Year: 1861

To the health of the President and the Secre-
tary of War the latter responded. He said he
could scarcely realize that by the Secretary of
War was meant himself, for it seemed but
brief period since he was a jOurneyman in the Of
fee of his friend on the right-Colone Seaton.
Speaking of the war, he said that though not
three months had yet elapsed since its inception.
a quarter of million of volunteers were in the
field, and in six months the number will be in
creased to half a million. The deluded beings in
the South, whose insolence we have borne for a
quarter of a century, must be subdued, and the
President will not let the war end, until all the
causes which produced it are removed, and when
the war terminates, we shall hear no more of Vir-
gnans as such, or of North Carolinians, or of
South Carolinians, but We shall all be Americans,
one and indivisble.


The above is an extract from the Washington
correspondence of the N Y. Times, and processes
to give the substance of speech by Secretary
Cameron, at dinner of the st. Andrew S
Society. What does he mean? "The deluded
beings in the South must be subdued' d'-"the
President will not let this end until all the
causes which produced it are remOved'-"when
the war terminates, we shall hear 10 more of
Virginians as such, &c, &c. What does this
language mean except this: 1.-The people o. the
South are to be conquered and sublugated-2e
President will not let the war end till slavery is





more of State lines and State rights, but shall
have one grand consolidated Government.
What else than this can Secretary Cameron s
language meant


Is this the policy of the Administration, and
has Secretary Cameron been deputed to put il
forth in this unofficial form? Is this TO be
waged to reduce the people to vassalage-to over
turn the domestic institutions of the States-to de-
strOy the State rights so that we shall no longer
have an existence as New Workers or Virginians
but all be merged in a grand scheme of c0nsoli-
dationI Is this the entertainment to which We are
all invited? Under the pretence of supporting
the Constitution, is it to be subverted? If Secre
tary Cameron is correctly reported by the Times
he advances doctrines as reasonable as those OF
Jefferson Davis, and is an enemy of the Republic
This is not the first time he has thus vaguely put
forth similar views concerning the object of the
war. The President and the other members
of the Cabinet owe it to the country and
themselves to let it he known whether Mr.
/ Cameron speaks for the Administration. For il
such be the object of the war, there are hundred
thousand muskets now in the field which will
never be used to overthrow the Constitution
/ Our brave men have taken their lives in their
hands and gone forth as they supposed-to main
tain the authority and the integrity of our gov
ernment, as our fathers formed it, and they will
never turn aside from such holy purpose, to
wage an abolition crusade, to subjugate the peo-
pie of portion of the States, and to annihilatt
State rights and the security and protection oi
the citizens afforded by the State governments
After repeated declarations of this kind from one
member of the Cabinet, it is high time that the
Administration distinctly defined its position
Albany Argus.