Passage of the Confiscation bill by the House of Representatives.
[From the New York Herald,May 27]
Yesterday, amidst the echos of the guns of the enemy on the
Upper Potomac, the House of Representatives absurdly passed a Confiscation bill by a vote of eighty-two against sixty-two.
It is like
Nero fiddling while
Rome was burning.
It is the discussions of such bills in Congress, and the foolish proclamations of
Generals, that have revived the sinking cause of the rebels and brought them back to the vicinity of
Washington and
Maryland.
The whole course of Congress since the opening of the session has been worth more than two hundred thousand men to the insurgent leaders.
Bacfor the proceedings of the abolitionists in Congress and out of it, the rebellion would have long since died a natural death.
Their business appears to be to heap fresh fuel on the expiring flame.
The best recruiting sergeants of the rebels are the abolition demagogues in the halls of Congress.
A short time ago
Senator Wilson proposed to top enlistment and reduce the army by two hundred thousand men. From our report of the proceedings in Congress yesterday, we perceive he now wants to add two hundred thousand men to the seven hundred thousand already raised, making in all close upon a million of men organized for the war. Bad it not bean for the disloyal course of the abolitionists in playing into the hands of the rebels, fifty thousand men would have sufficed to restore the
Union and peace.
If they continue in their present course, and are not put down by an indignant people, he must be a very far- seeing and profound philosopher who can predict the end of the war, or measure the disastrous consequences to the
American Republic and the human rare.
Only two things were necessary to be done--one was to whip the rebels in the field, and the other was to supply our army with the a news of war. The first is not in the line of the brawling fanatic in Congress.
They would prefer that the honest hard fisted Democratic.
should fight the rebels, and be so killed off as to diminish their numbers at the ballot box while the Abolitionists should enjoy the spoils of office and revolutionize the
Government.
But if the fanatics and fools in Congress are very reluctant to fight, they have at least the power of supplying with money a patriotic army ready and willing to pour out its blood like water for the
Union.
Here again Congress is at fault.
It will not pass the Tax bill, so essential to the financial credit of the country and the ultimate success of our arms; while it wastes its time in discussing and passing foolish bills for confiscating the property of rebels of which we have not possession, which is about equal in wisdom to the project of emancipating the slaves before we are in occupation of the territory where the slaves are to be found.
The proverb of counting the chickens before they are hatched is prudence, compared with the action of Congress.
It is not only reckoning without its host, but doing its worst to defeat the calculations of our generals and their armies.
Let the rebels be first subdued, and the authority of the
Federal Government established in the insurgent States, and then the question of preventing a recurrence of rebellion is in order.
Most certainly to hold out before hand a sweeping measure of confiscation, making no distinction between leaders and their deluded followers, is not the way to put down the rebellion, for there is no inducement left to the rebels to yield; on the contrary, every temptation is offered to them to resist to the last, and this, no doubt, is the secret of the bill now passed.
The design is to prevent the restoration of the
Union.
But the spirit of the people is suddenly aroused by recent events.
Let disloyal, members of Congress beware.
Even such donkeys as
Andrews, of
Massachusetts, already perceives the rising storm.
It was but a day or two ago that he threw cold water on the call of the
Government for additional troops.
Now he is ready to send it more men than it wants.
Let Congress take the hint.
Let the Senate postpone the Confiscation bill to a more convenient season, and 1st it promptly pass the Tax bill, containing a few articles of universal consumption, and not a long list intended to beget a host of collectors as destructive to the people's substance as an army of locusts.
Let Congress do this and go home.
The people are sick of its folly and its treason to the cause of the nation.
There is a reckoning in store for every man of the present Congress, as there is for every member of the
Cabinet.
Let the Administration be purged, and let the unsound part be out away, lest it taint and corrupt the whole.
Our only confidence is in the firmness, patriotism and common sense of
Mr. Lincoln.
Heretofore he has proved true to the country.
Let him plant one heel upon the neck of the abolition serpent, and crush out its vitals, while with the other he bruises the head of secession.
The people will support him to the last extremity, and he need have no fear of the frowns or threats of factious radical chiefs, whose motto, like that of the Secessionists, is ‘"rule or ruin."’
