The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-08-19
From the National htelligencer.
The Reaction.

In the great political reaction upon
which the country has entered during the
last mouth or two, it is gratifying to OBJ
serve a revision and modification of GER
tain extreme opinions iu quarters which
we might have supposed would be among
the last to confess the meliorating irfuen.
ces under which the public judgment is
gradually but surely regaining the bal
ance it had lost. Every student of histo-
ny has lived, of course, during the last two
or three years, in the sure expectation and
foresight that rebound FROM the modes
of thought and action into which the peo-
Pile have been plunged by spirit of
phrenzy, was inevitable in the course Of
events. Its coming was question of
time, dependent in part upon the pru-
dence with which extreme measures should
be pressed by their patrons, and in part
upon the greater or less degree of SUCCESS
which should attend the operations Of
our armies. ..
If The spirit Uf iuuv, atiup o,.d of social
reform had graduated its measures accord
ing to the ext geucies Of the crisis through
which we were passing, and had not sought
to build anew tue foundations of the Re-
ublic at time when the ground was
quaking beneath our feet, we ght have
witnessed such wise adaptation Of means
to ends, as would have carried US through
the arduous struggle without spasmodic
fits and starts, and therefore without the
revulsions of feeling by which they never
fail, sooner Or later, to be followed
And SO, if we could have had an unbro-
ken succession Of military successes, (omit.
ting from our view for the moment the
fact that such successes were rendered i'm.
possible by the policy into which we drift
ed under the sway of our passions there
would have been little iuducement to re-
wise the theory on which the war was con.
Quoted. And accordingly we observe that
it is in the shadows of military disappoint.
ment that the national conscience has
come to be quickened and the national in.
telligence enlightened with regard to the
true ends and objects of the war.
As single illustration of the amend, 4
thought which is now pervading all class.
es OF the the people at the present time,
inducing them to revise opinions adopted
under the promptings of revenge, mistaken
for the instigation of patriotism, we cite
the significant fact that the New York
Tribune, within the last two or three
weeks, has formally rcuouuced the policy
of con6scation, to which it once looked as
a tbunderbolt of war. In his celebrated
prayer of twenty millions" addressed to
the President Mr.. Greeley wrote:
ave think you are strangely and disas.
trously remiss iu the discharge OF your of
fetal and imperative duty with regard to
the emancipating provisions of the coufs-
cation act" "We complain that the con-
tiscatlou act which you approved is habit
daIly disregarded by your Generals, aud
that no word of rebuke for them from you
has yet reached the public ear" ave
require of you, as the first servant of
the republic, charged especially and pre-
eminently with the duty, that you ex-
ecute the laws. Most emphatically do we
demand that such laws as have been re-
Gently enacted, which therefore may fair
ly be presumed to embody the present
will and to be dictated by the present
needs of the republic, shall be carried into
full effect, and that you shall publicly
and decisively instruct your subordinates
that such laws exist, that they are binding
on all functionaries and citizens, and that
they are to be obeyed to the letter"
This demani'' we thought misplaced
and sinapplicable at the tune, but every
reader will perceive the higher and wiser
inspiration under which the Tribune now
writes, when it holds the following lau-
guage:
The zanies in the Loyal States VIII o
talk as though broad empire could be
subjected TO military execution supply the
venomous, desperate traitors in Dixie with
the very alimeut they u, ed and we deeply
regret that one Of the resolves of the late
Baltimore Convention seems calculated to
give them u lit. Gen. Fremont did a
wise generous manly act in .tuun;u,r IN