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Our fourth proposition completes the summary some of the motives influencing the issue of theemancipation proclamations. In clear express words, President Lincoln has declared that he would abolish slavery, if he could thereby restore the Union, or retain slavery if that appeared the best means of doing so, and with this plain declaration all his measures agree. It is not needful here to examine Mrs. Stowe's discovery of a hidden sense and intention of the founders of this Union, not to be found in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence, warranting measures apparently not sanctioned by the text of these documents. It is clear that when such modes of interpretation are applied to public instruments, where there is no ambiguity of language, the disastrous results must ensue which are seen in this civil strife. The written agreement ceases to be a bond of peace and union, and is used only as a document or declaration of war, the true construction of which the sword is drawn to determine.

The Proclamation of 22nd September, 1862, begins by stating that, "hereafter as heretofore," the war will be waged for restoring "constitutional relations" in the states which have seceded or may secede; and that the President will propose, upon the next meeting of congress, "a practical measure" tendering pecuniary aid to all Slave States not then in rebellion against the United States, which may voluntarily abolish slavery, either gradually or immediately, and for continuing the efforts to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, in such parts of the Continent or elsewhere as will receive them; and declaring that on 1st January,

1863, all the slaves held by the States" then in rebellion" " shall be thenceforward and for ever free." Then follow injunctions to the naval and military service to "observe, obey, and enforce" the extracts given from Acts of Congress of 13th March and 17th July, 1862, prohibiting the employment of naval and military forces to restore fugitive slaves to their masters; and freeing as captives of war all slaves escaping from States in rebellion to the lines of United States armies, as well as those who may reach a free State, or the district of Columbia; and describing the oath to be taken, to entitle any owner to reclaim a fugitive slave, to the purport that such owner " is not, nor has been, in rebellion," and hath not" in any way given aid or comfort thereto." The proclamation concludes with promising to "recommend," at the end of the contest, that all citizens who have from the first remained "loyal to the United States Government, shall be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves."

In his Proclamation of 1st January, 1863, President Lincoln, after reciting the declaration of 22nd September, that all persons held as slaves in the States in rebellion on 1st January next, should then be declared free, enumerates Arkansas, Texas, part of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and part of Virginia (excepting specially the newly created State of West Virginia) as the States then in rebellion, whose slaves were from that day forward set free by effect of the recited Proclamation. He then enjoins upon the people so declared to be free, "to

abstain from violence, unless in necessary selfdefence," and " recommends" them, "when allowed, to labour faithfully for reasonable wages;" and further declares "that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service. of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service." Every word of the last paragraph of this proclamation deserves careful attention, “And upon this--sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the constitution— upon military necessity-I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favour of Almighty God."

The words we have printed in Italics (not so distinguished by type in the original), undeniably prove the grounds on which the President relies for his Proclamation being warranted by the Constitution and for the necessity of its enactments. Both these Proclamations, as we have stated in our fifth proposition, are wholly and solely war. measures; that of 22nd September designed to induce the States in rebellion" to make submission before the 1st January, to avoid confiscation of their slaves; and that of 1st January, to use those slaves, in connection with the Federal forces or otherwise, in aid of the war.

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Our readers, having the substance of the text before them, will now see that these Proclamations have not, as Mrs. Stowe asserts, "been much misunderstood and misrepresented in England," when said to mean virtually this: "Be loyal, and you shall keep your slaves" (if you choose): "Rebel, and they are free." These, her own words, with

our addition in parenthesis, give the enactment of these Proclamations as clearly and succinctly as possible.

Considered with reference to the actual position of the civil war at the times when they were issued, these Proclamations prove that the President despairs of any restoration of the Union, save by subjugating or exterminating the inhabitants of the Slave States, and re-colonizing their lands. The negro and coloured man are to be used for this purpose, to supplement, as far as possible, the failure of the white armies of the Federal States. This weapon was aimed as a last stroke, almost in desperation, when defeat on every side all but overwhelmed the Federal forces; and has been launched when every day added to the proof that, without some fresh resource or immediate military success, the Federal States must soon abandon the struggle. In despairing recklessness these Proclamations are akin to the financial measures about the same time sanctioned for carrying on the war.

Upon the actual effect which these Proclamations will produce on the fate of the slaves and the slave States, it is difficult to pronounce a safe opinion. The elements of ruin and misery they contain the utter want of any measures of providing for the fugitives, should they come over in immense numbers-the relentless use of the coloured race, regardless of all consequences, merely as a weapon of warfare-the deliberate cruelty of stirring up a servile war on the hearths of a population whose men have gone forth to fight for their soil, leaving their homes defenceless-fill our minds in every line, and prove but too mournfully how

all the feelings of humanity can perish in the course of bitter internecine war. Of a truth, it

was not such emancipation as this that the women of our country affectionately exhorted their sisters in America "to raise their voices to their fellowcitizens and their prayers to God to procure!"

Let us hope and pray that this attempt to engage in the bloody strife men actually as far beyond the President's power as are the serfs of Russia, may be comparatively ineffective, and fail to cause cruel massacres of men, women, and children, whether of the white, coloured, or black races.

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