Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-10-10
What i. au Honorable Peace .

What is an Honorable Peacet
From the New York TimeS.l
"An honorable peace" is becoming'a pet
phrase Of the Copperheads. 1t figures con-
stantly in their party organs, and is finding
place in all their party platforms. The Cop
perhead State Convention Of Maine, just
held, took pains to inlay it in three success
siveIresolutions. They resolved that "the
only hope Of securing an honorable peace is
by expeling the present corrupt, imbeclle
and revolutionary Administration that
"the Administration is manifeStly incapable
of negotiating an honorable peace" and that
they are in favor of an honorable peace ut
the earliest practicable moment. 1t IS high
time to understand what this qualifying term
honorable means. The man would be
accounted an imbecile who should talk Of an
honorable peace with the highwayman whose
pistol was ut his heart, or with the incendiary
whose torch was at his roof. If he did not
choose TO fight he might parley, and induce
his enemy 10 hold off BY consenting TO all de-
mands. But it would be absurd to style de-.
liverance thus obtained an honorable peace.
1t might be I necessity, but 1t would
be humiGating one at best. In
meeting the violence Of outlaws, the
question is not how to save your honor, but
how to save your life. You may buy off the
villains by surrender of your property, if
you do not play the man BY self-defense; but
the moment you begin to pirate about your
honor YOU make yourself not only coward,
but fool. An honorable peace presupposes
a respectable cause, or at least respectable
color Of cause for the war, and a respect
able standing in the parties to it. 1t may be
a hard bargain for one of these parties,
against whom the fortune of the war has
turned; but it necessarily implies, il not
equal power on both sides, at least an equal
status. The war with the self-styled South
ern Confederacy" has been prosecuted BY our
Government OH the sole ground that this or
ganization was a rebellion, pure and simple.
President Lincoln, as the head Of the Govern
ment, has been fighting traitors banded to de-
Stroy the Government which he had sworn to
defend and preserve. All the supporters Of
the Government have recognized that there
could be no peace with these traitors but in
their submission to the Government, or else
in their absolute independence. That has
been the only real issue in the war. The
Government could know no other, for its first
duty is the maintenance of its constitutional
authority, which is its vital essence. 1t is
this alone which has made its prosecution OF
the resistance Of the rebels wrong. The Gov
eminent is not fighting for its honor, bat
for its life. The rebels are not lighting for
their honor, but to be " let alone" in their
crime. The only truly honorable peace
must come from a vindication Of vital author
ity on the one side, and 4 submission to con-
stitutional duty on the other. The Copper
heads do not claim that there is any way Of
concentrating this vindication and this sub
mission but through force ; and because they
are no longer in favor Of force, they now
habitually avoid all allusion to either the vim
dication Of authority or the duty Of submits
sion. They have dropped the word rebellion
altogether. In the Maine resolutions not the
remotest inkling is given that the war is one
between the Government and 4 rebellion.
The National trouble is styled simply "a, fra
tricidal and calamitouS war, the result Of the
political ascendency in power Of fanatlcal
factions and extremists Implying that
there is wrong, and a similar wrong IN both
parties to the war. Instead of presenting the
struggle as one between a causeless revolt
and Government compelled to defend its
authority and its life, the two sides are put IN
the same category and treated as entirely
equal. The term honorable peace" IN the
mouths OF Copperheads, must mean something
else, then, than what the phrase conveys to
National man who believes in the supremacy
of the National Government. We have yet
to learn what this something else is, unless 1t
be the peace of National death-the peace
which the assassin grants his victim. 1t is
certain the men with whom we are at war de-
clared their independence Of the Government
before a blow was struck at them and 1t IS
lust as certain that up to this hour they have
not abated that declaration one lota. The
most recent utterances Of JEFF Davis and OF
the rebel Congress have been as decided and
as emphatic as ever for continuance OF the
war until the independence of the Confed-
eracy" is acknowledged. The last popular
election held within the limits Of the rebel
lion, though it took place in North Carolina,
which has always been deemed the least dis
loyal State of the South, developed an over
whelming majority for Governor Vance, who
was pledged to the support of Confederate in
dependence. The rebels, universally, both
leaders and people, recognize no peace pos
sible, but either that of unqualified indie
pendence, or that of unqualified submission
to the Federal Government. They under
stand the original issue and the inevitable
consequences Of the war too well to think of
the possibility of anything else. Not even
their anxiety to further the interests of
COpper0eaQS can lnOuCe Vi lueul,
except the miserable squad on the Canada
border, to pretend that there is any chance
for compromise. With a manliness wor-
thy of better cause, they steadily refuse to
lend themselves to such despicable decoys as
this party phrase Of an honorable peace"
They have but one idea Of an honorable
peace, which is the salvation of the Union.
The Copperhead idea of an honorable peace,
as something intermediate between Govern
mental authority and rebel independence, is
a mere Pigment of the imagination. 1t has
no support either in fact or reason. There
is no such thing as reducing it to any specific
proposition that will stand examination for
an instant, and this is never attempted. 1t
can only take the form Of an empty phrase,
Just specious enough to beguile tbs incon-
siderate into tolerance of a peace policy
which, in its true aspect, would be detesta-
BILE. An honorable pece, in Copperhead par
lance, means simply peace at any price. 1t
is an euphemism for capitulation to treason
and National death.
SPECIFIC CONTRACT LAw.-Mr. Wake
Sold of Multnomah has introduced n hill