Source: The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu: Thursday, October 16, 1862.
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I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the Constitutional relation between the United States, and the people thereof, in which states the relation of the States is or may be disturbed. It is my purpose at the next meeting of Congress to again recommend the adoption of practical measures tendering pecuniary aid to the States and people thereof who may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which states may then have voluntarily adopted, or may voluntarily adopt, the immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery. That on the first day of January, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state, or part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States; shall be then, thenceforth, and forever after free. On that day the Executive will designate by proclamation the States, and parts of states, in which the people shall be in rebellion. The fact that any State or part of a State shall on that day be in good faith represented in Congress chosen by a majority of the electors, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed sufficient evidence that such States have not been in rebellion. The President quotes the new article of war, approved March 30th; also, the 9th and 10th sections of the act to suppress insurrection and punish treason and rebellion, approved July 17th; and enjoins upon all persons in the military and naval service to enforce said acts and sections. The Executive will in due time recommend that all loyal persons shall, upon the restoration of Constitutional relations, be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.
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It is idle to predict the effects which may follow this proclamation. Whatever they are, they cannot be other than of the most important nature of the future of the American Republic. It may be followed by immediate, certain and permanent separation between the north and the south, or it may hasten the suppression of the rebellion by exciting the rebels to such a desperation as to react to their own destruction, and the total extinction of slavery in America.
The President has held back as firmly and as long as it has been possible for him; but the fact that the proclamation of emancipation is now issued is evidence that he is satisfied that it is a step that is necessary to preserve the Union. Nine months ago, this journal stated as a result of its observation of the current of public opinion throughout the North, that if the rebellion continued to the close of 1862, a proclamation of emancipation would become a military necessity. The law of self-defense is the highest law known on earth. The man who refrains from using all means of self-defense in his power, when attacked with weapons of death by a midnight assassin or robber, (on the plea that he is a peace an,) deserves to be robbed or butchered. So with a nation. Any government which fails to use every means in its power to preserve its national integrity, when threatened with dismemberment, is unworthy of existence. This is the position of the American republic at this moment: and no law, human or divine, no constitution of any kind or nature, should be allowed to stand in the way of the natural order of self-preservation.
The first question that will be asked, is, What will be the effect of the proclamation on the slaves? While it must be admitted that the authority of the government does not extend over any rebel territory, except nominally, yet it will not for that reason alone be powerless there. Before the first of january, 1863, when the decree goes into effect, the mass of the slaves will not that by a proclamation of the government they are legally free. This must lead to discontentment, which will everywhere develop itself, till finally, as in the case of the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, their masters will fain have them depart.
But the greatest result of the proclamation will be this, -that a decisive policy is adopted by the American government. The question for the North is now reduced to this, slavery and treason, or loyalty and freedom. Heretofore there has been any amount of skulking by partisans sympathizing with slavery and the rebellion under the plea of its being unconstitutional to meddle with slavery. There is to be an end to this: and the man who henceforward sands up for slavery because of the constitution, is a traitor to his country. He had better forswear his country and sell his birthright.
All Europe has been taunting America for its indecision on this slavery question. The proclamation will meet the unqualified approval of the masses of Europe, and at the same time disarm the politicians there of their strongest argument in favor of recognition of the South. There will be no recognition or intervention in favor of the south at present.
The coming few months will be the most important and the most stirring of the rebellion. The proclamation will excite the desperation of the rebel leaders to its highest pith, and the fight will be accompanied with an energy and terribleness not yet witnessed. Undoubtedly the next six months will witness either the triumph of the government, or the triumph of the rebels. The enormous efforts now being made by both the contending parties to increase their fighting resources, must soon reach their limit, beyond which they cannot go; and one or the other mist succumb, or acknowledge the contest useless. This can only be the rebels.
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