Year: 1862

Still HarPtng on the Nigger.


The Tribune has the whole of its editorial
page of yesterday filed with the everlasting
nigger. In one article Greeley says the
Union cannot be saved unless slavery shall be
overthrown." In another he admits that the
negroes have evinced no disposition to take ad-
vantage of the war to cut loose from their
masters, much less to take up arms against
them. But he says this is the fault of our army
officers, particularly those of West Point. He
Is down on the educated officers. The man for
him is the general who knows nothing. He
says:-"Our army officers, with few exceptions,
are bitterly prO-slavery. They scout the sug-
gestion that the war for the Union is to inure
in any manner to the damage Of slavery or the
advantage of the slaves" Hence Greeley
furiousy assails them. They respect the con-
stitution, which guarantees to ell citizens of the
United States the possession of their property,
whatever may be its nature, and more particu
larly the right of tho master to the service Of
his negro slave. They respect this provision
of tho constitution, because they desire to see
the Onion restored, and because they know
that If they did not respect it the restoration
ofthe Union would be . simple impossibility.
Their business is to put the rebellion down as
speedily as possible by force of arms, and not
to trouble themselves about negroes; and the
sooner this is done the more likely is the Union
to be restored and the constitution maintained
intact For instance, Governor Johnson, of
Tennessee, il not changing the status of slavery;
and so will it be In every other Southern State,
thanks to the Union generals and the conserva-
tive policy of the President.


Hence Greeley and the radicals are enraged.
Nothing they fear 80 much as the speedy termi-
nation of the war; because that would restore
the Union and the constitution, and leave
the abolitionists on their beam ends.
Hence every opportunity is seized to assail the
President either openly or by covert attack.
Mr.. Lincoln respects his oath of Office It is
true he signed the bill for the abolition of
slavery in the District of Columbia. This he
had q right to do, because Congress is the only
legislator provided for the District, and it has
the same constitutional power to abolish
slavery therein as the Legislature Of South
Carolina would have to abolish it in that State
In the States it is very different. The institu-
ton is domestic, and the questions purely local
and municipal one, with which Congress has
nothing to do. Hence slavery is not to be
abolished in Maryland, or Virginia, or Ken
lucky, or Missouri, or Tennessee, except by the
nat of the State Legislatures. In those, and
other Southern States, the question remains for
the decision of the. people themselves; and,
probably, in view Of the compen-
sation offered by Congress, the time
is not distant when gradual emancipation will
take place, first in the border States, and after
wards in tho others. 1t would be agreat re-
lief to the planters to be exOnerated from the
responsibility of feeding and clothing lazy
negroes, no matter how little they may work.
Better for them that the State should take
charge Of the matter, and compel the blacks to
work, by the operation of vagrant laws. But
let all things be done decently and in order.
Let the people and the State Legislatures move
in the matter if they think proper, and let the
brawling leaders of the abolitionists, who have
deluged the country with blood, keep silent,
or be sent in batch to one OF Uncle Sans
strongholds till the war is over.


HARPER's WEEKLY TABOOED AS CONTRABAND
OF WAR.-Our latest .telegraphic advices from
Fortress Monroe inform us that HaYper's Weekly
for the present week has been stopped in that
quarter on account of the illustrations which it
gives of the vicinity of Yorktown. 1t has been
suggested to us that this despatch, perhaps, is
only an ingenious device resorted to, "by and
with the advice and consent " of the Harper
Brothers, to create sensation and 10 make
that Weekly sell. We can discover nothing in
the illustrations referred to calculated to be of
the slightest service to the enemy. The princi-
pal illustration in question, of the "First Days
Firing at Yorktown" appears to us as nothing
but harmless modification of q recent HERALD
map of the siege Of Yorktown in 1871, with these
differences. that the forces of Gen. Mcclellan
in the Harper engraving are placed in the old
positions of the American and French
armies, while the rebels are housed in
the old defensive works of Lord Corn
wallis, limited to a narrow circle. around
the town. The more reliable and legitimate
map which we publish to-day of those rebel
defensive works shows that they differ as widely
from those of Lord CORVALLIS as does an army
of one hundred thousand from a little camp of
seven thousand men. We cannot imagine, how
ever, what harm can possibly be done by
the Harper engraving; for it is as wide Of the
mark as was another late illustration of said


Weekly, representing the escape of the Nash


vile, with the Nashville fast at anchor by two
chains, and Fort Macon flying in the air under


an imaginary explosion.


We presume that the real offence committed


by the Harpers in their last Weekly is not the


amusing adaptation of the siege of Yorktown Of


1871 to bird's-eye view of the siege OF 1862,


but that it lies in the explanations of the view,
which pretend to give detailed arrangement


of General McClellan's forces, by divisions, bri-
gades, &c.-information calculated to be useful