Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-10-08

We, almost alone among our contemporaries, eontn
ued, down to the very close Of the session, to rg
its adoption by Congress Did this look like striving
to keep life in Southern slavery" The President
earnestly pressed his plan on the consideration Of
Congress. He said:
Is it doubted then that the plan Propose if adopted
would shorten the war; aud thus lessen its expenditure OF
money and of hood Is it doubted that it would restore
the national authority and national prosperity and perpe
luate both indefinitely 2"
| Yet the Independent gave it no support The
importantly with which the President urged it
rather elicited from our contemporary speers of ILL
disguised contempt at proposition which Smoked
of compromising, when it, as Christian journal,
thought only of fighting.
The President urged the scheme by virtue Of the
following considerations among others adduced in
his last annual message:
Doubtless of those soho pay and not to
ceipe pH object Yet the both just and econo
mical In certain sense the liberation Of slaves is the
destruction g propenypropery acquired by descent or By
true having been often said, that the people Of the South
NOT responsible for The original introduction Of this
property than the people Of Tho North; and phen Is
remembered ho,o zoe all use cotton and sugar
and share The profts Of dealing an them, may mot be
quite safe sag thar the South has been responsible
han mo North for IT'S continuance L. then for common
object this properly is to be sacrificed is it just that
be done at a Common charger
tits quite true that the Presidents plan was open
to objection his ground from those who under it
would have to pay and not to receive" and this
circumstance, we suppose, accounts for the sngu-
lar fact, that, while the President had friends
enough in the last Congress to pass confscation
acts and emancipation bills all opposition, he
had not friends enough to procure at their hands
the adoption of policy which he earnestly COM
mended to them as something better than force
alone. To this effect he said
"This plan is recommended as a means not in exclusion
Of but additional to- all others for restoring and preserv
ing the national authority throughout the Union. The
subjecf presented exclusively in It's economical aspect
The plan eould am confident, peace speedily
and maintain more permanently, than can be done nv
force "Ons while all r would cost, considering amounts
and manner of payment, and times of payment would be
easier paid than will be the additional cost Of the il
rely solely upon force is mueh-Usry mseh-that il
,eonld cost nc blood at aH.'
"Doubtless some Of those who are to pay, says
the President, "and not to receive will object."
With him ait was much, very much, that his plan
would cost no blood at ALL" We are not apprized
Lnat tnS consideration aVaeu TO procure lot IL
favor in the eyes of philanthropical journals like
the Independent. And it is in view of this mani
fest fact, characteristic Of the class to which it be-
longs, that we propose, in conclusion, dismssing
technicalties and FORMS" to " touch not only the
ethical heart of the question" but to lay our finger
on the pocket nerve" OF our contemporary, while
We PROFOUND to its conductors single "interroga-
tory" You profess to be rery sorry for the slaOe.
Hop much haze you been sorry; that Is, hoso
many slaues are free to-day because their enamel
patton has cost you money?
AS we said few days ago, replying to some in.
genuous imputatious of our amiable contemporary
the New York Tribune, cit is very easy to be ge
nervous and philanthropc at other peoples ex
pense, but we can tell our contemporary that the
| publishers of the National Intelligencer have
| 'emancipated more slaves, at their own cost and
out of their own pockets, long before the present
agitation, than all the abolitionists put together
between the Potomac and the Penobscot"
We hope the Independent will admit that our
interrogatory "touches the ethical heart Of the
question !" for as faith without works is dead, SC
we hold that philanthropy" and "love of free
DOM" when protested by men of means, but al
ways without any particular sacrifice of dollars, is
little better than sounding brass aud tDkline
cymbal.