TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE PRESIDENT'S, MESSAGE.
THE view we have taken from the first of the character and. policy of the American President is strongly sup- ported by his last Message. Mr. Lincoln writes like a half- educated lawyer, and thinks like a European sovereign., It is difficult to imagine anything more feebly diffuse than the long columns by which he justifies, the war, or anything more haughtily energetic than the single paragraph in which he demands means for carrying it to a successful end. That paragraph, explained as it is by the official reports of the Secretaries of State, clears up all that was doubtful in the policy of the Cabinet, scatters to the winds all rumours. of compromise, and declares that the American Republic tole- rates rebellion as little as any monarchy on earth. The President defends himself for his delay before the assault on Sumter, promises a long paper from the Attorney-General on his right to aerest traitors, asks "if it is just that the South should be off without any consent or any return" for the money invested in Florida, and throughout stands on the defensive in a style fatal to English ideas of the dignity of his office. But in the midst of this slip-slop garrulity he asks for an army equal to that of a first-class military Power, and supplies on a scale which startles Englishmen accustomed. to pay war taxes, and calmly discusses- his course "after this rebellion shall have been suppressed." That sentence is the key to the President's resolution. Secession is rebellion, and rebellion shall be suppressed at any outlay of treasure; or any expenditure of life. Mr. Lincoln asks for four hundred thousand men and a hundred millions sterling as the first contribution of Congress towards the necessary war. And this, he- says, with a cold resolution which all his verbiage cannot hide, is but a small demand. The army will be only "a tenth of those of proper ages within the regions where apparently all are willing to engage." and the money is "less than a twenty-third part of the sum owned by those who seem willing to devote the whole." The talk of strong Union party within the South is kept up, but its ex- istence is treated as matter of no moment. If all Southerners are volunteers against the Union, and all Southern wealth is devoted to that one end, the Union is still to find means to enforce its complete supremacy. Secession is rebellion, and the number of the' rebels only increases- the means the loyal must raise to effect the inevitable suppression. Com- promises, if made at all, must be made by the people, and till then the President "will not shrink, nor count the chances- of his own. life in what may follow." The bills introduced by the Government tally well with this cold. resolve. They reed, in the short sentences in which Ame- rican. journalists describe them, like the decree& proposed' to a Government heading a revolution. The "indemnity Bill" sounds like a constitutional form, but the remainder are all up to the height of circumstances." The peaceful repub- lic is to pass at once a law "'to increase the military esta- blishment,' and thereby secure skilled officers ; a bill "for the better organization of military establishments," which will reorganize the bureaus'; a bill "to promote the effi- ciency of' the army," which will make discipline stern, and "bill for a national guard," which will be a standing army. There can be no mistake as to the meaning of all this. The American people may have diarent views, may refuse the means necessary to make these menaces effective, or may shrink from the long war now so plainly before them, and we have considered below the possibility of those occur- rences; but discussion on the designs of the Government has come at last to an end. The President says nothing about the last man and the last shilling-, but if it be not his, resolve to expend both, rather than make terms with rebel- lion, words and acts have alike no meaning. American statesmen are trained to servility, and we cannot expect,. even from a President, the independent volition it is the pride of an English statesman to display. But, though, bowmg always—and, in English judgment, bowing too low— towards the people, Mr. Lincoln's own purposes are terribly- clear and plain. He may distrust the people, but they, if they- mean war, have no cause to distrust him. He will go, forward relentlessly, as if the war were a suit, expend! arm. ies as if they were costs, and press judgment to execu- tion as if he were only distraining a fraudulent or menacing debtor. This is not perhaps the highest form of resolution, but it is one against which thretts are as much lost as sophistry or bribes. There is one other point to be noticed in the President's Message. From first to last, throughout all those weary columns of type, the word slavery never occurs—the thing slavery is never referred to. The President thrusts the slave question wholly out of sight. Even in the paragraph in which he alludes to his course, "when this rebellion shall have been suppressed," he gives no pledge as to State rights or the peculiar institution: "Lest," he says, "there be some uneasiness in the minds of candid men as to what is to be the course of the Government towards the Southern States after the rebellion shall have been suppressed, the Executive deems it proper to say it will be his purpose then, as ever, to be guided. by the Constitution and the laws, and that he probably will have no different understanding of the powers and: duties of the Federal Government, -relatively to the rights of the States and the people under the Constitution, than that expressed in the Inaugural Address." "I will adhere," said the Emperor of Austria, last week, "to the principles laid down. in my first speech to the Reichsrath ;" and in the minds both of President and Em- peror the intention of the reference is the same. Both in- tend to declare a consistent resolution. That of the Presi- dent is to uphold the Constitution, which, as the North wields the majority, may, "probably," prohibit slavery in the States, and will certainly forbid, it within the Territories. It is difficult to believe that this reticenoe was not of de- sign. A word. on the State right to regulate slavery would have conciliated thousands of wavering Southerners, but the word would have pledged the Cabinet not to pursue the path which they perceive, willing or unwilling, they must tread.
