Year: 1862

lar sympathy is controlled by public opinion

 Public opinion is of slow growth, like the oak hence its strength, and in times like these gov ernment dependent on public opinion must wal for it to take some dominant and controlling form, before it can rely upon its steadiness.- Buthowever slow of growth, public opinion doe finally attain it's full matunty and then it can b. safely relied upon to sustain the e most vigorou measures. It should then no longer be consid cred mere passive support, but an active in strument in the hands of the authorities to direc and effect offensive and aggressive measutss.

 Has public opinion reached this state on tn, questions first named in regard to Slavery j: w believe it has.

 To two conclusions, we risk nothing in assert. ing that the popular mind has come, namely that slavery s0as an original cause of the rebellion end that it IS . tremendous element of strength so the rebels. The other conclusion, that il must, in some way, be gotrid of, and that righ, speedily, is only the logical sequence of the oth ers It matters, not by what ways men have SC unanimously come to these conclusions. Suffice it that the chsckered experience of an eigh- teen month contest with the monster ofrebelliou, in which we have oftener had to pass through the valley of humiliation than to ascend the Delsct- 1 able mountains and catch even distant glimpses of coming gloriss. has taught us: all thus much and made us all anxious, by some means, to de stroy the arch-Gend in the cabal of the traitors There is but way to do it, as it must be done vigorously and speedily, and that is by emanci- patton, xnot the emancipation proclaimed in official bulletins, but emancipation carried out, as military order, by means of the military or ganization. The only question is one of time. Has the right time come, Me time which we are willing to believe the administration has been waiting for! We believe it has, and for the following reasons.

 The state of the enemy is such that it will now be not only more easily accomplished than at any time heretofore, but the very knowledge that it is to be undertaken will the best aid to our military success. The time to proclaim emancipation is after great victory. not great defeat. In the last case iii more like the rav- ings of caged and impotent monster, but in the former it rises at once to the dignity of terri. ble instrument with winch to scourge into abso. lute obedience, those whose power of resistance is in measure broken.

 Manifsstees issued to put new courage into the hearts of soldiers covering for safety under the protection of friendly forts and Notifications are nothing but mcckery of power and ksIp less az the gougs of the Chinese to keep of or harm, a vigorous foe, bat send them out as the advance guard of a victorious army and they! hars significance and force. Take the case in hand. The picked and chosen army of rebel dom has been defeated and it's broken columns are flying up the valley fthe Shenandoah before the victorious armies of Freedom. In its flight it must become totally denoralized, if is not en. tirely scattered. Rebellioa must call new levies to it's standard or it IS crushed. It's leaders are desperate, their defeat is to them, even if they are permitted to live, total loss of power and po- sltion poll and social. than which at any price would be preferable. The contest has changed it's base j ithas become one, on their part. for success, success at any price, even the sacrifice of the very principles for which they originally contended. It is struggle with theatf pol- tical existence of some kind, no matter how poor, in contrast to absolute and certain politil cal death and oblivion. Who can doubt that they will resort. to any measures that may seem to offer prop to their falling fortunes. Previ ous levies have exhausted their natural sources of supply, they must now call upon their last reserves In ons of two ways only, can they fill up their ranks to meet the great and still in ereasing army which the North is pouring down upon them. They must either call away their white men and trust to the vigor of their arms to keep our forces from getting at their negroes while they prosecute the necessary labors of agriculture, or they must put weapons into the hands of the egroes and promise them their free dom if they will only establish their own ability to bestow itupon them. A proclamation of eman- cipation at the present time would meet either emergency. If they called their white men to the field it would cause fire in their'rear which would speedily result in the complete exhaustion of their supplies and sll the sinews of war, even if it took no more active part. But who is there who knows the yyeafning of ths human heart af- ter freedom and the bitter sense of wrong, which any infringement of it engsnders, even in the: most stolid soul, that for moment believes that their fire in the rear would not display more active hostility and in fact render the recruiting of the rebel armies in that manner next to i'm possible. The other attenuation would not then be left there, for our proclamation of freedom would have forsstalled theirs, and the blacks, even in case Aey should issue one afterwards, could do no worse than view with indifference the result of contest that, in either contingency, would ensure their liberatien only that, naturally, they would trust the party which has always profess edly at least ,been on the side of freedom and disb'ust those who had heretofore shown such small regard for their rights. In any other state of the case, we should have their assistance which, even if they were not armed and givsr an opportunity to fghta against their old oppres sors, would be invaluable in all other fields of Ia ber. ;: = ..t

 4 Let us imagine, for a moment, how the cast