Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-07-28

II
United States" which does not embrace, in addl-
ton to " the restoration of peace and the IN
tegrity of the whole Union" the abandonment
of slavery"
| As compared with the declaration Of 1868, 1t
shows that the time has now come when, accord
log to the Presidents own admission and consent,
such of his oountrymen as "fghtiDg exclu-
| sively for the Union," and who conscientiously
deny the right of the Government to fight for any
thing else, may apty say that the new terms on
which the President insists such that If the
negotiations were broken down by his persistence
on this point, they might fairly claim, according
to his own theory Of their duty, exemption from
"fghting to free negroes"
twill thus be seen that, by applying to the
late declaration of the President the principles an
nounced by him in the years 1851, 1862, and
1868, we are able to measure the effect and pur-
port of that declaration by his own standards
And when the President thus becomes his own
critic and confuter it would be idle in us to add
any words on the subject
But this latest declaration is important in other
aspects It serves to show that the President has
overcome any scruples he may have previously
had on the subject of recognising the Confederate
military authorities He now makes it condition
of receiving and considering any proposition that
it shall come "by and with an authority that can
control the armies now at war against the United
States" On this point he has paid little heed to
the resolution of the Baltimore Convention, when,
in renominatng him, it declared:
Iaka~ sksnrn the
Government of the United States not to compromise with
rebels or offer any terms of peace except such may
be based upon unconditional surrender OF their hostility
and return to their fret allegiance to the Constitution
and laws of the United Sates and that call upon the
Government to maintain their position, and to prosecute
the with the utmost possible vgor to the complete
suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon the self
sacrificing patriotism the heroic vaor, and the undying
devotion of the American people to their country and its
free institutions"
The President, it seems, is now willing to
"compromise with rebels" for he says that if they
will accept the terms prescribed they will be met
by "beral terms on other substantial and COL
lateral points"
But Mr. Lincoln must have been aware that the
President of the so-called Confederate States who
is the "authorty" that controls the armies now at
| war against the United States" is not empowered
by any of his prerogatives to stipulate for the
abandonment of slavery" and, therefore, in spe-
cifying this of the terms of proposition to
come "by and with" such an authority" he
asked what Gen. Jefferson Davis, even with the
fullest disposition to do SO, had no right power to
grant-slavery being, under the Constitution of
the Confederate States, as of the United States,
exclusively an insttu ton of the separate States,
over which the central power has no rightful ju-
risdiction or control
this point were officially expounded by the present
Secretary of State at the opening of this Admins
tration in despatch which is known to have re-
ceived the Presidents sanction. We allude to the
letter of instructions to Mr.. Dayton, Minister
| to Paris, in which occur these passages
THE trainers of our Government placed the entire
control of slavery, il then existing beyond the
control of the Federal authorities by leaving it re-
subject to the exclusive management and disposition
of the several States Themselves and fortified it there with
provision for the return Of ugves from labor and
vice. and another securing allowance of three hs Of
such persons fixing the basis Of direct taxation and
| presentation.
"The condition of slavery the several States will
main Just the whether it the rebellion succeed or
fail There is not even preteIt for the complaint that
the daected States to be conquered by the United
States il the revolution fa for the rights Of the States and
/
suee eraeiy the ta,ss and forms Of administration
pheer the shall succeed iohher shall fail In
the one the States would be federy connected with
the new Confederacy in the other they would, now
be members of the United States but their constitutions
and laws customs habits, and institutions in either
| will remain the
ut hardly necessary to add TO this ineonestabie state
the further fact that the President well the
citizens through whose suages he has into the ad
minstrson has always repudiated all designs whatever
and wherever mpated to him and them Of disturbing the
system of slavery it is existing under the Constitution
and laws The hoigeger tooud mot be hy presented
II Itcere omit to say that such effort has part Mould
be unconstitutional and all his actions IN that direction
loud be prevented by tbs judicial authority, though
they ,osre assented 10 By Congress and the people"
We do not doubt that the people of the United
States will see in the impossible requisition of the
President as condition preliminary to peace only
new illustration of the inextricabe entang clements
into which the President has suffered himself to
be drawn by departing from the original theory of
the war. And if he desires to know the universal
impression that is likely to be produced by the at
titudc in which he has placed himself, he may, we
think, read it in such comments as the following
from the only one of the New York journals which
was originally in favor of his denomination. We
allude to the New York Times, which says:
The President made but two conditions TO the reception
and consideration Of proposition for the restoration of