New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-05-20
tain thing which must follow it. The President

u
who, by the way, has no constitutional power
to do what this precious resolution proposes that
he shall do-the President is not only to bear
the fragrant olive-branch to Gen. Lees tent, but
he is to carry with it guaranty Now, we are
extremely suspicious Of guarantees, particularly
when their subject matter is Human Slavery,
which has thus far led diabolica kind Of exist
ence, by virtue of its ingenuity in extorting
from our fears or our interests, divers "guar-
anties"-somctimes called compromises--upon
the sanction of which, by legislators and legis-
lating judges, the man-owners have always
thanked the Devil, and taken courage. We
cannot remember when the cooking Of these
same " guarantees was not going on, until
lately, in the Congressional kitchen We
call to mind dozen of these sopS
thrown TO the narrowing Cerberus; and,
although he has greedily swallowed them
all. we do not rccollect that they have
made him o whit more amiable o Heavens!
that now, in the very shock of this war, stand
ing with the records OF Congress within reach
of his arm, familiar il is to be supposed, with
all the shames and crimes OF our civil history,
almost within ear-Shot of the field upon which
our dying soldiers were utterng their last
groans, here is man who is not by any means
so solicitous for the rights of the nation as for
finding out some ingenious method by which
the pride Of massed and congregated feons is
to be beneyolenty saved Liberty is not to
VINCE though dagger be driven through her
Slavery, rampant in the field Of actual
contest, is to be cOndoled with, and her wounds
seduously bound up, although her wounds may
be but scratches We say again, what We have
said before that we do not comprehend either
the head or the heart of that man who, without
the poor excuse of having been born and nur-
tured amid the debauching influences of Slavery,
is always ready TO crawl in the dust before it
TO believe its fundamental ialSehoods and It's
convenient little mendacties-to turn his back
upon his own neighbors and friends and kindred
that he may wave oliye-branches under the
noses of foamng bulldogs, who have all their
lives been fed upon human flesh, with some un-
certain notion that bis foolish experiment. may
tempt them to less heinOus diet We do not
understand what mean motives must be lurking
below this absurdly generous demeanor-and,
for the sake of our estimate of human nature,
We forbeor to search for them.
And what is the bait, by the virtues of
which Mr. Dawson proposes to tempt these Wild
beasts into snug Constitutional trap The
Rebels are " to be left to r6organize and deter
mine their own institutions without dictatiOn
or interference from the Government of the
United States" We will not pretend to mis-
understand the meaning Of this proposition, al
though we might do so without doing Daw-
son any particular injustice. We might ask
what Mr. Dawson would think if the rcorgan-
lied States should agree to set up within their
several boundaries an absolute monarchy
Would not that be "a Reorganization ofther own
institutional And what limits would the gen.
tleman from Pennsylvania propose-what re-
stlaint would be impose upon the political &C.
ccntricitics of these prodgal sons, who might
not be contented with simple dish Of veal
We all know very well what exaggerated no.
tons of what are called State Rights are enter
entertained even by Shareholders who are good
enough to stay in the Union-when Mr. Daw-
sons oliye-branch has had its full effect upon
the bodies and souls of traitors, from what We
know of them, and have experienced from them,
Is il reasonable to suppose that they will ask for
nothing which we should not exhibit an alac-
rity to grant, But we beg pardon of the reader
for propounding such impertinent queries The
United States, it would seem, are, in Mr..
Dawson's eyes of no consequence, the Con-
stitution is delusion. The war is waged prin-
cipally for the qualification it affords. Peace is
to be sought for, only that We may have the
supreme felicity of once moro going to war.
These being the facts, let Mr. Dawson, without
waiting for the House to adopt his resolution,
start at once, on his own private account, for
the camp of Gen. Lee, with whole cart-load of
oivebranches. Some good may come of it. Mr. |
Dawson may possibly be treated as spy