Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-12-08

nation Of the latter to protract the war until ht
shall be able to destroy slavery. And, while tho
civil policy Of tho Government remains in its pre-
sent hands, and is conducted on its present basis
we believe that he does not count in vain on the
determined hostility of the Southern people, and
that he is quite right in preparing the minds Of
the Northern people for the indefinite continuance
OF the contest in which they are engaged, however
fallacious may be the arguments by which he seek.
to reconcile them to that prospect
In commenting, only few days ago, on the
"only issue of the war and its solution" the New
York Times held the following language;
The Southern masses have been made to believe that
the North has been lighting to destroy slavery to over
throw State rights and to ubugae and degrade Southern
whites
Who has made the Southern masses" believe
all these things? What has made "the Southern
masses" believe all these things? The answer to
these two questions carries with it the condemna-
ton of all that we most condemn in the policy OF the
Administration and in the spirit of its principal
supporters. We would have had the war kept SO
true to its original and only Legitimate end that
there should have been no ground on which to
make the Southern masses" believe that " the
North was fighting to destroy slavery, to bver-
throw State rights, and to subjugate and degrade
Southern whites"
The Times cannot deny that the policy of the
Administration, and of its friends in Congress and
out of Congress- has lent itself to the propagation
OF these convictions at the South, for it has to
argue against them even at the North, among its
own political confederates 1t is but two DAYS ago
that one of its correspondents protested against
ITS views of the only issue of the war;" as being
"opposed to the ancient principles of the Republi-
can party, to the Baltimore platform, to the policy
of the Administration, and to the interests of the
country" And it was in reply to such represen-
tations that the Times held the following Ian
guage:
Our correspondent treats this war as If it were
nominal crusade-a John Brown raid gigantic scale
just such loose talk that has driven tens of thousands
OF true Union into opposition to the war But it is
all utterly groundess The not undertaken
slavery 10 moral wrong We should have had no more
night TO do that than to make upon foreign nation
because of its internal immoralities It was no moral
question at all that mpeed Government to take up
arms nor Will t be moral question at all that will pre-
vent 1t from laying down its The only question was
civil one The war sprung alone from coa necessity
OF maintaining constitutional authorty and when that
civil necessity is met by universal submission to that
authority the will The Government once made
war upon the Mormons of Utah. because of their Nor
monm but because they had undertaken rebellion When
the Mormons submitted the ceased though the abom
able Mormonsm remained To recognise any other prin
epe than that war; whether domestic or foreign are to
be waged for no other than civil grievances would soon
make the whole civilized world an Acedems"
If the Administration and its friends had con-
sistently and unequivocally acted in accordance
with these views of our contemporary we sincerely
believe that the war would have long since been
ended and the Union restored for, on the basis
of such views, we should have had united North
and divided South; whereas we have the con-
fesson of the Times that it is the prevalence or at
least the currency of contrary opinions among the
leaders OF the dominant party in the Government
which has driven tens of thousands of true Union
men into opposition to the war;" while at the same
time it has made the Southern masses believe that
they good and just grounds for standing out in
unalterable hostility to the National Government.
We could desire no more convincing argument
against the course of events and of political opin
ion in the loyal States than that which supplied by
our able Administration contemporary, and we ac-
cept full identity with it in the opinions it pro-
pounds on this subject We are glad to sec wisdom
justified of her children in the ranks of the sup
porsers of the Administration, though We have
encountered much obloquy and Misrepresentation
for holding precisely the views of this Administra-
ton paper. So true is it that " Time makes all
things even"