New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-05-14

by any ingenuity OF sin, could be well devised
ton to abolish all moral distinctions. Slavery
il such a wrong that it seems to soar above or
binary opprobrium, and TO mock at our week.
day epithcts Of contempt and Indignation. But
worse than murder, arson. or any other crime
denounced by the laws, it claimed the protec
ton Of statutes. and it had its claim allowed.
Hence the arrogance which has saved us. II
is the old story of the thief and the rope and The
prcdeStinate hanging. 1t is precisely because it
began by limitlcss violation of Divine Law
that it has eliminated in an overt defiance of
Human Law. IL set out with a basDhcmOus
SANDER upon the goodness of God and it has
ended in treason for which no respectable
apology can be framed.
There may be, after all. considerable virtue
in truism, especially when, obstinately bent
upon asserting itself, it suddenly explodes, max
ing dismal havoc among its enemies, and then
reforms itself to be promoted to the higher posi-
ton of freshly recognized truth. Soft is that
homely driblets and eontcmptbly familiar for
mulas get, sometimes, in human experience
quite new and astounding meaning. "All
men are created equal" said the great
Declaration. All mouths were ready to repeat
the neat saying, but only now are we begin
ming TO know what il means. Only now
are we beginning to understand that you
can have no property in man, and
that the effort TO make him either real
estate, personal estate, or mixed es-
tate, must end in disastrous or laughabe fail
ure. Hardly before this very week, in which we
are to talk 50 much of Gospel missions, and
Sunday-schOols, and tract-distributionS, and
Bbe-dsseminatiOns, have We really felt that o
man cannot own n man, any more than be can
own an archangel. II is something to enter
upon new year of kindly and charitable labor
with this trihing addition to our stock of moral
tiles. II is something to look forward to a iu-
turc in which We are not TO nurse pet crime to !
worry our pet virtues, and to be forever putting
them out Of countenance. 1t will give us u
pleasant leisure for works OF charity, and fine
opportunities of unembarrassed development. |
Come what may, the incubus Of synods and
conventions has betaken Itself either to the he'll
from which it emerged, or at least to other and
far distant regions of this poor old world-in
due time, 'let us hope, to be hunted out and for
ever swept from the face Of the earth.
This, at least the war has done, If it has done
no more. Now, certainly, we can talk to each
other of our national virtue without sQueam-
ish uneosincss, ard utter fine sayings about
liberty without laughing in each Others faces
Our friends of the American Tract Society will
no longer feel consccntiously bound TO excise
certain of their republications for the man-0Vn-
ing market. There will be no SmcaIs OF human
blood upon the treasurers reports of sundry as
sociations The moral-rcform societies may
talk as they please of the plantation aduteries.
The church corporations will no longer be dis
tractcd from prayer and praise by the eursng
and swearing Of their Southern branches. Yalu-
able time will no longer be expended in proving
that Gods commands are OF less importance
than our own convenientinterpretati of them.
And if we shall now have time for rational
work, i, need not hang heavy upon our hands
for there will be a plenty of rational work To do.
Here are over 5000, 900 Of goods and chattels !
suddenly converted into human beings, each
with an immortal soul TO be saved and mortal
mind to he educated. Here will be not merely
a demand for more ana more tracts, but also
for that education of masses, as yet letterless,
which shall enable them to read; for
without reading, how are they to mark
and inwardly digest! All, we have
made great strides, or have been driven
to make thcm-the conditions Of philanthropic
effort and effect have been strangely changed
and now let us see if this Christian people, with
all lis machinery Of wel-doing, will be able at
least approximately to do well!