THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.
[Fisom OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Washington, Mareh 10. TEE long-expebted more has come at last. From break of day, the camps round Washington have been, deserted. The roads leading to the Potomac are (*upped with one long line of troops, artillery, and baggage Waggons. While I Write can hear the clashing of the bauds.- as teginient after lighten% conies margin*, southwards ; and the City is filled With rumour's of the coming battle. Whether, iii titith; General McClellan has niade up his mind to risk a battle; ol Whether WS metenient is due to the filet that the enemy is eiaeu- ating Manassas; a few hours will show. The military proav'ress Of the War IS a matter out of .my province, except in as far at it hears upon its political aspedt. The two are inseparably connected, and; as I have endeavoured to point out to you before, the relations and the strength of political. parties here vary daty by day with the fortimes and the larbspeetS Of the war. Upon the Comparative success or failure of the Military incivetilents now taking place will depend the failure or saccess, for the time, of the abblition party. While, there.-- fdre, the event still remains doubtful, I Wish to paint out to you what I conceive to he the present bearing afthe President's message, the most important political move that has .yet been taken by the Government, We could stand," so writes the .714bune, two ..days . ago "the railing, abuse, and systematic depreciation of the BritiskjoUrnals.
. . . . It is their affectation bf candour, of impartiality, of sUIfitheeialtaticin above Such paltry matters as American discussions, that aggravates us Such trifles are all reineinbeted over here, and will in due time be requited." This paragraph expresses to my mind; fairly enough, the common feeling of the American public; and yet, at the risk of incurring a like censure, I must state candidly, that as far as political matters are concerned, we English bystanders judge American affairs more impartially than the actors do themselves. But the other day I Was speaking to an American
Senator, vell known and resp i ected n England, and celebrated in this country for his SiippoSed Audio-mania. He pointed Out to inc the imminent danger that the state of feeling existing baleen England and America must, sooner or later, in the event of the Southern re- bellion being suppressed, lead to a war between our t*b countries; and suagestedi.as the only hope he saw of escaping the calamity, that Englaa should now join heartily with America in crushing out the last Straggles of the insurgents. To this remark, my answer was one which I conceive most Englishmen would have made, that with
• bur Government there Was no poisibility of such a step being taken, 'unless the country was strongly in favour of the North,. and that the only way td rotise public feeling in England in favour of the North was to convince Englishmen that the war was carried on for the abolition of slavery. To this remark the answer was, "Is it possible that England can fail to see that this war is carried on for the destruction of slavery after the publication of the President's message?" i
. Now, n my opinion, it is not enly possible, but probable; that England will fail to see this ; and I suspect that most Englishmen,, who, like myself, hate slavery, Will read this message at first with disappointment. Is this all ? was ihy conclusion at the peruSal of the message. here, at the crisis of the nation's fate, whea for the first time power is in the hands of the North; when the South, at any rate in popular opinioit, will soon be at the mercy bf the Victori- ous Union, the utmost that the Government propoSes is, that the staius quo should be restored as regards slavery, coupled with an ab- stract resolution that if any Slave State, of its own free will and good pleasure, chooses to abolish slavery, the United States Government shall assist them in their good intentions by pecuniary aid. This, I own freely, was thy first impression; but subsequent conversation With American politicians has Shown me that the "einancipation message," as it is called here, is capable of a far more hopeful and; I believe, a truer tonstruction. It is this construction winch I wish to convey to you.
