Franklin Repository
Organization Of Congress
The Southern Coast. Winter in North Carolina--Rain and Mud--Visit of Gen. Butler--His Enthusiastic Reception--Rebels Trembling at His Advent--Thanksgiving Day
Financial
Brief War Items
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Personal
Jeff. Davis's Message
President's Message
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The Call For Troops
Lincoln's Proclamation
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Since President Lincoln's late Proclamation has been spread before an intelligent and loyal people, every one who has sustained him in his efforts to crush this rebellion and vindicate the integrity of the Government, must breathe freer when after two years of war a Proclamation of Amnesty is extended to the rebels. This Proclamation of Amnesty is extended to the rebels. This Proclamation settles very easily and practically the difficult questions which even great men were stumbling at, and which often looked as troublesome as the vindication of the Government and the restoration of the Union. This proclamation meets the cordial approbation of every loyal man in the country, and will be zealously supported as the basis of re-organization in the South. The institution of Slavery is emphatically dead, and cannot in the future, even by party triumph, be galvanized into a show of vitality. The President's proposition then is the simplest and easiest plan of restoration to the blessings and benefits of a beneficent government.
It is also satisfactory to the loyal people because it fixes the status of those high in power in the so-called Confederate Government, upon whose shoulders rest the responsibility of this war. It has been repeatedly said that human slavery was at the bottom of this unhallowed rebellion. This we believe, for an institution so barbarous can only be vindicated by its advocates allying themselves to the atrocities of the savage, from which the common instincts of an enlightened people rebel. Liberty needs not the dirt of the assassin to support it. It asks an unlimbered press and the privileges of free speech, and when these are checked in this enlightened age, a revolution in sentiment will necessarily overturn the obstacles in the way, and give free course to the mighty channels which give power to the thoughts and notions of representative men.
Two years ago the South had the advantage in political leaders by common consent. Now they are singled out as only fit for the traitor's doom. To day the President offers terms to the unfortunate and the innocent, leaving the alternative to the guilty. The majesty of the Government must be respected and its power acknowledged, or those who raise the arm of rebellion must themselves be the victims of their own atrocity. In this day, when enlightened opinions are gaining ground, and when governments freely scrutinize each other, and by the free press of at least two powerful nations, England and America, neither the institution of slavery, nor those who by rebellion attempt to sustain it, can exist. Total destruction is their fate. If the people of England more than two centuries ago taught kings a wholesome lesson by impeaching, dethroning, trying and condemning one by the very laws he had violated, so may the people of the United States demand the death of the authors of fraternal war, because of their bold and bloody effort at usurpation and rebellion. The Queen of England is as much bound by her oath as any private citizen. She is the servant of the people; the people are her peers; not the crowned heads of other nations. If she commit offences against the people and the Constitution, accepted and honored by the people, she may be tried like a private individual for her offence, and if proved guilty be punished therefor. Such men the noble arguments brought to bear upon the case of Charles I by the great Milton, and in a blundering, blood-thirsty way, such were the pretexts made use of by the French Jacobins upon the trial of Louis XVI.
The English people did execute the beautiful but misguided Mary Stuart, and it must be remembered that this took place at a period of earnest religious reform and excitement, when the conflict was for freedom of thought--Protestantism as opposed to Romanism, and for offences and deep laid conspiracies against a Queen. For this she was condemned and suffered a felon's doom. The world's history is full of examples of men high in power, as well as private citizens, who for schemes and devices against recognized authority, have paid the penalty of their folly by the forfeiture of their lives.
Many of the South are sincerely loyal and long for the blessings they once enjoyed under the United States Government, but there are also many that need the strong arm of power just as they love the pomp and show of arbitrary Empire. To take away from such the strong arm of power, would not be to restore them to liberty with its natural attendants law and order, but to absolute anarchy and license, and bring back the summary executions upon the nearest tree, the hunting down by blood hounds, and the savageness of men who are little better than a race of ferocious tigers when given over to their unrestrained instincts. Abolish the institution of Slavery, and restore the Union of States on the President's proposition, and those who have originated and carried on this unholy rebellion must necessarily seek refuge and find homes in foreign lands. Free soil, Free Institutions and Free Government are not suited to their depraved notions of social and political economy. The Country will be better rid of them. The great idea of Human Freedom, that is destined to carry everything before it, as the crowning glory of the nineteenth century, needs not their services, nor can it be long impeded by their opposition.
In no other country in the world, nor under the operations of any other government could so gigantic a rebellion have been met and crushed in so short a time, and with such paramount blessings to the world resulting from it, as the one now rapidly closing in America. Let us hope in the future, for it is full of promise, and while we contemplate its glories and blessings let us not forget the stern reality of the present.
Gen. Meade's Late Movement
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Army Of The Potomac. The Plan Of The Late Campaign. The Causes Of Its Failure
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Important From Tennessee
The Steamer Chesapeake
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"A correspondent of the New York Times has furnished a complete review of the late advance and retreat, from which we take the following important statement, intended to prove that Gen. Mead's failure could not have been by him prevented."