Year: 1862

pend the blood of tens of thousands Of free men
and billions of money year after year without be-
ing any nearer the end, unless you reach it by


your own submission. Their domestic institu-
tions give them great advantages in war. They
know that, and no not withdraw single hand
from the cultivation of their soil. Their white


men can be spared for the army old and infirm
can oversee the slaves and all their industrial
pursuits can go on uninterrupted. Although the
black man never lift a weapon, he is really the
mainstay of the war.


To end the war successfully and promptly,
therefore, the slaves must be made our allies.
Universal emancipation must be proclaimed
Then would this cease in six months. Ii
could not be maintained, even If the liberated
slaves should not lift their hand against their
masters. Their fields would no longer produce
the means by which they sustain the war. and
unconditional submission would be the immedi-
ate and necessary result. Which is most to be
abhOrred, a rebellion of slaves fighting for their
liberty, or a rebellion of freemen fighting to mur-
der the nationT But il will be said that the Con-
stitutOn does not authorize Congress to interfere
with slavery in the States That is true, so long
as the Constitution and the laws are supreme, as
in times of peace. But when the Constitution is
repudiated and set at defiance by rebels too pow
erful to be put down by peaceful means, the Con-
stituton grants supplementary power which it
was impossible to define. The Constitution saws
that 'the President shall take care that the laws
shall be faithfully executed" and that creates
him for the time of emergency as much a dicta-
tor as decree of the Roman Senate, whose die
tators exercised all proper power necessary for
the public safety, whether the means were in
scribed on their tables not. This power, of
course, ought to be limited, and ought to exist
only until Congress could be convened.


This power l would willingly confer rather
than the nation should perish. Rather than see
tie nation dishonored by compromise, concession
or submissiOn-rather than see the nation dis
hOnOred. see one star stricken from its banner,
| would confer that power now. Oh, for six
months resurrection in the flesh of stern Old
Jacksonl He, in this crisis would abolish slavery,
as the tower and support of this insurrection. He
would arm the free people of color. as he did at
New Orleans. He would march into the heart
of slavedom, not to pick cotton and open the
ports for trade, but TO put weapons in every free
mans hands He would end the war by whole
some hanging of the leaders. In three months,
with 100, 900 soldiers, he would put down the re-
bellion. The necessity of dictatorship is evil
dent to snatch the nation from the jaws of death.
May this necessity never again arise, for it is as
fearful as the insurrection OF JEFF Davis and
Beauregard. The one is the greatest for good,
the other for mischief. The power is given to
suppress the rebellion, hence, also the power Of
emancipation, even if the Constitution were
silent on this power, and it became necessary for
the safety of the people. The first law OF nature
would giveit. 1t would be asked why liberate
the slaves of all instead of cOnfning it to
those of rebels only? There would be great
difficulty in executing such a law. Perjury
fraud and falsehOOd would screen half the
guilty. Our object should be not only to
end this terrible war; but to prevent its re-
currence. Slavery is the cause of it. Hatch up
a compromise now, and leave this germ of evil
behind, and it will soon again Overrun the en-
tire South. Even il you freed three -fourths of
the slaves, you would have expended countless
treasures and untold lives in vain. | would do no
injustice to loyal men, and though not recogni-
zing the right of one man to mold another as
mere property, would treat loyal shareholders
fairly by pledgiBg the faith of the nation for their
compensation. The war is costing at the
rate of five hundred millions yer. Deduct the
price of the price of the slaves in the border
States from one years expense of the war, and
it would show balance in favor Of emancipation
of four hundred and forty millions. Manumit
the slaves, and the war would end in six months
Leave them to the rebels, and doubt if six years
will end it. Six years with slavery, and debt of
two billionsl All nations have used emancipa-
ton a legitimate means of warfare. Hanni-
bal liberated the slaves of Rome, and used them
against their masters. When Virginia rebelled
against England, Lord DunmOre issued procla-
nation offering freedom to those slaves belong
ing to rebel masters who should join the troops at
Yorktown. Many hundred Joined him. and they
fought bravely Manumission would be merciful,
while at the same time | admit it to be the most
terrible weapon in our armory."