The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1863-11-20

In ALL wars the time must come when
victory makes peace possible, and making
peace possible imposes upon the victor the
duty Of seeking it. otherwise than by the
sword It was to this time that President
LINCOLN looked forward when in his Inau-
gural Address he implored the threatening
States of the South to pause and contem-
plate with him the future which war must
prepare for US all.
Suppose" he said, Suppose you 60 tol
war: you cannot fight always; and when,
after much loss on both sides, and no gain
on either, you cease fighting, the identical
question as to terms of intercourse, are
again upon you" To the Presidents eye,
the future of war, it will be seen, declined
upon point at which reciprocal exhaustion
bringing no decisive preponderance to either
party, must make the further prosecution of
hostilities impossible or inhuman. Mr.. LIN
COLIN at that time plainly contemplated
proffers of peace, and the acceptance, Or the
consideration, at least, of those proffers, un-
der condition of affairs, in which the Union
should have nothing to give but peace, and
nothing but peace to receive. He was an
ticipating such defeat Of the Confederacy
as should not imply the positive victory OF
the Union. He put on record his convic-
tion, that, although all our efforts should
fail to secure for us the objects for which
we were to make them, the day must yet
come in which it would be the duty OF the
patriot and the statesman to abandon those
efforts, and to accept composition which
should leave US all, so far as principles 60,
precisely where we wore before shot was
fred or a sword drawn.
1t may be true certainly, as Gen. LOGAN
asserted, that the Emancipation proclama'
ton has failed to free single slave" but is
it not also true that the flag of the Union
flies to day over one third Of the area which
two years and half ago blazed out into
war against the Union? Is it not true that
victory after victory has crowned our arms,
and gloriously re-established at home and
abroad the rudely-shaken prestige OF the
national soldiery? Is it not true that the
forces of the rebellious States have upon all
their line been driven back before the steady
advance of the national armies2 that the
peopIe of the rebellious states are every
where grooming under the pressure of the
calamities which the war has brought upon
them2 Is it not true that if there has been
indeed much loss on both sides"-such loss
as no man three years ago dared dream
wonld ever curse this fair and prosperous
land-there has been great and positive
gain also upon one side, and that the side
of the Union, the Constitution, and the en-
forcement of the laws?
The investment of Charleston, the orig
inal seat and fiery heart of all this outbreak
against the nations life, israpidly approach
ing. as all the authorized voices of the gov
ernment inform us, brilliant and triumph
ant close. The flag struck down in open
day on Sumter is SION, VIC are assured, t.
wave again over its shattered ramparts -
When that hour of vengeance and of vcto
~ shall strike, is il to bring up nothing
more enduring than victory, nothing nobler
than vengeancel
The parties to this war, be it remember
ed, do not stand we have never admitted
that they stand, upon equal terms. A fac
ton of frenzied fanatics have indeed done
their best to put the parties to this war up
on equal terms by leading the Government
ON to violate the Constitution, and stultlty
that sound assertion Of Mr.. LINCOLN that
"no government proper ever had provis
ional in its organic law for its own termina-
ton" But the organic law of govern
ment is more binding and enduring than
the mistakes or the extravagances into
which those who administer government
may fall And it is as true to day as it
was when the President proclaimed it from
the Capitol, that zone party to con-
tract may violate it, break it. so to speak,
but that it requires all to lawfully rescind
it,
The Constitution exists, it extends over
all the States in rebellion to-day as it ex-
tended over them three years ago. The one
question before the government of the
Union under the Constitution is to-day what
three years ago it was, how best, most fair
ly, and most firmly to reassert the suprema-
CIV Of the Constitution over these rebellious
States. We have waged war upon the PEG
pie of these States for three years for what?
Not t. annhilate them; not to destroy their
means of happiness, usefulness, and pros