Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-08-18

in another part of today's lntelhgeneer from the
Washington Morning Chronicle Of yesterday, un-
der the title of "The Road to Lasting Peace"
Our readers will find that 'fthe road to lasting
peace" as now apprehended by the Chronicle,
does not lie in blind following of Presidential
dicta in the matter of slavery, or any other sub
ect, but in keeping single eye to the restoration
of the Union, whatever else may have to be thrown
overheard We congratulate our neighbor on
the short turn he has taken to find the road
that leads to peace, and we hope that, having
turned his steps in the right direction, he will never
again desert :" the good old paths"
Assuming it as an admitted fact that there can
be no dissolution of the American Union, either as
condition an incident of peace, the Ohroni-
Gle very pertinently asks, mhy, then, shall we
not have peace p It justly adds, "every hody is
anxious, a2y eager, that Mis aoar should cease"
The only question, it thinks is " how to begin the
consideration of the momentous problem" 1t is,
indeed, much to make beginning in this direc-
ton, and we arc glad that the Chronicle has not
only made it, but that it proceeds summarily to
sweep out of the path certain stumbling blocks
which We have long perceived to lie in the way of
peace. And, in the irst place, limiting at the
obstacle which the President in his " proclamation
Of freedom" laid in the way of peace when he
pledged himself to "msintain" the freedom of all
the slaves "ordercd and declared" by i. to be free
the Chronicle significantly suggests that "many Of
our very best patriots sturdily contend that Mr..
Lincolns proclamation Of emancipation has not
set free all the slaves Of the South" AS in point
of fact that proposition is apparent to every body,
the Chronicle is to be understood, Of course, as
saying that "maDy of our very best patriots"
affirm that in point Of law the emancipation edict
of the President is null and void. And it points
to the fact that where slaves have been really
freed during the war, it has always been by some
power more actual and competent than tho breath
of the President " These cases." it pertinentiy
says do not the OF ectons which live in the
minds Of Of aoisest Union statesmen
against the proclamation Of emancipation, which
was the aot of the President alone"
We do not cite these sayings for their intrinsic
novelty. Our readers know that we have stead
fastly maintained this view of the nature and value
of the emancipation edict from the day it was first
promulgated. Our only wonder is that we should,
after having encountered no small share of obloquy
for the consistent assertion of this opinion, now
learn fol- the FIRST time from The Chronicle that
"mauy of our very best patriots" and "some of
our wisest Union state, men" view the matter in the
same light. 1t is obvious, therefore, that may
lightly esteem the "procamation of freedom with
ho;r lava of xu;tb
being " disloyal at heart"-phrasos of cheap abuse
by which it has been common to parry honest ob-
jectons brought against this ill-fatod measure on
the ground whether of expcdiency or of law
Our Administration neighbor, in fact arrives
at the sage conclusion that this country will incur
cords" and "patforms" are to {" educate our peo-
pie for the future, 10 dictate 10 armies or Aa
n,iniarations" Dealing with "facts" aud not
with "sophi.ms," it iuds q almost as much danger
in the exactipg demands of those who call them
selves ultra-kepubhcans as in those who call them
selves ultra Democrats" The discovery is most
valuable, and to the observer it is most suggestive
for, when the Chronicle has made it, we may be
that pretty nearly every body else in the
try has made it too
We fear our contemporary pushes ts mood for
patriotic concession a little too far when it init
mates a contingent willingness "to see Mr.. Lin
coin himself out Of the canvass" We think we
have heard something about swapping horses in
crossing stream" which is entirely Incompatible
with such suggestion though if this be now the dis
position of the Chronicle it can readily understand
that it is from no want of proper respect for Mr.
Lincoln that many among "our very best patriots
and "wisest Union statesmen" deplore the com.
plcations by which his candidacy is beset in the
unfortunate " record" he has made for himself on
the subjccs which more than any other concerns
the possibility of restoring peace and Union to this
distracted land So long these complications
were discerocd only by "pro-slavery magnsnts" and
"sympathizers with the rebellion" they might have
been presumed to be the offspring Of political pre-
judicc, but when they are admitted by political
friends of the President, as devoted as the con-
ductors Of the Chronicle, il is to be hoped that his
own eyes will in due time be opened to their exist
ence, not only because they fatal to the pros
poets of his reelection but because they arc fatal
to tho prospect, of Union aud peace on the basis
of the Constitution.