Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-01-03
proclamation by some Of the Presidents friends,

Whist good would proclamation do asks pro slavery
sheet How would the slaves find it out What benefit
could accrue to the Union if they did hear that
the President had proclaimed them free As many true
patriots have been mis-d by this species Of argument
ask them to brief reply TO the objections raised
against the expectancy usefulness Of such proclamation
First How would the slaves find out that the Pres
dent had proclaimed their emancipation We repy that
il would start from the outpots Of army THIS
would spread like wildfre The themselves
would scatter it by telegraph and raicar and
IL would be discussed in every rebel newspaper whskey
shop and family The slaves are in close aud familiar
contact with their masters and mstresses and with the
children OF the masters hey would hear the from
ten thousand The negroes of rho Border States
OF course, would at know all about it, th ough the
soldiers who would make poiot of telling thsm az the
earliest moment. The glorious would spread from
plantation To plantation at night and BIO discussed by
groups aud gatherings of slaves in woods and swamps
When the Intelligence reached New Orleans the negroes
there would quickly spread it among thu plantations of
Louisiana and Texas The gunboat would scatter the
news along the Mississippi from Cairo to Vicksburg
whence it would spread over Arkansas, Mississippi and
IeDnessee In truth the slaves would learn that they bad
been proclaimed feemen by the President about fast MS
their rebel masters
Second What benefit would it be to the Union cause if
they did hear that the President had proclaimed their free
d0mY We answer, they oould quit scorking for rebels
They acoud lay dODn the shOcel and the hoe III pouid
oei'eoe themselves to be yreemen They ,ooud deny The
right OF the claimant to their services any longer They
poud refuse to icork ,oithou Uags. The whole system
OF slavery would become demoraz' d and undermined,
and In the absence Of the white males the rebel army
into bondage Resistance of all sorts would be made The
slaves would feel TINT the latc their side that
their late masters had no niger legal right to compel
their services that master who undertook 10 force
free man to put his OK 10 the yoke doing unlaw
full ac-somethng which be had legal authority to
tempt For it important to keep the fact in mind that
the slaves from their infancy have been taught to believe
that they are the property Of white by awtha the
law not the arbitrary OF the MASTER makes them
Being condemned to serstude by the unepn but apow-
erul influence called the a,o they bow their necks the
ha Ia ia anstt her, They
are the property of the claimant their parents be-
fore them by virtue of the law and submit to their fate
they must there being no help for it, hope offrecdom
But bark Massa Lincoln the great supreme lawgiver in
the UnioD, procaims them free and women The lao
ichch has bound The chains their limbs is Itself broken,
soepf aoay or submerged By The higher and more auorta
tire cdicf Of the President of thu choe Union uho pro-
nounces them qncpated By Drtus of Of the Nations
Legislature The cOcc President .oOud sound through
oM seecssia louder than the thmnders In the
ana hearts 81 four millions of saUcs mould carry NTH
the sceg and authority Of the voice Of Jehovah speaking
from the Mount to the children of Israel in the wilder
ness"
We are glad that the time has come when the
Judgment of those who made such predictions is
to pass the ordeal of inevitable experiment By
the ful6lment or unful6lment Of these predictions
their repute political advisers must stand or fall
Having discharged ourselves of the duty we con-
ceived ourselves to owe to our readers on this sub
ject, and sincerely hoping that those who have
counselled the step taken by the President may
prove to have been wise where we have been fool
gress of events, that judicial history may make up
its solemn and irreversible awards in the premises.
To that tribunal We remit the great decision.
We cannot, however, dismiss this subject from
cur present consideration without addressing a
few words to loyal and conservative men, especially
number who, because Of the theoretical objections
which they conceive to lie against the Presidents
proclamation, msy be tempted to waver in their
loyalty to the Government, we would ask them to
discriminate between the allegiance due to the
Constitution and that political homage which is
awarded to the temporary incumbenLs of official
place. No errors Of administration committed by
the latter cam under institutions like ours afford
any pretext for factious much less fora revou-
tionary or disorganizing agitation
And if there be any who, because of their addic-
ton to the interests Of slavery may be disposed to
falter in the support they have hitherto given to
the Government, we would ask them too to re-
feet that in SO far as the proclamation, in itself
considered can have any practical effect, it tends
to protect slavery from the damage which it would
otherwise receive under the pure and simple sway of
military force For the cdct limits the "area of free
dem," which it creates theoretically, by excluding
in fact from the natural operation Ct this law
of force The entire State Of Tennessee. In
spreading ever slavery in this State the egis of
the Federal authority, the President has actually
sought to protect so much of slave property from
the destroying effect of military operations con-
Quoted on slaveholding territory.
1t will hardly be held by practical minds that
the slaves within cur lines at Port Royal are any
more free to-day, in consequence of the Presidents
proclamation, than they were before it was pro-
mulged And as the natural effect Of all military
operations at the South is to disturb the relation of
slavery within the area of those operations, it is
obvious that the most salient trait of the procla-
nation, considered as a proclamation, is to In
dictate wish on the part of the President to
preserve slavery in Tennessee from what would
otherwise be the legitimate incident consequence
of the war wagcd on the soil Of that State
Whatever therefore, may be the theoretical objec-
tions to the cdct of tho President, we do not per
csive that while the lasts, the patrons Of sa-
very have anv thing to complain of so far "a regards