Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-11-23
The administration, the slavery
Question and the Presidency.

Whittier is the Administration drifting on the
slavery question: Is the reclamation of the re-
belious States the abolition of slavery therein,
as a preparatory publication, to carry the day.
What are we TO believe? According to President
Lincoln's settlement of the Missouri muddle, the
abolition faction and their lone idea" are to be
set aside and conservative policy is to mark the
reconstruction of the Union; but, according to
the recent speech of the Secretary of State at
Auburn, the Presidents letter the Missouri
difficulty amounts to nothing more than joke;
for Mr.. Seward substantially says that slavery
will be extinguished in the great work of estab
| fishing the territorial integrity of the Union.
A new light has fallen upon Mr.. Seward.
Only few months ago, in memorable dispatch
to the French Government, on the question of
joint convention of delegates from the loyal
States and from the revolted States. he, without
qualifications, suggested that the return of the
members to both houses of the Federal Cor gress
due FROM the rebelliouS States. would result at
once in joint convention, in which all the trou-
bles between the two sections could be satisfacto-
rily adjusted: that this was the only joint con.
ference admissible far as our government was
concerned; and that such conference was not
only admissible but desirable in view of the con-
stitutional participation it would give to the in
surrectionary States in the reconstruction of the
| Union. We cannot doubt that Mr. Seward spoke
| by authority at that time. How. then, are we to
l
at Auburn? Is the "Pope's bull agains. the
comet" after all, to be the supreme and nhexi-
| BILE law of reconstruction Is every rebellious
State to be compelled to make good the emanci
patton proclamation and purge itself of African
slavery at all hazards before its rehabilitation as
a member of the Unionl
We are all in the dark upon this subject; but
the events which have occurred since the issue of
General Fremont's Missouri edct of emsncipa-
ton are very suggestive Since that day, with
here and there little hitch, the abolition pro-
gramme has been put into practice, step by step,
until it needs only practical enforcement of the
Presidents slavery abolishiug proclamation to
secure a complete success of the abolition fac
ton. Assuming that the Secretary of State has
warned of what it is the present purpose of Mr.
Lincoln to do we may OF least exercise the priyi-
lege Of warning him against following the aboli
ton will the wisp any further.
| Accordingly, we would thus admonsh Presi-
dent Lincoln that the same conservative popu-
lar element which turned the elections in most
of the loyal States last year against his admin
istration. because of its laundering abolition
war policy, have turned this years elections in
his favor and upon the simple platform of an
earnest and overwhelming prosecution of the
war for the suppression of the rebellion. We
would remind him that the great body of the
people of the North desire the war 20 be ended
and the revolted States restored to the Union
as soon as practicable, with or without remnant
Of slavery, this that State may present itself
for re admission. We would remind him that in
this business the Union is the primary and para
mount question, and that Southern slavery is but
a secondary issue. We would advise him to cut
loose from the disorganizing abolition factions.
beginning with his Cabinet, and TO cast himself
upon the conservative masses of the loyal States,
and upon the simple platform of the restoration
Of the Union, without insisting upon the coDdi
ton precedent of the roofing out of every vestige
OF Southern slavery.
Finally, we would impress this warning upon
the mind of President Lincoln, that in yielding
to the demands of the abolition radicals he places
himself 10 their power only to become their vic
tim when he shall have performed their work,
while, in the Reputation of these fanatics and
their foolish policy, he becomes their master and
secures the inside track and the whip hand against
all competitors for the succession. He may, in a
word. thus command the policy of the next four
years in the important work Of rebuilding and
consolidating the Union upon a solid and durable
basis.-[N Y. Herald.