But will the people concede the enormous powers de- manded by their Government.? That, after all, is the real point at issue, for, however resolved the President may be, his policy, unless it meets the assent of the people, is simply an individual opinion. And, moreover, can the people, even if carried such lengths by their enthusiasm, bear the enor- mous burden the President desires to impose. It needs no argument to prove that the burden is onerous to the last degree. The war will not end in a year, and to keep four hundred thousand men in the field two years is an effort which would task the resources of England, with twice the wealth of the States, and tax the human supply of Russia with twice their population. The army is to be drawn from the North, from a people, that is, less numerous than that of England alone, and the outlay exceeds five- fold the national revenue of the Republic. The President, too, speaks of the hundred millions paid for Florida, and then asks for four hundred millions to spend in recovering them.; he talks of the free institutions which are a model to the world, and then proposes a standing army. He places these requests before people who have never furnished a native recruit to their permanent force, and have never borne a direct tax, or provided for a more than nominal, national debt. Feeling acutely the force of these objections, we still believe that the North will endure this tremendous strain. The more fact that they asked to do it will of itself treble their willingness. Their complaint has hitherto been that the Government lagged behind, that it refused the means placed at its dii- ipnodsiael,hasesieonommewdlukewarm,ihoetpforvDemocratic r dc roar tfiaecrv nne twirervacsanherceciusbnou. t tthereTehveeni is Presi- dentno proof that he has outstripped the people. The Republicans are content, and the House of Assembly has elected a Re- publican Speaker. The galleries cheered the demand for four hundred millions, and the galleries on such occasions are filled. with the best representatives of the Union. The talk about compromise has for weeks elicited nothing but attack the war except by expressing their doubts whether the same expenditure would not conquer the continent. Above all, the American people are convinced that the South is already defeated, that it needs but one great levy and one bold push to secure the unconditional surrender. It matters little now, as it mattered nothing in March, what course the trading politicians may take. The silent millions of the North, whose hearts have been ulcerated for thirty years by enforced submission to ceaseless insult, will accept any ds- mond rather than yield, and with their decision the con- troversy, however warm, or however much to the apparent advantage of the South, will, as before, instantly end. That individuals will resist, that some Charles Fox will appear, that a strong minority will grow up, as in our own European war crPving only for peace, is more than probable. But the mass of the nation, liketthe mass of the British people, is with the war, and nothing but sharp distress will make it even temporarily unpopular. Of the will of the North at present there can, we believe, be no doubt whatever.
Of their power there is perhaps more doubt, but even on this point, though with more hesitation, we must reply in the affirmative. It is evident that the men can be procured.
Whether it be that social life in the States tempts men to soldiership, or that the great foreign population, as some say, is really in distress, or that the heart of the nation is really aroused to a depth we can scarcely appreciate, the men, it is evident, can be obtained. The Secretary at War reports that three hundred and ten thousand men are already col- lected. Eighty thousand of these are three months volun- teers, but after that great deduction, two hundred and thirty thousand men remain engaged for the war. Nearly a hundred thousand more are fretting in the Western States because their services cannot be entertained, and with money in plenty the balance will be only too easily gathered together. Whether these men will submit to the discipline a long campaign requires ; whether they can turn out cavalry in anything like adequate numbers ; whether, in short, they can be reduced by service or discipline into an army, events alone can decide. But the men, we believe, can be found, and behind them remains, as a reserve, the whole population of States like Iowa, in which every man needs only instruction in drill to be an efficient soldier. The levy will do infinite mischief to the oountry, will increase the military feeling so strong in the States, will check the prosperity of the West, and will perhaps menace the liberty for which the volunteers say they fight ; but the men can be obtained. So can the National Guard, a force long since demanded by the holders of property, who see in the weakness of the Executive a permanent danger to themselves. • It remains to provide the money, and it must be remem- bered that the lightness of taxation which has hitherto dis- tinguished the States, only makes heavy taxation the more easy and productive. The Financial Secretary, like his chief, states his demand with sufficient clearness but in many words. The expenditure for the current year may be taken at eighty millions sterling, of which sum twenty millions must, he conceives, be raised by taxes. By placing a tax on sugar, molasses, coffee, and tea, he hopes that the in- direct taxes may be made to produce fifteen millions, and for the remaining five he proposes two alternatives. A tax of half-a-crown in the pound on the entire property of the north would produce just the amount deficient, or it may be made up by light imposts on ale and beer, tobacco and spirits, bank-notes and spring-carriages, jewellery and legacies. This is a goodly list of burdens, and reminds one painfully how near Sydney Smith's prophetical caution to brother Jonathan is to its fulfilment. But none of the duties, though some of them will be heavy—as, for example, ten pence a pound on green tea—are unbearable, or exceed those we ourselves pay, murmuring but obedient. None of them press on the sources of wealth, or demand from the people the sacrifice of necessaries with which it would be injurious to dis- pense. Even the property tax might be borne, and the machinery already exists for collecting that impost for State expenses. The Union will simply glide out of the class of lightly taxed States into that of fairly taxed nations—a change the progress of events was sure sooner or later to involve. But this is not all the burden to be imposed. Sixty millions sterling—two hundred and forty millions of dollars—remain to be provided for by loan, and the moneyed interest is already, it is said, biased towards the South. The moneyed interest, however, whatever their "proclivities," will follow their instincts, and swarm round a Ministry which creates a national debt like flies round honey.. Or if they do not, there remains the device of the open loan, a device which, in a country where every farmer saves and five-sixths of the national wealth is real, will tap an exhaustless mine. The Union, taking the calculation head by head—for if she has fewer rich than England she has also fewer poor—can bear a national debt of five hundred millions, and yet be no heavier weighted than ourselves. The Secretary's demand is for less than one-eighth of that amount. The men and the money are forthcoming, and annoyed as all men must feel at the bombastic rubbish with which Americans overlay earnest feeling, we still know of nothing nobler than the constancy with which the people sacrifice their dreams, their wealth, and their lives to preserve their honour.
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