Year: 1864

ATLANTA, GA,


SEPT. 18th, 1864.


Aye fail ere freedoms work is done,


FalCer before the SouthrOn's rod,


Betray the victory we won,


And compromise the truth os God


Drag Freedom g banner in the dust,


To endless scOrn consign her name


For transient-pe ice and hollow trust,


Barter the Futures hope and fame"


The first mail received after the fall of At
lanta brings US intelligence OF the doings of
the Chicago iunta of peace-makers. The first
message that comes from this philanthropic
assemblage Of power-seeking patriots to Sher-
mans triumphant host as it returns from pur-
suing the routed and flying legions of rebellion
proclaims that the experiment Of war to re-
store the Union is failure 1t declares that
the constitution has been dsregarded, that pub
lie liberty and private right have been trodden
down, and that the material prosperity of the
country has been impaired, not by JEFF: Davis
and his rebel crew, not by the treacherous
conspirators against the public peace who in
sligated this war for disuniou and slavery, not
by those who have torn down aud insulted the
flag of the country not by those who without
inst cause have turned the fairest, freest and
happiest portion of mans heritage into an
abode of woe and wailing, but by the Govern
ment of the United States There is not one
word Of reproach for the enemies Of the Re
public, not one word of congratulatiou for the
glorious victories of our armies, not one word
Of encouragement to sustain the flag and the
government of our fathers. On the contrary,
at the close of one of the most brilliant cam
paigns ever recorded. in which not single re-
verse has occurred to our army-in which the
enemy has been driven from half score OF
| lines of defense among the most formidable on
the continent-in which he has been compell-
ed to surrender nearly half of the Keystone
State of the South including many of his val
liable mines and manufactures and the larger
portion Of the railroad system Of the Cotton
States-in which he has lost all of his boasted
strongholds and carefully constructed fortifca-
tions from the Tennessee to the Etowah, from
the Etowah to the Chatahooche and from the
Ohatahooche to the Ocmulgee-in which he
has been compelled TO fly terror stricken frol
his own Gate City aud seek in hasty retreat
that safety necessary for him to collect hiE
scattered legions after all this we are invited
to humbly sue for an armistice and for condi
tions of peace! We are asked to lower tht
flag which now proudly floats over Atlanta
Fort Morgan and Mobile Bay, and make it dC
reverence to the piratical emblem of treason
What an absurd proposition What strang
misconception of the spirit and temper Of th
men who throughout an hundred and twenty
five days campaign have born steadily South
ward through storm and fame the banner o
the Union!


Do l mistake the purport of this messag
from the would-be President makers at Chca
go to the army and the people? Is it no
clearly and distinctly proposition to stop th
war for the Union? Is it not plainly a pro
posal to compromise with the traitors in arms
If such is its meaning-and upon this poin
there can be no question--then it is perfect
clear that the basis Of the peace proposed, viz
a " Federal Union of the States" is only
Union of those States which do not choose t
join in the Slavehoding COnfederacy. Hav
not the authorized leaders and exponents 9
the rebellion declared time aud again that the
will hearken to no other terms of peace an
compromise than those which admit az a pri
mary and essential principle the right Of st
cession and the independence of the secede
States Upon what other terms then ca
, peace be obtained, by a cessation Of hosti'
ties? The dissolution OF the Union is there
g fore just as plainly embodied in this socalle
Democratic Platform as if it were expresse
in words.


How absurd to stop the advance of our al
mics aud loosen their iron grasp from th
throat of the rebellion unless it be f
some clearly attainabe object. But the OF
ect proposed being peace, and the only peaC
clearly attainable being peace with disunio
:, that must be the sort of peace which it is e.
pected by this means to secure. No Othr
can, with the most generous constructic
II J come within the purview Of The platform whiC
5: the peace fraternity at Chicago have prescri
n ed as the political faith of their party. If Il
x war be stopped it cannot be resumed after
long and fruitless peace negotiation except
vast disadvantage. To negotiate the seceed
States back into the Union is simply out


the question. The Northern States may pc
haps ootain a subordinate place 10 the so-ca
ed Confederacy, but that the insurgent Stat
can be brought to submission to the ConsIii
- tion and Government of the United States O


ly by force of arms, is fact patent to
- most superficial mind. The peace party mi
he therefore have one Of these two objects in vie
;. either delay in our military operations au'