Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-05-05


uon, Whatever may have been our views of its ex-
pediency It is to the theory on which he based
that policy in his emancipation proclamation that
we have felt constrained to take exception A we'll
on grounds of expediency as of constitutional law
But beyond the statement of our opinions we have
had neither the will nor the ability to 20 in this
matter, and these opinions we have never expressed
as positively as the President once expressed them
In the same sense with ourselves
The President does not touch the difieultv To
whicn many enlightened friends OF the Government
and the Administration confess, when he says, by
way oil selfdefence, that he felt constrained lay
strong hand on the colored element" If he de-
sired to employ slaves in the military service. an
army orderwould have done the business infinitely
better, because Infinitely more directly, than
proclamation ordering and declaring" certain
persons to be free, when it was foreseen that such
proclamation could have no practical effect The
employment Of slaves for military purposes is one
thing; the theoretical emancipation of slaves in
whole States where the Federal power, as well civil
ss military, is, for the time, imperative and void,
seems to us quite another thing because in point
OF principle il involves, we conceive, an uncon-
stitutonal assumption Of power on the part of the
Executive, and in point of practical effect, it is
mere inutility-serving only to create dissensions
among loyal citizens and to consolidate the power
OF the enemy. Those who argue in defence OF the
proclamation on the presuu pti,n that without it
we could not avail ourselves of the service of
slaves, prove nothing but their own confusion of
ideas. Congress, by the act of July II, 1862, au-
thorized the President /" to employ as many per-
| sons OF African descent as he might deem neces-
sary and proper for the suppression of this rebel
lion !" and this was months before any "procla-
nation of freedom" was issued 1t is safe to say
with Major Gen. LOGAN that by this edict not
single slave has been freed who would not have
been otherwise freed by the progress of our arms,
and that in conseq aence of this edict not single
negro recruit has been added to our armies VINO
| would not have been otherwise added.
| And this brings US to estimate the practical
utility of the policy actually adopted very differently
from the view taken by the President when he
| says:
More than year Of trial now shows no Io.s nv II in
foreign relations in our home popular seotmant
none in our white military forceno ioss by u any how
or any where On the contrary. shows gain Of quite
L m. Ia
brer These are papable facts, about which AZ facts
| there can be- no cavipg. We have the meu, and We
| could not have bad them without the measure
" And now Let a'y Union man. who complains Of the
measure test himself by writing down in line that he
for subduing the rebellion by force Of arms and ia the
next that he 10 taking these hundred and thirty hu
sand men from the Union side and placing them where
they would be but for the measure he Condemns If hs
not face the truth"
These one hundred and thirty thousand soldiers
and laborers might have been just as well employ
cd without his proclamation as with it, And this
view leaves entirely out Of sight the more for
tunate condition in which the country, to say the
least, mtgh, possibly have been if different course
had been pursued, as well as the effect which
\ that emancipation proclamation has had on the
enemy Utterly poweress as an engine Of war on
our side, it has served only to distract the coun-
sells and parayze the energies Of loyal men, while
to the enemy it has furnished a magazine of lust
such weapons as the insurgent leaders know how
to use adroitly for the purpose of arrayipg all
classes against the Federal Government-the slave
holder by pointing him to the predestined loss of
his slave property, and the non-savehoIder by
pointing him to the prospect of being re-
dueed to an equality with the emancipated slave
Thus it is that all ranks have been banded against
us, and they will remain as long as this policy
| lasts
The insurgent leaders can never enough con-
fess their obligations to its authors for the
| "aid and comfort it has afforded them, by
| giving them new motives aud enlarged means
| for carrying on their war against the Gov
eminent And we speak advsedly when we
designate the "authors" Of the proclamation as
being those who are entitled to the gratitude Of
the insurgents. For the President is not the
"author" Of this policy We all know how long
he struggled against its adoption and how hestat-
ingly he, even at the last gave in his reluctant
adhesion to it. And now he disowns all respon-
sibility for it by saying:
al ca not to have controlled events but confess p.uIy
that events have controlled Now the end OF three
years struggle the nations condition s not what either
party any man devised expected God nj, ne can
claim it. Whittier II Is tending plain. II God now
wills the removal Of great wrong, aud wills also that we
of the North az well you OF the South shs pay fairly
for our completely IN that wrong, impartial history will
find therein to attest and revere the Justice
| and goodness Of God"
We fully concur with the President in his refer
ence of the present condition of the country to the
Divine Providence which appoints the destinies of
L attnr L. II. Ia.