Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1864-12-13
The Presidents Message,

and is Unexpectedly brief. It has been received
will very general and deserved favor by the Re
publican press Of The country, and has been ex-
trayaganty praised by some Of them, although
they do not entirely agree in their understanding
Of some # its statements and positions. And
while admiriug almost every paragraph Of it, and
discovering little in it which we would have
omitted, we yet frankly say that it disappointed
u,,-and We think the public generally,--in its
brevity, in its almost entire silence with respect
TO the most important OF cur foreign relations
ID it's exceedingly meagre ausion to the military
operations Of the past year, and in its entire lack
0, any statement or argument respecting the
moral positions which the rebellion and the gov
eminent now respectively occupy, as affected by
the events Of the last twelve months. We doubt
whether there has been moment since the
commencement Of the war, when better oppor-
tunity has been offered the President, to put into
public declaration powerful statement, which
should OF itself have been most convincing ar
gument of the strength and justice Of our cause,
and Of the glazing wickedness as well as crime oil
treason, than this moment. And such state
ment, such an argument, was needed If not at
home yet abroad 1t should have been ike
Judicial summing up Of a cause which has been
dragging its length along for weeks in court
and everybody knows what an able judge can do
with such an opportunity And SO Presid
Lincoln should have re-stated our cause, and re.
counted the tets of aggrayation by which rebellion
has added, during the last year, to its already
damning guilt, and should have placed this on
record for the people to read to strengthen their
own purpose, and for foreign nations to study in
order to learn from a dignih.1 and reliable State
paper the official argument in behalf OF the
peoples cause. We shall be agreeaby disnp-
pointed if this message does not prove quite
unsatisfactory to our own people, and entirely in
adequate to the work which it ought to have been
able to accomplish abroad.
The President undoubtedly supposed our cause
needed no argument, and that the briefer he
made his message, and the fewer topics he dis
cussed in it, the beteri but in this We believe he
made grave mistake. When the nation is con.
tinuay called upon to make sacrifices in the effort
to put down treason, VIXEN i is daily pulled
hither and thiher by the arguments and opinions
Of partisan leaders respecting the line Of its duty
and the oraces which It usually consul!s give a
diversity Of responses, when heart and flesh at
times fail as it sees the growing mountain OF debt,
feels the exac'ions of the tax gathercr, looks APP
prehensively forward to new conscriptions, and
nouns over the hundreds of graves which are
weekly filled all along the contested fields, and
when cunning and unscrupulous politicians are
de1terousy playing upon these sensitive nerves of
feeling, and endeayoring 10 turn the nation back
from its purpose to utterly extinguish the rebel.
lion let the cost be what it may, the Chief Exc
cutye should with the touch of master hand
have depicted the Right in is mlnliness, its
majesty its truthluness, its absolute justice and
righteousness, and be should have painted the
Wrong in the hideous colors 10 which it has chosen
to array ITSELF and thus should have presented a
picture for the strengthening Of our cause at
home, aud for its Justification abroad, which would
have convinced the Judgment md moved the
hearts Of men everywhere. The cunning men
who have managed the rebel cause at home and
in foreign lands, have rightly estimated the use to
be made Of every public address or official paper
to fortify their cause, and they have never lost an
opportunity Of presenting their case, in Their own
way, to all who would read or hear, and have
thus given to their wicked treason character
and respeotabty to which it could never other.
wise have attained; and it Is not unlawful to BE-
taught by an enemy.
The declaration of the executives purpose in
relation to the prosecution and termination OIL
the war, il it is to be taken without qualification
as stated" they can at any moment have peace
simply by laying down their arms and submitting
to the national authority under the constitution
After so much the Government coul d not, il i
would, maintain war against them, lis simple
and plain proposition, aud one which we regretted
the President did not make to the Niagara poll
tcians, last summer. 1t presents to the rebel
the only conditions which the Government ear
rghtfully exact as well as the only ones it car
honoruby accept, and the only terms which thu
insurgents can reasonably ask. Submission tc
the constitution and the laws OF the land, is tn
one condition Of peace. We ask no more anC
can be content with no less.
There is one suggestion in the message which
we think should not be adopted, VIZ that Ger
tain portion oflhe bonds OF the government shout
not only be exeupi from taxation, but also exemp
from seizure for debt. twill be inn, ssible, eve
ifthere be case in which the exemption would b
advisable, to prevent such an exemption iror
being taken advantage Of by dishonest debtors
The exemption from taxation, in these ,imes, give
government securities sufficient preference owe
individual obligations, and we fear that any legi'
lation to mako them further ext mpt, would weake
rather than strengthen their value. The true wa
to make our national securities valuable, is /
bring the national income up to sum hrg
enough TO stop, 10 some measure, the rapid aecu
mutation of the public debt ard this cours
would b, infinitely preferable to any make shift
which can be of very little service, and are abl
to very serious abuses. rne best thing Congress
can DO, is to increase the revenues of the treasur
by mxlion, and il they sincerely desire to rails
the value government bonds, they will take thi
course. II they bad, two years ago, provided