I.a the first place, then, this step is the furthest one the President Could take consistently with the constitution. The great mistake which. foreigners appear to me to make in arguing abed America is, the assumption that the Government, if it likes, can do anything. lasSuining that the Crown, the House of Lords, and the Anse of Commons, or in other words, the Government Of England, were trend together, it is hard to Say ,what measures they might not legally peas; and I obserVe that Englishmen always assume that practically the American Government could do the same. Novi-, the vital defect of the American Government seems to me, that it exists by means of, and in virtue of, a written constitution ; and that, by that very constitution, the absolute as well as the relative powers of the different bodies of the State are so clearly defined, that in eases not provided for by the constitution Government action is paralyzed. The States which composed the Union, in the words of Justice Story, "yielded anything reluctantly, and deemed the lead practical dele- gation of power quite sufficient for national purposes." This, to my mind, is the key to the Whole American constitution. The coarse of events, the progress of civilization, has gradually increased the practical power of the central government; but the legal rights of
the component States remain unimpaired. Now, if there are two pri- vileges clearly guaranteed by the constitution to the different States, they are—the right of each State to regulate its domestic institutions, and the existence of the fugitive slave law. To amend the constitution tequires a majority of three-fourths of the legislatures or Conventions of the States composing the Union, and therefore, if the Government of the United States wished to abolish slavery in the different States, they Must either declare that the consent of the insurgent States is not re- quired, which is tantamount to declaring that the Union is at an end, or they must break through the constitution, in strength of which Slone they have any legal existence. The State of New York might to-morrow re-establish slavery as an institution, consistently with the law, and by the same law the United States Government can no more abolish slavery in Georgia, proprio !notu, than it can place an export duty on any single article exported from any State in the Union.
Now in the ordinary years before the revolution this excuse tor inaction with regard to slavery was valid. enough, and I think now that we in England were majust to the Government of the United States in throwing upon it the obloquy of iipholdirig slavery, at a time when it was absolutely powerless to deal with it iti the Slave States, except by overthrowing the Union, or by trampling under foot the yeky constitution, in virtue of Which it existed. With the insurrection, however, a new state of things came in, and the great question still remains, whether the American nation ,might not, and ought not to take adVanta,te of it to alter the. coiistitution and abolish gavery. If advantage be not taken of this opportunity, the blame, if blame there is, Will rest with the American people, net with the United States Gbverninent. The GoVernment throughout has followed, and not led. Had any than of genius arisen at this crisis ; had there been a Cromwell, or a Mirabeau, or a Washington, the result might have been far different, but neither Lincoln nor Seward, nor, still less, McClellan, are men to shape a nation's desti- nies. It is with the people, and the people gone, that the real decision of policy has rested hitherto., The national vote which brought Lincolh ihto office Was a Vote against the extension of slavery, not a vote against its Maintenance. When the insattee- tion broke out in force, and the nation awoke to its danger on the attack on Fort Sumter, the cry of the nation was not to abolish slavery, but to preserve the Union.. The preservation of the Union was the overwhelming national instinct. It is this instinct which basso far suppressed the insurrection, and will suppress it to the end; it is by working on this instinct alone that any of the politieal parties in the States can hope to achieve their ends. Both of the extreme parties have failed hitherto in acquiring perniithent supreme-6y. The pro-slavery faction had one great argument, with *Heil they sought to mirk on public opinion. The Secessidii movement (So they alleged, and with truth) it due to the belief in the South, whether well or ill founded, that slavery is in danger from the abolition cry in the North: Renounce this abolition theory; convince the Smith that slavery is not in danger; and there is an end of secession ! In the early stages of the insurrec- tion this party had great weight? and their yr:Allies were unsuccessful, partly because the pride and principle of the North refused to follow such counsels heartily, still more, becatise the South madly rejected the last evertittes of conciliation. It was during their temporary success that the resolution of Congress, proposing still further to limit its own power With regard to legislation on slavery, Was pro- posed end carried.
The success of the :Abolitionist party, par et simple, has hardly been more decisive—a sort of political John the Baptist's preaching in the wilderness, The number of their followers has varied with the apprehension of the coming danger. Their text was as simple as it was earnest. Slavery is the one cause of secession. Between the free North had slave South there cao never be union as long as slavery exists; and therefore, for the sake of the Union (not so much; re- math, for for the sake Of the sin), slavery must be suppressed. The strength of such a cry obviously varies inversely with the probabili- ties of , simple military success. When the fortunes of the North seemed lowest the abolition cry was most powerful. Now again that it seems likely that the insurrectien will be suppressed without any "pronunciamento", as to slavery, the abolition appeal has lost its weight. The Union victories have for the time suspended the pro- gress of the abolition sentiment.. "Six mouths age," Said a friend of McClellan to me, recently, "we *ere all abolitionists ; hot, we are all for the Union."
