The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-09-17
MONDAY,


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4 Teioined, 'you appear TO think in common with
| n anv other foolish people, that the great bust
| ness of the Administration is the destruction OF
| slavery. Now, allow me to say, you are much
mistaken. Slavery was killed years ago. It's
death.knell was tolled when Abraham Lincoln
| was elected President The work of this Admin
istratlon is the Suppression OF the Rebellion and
| the preservation OF the Union. Abolitlonists
| like the different religious sects. nave been
| chasing one idea, until they have come to believe
that their horizon absolutely bounds the world.
Slavery has been, In tact, but an incident in the
history of the nation, inevitably bound TO perish
| in the progress OF Intelligence. Future genera
tions Will scarcely credit the record that such an
institution ever existed here; or, existing, that it
! ever lived day under such o Government. But
suppose, Tor one moment, the republic destroyed,
| With 1t is bound up not alone the destiny Of
race, but the best hopes of all mankind. With It's
overthrow, the sun OF liberty like the Hebrew
dial, would be set back indefinitely, The mag
| ntude OF such calamity is beyond our calcula-
tion: The salvation of the nation is, then, of
vastly more consequence than the destruction
OF slavery. Had you consulted me for q subject
10 paint, should not have given you a Cabinet
Council on emancipation, but the meeting which
LOOK place when the news came OF the attack upon
Sumter, when the first measures were organized
lor the restoration of the national authority.
That was the crisis in the history OF this Admin
lstration-not the issue of the emancipation pro-
clamatlon. Ii J am TO be remembered by pos
terity,' he concluded, with much excitement o
manner, let il not BE- as having loved predomi
nantly white men or black men, but as one who
loved his country"
We do not recolect that Mr. Seward was
ever really suspected of q special love for
blacks, whatever ribald aud scurrllous press
might have chosen TO say. But we AID and do
understand that Mr.. Seward was formerly one
CT those who held and felt that our country was
to be served and saved by justice, by righteous
ness, by giving to every man his honest due, by
bringing our constitutions and laws into closer
aI1n plO prr1litV IA n
rectitude. We have certainly supposed
him above the wretched babole which prates Of
love OF the negro surprising love OF country.
We long loved and honoTed him as one of
those who saw clearly and felt deeply that 1t
was not right but wrong that endangered our
Union-that it was slavery, not aIti-slavery,
that imper1lled the nations existence.
We never heard any but Copperheads assert
that 'the great business Of thls Administration
Is the destruction of slavery.n What we under
stood was that the Administration should put
down the Rebellion in the shortest aud surest
way. If slavery or abolition stood in the way of
our national integrity, the Government was to
walk right over the obstacle inits singe-minded
devotion TO tie maintenance of the Union.
But we are utterly unable to reconcile Mr..
Stewards averment tnat slavery was killed
years ago. with his grave assurance, in his
despatch to Minister Dayton at Paris, April %,
1861, that
"Ihe Territories will remain in all repects the
same whether the revolution shall succeed or
shall fail The condition of slavery in the several
States fwill remain Just the same whether it
succeed or fail. There is not even preteXJ for
complaint that the disailected States are co be
conquered by the United States ii the revolu-
ton tails; for the rights of the States and the
condition of every being in them will remain
subject to exactly the same laws and forms of
administration whether the revolution shall
succeed or whether it shall fall. In the one
case, the States would be 1ederally connected
with the new contederacy; in the other, they
would as now, be members OF the United States;
but their constitutions and laws, customs,
habits, and institutions, in either case, VIII
remain the same.'
Most certainly he could not honestly write
thus who believed that slavery was killed years
ago." or that ''its death-knell was toled when
Abraham Lincoln was elected President" An
ambassador, we know, is said to be sent abroad
to lie for his country; but we never heard that
they sent abroad TO be lied to for the good of
the country. 1t they were, the contriyance
would be a remarkably roundabout, clumsy
affair.
The New York Times says:-
when the war ended, slavery had been de-
stroyed, and its destruction had been completed
and made final by the adoption OF the Constitu-
when the war ended" at least one million
OF our people were still in actual bondage. The
Constitutional amendment inhibiting slavery
had not been ratified. Nor would it have been
TO this hour, had not Mr.. johnson said to the
Rebel States, "Ralify it, or ! keep YOU under
martial law till you do" And, up to this hour,
they have gone just so far in putting away
slavery as he insisted they should go under
penalty OF being kept under military rule.
Whether those who have insisted ON equal
rights and equal laws as the basis of Reconstruc-
ton, or their antagonists, are the more clear
seeing, right-feeling Unonsts, events must de-
| termine. We will concede that our opponents
mean well: we must insist that putting the new
wine in new bottles is the true safeguard against
! explosion. There is nothing else 80 safe as
| justice.