Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-10-27
AN ELEoTIoNEERINa SANDER COMPUTED.

ohaiSo tnat Ills p0ucai auVefbaIies, III their oppo-
sition to his policy and to his reelection are in
spired mainly by lingering Glove of slavery"
How this appears they do not explain, and we sup
pose it results from the fact that the Republicans,
in their support Of Mr.. Lincoln, give the largest
space to the relations Of slavery in this contest,
while these relations occupy subordinate and Sc
condary position in the minds Of his conservative
opponents.
In the declaration Of the Republican Convention
at Baltimore the extinction Of slavery is promi-
nently put forward As an end and object of the
war, and Mr.. Lincoln, in his Niagara manifesto,
makes [" the abandonment of slavery" equally with
the integrity of the whole Union" one of the
conditions on which he will accept any proposition
looking to restoration of peace. The Convention
which nominated Gen. Me- lellan, and Gen. MoClel-
Ian himself, in his letter accepting the nomina-
ton, insist on no such stipulation either an OBJ
ject of the war or as condition of peace.
But, for this reason, it does not follow that Gen.
Mcclellan or his supporters are in favor of "the
rehabilitation Of slavery" as charged. They pro-
pose to leave the status Of slavery just where the
Constitution Of the United States and the Consti-
buttons of the Saveholdng States leave it, subject,
of course to all the material loss it has incurred by
the actual havoc of war. They do not ask that
our armies in the war for the Union" shall con-
duct their operations with any purpose Of sparing
slavery, whose interests and whose existence they
hold entirely secondary to the interests and exist
ence of the Government. But they do ask that
the of our military operations and the inte-
rests Of the Government shall not be complicated
with the fate of slavery that men shall be unwill-
ing to accept peace without emancipation in
such States as may still retain remnant Of the
institution at the time when the war would
come to an end if it were waged simply for
q restoration of the Union. And, believing that
any policy which pledges the Government of the
United States to recognise and maintain" the free
dom of the slaves in the South who are not actu-
ally freed, but only ordered and declared to be
so by the Executive, is policy which unnecessa-
rily complexities the salvation Of the Union with
question of social polity, while it intensfes the
resistance opposed to our armies in the South, d.
vides public opinion at the North, and obstructs
the restoration Of peace by making it dependent
on other than the lawful objects of the war, the
supporters of Gen. Mcclellan, while not relaxing
their efforts in the cause Of the Union, or rather
because of their very persistence in those efforts,
dispute the expediency, as on grounds of constitu
tional law, they doubt the validity, of the Presi
Dental proclamation of January l, 1868, and the
subsidiary measures by which that proclamation
has been followed. 1t is no Glove of slavery"
which inspires these opinions, for they hold in
deed is admitted by all, that this proclamation
has not only not emancipated any slaves who would
not have been otherwise freed, but, by making the
progress of our arms more difficult in the South, it
has proved in fact an efficient shield of slavery by
saving it from blows which it would have other
wise received long before this time.
Before the Administration entered on this
policy Of emancipation by proclamation it was
called to encounter the same charge which its ad-
herents now bring against the friends of Gen. Nc
Clelsn when they stand where the Administration
stood at the beginning Of the war. But did Mr.. Lin
coin then admit that he was inspired by any Glove
of slavery?" Had he not then repeatedly avowed
his desire to see all men free2 Or did he then ad
NIT that his refusal to make emancipation one of the
objects of the war; without the attainment of which
the war should not cease, could be justly adduccd
as an evidence that he was favorable to the perpe
tuation Of slavery In answer to these questions
we need but cite the following despatch, in which
the Secretary Of State his thought at that
time Under date Of February II, 1862, after Mr.
Lincoln had been President almost year, Mr.
Seward wrote as follows in a despatch to Mr.
Adams, our Minister in London:
1t represented to that equally in Great Britain
assumption that the Government which maintains it 10
favorable least not unfayoabe to the perpeuaon Of
slavery This incident 10 of the curious and in
structve which has occurred in the of this
controversy.
Ths Administration was elected and came into its trust
upon the ground of its declared opposition to the extension
of slavery The party OF slavery for this reason
itself against not only the Administration but the Union
ITSELF and nsugurated civil for the verthrow Of the
Union and the establishment Of exclusive saveholdng
Confederacy.
without surrendering the political principle we meet
them in the battle field and in defence of the Union The
contest for life absorbs all the interest that had existed
growing out OF the previous conflict Of IDEAS But what
must be the eec1 III the Confederacy prevails slavery
will have constitutional, legitimate and acknowledged
state devoted to e the paramount object of the ma
tonal existence. If the Union prevails the Government
will be administered by majority hostile the fortifca-
ton and perpetuaton Of slavery Slavery in the Slave
holding States will there be left In the care of the people
nj iust afr