What the numerical political strength of the pro-slavery and aboli- tion patties may be it is impossible to ascertain accurately. It is certain, however, that either of them forth a small minority compared with what may fairly be called the . gitat Union majority. This majority has as yet ilo political organization, and is formed probably pretty equally out. Of the democratic and republican parties. We should be unjust in accusing it of any sympathy with slavery. We should be doing it more than justice to assert it had any deliberate purpose a suppressing slavery. To account for this national ithquieseende in the maintenance of the status quo, two facts should be borne in Mind. The national instinct (more acute and intelli- gent than we can conceive in Europe) has taught the people that any outspoken decision on slavery would have alienated the loyal Slave States, and thus retarded, if not destroyed, the prospect of a restoration of the Union. And again, any vigorous action as to slavery was inconsistent with the constitution.; while the whole strength of the North hitherto has been in the fact that it was up- holding the coristitution. In England, we haVe been accustomed to assert that during this insurrection (for revolution, as yet, it is not) the constitution of the United States has been freqUently violated. Whether this opinion of ours is right or wrong is a question too wide to enter on now. It is enough to say that it is not the opinion of the Americans themselves. To the written letter of the constitution they cling with a, to me, surprising tenacity, partly, I fancy, because the national reverence for the founders of the Union is a matter of almost religious sentiment, partly because of a general conviction that strict unswerving adherence to the constitution is the one bar to a rule of democracy. It is for this cause that the chief opponents of any unconstitutional action on the subject of slavery are the native Americans, while the German emigrants are the staunchest sup- porters of Fremont and revolutionary measures. This fear, then, of alienating the Slave States, this dread of revolution, and this respect for the constitution, are the great principles which actuate the policy of the majority. The Union, before all and above all, now and for ever, is their watchword and their rallying cry. The guestion at issue, moreover, was not one of principle only, but one of immediate action. The capture of Fort Donelson and the evacuation of Nashville restored the State of Tennessee to the Union before either people or Government had decided upon, or even thought of deciding upon, any policy with regard to the manner in which the revolted States should be dealt with after subjugation. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof has been throughout the one principle of national policy., and possibly it has been a wise one. There is a story reported of Blondin, that when some one asked him how he ever had the nerve to proceed, when he thought of the long stretch of rope over which he had to pass, he answered, "I never think of anything except how to take the step before me." So it has been with the North; and thus, when the condition of Tennessee called for some immediate action, there was no policy prepared. To re-establish the power of the Union was the one thing which the nation could see its way to; and so a provisional Governor has been appointedi all the questions as to the domestic institutions of the revolted State, or its relations to the Union, are left to decide them- selves, and all that has been done is to restore the status quo.
It was hardly to be expected that a Government like that of the United States should do more than side with the decision, or rather the indecision, of the nation. This is what Mr. Lincoln has done by his recent message. His proposition, he stated distinctly, on the part of the general Government, " sets up no claim of a right by Federal authdrity to interfere with slavery within state limits." In other words, he recognizes the existence of the revolted States, and their continued 'possession of a right, as States, to deal with their own domestic institutions. Such a declaration is fatal to Mr. Sumner's theory, that the revolted States have sacrificed their rights as States, and after subjugation must be treated as unadmitted terri- tories ; and supposing that even, contrary, to all expectation, the resolutions of the senator for Massachusetts should be carried, it is difficult to see how the President, after this declaration, could sanc- tion any bill drawn up in conformity with their provisions. Still the step is a step forward, not backward. For the first time in the history of abolitionism a practical plan has been proposed for the emancipation of the slaves. For the first time, also, in the history of the United States, the expediency of abolition has been announced as a principle of Government. The delenda eel Carthago has been uttered, timidly and apologetically if you will, but still officially. On the eve of victory, the President has called upon Congress to declare that the abolition of slavery is desirable, and that the central Government should aid in its extinction. I am not surprised that the abolition party regard the message as a triumph. "It has taken us two months' constant pressure," said a leading abolitionist to me, to persuade the President to issue this message ; and the sensation with which it has been received throughout the States shows the import- ance popularly attached to its issue. The event of the next few hours—a great victory, a reverse, or a hard-fought battle, may alter the whole complexion of politics, and an outburst of popular feeling may render the Presidential mani- festo a thing out of date and unheeded. I write of it now as it is looked upon on the eve of a presumed victory.
AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER.
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