Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1864-05-19

of employing all the national resources, by
his immortal Proclamation of Emancipation
declared all slaves within the insurrection-
ary districts ''henceforth and forever free;' ,"
and then, in spirit of lofty eloquenee not
surpassed in any age, invoked upon this
sublime measure "the considerate Judgment
of mankind, and the gracious favor of the
Almighty p Finally, Congress took the
matter up, and by solemn legislation enact
ed, that all slaves should be heartily well
coined within the Union lines, should be
guaranteed the full protection of the na-
tional flag, and if they chose, should drill
and fight as Union soldiers From Cuffee
to contraband, from contraband to citizens
Of African descent, from such qualified citi.
zen to American soldier, our national
preudices have grown "small by degrees
and beautifully less,o until at last the hated
children of the sun have come to be recogs
nized as welcome allies in the great war now
and here being waged so iercely for humans
ty and God.
1t requires no prophets eye now to see
that the battle, though still maintained with
vigor in some parts of the field, is yet al
ready clearly won. The elections of last
fall, from Maine to California, possess this
peculiar significance, that they utterly an
nihilate disafection throughout the north.
Any other result, especially in the great
Middle States, would have been national
disaster. But, thank Heaven, Mr.. Justice
Woodward was left to contemplate the
beauties of his native Wyoming McClel-
tyr of Ohio bids fair, for some time 60
come, ''to wait and watch across the Dor-
der p Meanwhile, throughout the south,
wholesale disintegration is inevitable. jeff
kom is already beaten, because it has lost
Sambo. It's ebony platform has been knock
ed from under it. It's bond Of union has
been thoroughly and forever severed. It's
vital cord has been effectually cut. At all
points where the Union lines advance, its
faithful chattels, converted suddenly into
"American citizens of African descent"
take unto themselves legs and run away.
Nay, if we but look more closely, we may
see the dusky freedmen, with bent brow,
in serried ranks, beneath the good, the
grand old flag, charging fercely into the
storm of battle, and indicating for their
race right royal manhood along the bloody
ramparts of Port Hudson and Fort Wag-
ner. We repeat, the battle, though its
thunders still shake the air, is already won
for the nation. It but remains for the
Union to gather upits squadrons and charge
once more, or so, along the whole line. For
there is no clearer truth in this war than
this, that exactly in the proportion that
slavery disappears, the rebellion ceases.
The accursed bond of union once cut, the
malcontents drop speedily asunder. Thus
fta1 n hns
southern Empire, by one of those sure re.
venges which time always brings about, has
become to the disunionists an "architect of
ruin" Hence, with the success Of our
arms, we behold following pari passu the
Equalization of the South and the restora-
ton of the Union. And thus once more
we see it happen, in the strange ''whirligig
of time," that justice to the oppressed, how.
ever dear or difficult, becomes at last tho
only TRUE SAFETY Of nation.
For our nation aoiW be saved. The ''signs
of the times'' are unmistakable. The Lord,
almost hath spoken it. In the light Of our
shining victories, at both the ballot and the
cartridge box, we may well believe, that
Behind the dim unknown
Staudeth God within the shadow, fa
Keeping watch above his own.
How gratifying to the patriot what mat
ter of rejoicing to the Christian heart
With the war once over, we shall have no
more squabbles about State Rights. Future
malcontents will have been taught lesson
which they will wisely heed. Our local
governments will know enough, at least, "to
keep the peace" With the only stain up
on our escutcheon blotted out, with justice
,toI IL 4
of the Republic, with the reign of law and
order made sure and absolute, with a popu-
lation Industrious, intelligent, and Injured to
arms, and with an undivided and indivisi-
BILE empire from the lakes to the gulf, and
from the blue Atlantic to the golden slopes
of the Pacific, the future grandeur, and
glory Of the American people, O, who shall
estimate I? Then at last become the true
pride Of mankind, and the just hope Of the
world, it is not too much to believe, that
our career as nation will be only just be.
gun. Abraham Lincoln, the crowned hero
of the century, will go to his tomb wept by
the human race, and the American Repub-
lie, saved by his hand, will endure, let us
hope,
Through long distant ages when these warioud days
are done,
Stretching like golden evening forward to the set
ting
But word more and our task is done.
There are those who say, that the war once
over, the freedmen will be remanded to their
bonds. A cabinet officer, indeed, with
strange lack of dignity, most unbecoming
to one of his station, has declared that in
his judgment, they will perhaps be allowed
to build our railroads, dig our canals, and
ditch our swamps; but that, when these
public works are completed, they will be
shipped off to Africa or Central America.
Faugh! The American people have not yet
sunk so low. Let men remember, that no
nation ever yet willingly abandoned the de-
tenders of its life, and that the American
Republic in the heyday of its triumph over