Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1863-01-10
Ghe polpnesian.
(From the &c Illustrated London News" Oct. 49,
T H E Do w N F A LII
SLAVERY.

one OF whose CHIEF characteristics Is the emancpa
ton of enslaved races and the liberation of op-
pressed natonalities. Middle-aged men can re-
member the occasion of the abolition of slavery in
the dependencies and colonies of the British En-
| pre. The Revolution of lS4S extracted from the
| Provisional Government of the French Republic
similar measure. The emancipation of the Jews
| is always in progress in various quarters of the
civilized world. In the Austrian empire, Poland
and Roumania the peasants have of late years been
| freed from the vestiges of medieval servtude the
Christian Rayahs of the Turkish empire have OBJ
tained concessions of which neither the conquering
nor the conquered race dreamed generation ago,
while the crowning triumph of all IS the manums-
sion and endowment OF 20,OOO,0OO OF Russian
serfs. Even war itself, normally an instrument
| for the subjection of humanity, sometimes puts on
in this age an exceptionally liberating character
Italy has just been the theater of two phenomenal
wars which shed lustre on the names of Napoleon
| Ill. and Giuseppe Garibald. And now the 22d of
September, 1862, has inaugurated policy which
| enables US to add another to this select class of
wars.
While we have never made these columns the
vehicle for wful disparagement of the Northern
cause we have always spoken of the American war
| as being, the part of the Federals, war for
empire. We regarded the words of Garibaldi con-
tanned in his address to the English Nation -
words which spoke of the United States as "strug-
Cling for the abolition of slavery "-as at least
III
before the penning of those words Abraham Lin
coin had announced a policy which imparts to
them retroactive justification. The war Is still,
on the part of the North, primarily war of en-
pire but it is henceforth, though secondarily,
war of emancipation also. The President, whose
name will go down to history in connection with
this memorable event, is too truthful and unaffected
man to endeavor to put a false gloss upon it. 81
declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will
be prosecuted for the object of practically restor
ing the Constitutional relation between the United
States and the people thereof in which States that
relation is or may be suspended or disturbed" 1t
is therefore, we repeat, primarily war for en-
pire, in which the question of boundary plays no
part and the question of emancipation but subor-
dnate one.
We are not unmindful of the consideration that
the wholesale and sweeping concession of freedom
to all slaves in the I" rebel States, whether be-
longing to loyal or rebel masters, only comes into
effect on the first day of 1863; but the ninth sec
tion of the Confscation Act, quoted by the Presi-
dent as henceforward to be vigorously enforced, is
tantamount to proclamation of general emancipa-
tion, inasmuch as in the 'rebel States no "loyaf'
slave-owners, to whom the Confscation Act is in
applicable, have vet been discovered. Wherever
the Union flag shall penetrate it will, from this
time forth, bring liberty to the enslaved.
There is but one qualification to be made to this
statement 1t is that if the rebels deign to
condonation-and will dutifully proceed this au-
tumn to elect members of Congress, to appear at
Washington on any day before the 1st of January
next, then the presence OF such representatives
{" shall, in the absence of strong countervang tes-
timony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such
State and the people thereof are not then in rebel
hon against the United States'' There is perhaps
another contingency to be dreaded. too rapid
career of success on the part of the Northern
armies might induce Congress at its next Session
to repeal the Confederate Act and annu or declare
unconstitutional the remaining portions of the
Presidents proclamation. The possibility of such
tergiversation may justify the friends OF the slave
IN hoping that the COnfederates may continue to
possess their capital until the 1st of January, when
the Rubcon which separates the Union &c as it
was " from the Union as it ought to be " will be
crossed without possibility of return. The Aboli-
tionists of Europe and America cannot afford to
forget that the Federals' difficulty has hitherto
been their opportunity, and that the eaven OF their
ideas has mingled with the public mind according
as the Federal armies have retreated before the
hosts of Beauregarj, Lee and jackson. Had either
McClellan's summer campaign or Pope's subse-
auent strategy succeeded who is simpleton enough
to believe that the proclamation of September 22d
would now have seen the light! Even now, IN
spite of the humiliating reverses of the North IN
spite of the resentments caused by the uncontra-
dcted tales of barbarities inflicted on the Northern
dead and wounded. (of Northern skulls used as
soapdshes of finger-bones used as toothpicks, and
so FORTH so strong is the sentiment OF Negropho-
bia in the North so bitter the thought that out OF
this there may accrue to the sovereign citizens
on either side nought but loss, while the slaves
will reap all the gains-that all the world turns to
see how the proclamation is received at the North.
And how is it received? BY no burst of enthusl-
asm, but with an ominous and sullen silence, which
conceals a more positive sentiment of aversion.
Not only the Democratic journals, but the Conserv-
ative Republican ones also regard the measure as
a nauseous pill, which they gild and sweeten by
the assurance which they do not themselves credit,
that the proclamation itself will remain dead let
ter. Never were there more unwilling liberators
than the Northern people, politicians and army.
There was an elan about the manner In which this
undemocratc British nation set about the work OF
slave emancipation, in which the Autocrat OF all
the Russias set himself to a similar duty, and in
which the Emperor of the French proclaimed the
liberation of Italy from the Alps to the Adriatic,
which, at least, did credit to our European human
nature, but for whose slightest trace we look in
vain into President Lineoln's manifesto, counter
signed though it be by that def master of rhetoric,
William Henry Seward. In this feature of the
proclamation in its total absence of false pretences,
and what in his mouth would SAVIOR of hypocritical
cant, we may again admire the Presidents native
candor. The emancipation of the slaves IS " de-
nounced - as penalty against the contumaclous
owners, who are informed in the same breath that
they may avoid the penalty by an act of homage to
the powers that be at Washington. The idea of
bringing liberation to oppressed race Is as un-
welcome to the American democracy as it IS well
come to US 50 servile and pauperized Europeans.
The time chosen for the issue of the proclama-
ton, though open to the general objection stated
by us last week. is nevertheless, in some other and
subordinate respects, well appointed. Itcould not
have been uttered with any dignity while Wash
ington was threatened and the Administration knew
not whether they should next hear of the Confed-
crates in Pennsylvania or Baltimore. 1t follows on
the heels of Federal victory it is not wrung from