Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-02-12
CONFLICT OF AGES. /"

Issued on the zzd OF September last, unaccompa-
MED as it was with a statement of the considera-
tions which had induced the President to depart
from the policy previously prescribed to himself in
the conduct of the war, we were tempted in giving
publication to the paper to adopt the following by
pothesis on the subject. We quote from the latel-
ligencer of last September 23d;
1--WE are not without the suspicion that the President
has taken this method to convince the only class Of per-
likely to be pleased with this proclamation OF the utter
aacy the hopes they have founded upon This opinion
may add derives confirmation from the fact that he
supends for months the enforcement Of much Of
he declaration denounces the emancipation Of slaves in
punishment for conumacy the part Of the lDsurgent
States while he gives immediate force and effect far
force and effect result from procamatons to the regua
tons prescribed by the article OF and the prov
sons OF the confscaton act in the matter OF slaves"
According to these Regulations" and "provi-
sions all slaves escaping from the Insurgent States
within our army lines declared free, aud as it
had been confidently predicted that such official
declaration and pledge, coming from the President,
would lead to general " stampede" of slaves from
the South, and thus upturn the very basis of the
instruction, it seemed to that he had no other
motive in issuing the proclamation he might at least
have promised himself the incidental advantage of
testing by it the sagacity of the political advisers
who were most urgent in their "pressurc" for such
a manifesto.
Addressed, as this manifesto was, Gin the invita-
ton it extended to the "loyal blacks" of the
South, it was not SO far regards its practical ef
fcacy, matter of any Importance how it was
viewed at the North; for, whatever may have been
the theoretical objections of any in that quarter to
the form or substance of the proclamation, it is
obvious that ifthere was among the "loyal blacks
that degree of alacrty aud facility to escape from
the service ofther rebel masters which was ascribed
to them by the patrons of the proclamation, we
should see demonstration that would soon put to
shame the cavils of hair-splittipg critics"
We have lorg since absolved ourselves from the
duty of considering "the proclamation" in the
light of the political principles it involves, and,
eschewing further controversy the topic, we wait
only impartial journalists to chronicle its results
as they developed by events and admitted by
the friends of the measure.
Among the most determined friends of the mea-
sure, as we all know, is that able politicore-
ligious Journal the New York Independent to
whose columns we are accustomed to look for the
cearest and most definite statement of the current
views entertained by the party to which it beongr.
In its issue of the last week our able contemporary,
under the head Of "The Conflict of Ages" thus
refers to the disappointment of the hopes which
had been founded on the "proclamation Of free
DOM" We quote them, as before said, not for the
purpose of controversy, but simply as signs of the
inonf for ba inf pofo
As becomes length apparent that the ship of State
launched upon long aud difficult voyage and nd her
haven ouy through storms AID pers very natural feel
lug oil disappointment arises the public mind ard even
those who have real interest aud confidence in
the principles which govern national At first
We hoped To slavery filed and defeated under the
peaceful forms Of legislation when that hope destroy
cd by the oubursts Of rebellion looked to the
TEN speedily overthow By the Fortunes nay by the
very fact, OF this failing, trusted that the procla-
nation ,oOud cork speedy accomplishment Of triumph
ana atfngta oe 6gn 70 dseorer that conflict. and tifts
before his krd goeb not but by prayer
aud fasting even then without great aud convu
sions''
Our contemporary then proceeds to reconcile its
readers to the prospect before them by adducng for
their instruction and comfort certain analogies of
nature and history which suggestive OF patience
under tho chronic tribulatons incident to all great
and benz fcent changes, whether occurring in the
physical or social world 1t cites the experience of
the geologist, who seeing how powerful is the infu-
of the existing and normal agencies of nature,
attempted to imagine that the rain and the dew the
sunshine and the FROST adequate to account for
all the changes that the earth has experienced
In so doing, adds the Independent, he is in dan
ger Of forgetting that there have been COMMISSIONS
in which the loftiest peaks have been submerged
and the bed of the ocean upbeaved into mountains
So we are apt TO imagine that our familiar agencies
of reform, which by their steady influence accom-
plish SO much, are the only ones that are needed
and we forget that through all the course of his
tory there have been great volcanic periods, in
which the stable earth has rocked beneath the feet
of men, and that these violent agencies have borne
necessary part in the great progress Of society"
And the lessons Of history made sources Of
appeal, for the purpose of showing that in Europe
the system Of feudal and prtdial slavery was only
gradually cxtcrminated by combination Of mill
tary and moral agencies. Foremost among these
military agencies" were, it says, the wars Of the
crusades Under this head, it reasons as follows
"When the Crusaders reused the whole sagnsn life of
the peasants to activity, and sent hither and thther
throughout France the high business Of the holy war;
thousands of strangers whom The law could not consider