Year: 1863

tn0 i0aQng Staplo5 were upward transaCtOnS
Flour was &c. loc. better. Wheat and corn advanced
1c &c. Mess pork went up to $l8 with heavy sales.
Whiskey touched &c., with considerable speculative
action Petroleum, which has come TO be as much Of
speculative commodity gold fancy stocks partici.
pated 10 the activity and upward tendency OF prices.
Freghs were rather more active; but the market con.
nues depressed and the general carrying rates have not
been lower for years than they Neutral vessels
which monopoizng most Of the trade accept
ing freight nearly or quite as low as Americans Tho
public sale OF wool attracted large number OF manuiac
turers dealers and specuators and went or spirtedy,
and very full prices realized.


The Administration, the Slavery Cues


tiOn and the Presidency.


Whittier is the administration drifting on the
slavery question: Is the reclamation Of the
rebellious States or the abolition of slavery
therein, as preparatory publication, to carry
the day? What are VIC to believe! According
to President Lincolns settlement Of the Mis-
souri, muddle, the abolition faction and their
zone idea" are to be set aside, and c0nserva-
tive policy is to mark the reconstruction of the
Union but, according to the recent speech of
the Secretary of State at Auburn, the Presi-
dents letter ON the Missouri difficulty amounts
to nothing moro than joke; for Mr.. Seward
substantially says that slavery will be OK
tinguished in the great work of re-establishing
the territorial integrity of the Union.


A new light has fallen upon Mr. Seward.
Only few months ago. in a memorable
despatch to the French government on the
question Of joint convention of delegates
from the loyal States and from the
revolted States, he, without qualification,
suggested that the return Of the members to
rebellious States would result ct once in joint
convention, In which all the troubles between
the two sections could be satisfactorily adjust
ed; that this was the only admissible joint con-
ference 30 far as our government was concern
ed; and that such q conference was not only
admissible, but desirable, In view Of the con-
stitutional participation it would give to the
insurrectionary States in the work of the re-
construction of the Union. We cannot doubt
that Mr.. Seward spoke by authority at that
time How, then, are we to account for these
later opinions of his delivered at Auburn? Is
the "Pope's bull against the comet" after all,
to be the supreme and infexible law Of recon
struction? Is every rebellious State to be COM
PEELED to make good the emancipation procla-
nation, and purge itself Of African slavery at
all hazards, before its rehabilitation as men,
ber Of the Unions


We are all in the dark upon this subject; but
the events which have occurred since the issue
Of General Fremont's Missouri edict of eman-
cipation are very suggestive. Since that day,
with here and there little hitch, the abolition
programme has been put into practice, step by
step, until it needs only practical enforce
ment of the Presidents slavery abolishing pro-
clamation to secure the complete success of the
abolition faction. Assuming that the Secretary
of State has warned us of what it is the present
purpose Of Mr.. Lincoln to do, we may at least
exercise the privilege Of warning him against
following the abolition will-o -the-wisp any
further


Accordingly, we would thus sdmonsh Presi-
dent Lincoln that the same conservative popu-
lar elements which turned the elections in most
Of the loyal States last year against Iris admin
istration, because of its bundering abolition
war policy, have turned this years elections in
his favor and upon the simple platform Of an
earnest and overwhelming prosecution of the
war for the suppression OF the rebellion. We
would remind him that the great body Of the
people OF the North desire the war to be ended
and the revolted States restored to the Union
a. soon as practicable, with or without a REM
nant Of slavery. "a this or that State may pre-
sent itself for readmssiou. We would remind
him that in this business the Union is the pri-
mary and paramount question, and that South
ern slavery is but secondary issue We
would advise him TO cut loose from the disor.
ganizing abolition factions, beginning with his
Cabinet, and to cast himself upon the conserva-
tive masses of the loyal States, and upon the
simple platform Of the restoration Of the
Union without insisting upon the condition
precedent of the roofing out Of every vestige
Of Southern slavery


Finally, we would impress this warning upon
the mind of President Lincoln, that in yielding
to the demands of the abolition radicals he
places himself in their power only TO become
their victim when he shall have performed theiI
work, while, in the reputation Of these faaat


les and their foolish policy he becomes their
master and secures the inside track and the
whip hand against all competitors for the sue
cession. lie may, in word, thus command the
policy Of the next four years 10 the important
work OF rebuilding and consolidating the Uuiou
upon a solid aud durable basis.