The Portland daily press., 1864-01-15

hafe W encounter ulfncultIes fruitful OF iiber
y, tnan mat you should seek for yourselve
the deceitinl advantages of dctatorial re
gime. To apply 10 the South an exceptiona
rule would be, alas, quite easy. IL would bt
easy also TO pronounce the death penalty. Il
outlaw, to execute eonfscation bills: but il
treading the path of vulgar tyranny YOU
would sacrifice two things-your high renowr
In the present, lasting union with the Soutl
in the future.
But il, on the other hand. YOU show III,
world the novel spectacle of victory without
reprisals, OF liberty strong enough to survive
civil war; II your Constitution remain. and
slavery alone fail in such a conflict: and il
on the morrow OF the struggle the law re.
main supreme, il elections ior the Senate and
House OF Representatives be again open as in
lhe Old time, If the representatives of the
southern States re-appear at Washington, il
taking the oath to be faithful to the Union and
to support the modified Constitution they find
themselves on footing of perfect equality
with the representatives of the North If it be
! permitted them to attack and to embarrass
the Government, you will have won the most
! glorious of victories, and assured to your
country the best chance of prosperity and
greatness.
Accept, gentlemen, in the advice which we
tender TO You, a proof of our esteem. 1t is
not of every Government it is not of every
| people that such things can be asked. Pro-
tracted civil wars tend to arbitrary customs.
stir up passions and hates, and at last engen-
| der development of military power aud ir-
responsible authority which genenn}ly hinders
return to control, to free opinion and to the
strict letter OF the law. We honor the Unit
cd states enough to believe that they will be
capable Of setting US this, too, after SO many
other examples.
The moderation which we hope for from
you at your house, we look also for from Won
abroad. Assuredly on the morrow of the sub
mission of the South there will not be want
ing clsss of persons teager TO recall to You
wrongs real or fancied. suffered at the hand of
this or that power. They will point to your
armies and disposabe fleets. They will prove
TO you that foreign war is perhaps the surest
way to draw together the two sections so
lately hostile. They will tell you that a COM
mon enmlty, common danger, are the ce-
ment needed to strengthen your shattered edi-
fce.
You viii not believe them gentlemen. You
will feel that after these jars it is needful be-
fore all else to restore to America peace and
liberty. You will not seek new adventures
and thus lengthen the temptation of Dictator
ship, the peril OF exceptional rule.
You will fear a return to the aggressive poll
cy which with its inyasions and turbulence
the influence of the South forced upon you,
the day when, TO assure the extension of Sa-
very, it awakened in your heart a wicked COW
etousness and pushed you almost TO the VIOLA
ton OF the law OF nations. Your glory will
be to take the opposite of those violent declar-
ations, OF those flllibustering expeditions, of
those INSCRIPTIONS ambitions.
The temptations which great army exc
cutes are of the class most difficult to repress.
May you not hesitate TO reduce your forces
alter peace. Not only your material prosperi-
~ but your very liberty is involved in disarm-
ing, in reduction of your expenses, and re-
turn TO the old idea Of small armies and small
budgets.
But We do not deceive ourselves. Your
small armies, do what you may, will be large
compared with those of three years ago. Your
military education is completed you have re-
piled but too well to those who smiled al the
recital of your battles OF 1861 You have
learned but too quickly to face death and to
Kill, and what you have learned you will not
uniearn. lou will not return to your former
situation.
But while we do not expect again 10 see
your effective force at ten thousand men, we
do hope that effective forces which are now
numbered by hundreds of thousands will not
long be witnessed on American SOIL
ILL.,
Courage! You have before you one of the
most noble works, the most sublime which
can be accomplished here below-a work in
the success OF which we are as deeply interest
ed as yourselves-a work the success of which
will be the honor and the consolation of our
time.
This generation will have seen nothing
more grand than abolition OF Slavery lin des-
troying 1t with you, you destroy it every
where, and the energetic uprising of people
which in the midst ofits growing prosperity
was yisibly sinking under the weight of the
tyranny OF the South, the completely of the
North, odious laws and compromises.
Now at the cost of immense sacrifices you
have stood up against the evil; you have cho--
sen rather TO pour out your blood and your
dollars than TO descend further the slope of
degradation, where rich, united, powerful,
you were sure TO lose that which is far nobler
than wealth, or union, or power.
Well. Europe begins 10 understand, will
lingiy or unwiilngly, what you have done. In
France, IN England, everywhere your cause
gains ground, and be it said for the honor of
the nineteenth century, the obstacle which
our ill-will and our evil passions could not
overcome, the obstacle which the intrigues of
the South could not surmount, is an idea, a
principle Hatred of Slavery has been your
champion in the Old World. A poor champ
ion seemingly. Laughed at, scorned, it seems
weak and lonely. But what matters it, ere
the account be closed principles will stand for
something, and conscience, in all human affairs,
will have the last word.
This, Gentlemen, is what we would say to
you IN the name of all who with us, and better
than ourselves, defend your cause in Europe.
Your words have cheered us may ours in
turn cheer you. You have yet to cross many
a dark valley. More than once the impossi-
bliity of success will be demonstrated TO
you; more than once. in the face of some
military check or political difficulty, the cry
will be raised that all is lost. What matters it
to you? Strengthen your cause daily by
daily making 1t more just, and fear not: there
is a God above.
We love to contemplate in hope the noble
future which seems TO stretch itself before
you. The day you emerge at last from the
anguish OF civil war, and you will surely come
out freed from the odious institution which
corrupted your public manners, and degraded
your domestic as well as your foreign policy,
that day your whole country, South as well
as North, and the South perhaps more
fully than the North, will enter upon wholly
new prosperity. European emigration will
hasten toward your ports, and will learn the
road to those whom until now it has!feared to
approach. Cultivation, now abandoned will
renew its yield. Liberty-for these are her
nlraeles-will revivify by her touch the soil
which Slavery has rendered barren
Then there will be born unto you a great
ness nobler and more stable than the old, for
In this greatness there will be no sacrifice of
Justice.
AGENoR De GAsPABIy.
AUGUsTiN COCHIN,
EDouARD LABoULAYE, Member of
tile Institute of Eranca