Year: 1863

The Meeting OF COngress-The Presidents


Messnge.


The Thirty-eighth Congress will assemble in
the national Capitol on Monday next and from
all appearances the House will be organized
and, together with the Senate be rea2&e1
Tuesday morning for the reception of the Presi-
dents annual message. 'a -


In the House and in the Senate there will
be satisfactory working majority in favor
OF the administration in the vigorous pro-
secutien Of the war, and, we trust, in
the work Of the restoration of the Union
under the Constitution as it is" The i'm
portant task Of providing fleets and armies,
and the ways and MEANS for the suppression Of
the most formidable rebellion in the history of
mankind, was 80 far discharged by the last
Congress-, in It's various legislative acts, as to
leave but little to do beyond amendatory or
supplemental measures. Had the radicals
Of the last Congress been wiser, or the
conservatives more powerful, there can
be no doubt that the rebellion would have
been ended some time ago, and that in all pro-
liability most, il not all, the rebellious States
would be represented in this new Congress. AS
it Is, however, the administration and the loyal
States, with the legislative ways and means
provided, have reduced the rebellion to its
dying struggles, so that the work Of completing
its subjugation will be comparatively light and
| easy. But then will come the grave RESPONSE
bilites and the momentous consequences to be
| considered in the work Of the restoration of the
rebsllious States to the benefits and the protec-
ton Of the Union.


In this view, and in view Of the manifest des-
tiny Of the United States, the task devolving
upon the new Congress is more imposing and
more important than any similar duty that has
ever devolved upon any national assembly Of
modern or ancient times. But the public
opinion and the wishes Of the loyal States, as
expressed in their elections Of 1862 and 1868,
ought 10 be sufficient 10 guide their re-
| representatives. into the right course and to
hold them to it. From these elections the mem
bes of the present Congress are admonished
| that they must follow neither the revolutionary
ceunsels Of the abolition radicals, nor the de-
lusiye jack-o lanterns of Northern rebel sympa.
thizers or the peace democracy that, while the
| object of the war is nothing more nor less than
the restoration of the Union, the prosecution Of
the war is the only alternative for the suppress
sion Of the rebellion.


Under these plain and comprehensive instruc-
| tions from the people, there need be no diff
| Guilty in the legislation Of Congress touching
| this great question Of the reclamation Of the
rsbellous States From their impoverished
and helpless condition, we may anticipate o
general popular reaction among them in favor
of the Union, in view OF the trials Of the gloomy


winter which Is before them, although our active


military operations, East and West, may for the


time be suspended. We have no positive


information a. to the recommendations


which the President proposes to submit
to the two houses on the subject; but we are
not without the hope that his message will be Of
such . character as TO be accepted by the
Southern people In the light Of favorable in.
vitation to abandon the hopeless cause of their
Southern oonfederacy.


| Between the administration and this new
Congress the power and the means are amply
possessed 10 bring this rebellion 10 an end, and
to re-establish the Union in its territorial and
constitutional integrity before the expiration


Of President Lincolns term Of Office. We ex


pecs him to adhere TO his postion--that this


war, on our part, Is for the restoration Of the


Union, and not for the extrpation Of Southern


slavery; that the Union is the paramount OBJ


ject, and that slavery is secondary issue. Let


the conservative elements Of the House sustain


bin In this position, and the complete triumph
of The Ulion will Boon be accumulated.