Year: 1862

lists to impress the Administration into their
radical policy, would be amusing, were not
the motives which inspire them so base, and
the interests involved so momentous. The
Abolition Members of Congress went to
Washington, at the opening of the present
session, full of the desire and design to co
cree President LINCOLN and his Cabinet
into the adoption of their measures. With
these Abolitionists, the present war possesses
neither object nor significance, if vaged for
any other purpose than the utter extinction
of slavery. They were not merely conf
dent of success, at first, but they were
Notwithstanding the Withholding Of
supplies, and even the overthrow of the
Administration, 10 case their demands were
not complied with.


The first setback that the fanatics re-
ceived, was the act of the President in
striking out from the report of Secretary
CAMERON all the passages which gave coun.
tenance to the Abolition programme. This
evidence of the conservatism of the Presir
dent, and the Jacksonian manner in which
it was given, maddened the AbOlitionists a
good deal, but it astounded them more and
the expression of their rage was, therefore,
modified by the fact of their great surprise.


The second back was the removal of
CAMERON, and the appointment in his stead
of Mr.. STANTON, member of BUCHANAN's
Cabinet, and man of ultra conservative
antecedents. The Abolitionists had two
ways before them, in which to treat this
second rebuff: one, by an open attack upon
the Administration, as they had originally
threatened; and the other, by pretended
hearty acquiescence in the change. They
chose the latter, for the reason, that, during
the month and halt that elapsed between
the opening of the session and the removal
of CAMERON, their strength in both Houses
had materially decreased, and it became a
demonstrated fact that they could not make
an open war upon the Administration, with
any hope of success. The course they have
adopted is one of pure hypocrisy. They
know that the new Secretary is conserva.
tive man, thoroughly believing in, and com.
naitted to, the policy which has been steadily
pursued by the President. But they rep~
resent him to be more ultra radical than
CAMERON ever thought of being, and so,
more entitled than be to Abolition sympathy
and support. They seek, in this manner,
to create among their followers, the absurd
expectation that all his acts will be in the
line of their policy, SO that when such ex-
pectation shall be disappointed, they Can
attack him with the more vehemence and
effect. They build him up now, that they
may cast him down hereafter. They praise
him the more lavishly, that they may be
able to curse him the more effectually.


Coupled with this attempt to metamor.
phose Mr.. STANTON into an Abolitionist, is
the attempt to make the people believe that
the President himself, in the appointment of
JIM LANE, as Brigadier General, has chang
ed the Administration policy; and, to give
color to this view, the Abolition papers are
filed with false reports of the Presidents
adhesion to the slavery-extinguishing pro-
gramme. But there is nothing in the ap-
pointment of LANE, nor in the utterances of
the President, to justify any such belief.
LANE is commissioned for special service
and the course be will be permitted to pur>
sue, will not probably be adopted by any
other General in the field. His expedition
is to traverse the Southwestern border; a
section inhabited by reckless, lawless po.
pulation; by outlaws and marauders, of
every shade of color, and every degree of
desperate crime-the efflux of the wicked
ness of the nation. Against such an ene-
my, the proprieties and immunities of civil
zed warfare would be thrown away, as kind.
ness would be to hyena. They must be
fought against as they fight; without re-
gard to humanity or any Christian code.
And LANE is just the man for that service
With all their own elements in his charac.
ter, he can match them in inhumanity, and
beat them in desperation He goes to the
border to eight the devil with fire.; and
there will be hell to play" in most literal
sense, when he gets there.


In this light, which is the true one, the
appointment of LANE is most judicious.
He will devastate section in which there
is neither loyalty, nor christianity, nor public
or private decency, of any sort. To enable
him to do this, the President has given him
q carte blanche to follow his own policy. We
all know that it will be a terrible one
swift, sure, aanguinary, and remorseless.
But we also know that the safety of the
country requires that the desperadoes of the
Southwest should be exterminated, and that
LANES policy is the only one by which this
can be done. We, therefore, out of the dire