The Portland daily press., 1863-01-14
COMMUNICATIONS.
Correspondence of the Press
A Soldier on the Presidents Proclamation.

Correspondence of the Press
A Soldier on the Presidents Proclamation.
No army ever took the field that appreciated
so thoroughly the issues to be tried by the or
deal Of battle, as the army of free men now
mustered in defence Of law against anarchy, of
justice against systematic injustice. In the
ranks and at headquarters alike the conviction
is daily gaining ground and growing in inten-
sity, that the prop and stay of this rebellion
must be broken, that the hellish fire which
kindled the flames of civil war must be finally
quenched. From letter sent us some time
since by an officer in the Sixth Massachusetts
regiment, and hitherto crowded out by the
pressure of news upon our columns, we Sc
lect the following passages respecting the
emancipation policy of the President:
More than anything ese-more than all the
victories we can win in the field, however bril-
liant they may be, the first day of January
next will affect for good the fate of our coun-
try. Oh Happy New Year for outraged
Ethiopia, and Happy New Year for enfran-
chised America! In the absence OF the event
then to be inaugurated, all other successes
would have been partial and incomplete. But
with that event, a sublime enunciation and
era more glorious than our country could 9TH
erwise have known. At length we can see
the way out of that labyrinth i'm which our
departure from right had involved us. The
sword shall justly sever the chain that binds
the bondman to his disloyal master, and the
Presidents message proposes the plan by
which loyal slaveowners can be released from
that which curses them more than it does
their victims-compensated emancipation
"a bridge of gold for the retreating fend," in
the eloquent phrase of Charles Sumner. Thus
will the living body of Liberty be saved, by
Kidding itself of the foul carcass of slavery.
Since have been out here have seen this
institution and its effects as never before. Bad
as it is for the negro, it is infinitely worse for
the white man. His acres are lean, his busi-
ness wretched, his feelings always troubled lest
his "riches shall take legs" in the absence of
swings" his institutions miserable-religion
and education at the lowest ebb-his physical
and mental development meagre, and every
thing around him ruined, except the "nigger,"
and he, fat, good-natured, and enjoying sort
OF animal happiness. Not what it might be,
but enough to show that God is redeeming his
promise ever TO be with the oppressed Is it
not singular fact, that the white mans VIC
tim should be the only person or thing in the
white mans power that slavery does not hope
lessly curse and destroy?
Our only way out OF this horror now binding
the nation, is by the door of Justice to the op-
pressed. We must "let the people co." at any
rate. Ifit be through the Red Sea, still they
must go.
But did not think of writing more than a
few lines. May the people of Maine who have
done SO much, continue to do until the great
end we seek is accomplished. 1t cannot be
far off, When it comes, they will have the
certainty of having done their duty in the
greatest crisis through which any nation ever
passed.