The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1864-08-01


together and form an alliance offensive and de-
fcns've such as will insure their safety against
TIE acks Of France and Spain combined.
w sc shall have conquered peace, and a
CO ro;nt reconstruction Of the Union, the
Icf-.. 5 Of Central and Southern America
Wi in US their natural champion. Until
tie. ey must act for themselves; and, to
judge from late appearances, they are willing
and able to do this. That Spain thinks SO is
evident from her present attitude towards
Peru.
The Present Aspect OF tho slavery Cues
ton.
The slavery question can no longer be re.
garded as apolitical issue. 1t will affect the
result of the approaching Presidential cam
paign neither one way nor the other. Like the
tariff question, the Maine law question and the
Know Nothing question, it has served its pur-
pose and passed away. Like these questions,
too, 1t has left matters pretty much where they
were before the discussion began. Nobody
threatens revolution days because Of the
tariff. The Maine law has not at all diminished
the quantity Of liquor consumed. The most
prominent champions of Know Nothingism are
now serving in the ranks Of the democratic
party. So We shall find, ct the close Of this
war, that the institution Of slavery will re.
main intact, although thousands Of slaves have
been seduced into freedom. Then the Southern
people will quietly decide for themselves
whether or not slavery is worth retaining. To
that decision we must come at last; for aboli-
ton societies, anti-slavery parties and emau-
cipation proclamations have only killed off
negroes without killing off the institution.
When We declare that slavery is dead we
mean that it is politically dead. That is the
only practical view to take of the institution
The moral and benevolent view Of ii can but
provoke sad, sarcastic smile. We have
learned to our sorrow that there is not much
morality in numbering and manning thousands
of white men in order to free negroes, nor
much benevolence in freeing negroes in order
to bury them. Theoretically the freedom of
the negro is very nice thing; but practically
it is only exchanging his easy letters for bull
lets or starvation. The abolitonists have
murdered thousands Of the black race under
the plea Of delivering them from bondage. It
is now evident that il the abolitionists had not
created the ant-slavery agitation the negroes
would have had not only their freedom, but
their lives. Thrty years ago many slave
holders were In favor of emancipation; but as
soon as the matter began to be agitated the
prejudices of class overcame the good inten-
tons of individuals, and all the shareholders
were banded together in defence of their
peculiar institution. Then slavery became
political power, and politicians. North aud
South, began to use it to advance their per-
sonal fortunes. The Northern politicians COM
menced this game, and the Southerners fol-
lowed 1t up, and pretty mess they have made
of It lately.
JED. Davis was perfectly right when be
declared to Edmund Kirke that the South was
not fighting for slavery. The Southern politi.
clans are merely fighting for power. They
employed the slavery question to induce the
Southern people to sustain them, just as they
used the tariff question in Jackson's time.
With the same truth it may be said that the
Northern people are not fighting for anti
slavery. Ant.-slavery was the pretext used by
Northern politicians to get office and to turn
the Southerners out of Office. If there had been
no slavery they would have taken up some
other question to effect the same end. II
Lincoln. Greeley and the rest of the abolition
lists cared anything for the welfare of the
negroes they would have avoided war; for war
is destruction to the slaves. Their object was,
not to get the slaves out of their bonds, but to
get the Southern politicians out Of their Offices
As wings, they tried to outbid the democrats
for the Southern vote; but when they failed in
this they tried to get rid OF the Southern
vote altogether. For this reason Greeley
and Phillips and their party were in
favor Of disunion, because they knew
that dsunion would remove two.thirds
of the democratic party out Of their path.
They saw that democratic majorties were
madeNp in the Southern States and therefore
they openly encouraged those States to leave
the Union. This is what Greeley means when
he says that the rebel leaders helped to elect
Lincoln; but he omits to add that he and his
colleagues helped the rebel leaders to secede
1t 10 clear, then, that the slavery question
was a mere political pretext on the part of the
North and South alike. The present struggle
has never been one about slavery; il lie simply
q struggle for power on the rebel side aod for
nationality on our side. All the abolition
msnifestoes and emancipation proclamations
issued by Lincoln are simply partisan docu-
nents intended to influence the anti-slavcry
vote. His recent note, insisting upon the
abolition Of slavery as his ultimatum, was
nothing more than a bid for the support Of
such people as Wendell Phillips, who have
gone of with Fremont. II his emancipation
proclamation was efectual It destroyed slavery,
and why, then. does he make the abolition Of
slavery an ultimatum? He knows very well
that be has no power over slavery. He knows
that no proclamation can abolish It. He knows