The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-02-14
MIR. Seward on Mediation.

L'Huys, having submitted to our government,
through the French Minister at Washington, NJ.
Meroier, proposition that representatives, or
commissioners of TIE Federal Government and
the rebellion should meet on some neutral ground
talk over the differences between the government
and traitors, and see if some accommodation
could not be arrived at. Mr.. Seward, on the 9th
OF February, sent to Mr.. Dayton, our Minister
to Paris, the response of our government to this
proposition. After setting the foreigner right on
some of his assumptions of fact, and setting forth
the state of the contest as viewed by cur govern
ment, Mr.. Seward thus gives the views Of the Ad-
miniSration on the main proposition:
The suggestion is not an extraordinary one and
it vel! may have been thought by the Empe-
ror of the French in the earnestness of his benev-
client desire for the restoration o. peace, feasible
tlne But when NJ Drouyn de L'Huys shall come
no review it in the light in which it must necessa-
rily be examined in this country, think he can
hardly fail to perceive that it amounts to nothing
less than proposition that, while this government
is engaged in suppressng an armed Instruction
with the purpose of maintaining the constitutional
p
the country, it shall enter into diplom discus
sion with the insurgents upon the questions wheth-
er that authority shall not be renounce2, and
whether the country shall not be given over to
dsuniop, to be quickly followed by ever increas-
ing anarchy Ii it were possible for the govern.
ment Of the United States to compromise the ma
ttonal authority so far as to enter into such de-
bates, it is not easy to perceive what good results
could be obtained by them.
The commissioners must agree on recommend
ing either that the Union shall stand or that it
shall be voluntarily dissolved, or else they must
leave The vital question unsettled to abide at last
ste fortunes of the war.
The government has not shut out knowledge OF
the present temper, any more than OF the past
purposes OF the insurgents. There is not the
least ground TO suppose that the controlling act
-ors would be persuaded at this moment, by any
argument which national commissioner could
offer, to forego the ambition that has impelled
them TO the disoyal position they are occupying
Any commissioner who should be appointed by
those actors, or through their dctation and inhu-
.ence, must enter the conference lmbued with the
spirit and pledged to the personal fortunes of the
insurgent chief The loyal people IN the insur-
rectionary States would be unheard, and any offer
of peace by this government on the condition
the maintenance of the Union must necessarily be
rejected. On the other hand, as | have already
animated, this government has not the least
thought OF relinqushing the test which has been
cosfted to it by the nation under the most SOL
emn OF all political sanctions, and if it bad any
such thought 1t would have still abundant reason
TO know the peace proposed at the cost OF dssolu-
ton would be Indignantly rejected by the Amerl-
can people.
IL is great mistake that European statesmen
make il they suppose this people are demoralized.
Whatever, IN case of an instruction, the people
of France or Great Britain, or Switzerland, or OF
The Netherlands would do to save their national
existence, no matter how the strife might be re-
varded by other foreign nations, just so much,
and certainly no less, the people OF the United
States will do, il necessary, TO save Tor the com
vnon benefit the region which is bounded by the
Pacific and Atlantic coast and by the shores OF
he Gulf of St. Lawrence and Mexico, together
with the free and common navigation OF The RIO
Grande, Nilsson i, Arkansas, Mississippi, Ono, 81.
Lawrence, Hudson, Delaware Potomac and 9TH
or highways, by which this land, which to them
is at once land Of inheritance and land OF
promise, is opened ana watey d..
Even # the agents Of tie American reople,
thus exercising their power, should through fear
ar f,oion Il below tins height OF national virtue,
7hey would be speedily Jet con>utuuonalIy re
placed by others OF Steiner character and patriot
ism.
must be allowed to say also that NJ. Drouyn
da T,Iiuvs errs in his description of the parties
~ m. present conflict. We have here, IN d po-
I;,;cal sense. no North no South--no Northern,
,o Southern States We have an insurreCtonary
nay,v which is located upon and is Chiefly adla-
.,to The shores OF the Gulf Of Mexico, and
we have on the other hand a loyal people who
constitute not only the Northern States, but East
80 Middle. Western and Southern States.