Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-02-08
CeGlditisn, 81 : Trus Peaee.


There are rumors flying about but
traceable, so far as we can learn, to no
authentic or responsible source, that the
President is about to make another offer
of peace to the rebels; and some of Mr..
Lincoln's friends and supporters feel un-
easy lest, by his great and proper desire
for peace, he may be led to offer such
terms as would enable the authors OF the
rebellion to resume their old power IN the
Union, and to re-establsh the influence
and predominance which were so injurious
to our healthy national progress.
"Don't let loose the tiger, cry these
friends, "or at least if you do, be sure you
draw his teeth and file down his claws.
We must acknowledge that we DO not
share in these alarms. Mr.. Lincoln Is
liable to errors, like all other men put we
do not believe he is likely to err IN TINS
vital matter. He has proved himself q
faithful friend of freedom; his poncy,
though cautious, and therefore slower than
some more ardent spirits liked, has been
steadily favorable to universal liberty ana
to the cause of free labor; no one who mas
read his messages and his occasional
speeches can doubt that he compartments
thoroughly the great questions and inter-
ests which underlie the struggle in which
we are engaged. He knows very well
that this is a struggle between the friends
Of free labor and the owners of slave labor;
he knows that the institution OF slavery,
as it necessarily refuses freedom OF speech
and of the press, and as it Expresses and
keeps in poverty and ignorance the free
laborer, is not consistent with the free IN
stitutions of the country, because it re-
jects the very conditions upon which alone
popular liberty can be maintained.
knowing and comprehending all this,
Mr.. Lincoln is not likely to make the mis-
take of offering terms to the bitter and de-
faint enemies of the Union-the slave
holders-by which they could save the
system which gives them power and con-
troll in the Southern States. Mr.. Lincoln
Is himself Southern man, and the son
of one of those numerous families OF Tree
workingmen who have emigrated to the
free States in order to "giye their children
a better chance than they had" as we have
heard them express it. His coadjutor,
Andrew johnson, is another of the same
class, who by his own energies raised him
self to competence and station in the freest
part of the slave States, the mountain re-
gion of Tennessee, where slavery has but
a slender hold. These two men cannot
forget the traditional opposition of inter-
ests between the millions of free working
men and the three hundred thousand slave
holders.
Nor do we expect Mr.. Lincoln to be
uninAuenced by the result of the recent
election. In that election, the principal
acts of his administration came before the
people, and they approved them by so
great majority that his opponent carried
but three of the smallest States. Not only
that, but the people chose Congress
which will, by constitutional majority,
clinch the Emancipation Proclamation of
the President, by adopting an amendment
totally abolishing slavery within the
Union. In the light of this decision Of
the people, there is, we conceive, no rea-
son to believe that President who has SO
scrupulously aimed to do the peoples will
will now set himself up against it, at the
moment when the people have approved
of his greatest acts and his own lifelong
convictions. To suppose such thing, is
to believe him weak and vascillating,
while his administration has shown him
to be possessed of a singular steadiness of
purpose.
1t is the most ardent desire of Mr.. Lin
coins heart to see all workmen free; and
it is, we are convinced, his most earnest
hope and ambition to so WELD the great
power entrusted to him, to so influence
the councils of the nation, and so admin
ter its affairs, that, as quickly as possible,
free speech, free press, and free labor,
may be secure in every State of the Union.
He is aware that without free discussion
there can be no free government that
without free labor there can be no lasting
prosperity; that because free speech was
denied. and because free labor was dis
couraged, therefore, and therefore alone,
the Shareholders were able to raise rebel
lion in the South, first deceiving and mis-
leading the people, and then subjugating
them, and making themselves masters Of
the slave States. He has long since dis
covered that the great conspiracy against
the Union could not have ripened in the
light of free discussion and as he abhors
war, he will do all in his power to abolish
the conditions under which alone revolt
becomes possible, or may be repeated.
If, then, it should be true that Mr.. Lin
coin is about to make another offer to
those in rebellion, we find reason to be-
lieve that his offer will be to the working
people of the South; that he will warn
them of the error they make in adhering
to the cause of the shareholders and urge
them to return to their duty, assuring
them of protection against the rebel chiefs,
and of safety under the constitution and
laws. To do this at the moment when it
seems probable the military power of the
rebellion is about to be broken, appears
to US highly judicious; and it is certain
that both Mr.. Lincoln and the people of
the loyal States have ouly the best will
and the kindest feelings toward the unfor-
tunate and down-trodden people Of the
Southern States. .as -..E
C 49,. Mor,n.cuu Ca,.o o,o,o