American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-10-04

of the exchequer tells us the interest was
s131. .SO6 900. Ours, when all saall be
funded, will be nearly double. The plan
we have proposed would pay at least
three -fonrths of our debt The balance
could be managed with our present taxa
ton
While hear it said everywhere that
slavery is dead, ] cannot learn who killed
it. No thoughtful man has pretended
that Lincoln's proclamation, so noble IN
sentiment liberated single slave. 1t
expressly excluded from its operation all
those, within our lines. No slave within
the rebel States ia our possession, or IN
Tennessee, but only those beyond our
limits and beyond our power, were declar-
ed free. So General Smith conquered
Canada by proclamation! The Presi-
dent did not pretend to abrogate the
laws of any of the States. hestorationl
therefore, will leave the "Union as it was"
"a hideous idea. | am aware that a
very able and patriotic gentleman, and
learned historian, Mr.. Bancroft, has at
tempted to place their freedom on differ
ent grounds. lie says, what is undoubt-
edly true, that the proclamation OF free
dom did not free slave But he liber-
ates them on feudal principles. Under
the feudal system, when a king conquers
his enemy, he parceled out his lands and
conquered subjects among his chief re-
tairers; the lands and serfs were held on
condition of fealty and rendering militia
ry service when required. If the subor-
dinate chief rebelled, he broke the con
dition on which he held them, and the
lands and serfs became. forfeited to the
lord paramount. But it did not free the
serfs. They, with the manor, were be-
slowed on their favOrites. But the anal
ogy fails in another important respect
The American STAKEHOLDER does not hold,
by virtue of any grant from any lord
paramount-least of all by grant from
the General Government. Slavery ex-
lists by no law of the Union, but simply
by local laws--by the laws Of the States.
Rebellion against the national authority
is a breach of no condition of their ten
ure 1t were more analogous to say that
rebellion against a State under whose
laws they held might work a forfeiture.
But rebellion against neither government
would per Sc have any such effect. On
whom would the lord paramount again
hcstow the slaves? The theory is plaus
ibe, but has no solid foundation.
The President says to the rebel States,
" Before you can participate in the gov
erument you must abolish slavery and re-
form your election laws" That is the
command of conqueror. That is re-
construction, not est0ration-reconstruc
ton, too, by assuming the powers of Con-
eress This theory will lead to melancholy
results, Nor can the constitutional
amendment abolishing slavery ever be
ratified by thpc-fourths of the States, if
they are states to be counted Bogus
Conventions of those states may vote for
it but no Convention honestly and fair
ly elected will ever do it. The frauds will
not permanently avail. The cause of
liberty must rest on frmer basis, Coun-
terfeit government, like the Virginia,
Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and
Arkansas pretences, will be disregarded
by the sober sense of the people, by future
law, and by the courts " Restoration"
is replanting the seeds of rebellion, which
within the next quarter of century will
germinate and produce the same bloody
strife which has just ended,
If the South is ever to be made safe
republic, let her lands be cultivated by
the toll of the overs, or the free labor
of intelligent citizens This must be
done even though it drive her nobility
into exile. 1fthey go, all the better It
will be hard to persuade the owner of ten
thousand acres of land, who drives a
coach and four, that he is not degraded
by sitting at the same table, or in the
same pew, with the embrowned and hard
handed farmer who has himself cultiva-
ted his own thriving homestead of one
hundred and fifty acres This subdivision
the lands will yield ten bales of cotton to
one that is made now, and he who pro-
'duce it will own it and feel himself a
man
1t is far easier and more beneficial to
exile 10000 proud, bloated and defiant
rebels than to expatriate 4, 100000 of
laborers, natives to the soil and l,yal to
the government, This.latter scheme was
a faVorite plan of the Blairs, with which
they had for while inocuiated our late
sainted President But single expert.
ment made him discard it and his advis.
.ers. Since have mentioned the Blails
1 may say a word more of these persist,
ent apologists of the South. For, when
the virus of slavery has once entered the
veins of the stakeholder, no subsequent
effort seems capable of wholly eradicatina
it. They are a family Of considerable
power, some merit, of admirable audacity
and execrable selfishness. With impet.
usus alacrity they seize the White House
ana hold possession of it, as in the late
administration, until shaken off by the
overpcwering force of public Indignation
Their pernicious counsel had well nigh
defeated the reelection of Abraham
Lincoln; and if it should prevail with
the present administration, pure and pat
riotic as President Johnson is admitted
to be, it will be the mostunpopular Execu
tive-save one-that ever occupied the