Delaware State journal and statesman., 1864-07-29
PEACE EFFORTS.

Aoohihh w ehuo on tut NAllOHul sue are fO0lIs
and futile, because tho Rebel peace-mongers Al
insincere aod tricky, and because Mr. imund
krke Gilmore testi6es that
"Jeiferson Davis said to me last Sunday. ian
with oil his faults, believe him man Of truth
"Ihis War must go on Ill he last of this genera
ton falls in ifs tracks, and his children seize
musket and fight eur battle, unless you acknoibledq
our right 10 self government We are not fqhtin
for Slavery. We are fighting for Iadtpsndsnce, an
Maf or determination, a9e a0W haze"
Let us, for the arguments sake, admit th
Posts premises, and from that platform consido
the justice mud force of its conclusions.
When Horace MalpOle, on his return from
Rome, was asked if he had converted the Pope
he oanddly confessed that he had not, adding
by way OF explanation, that he was unable /,
offer that gentleman anything better than h
already possessed, For kindred an obyout
reason, Jefferson Davis is naturally the very las
man 10 the COnfederacy to consent to restora
iion of the Union ON whatever terms For he il
now one Of the potentates of earth, ruling with
desp0tic sway n spacious empire md several
millions of human beings; and there is no con-
ceivahle, at least no tolorable reconstruction
which would not seriously diminish his DO wer
aud consequence. He. unquestionably, is lfg ht-
ing for independence" (Which, ia his individual
case, includes everything elss-suoe ha has not
a slave left. If ever he consents to "recon.
struchon, 1t will be because hS has no alterna.
i've
Now, then, we will suppose that the exchange
Of notes ut Niagara had resulted in the appear-
auce at Washington Of Rebel Commissioners,
upon their assurance that they had Tor would
promptly obtain) full powers to propose and ac-
oept terms Of peace. Of fcourse, they would have
been morally and every way bound to pro6er such
terms-our Government simply standing still
and requiring light upon any point which those
terms did not make clear. Suppose, then, that,
thus brought to book, Davis had instructed them
to say. 1--WE demand Independence, and will
make no treaty that does not concedo it. would
not that demand, thus unmistakably authenti-
Gated, have been worth to our Government re-.
enforcement Of One Hundred Thousand Men to
its armies Thomas Jefferson, more than sixty
years ago, observed that there was one spot on
this contncnt-New Orleans, tO-wit-Whereof
the foreign p0ssessor must inevitably and eter-
nally be the enemy of the United States that
spot we first obtained by fair purchase Of o large
cost, and, having had it wrested from us by
treason, we have fought ourselves back into pos
session of it at still heavier cost of patriot
blood and have held it uubeleagued for more
than two years past. II, now, Mr.. JEFF. Davis
would officially inform us that we can have no
peace with him save on condition that we sur
render New Orleans, and submit TO be excluded
save on suferanee, from the Lower Mississippi,
whereon no flag now floats but by our permis-
sion, would not that exaction immensely aid us
to raise the men and money we now need We
see not how this question can be considerably
answered in the negative, nor how any one can
fail TO perceive that any possible proposal of
Peace from Richmond must hU 30 shaped as 10
cOnduoe to the restoration of Peace and the
Uoion. There may be wisdom far beyond ours
iu the premises; if so, it sOars quite ebove the
popular apprehension.
But, even though the results actually attoined
fall deplorably short of what might have bsen,
we hold that great step has bsen gained to-
ward Peace by elIciting the Presidents mani
festo. Let us reconsider it:
ExEcUTIvE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July ls, ga
TO WHOM 1T MAY CONCERN.
Any proposition which embraces the reslora-
tion Of Peace, the integrity of the whole Union,
and the abandonment of Slavery, aud which
comes by and with an authority that can control
the armies now ut war against the United States,
will be received and considered by the Executive
Government of the United States, aud will be
met by liberal terms on other substantial and
collateral points, and the bearer or bearers OF it
shall have Safe Conduct both ways
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Here the President insists upon but two car
dinal points, intimatiug that On all others he
is ready and willing to treat on "lberal terms"
This overture Of the President will of course, be
disseminated at the South, and will 60 far 10
dsabuse the Rebel soldiers Of tho dslusion,
which has been sedulously inculcated by their
Chiefs that no terms can be made with the Gov
ernment-that they have no choice but that be-
tween persistent fighting and unconditional sur
render. Not one-tenth of those soldiers has any
interest in Slavery save to get rid of it while
tens of thousands of them regard the Rebellion
as inexcusable, and know that it's authors richly
deserve hanging. But" they say we are
standing between our homes and devastation
between q ruthless, hostile soldiery and our
wives and children aud here we must stand till
We die" If the South really knew the actual
statc Of feeling at the North, the Rebellion would
not stand another month The zanies in the
loyal States who talk as though broad empire
could be subjected to military execution supply
the venomous, desperate traitors in Dixie with
The very aliment they need; and we deeply re-
Rret that one of tue resolves Of the late Balti-
Convention seems calculated to give them q lift
Gen. Fremont did wise, generous, manly act,
in stamping instead Of standing on the Wholesale
Confscaton plank of the Cleveland Platform
thereby aiding to smooth the path TO peace
MIR. Lincoln, in the paper above given, has gone
much further on the same way, taking ground
radically different from that of Unconditional
bubmission. His indispensable bases Of peace
afe lust right-are those on which it becomes
him to insist though il does not follow that the
Rebels should be precluded from proposing any
other, nor that all negotiation should be barred
until they shall be prepared to concede, as
preliminary, all that is essentially in dispute.
Wesley, reproyed by one of his brethren for
Tue light, lively character of some Of the tunes
to which be set his hymns, wisely responded that
he disputed the right Of tho devil to monopoly
Of oil the beet music. We feel very much like
this when we hear the most vociferous cham
pions of the sneaking theft of Texas from Mex
leo, the bolder robbery of New Mexico and Cali
fornia, the defenders Of the 0stend Manifesto,
sgd of every atrOcious, bloody minded aggres-
sion yhjch has disgraced our country's history,
now gToaning oyer the horrors Of War aud de-
snanting on the Christiap blessedness Of Peace !!
What tsav really seek is a rehabilitation of the
slave Power: e this War were only making
slaves instead of emancipating them-or il it
were adding q new empire like Texas to the do
main Of tho slaveholders-they would observe
with complaeenoy its prosecution throughout the
next ten Years. 1t ig not War that they hate
but war wherein Slavery 10 getting Wors'ed
But the hatred they affect, we teeli and we
would have the people freshly assured thst we
are struggling for National existence against the
most wicked and Wanton rebellion that the world
syer saW-ihat, if we continue at war, 1t is only
because few months more Of wholesale agonies
and devastations are tie necessary prelude TO a
century of true, benefcent Peace.
Il seems to us that the time, if II has not
already come, must be near OF hand, wherein
the North and the South will be ready to ex-
change elances otherwise than over the cress Of
their rival inirenchments along the sights of their
respective muskets-a mode of regard not codu-
aye 10 gsniality of temper, gracousness Of man
1er or comeliness Of visage. In that day, the
South will be made to comprehend that the
North requires the extinction Of Slavery in no
enyious, inimical spirit-requires It because its