Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-01-03
FOREIGN MEDIATION.

ernments IN reference to projected mediation on
the part OF the three Courts Of France, Great Bri
tain, and Russia, with view of SO combining
parties to our civil war as /" 10 help them out of
position which seems to have no issue"
| In commenting on these papers at the time we
took occasion to draw attention to the fact that
what the French Emperor proposed was simply
friendly mediation, and not at all Intervention,
properly SO called 1t was in this light that both
the British and the Russian Government under
stood and answered the proposition, and both con-
Cured in the opinion that at that time any such
mediation" would be inopportuue and tend only
to defeat the friendly purpose which all the Gov
ernmcnts professed to have at heart.
As we have previously said, in discussing re-
ported projects of foreign mediation, it is apparent
that any pacifcation must in the end, depend
up,n the temper and condition of the respective
begercnts La word, it must come from s0irh-
an, and can never be imposed on reluctant people
from withoa by any Power or combination Of
Powers. And this is virtually the declared opinion
Of the British Government, as announced by Earl
Russell, when, in reply to NJ Drouyn de Lhuys,
he writes as follows:
Her Majestys Government think that it would be bet
ter to watch carefully the progress Of opinion in Amerca
and it. as there appears to hope may be found
to have undergone may undergo hereafter any change
the three Courts might then avail themselves Of such
change to offer their friendly counsel with greater pros
pect than exists of its being accepted by the two
tending parties.
On the first of the present month we took occa-
10 hat fba rrrh, ob Jas
SO large portion of our land is ever to come to
an end as in the nature of things it must do at
some future day, it is easy to foresee that its close
will be either preceded or marked by some kind
of negotiations between the National Govern
ment and the insurgent populations of the Seeded
States"
Nothing short of the determination of the latter,
which nobody contemplates, can remove the occa-
sion for some defnitive ascertainment Of their
political status after the military power shall have
been wholly or partially withdrawn from their ter
ritory. This is equally true whatever is destined
to be the event Of the war. And it was in fore
sight of this inevitable stage appointed. to be
reached at the conclusion of the strife that President
LINCOLN, in his Inaugural Address, warned his
Southern countrymen against its beginning in the
following terms and as if to give emphasis to
them, be recalled and rccted the same words in his
late annual message:
:" Physically speaking we cannot separate We cannot
remove our respective sections from other build
impossible wall between them. husband and wifi
msy be divorced a3d out Of the and beyond
the reach of each other but the different prts of our
country cannot do this They but remsin face to
face and intercourse either amicabe hostile must
continue between them Is it possible then to make that
intercourse advantageous satisfactory after
separst than Leore2 Can aliens make treaties
than friends can make aws Can treaties be faith
iuy enforced between aliens than laws among friends
Suppose goa go rar 80" cannot gh aoays and 'ohea
after much loss on both sides and no gam on er yon cease
fighting the identical old Gutsons 10 terms cf inter
cOurse, arc again upon you
1t is in view of such principles and convictions
entertained by the Executive head of the Govern
ment, sustained as they are by the most selfevi-
dent axioms of history applied to the settlement
Of gr,at civic feuds, that the place Of a friendly
mediation as distinguished from threatening an
teruentioa can be clearly seen and should be gene
rally recognised. And it is in acknowledgment
of this essential distinction that that leading Ad-
ministration journal, the New York Tribune, in
its number Of Saturday last break, ground in favor
Oh u meuldttou tHc Vi
our pending political difficulties. 1t says:
II a Government notorously free from partiaity
from sinister impu sesbat Of SwitzerlsBd for example
to tender its good offices to bring ab Jut
reconciliation btween and the rebels shoul urge
that the proposition be met frankly and cordially. What
ever its result shoul regard the proer itsef
act Of genuioe kindness. Give Intelligent, capable
upright tribunal AMI would urge that Government
chou accept and appear before it prepared to prove
that the union Of al States Is geographical and po
cal necessiythat the North cannot possibly be fighting
10 subugate the nth, seeing that hs Gover0ment she
fights for that which hes generally secured the sway Of
the Southland that slavery nothing but slavery seeks he
di ,oluon and overthrow of The American Republic Only
secure cspable and csndd iribun,l, and should be
willing to submit without fear to its arbi ration
There are three ways in which it has been pro-
posed to end the war.
One is "to conquer peace" By military move
mcnts, conducted on military principles and directed
aginst the military power of the insurgents. This
way seems laitsrly to have fallen into disrepute
Another, and with some fayorite plan, pro-
posed to conquer the insurgents by plying them
with paper proclamations of freedom" calling on
the loyal blacks" to desert the service Of their
rebel masters" and flock to the banners Of the
Union. 1t is perhaps proper that those who were
earliest and most confident in predicting the sue
cess Of this plan should now be the first to dis
count its foreseen failure by invoking foreign