Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-09-15

away Dy Lneir pecular raulc6l lucas anu LhcoIieS
in regard to emancipation, which they want to SEQ
/" swift, universal, and complete" more than they
want to see the nation saved. it is well known to
the country that this is no new opinion Of the
Secretary. We know from his published de-
spatches that prior to the utterauce Of the pre-
liminary emancipation edict Of September %,
1852, he imputed to this class Of men a zeal
which made them auxiliary to the armed insur-
gents, as the impractioable fana,icism Of the for
mer, by the embarrassment they caused the
Administration, conspired to promote the designs
of the latter. And since the evil day when
the Administration, by yielding to what the Pre-
sident called "the Greeley faction" was weak
enough to repeat the folly Of the reluctant maiden
who married the importunate suitor to get rid Of
him, it has known no embarrassment equal to that
which gave it SO much trouble before the surrender
was made. The Secretary Of State has right to
speak with full knowledge on this subject, for it
was the exaction and Importantly Of this class,
represented in .he Senate Of the United States,
which compf He'd him at one time to resign the
trust he hclds from the President, and no fidelity
in the performance Of whose duties has been found
from that day to this sufficient to appease the
hostility of this dominating faction. Those who
give to the Secretary the honor that is due to him
for his conduct Of our foreign affairs during the
last three years and longer, are perhaps the more
reconciled to change Of Administration on the
4th Of March next, as after that period they have
no hope or expectation that those members of
the Cabinet who have given it some character for
conservation, and who for this reason have pro-
voked the hostility of the dominant faction in the
Republican party, will be allowed to remain in the
places which they now fill
If there b, any Democrats (and we presume
there are such) who, in their devotion to q Demo-
cratic formulas and combinations" are as blind to
the higher interests of the country as the Repub.
icans whom Mr. Seward rebukes for their bigoted
addiction to their radical ideas and theories" we
join him as cordially in the condemnation of the
first place to those who have had the opportunity
as they have shown the ability and will to do the
greater mischief. We still belong to that class of
Union men who, in the words of the Secretary,
"found out at the beginning of this tremendous
civil war that no man, no party. no formula.
creed could save the Union, bat that only the
people could save it, and they could save it only
by ceasing to become partisrns and becoming
patriots and Union men," And if the present
Administration had continued to b, of this class
We should have been as jealous in its support to-
day as we were at the beginning Of this tremen-
dous iyil war
There has been much debate in the halls of
Congress, in our State papers, and in the public
pres, with regard to the real and true object of this
tremendous civil war" Mr.. Seward gives US
new definition in the following words:
I" The war is maintained on our side to suppress the
usurper and bring the nsureent States back under the
authority OF the constitutional President Ihe at
its crisis 1t is clear therefore, that We arc fighting to
make Abraham Lincoln President of the whole United
states under the election Of 1860 until The
4h Of March, 1865. To voting for President of the
United States, wisely safely vote out the dent
cal person whom with force and arms fghng into
the Presidency"
This, to say the least, is very extraordinary
statement. We are informed that the vast array
of strength which the nation has put forth during
the last three years and more the treasure it has
expended, and the blood it has shed, have all been
enlisted in the interest Of one man. and are all to
enure to his personal benefit, by supposititious
right of Office inhering in him beyond the term for
which he was elected In other words, the crimes
of the insurgents and their oontumacy in rebellion
are made the political stock in trade on which Mr..
Seward claims for Mr.. Lincoln an extension Of his
official term. Or, to state the same proposition as
viewed from the north side of the dividing line be-
tween tho insurgent and the loyal States the
costumes oil the Administration in quelling the
belon, after, by its own admis ..n ample had
boen placed in its hands for long ago accomplishing
this just expectation Of the country, is madc tho
pretext for asking that it should be entrusted for
another forr years with the command Of tho re-
sources ithas shown itself little qualified to use
with advantage. To admit tho novel doctrine Of
Presidential succession thus iDgeniously propound
ed by Mr.. Seward is, we respectfully submit, to
offer premium to Executive imbccility, as it
makes the ineficiency of the Administration for
one term the ground of its claim to be employed
for second term.
If Mr.. Seward had not on former occasion
based the right Of Mr.. Lincoln to be rc-nomnated
at Baltimore on the same ground on which he now
h.oo. +lo r;obt of NJ Tpcoln IN ho re.aIoctod f,r