Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1864-02-24
THE WORLD MOVES.

/
question. Finding that the prestige of Sla-
very has passed away-that the institution
no longer sways the politics Of the nation
that bowling down and worshipping the
| Black Idol will no longer Secure high places
Or power-the leading Journals Of that par
ty at the North are, one by one, taking the
| Emancipation fever Nor does the disease
seem to be confined to any special locality
1t is contagious, epidemic endemic, and
sporadic. 1t breaks out in places without
any 'Abolitionist' having been seen to car
| ry it there. Letters from the armies of the
| Union, it is true bear it into the remotest
corners Of the land and the New York
Herald, ike the historical swine of the Bay
of Funday, has instinctively shifted the on
rushing tide, and declares
That the only hope of the Democratic
party is to strike ont boldly for an amend
= n'ent Of the Constitution achich scW torec-
e1 settle this troublesome question Of .Sta
re'y by re",ortag the iastitutiors from the
country.
The Boston PoSt-reliable Democratic
authority-asserts
That Slavery, as q system, viii be fatally
damaged by this war, there can be no doubt.
In SO far as the slave system is broken down
and the system Of free labor takes its place
the country will be prospered; the white
man, at least, viii Immediately secure per-
manent benefit. 1t will tend to unite the
North with the South, to break up sectional
distinctions. who will have
the credit or discredit? Not the radical Alb
olitionists in Congress or out of it
The work being done, and faithfully done,
it matters little who shall have the credit of
it. We opine, however, that the people
viii require more than mere words from
these new converts to the Emancipation the
DRY. Still, there can be little doubt that
their present declarations foreshadow an
abandonment of the pro-slavery platform of
the so called Democratic party, and we shall
not be surprised to find them before the
Presidential election overlapping the gradu-
al phases of the issue as discussed by the
friends of the Union, and outradical the rad
icals. This is indicated in the article Of the
Post, when it declares that
cClellan acds the first Enedacipdtor Of
the country he first e1tancidted tie prtRct-
pies and ca1ried them ont pract5cotly, ,Cjttch
hare Effected Emancipation. Neither the
President, nor the Anti-Slavery Societies,
nor radical members of Congress, with all
| their bulls and pronunciamentoes, have eff
fected one foot in advance III practical or eff
fectual Emancipation. y
We do not object to Gen. Mcclellan being
an ''Emancipator stin we think any man
of ordinary memory viii regard this claim
| of priority as slightly lacking in modesty.
| The manner in which little Mack first
enunciated the principles and carried out
practically the emancipation theory, is not
SO clear to our dull comprehension. Per-
haps it was by protecting with scrupulous
care the property of Rebels-by sending ne
groes back to their maSters-by insisting
that the war should be conducted so as not
to interfere with the Constitutional rights"
of the South-Seymour and Woodward be-
| ing his Interpreters of those Constitutional
| rights Major Key of Mcclellan 5 staff,
who was dismissed from the service by Pres
idept Lincoln, for saying after the battle of
Antietam that 1T 1oas not the game to fol-
low up the victory the game being, ac-
cordiag to his authority, to cause the war
" to inger until the Presidential election. SO
q that the success of the Democracy might
save the institution of Slavery must have
sadly misunderstood the real views of his
commander, if the Post is correct expo
nent of his principles.
| The New York World has had but
Slight attack of the Emancipation disease,
and until more full and complete diagnos-
1 is of the case can be made, we should not
like to risk a reputation by pronouncing it a
decided or fatal case. The World says:
1--WE are bound to support the war until
! the Rebels lay down their arms, and the nat
ural tendency and necessary consequence of
|! the war IS TO shake the institution of Slavery
to its foun cations. So far as its downfall is
the natural result of the war, the Democrat
ic party cannot lnterpose to save 1t. "
After this, who will not say that ''the
world moves ~ We doubt not that the
public will be anxious to see if the editors
of the Clearfield Copperhead organ will try
TO jump on the car of progress as 1t dashes
rapidly along the sure, the inc yitable track
| of Freedom, or continue to jog on foot over
the dark, miry,. forsaken path of Slavery,
which will seen be 'kneHn no more forever
The House on Wednesday the 18th, OF
melton of Mr. Farnsworth of Illinois, pass
ed unanimously resolution of thanks to
the re-ealistiRg veterans. No more Just and
timely act has been done this session The
country unites with its representatives Ia