h We been defeated, he little credit it ha
abroad is almost < ne, It's fn4Gcss t home ore c
the verge of collapse, and lis speedy overthrow
,pI