American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-07-12
NUMBER 30.

icy of saving the Union soih slavery,
must give way to the oprsite policy, if it
was to be saved at all--that drifted him
into the position assumed for the first
time in the Proclamation and maintain
ed with unwavering constancy until the
last hour of his life. That he should
ever have been persuaded to believe it
possible to eoneilate the man who had
voluntarily abdieated their places in the
Goyerument, only because it was obvi-
Gus that they could no louger hope to rtsls
it permanently, is to be set down more to
the accaunt of his habitual caution, his
strong conservative temperament, his def,
erence to older heads, and his desire to
give fall scope to an experiment of an ap
parently inconeuous character, enforced
by the e0unsels Of almost every man
around him, than to tho convictions of
his own unbiased Judgment The case
was one ofconflicting systems and ideas,
that might admit of truce, but of no
compromise. 1t would have been but an
adjournment Of the question until the
antagonistic forces hal taken breate for
a fresh struggle, while tho rebel element
was Strengthening itself in the mean
while for new aggressions. The enforo-
ed connexion between Liberty and SlaEany
was worse than incestuous. God and
nature had decreed an eternal divorce
between them Our father, il Is &pse.
had made the experiment Of reconciling
these hostile elements-not, however, un,
der the modern halucination that they
would permanently combine, or coaesce,
but only to keep the peace between them,
until the weaker should disappear. The
President had aprehended this, when he
declared that this Government could not
be half free and half slave." Mr.. Sc
ward himself had compreheuded it, when
he characterized the war between the two
systemes, as an ''irrepressable conflict"
As well attempt to burn darkness with
hght. The intermingled elements would
produce only disastrous twilight With
perpetual jars, or as the one or other in
terest predominated, either deepen into
chaotic gloom where the lost spirits are
supposed to dwell, or flush into the rosy
light Of liberty. The Union could not
have been saved Nth slavery any moro
than man could be made immortal with
the seeds Of death in his constitution.
The inherent vices of the system were
sure to bring about a conflict at last, bu
engendering fostering the spirit that in
auSurated it here, as they were equally
sure to give to the contest itself charao.
ter OF teroeness and atrocity which has
appertained to no modern war. 1t was
but a new phase of the old quarrel-as
old as Government itself-whieh has
shaken the Kingdoms and the hierarar-
chies Of the world, and ives destined to
the fought out here upon wider arena
than any that the old world could offer.
If it was not omprehendel, however, by
ourselves, the governing classes in
Europe, and the advocates of unlimited
power everywhere, had not failed to un,
derstand it from the beginning. -
The proclamation Of freedom was the
first decisive measure Of the war tin.
augurated a new era, and proclaimed the
purpose Of the government to wrest from
the rebels their most effective weapQn, if -
rho ~ @ ,u'n - SBal%sf Es ~ efrst derided as
a mere Jrutan, Jaimea, by those who knew
wh,, was t, be its effect, and dreaded 1t
accordingly. AS soon as it became opyi-
ous that this mode Of attack w1s about
" fail, the policy Of the auxiliary reQet
hasses of the north was changed. Dire
We their deuuneiations then, Of meas.
uraepresented to be iraught with woe to
helPNss womanhood and feeble infancy,
aud ~ with the unutterab!e horrors Of
seryile VAR. its PRONUNCIATION was soon
utter tolTScd by the elections Of loozz,
whose un'Aorabe results-attribute oniy.
to he publicweariness of the inaction OF
our arnes--were adroitly placed to TIE
account ii this threatened measure, By
those who did not understand the temper
OF the President, or he process Of reas-
onlng by which he had reached that point
ltwas Gteltiy feared that he would taIter
when the hour of trial came But alike
regardless Of the gloomy auguries Of the
timid, and the storm Of oblaquy and de-
nuneiation that burst upon him from the
sympathizers with the rebellion here, he
stood unmoved and the bolt sped at tho
appointed hour and shook the rebel caRi-
tai to its foundations, as it lodged in the
very heart Of the Conie efacy. Dismay
sat on every face at Richmond. Ifa shell
had exploded in that pandemonium, where
those dark conspirators against the rights
of man were then assembled, greater
consternation could not have followed. -,
In the midst Of "a universal hubbub wild
Of stunning sounds, and voices all confu-
sed, y like that of choas, which "assailed
the ear with the loudest vehemenco,,'
dozen members were on their feet az
once, with retaliatory propositions Of tho
widest and most atrocious character
But # there was gloom there, there was
I. JOY elsewhere. The great heart Of ,hu-
manity dilated at the tidings. Tho yea.
ried soldier, stretched by his campfire,
Z and joined till then, in unequal battle,
was lifted up aud comforted. -Four mil
lions Of bondsmen raised their unfettered
hands to Heaven to call down blessings
on the head Of the deliyerer who had
broken their chains The patriot .fslt
that the arm of the country was strength
ened at home and abroad BY the act thai
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