The London Press on Lincoln's Message.
The
London Herald says Congress has met and elected a Republican Speaker in the House of Representatives; and
President Lincoln's Message has been published, less to the edification of the public than could have been expected, even from him. It is remarkable chiefly for the cool impudence of the passages, which are probably dictated by
Mr. Seward, concerning the relations of the
United States with foreign powers.
Lord Russell will be glad to know that his eager servility in the enforcement of his own interpretation of the
Foreign Enlistment Bill will be met with that approval which he prefers to the commendation of his own country; and that, in consideration of the vexations proceedings taken against the
Alexandra, of the frantic demonstration against the steamships at
Birkenhead, and of the illegal seizure of the
Pampero, at the instigation of Federal spies and hired informers, the
Federal Government suspends for the present its intention of calling
Great Britain to account for her previous want of zeal in its cause.
The Emperor of the
French will appreciate exactly at its value the compliment awarded to him.
The message is accompanied by a proclamation which is much more worthy of notice, being, in fact, the most wonderful State paper that ever emanated from a bewildered brain and a vindictive heart, since James H. just before he was driven from foreland, offered to pardon the majority of his subjects it they would at once expel the
Prince of
Orange and come to tender their submission at the feet of their lawful master.
Mr. Lincoln however, is not king by right divine, but the
Chief Magistrate, with very limited authority, of a united Confederation, and those to whom his proclamation is addressed are not rebellions subjects but sovereign States.
The moral enormity of his ukase, therefore, is without precedent, while its practical absurdity has no parallel save in that crowning act of folly which annihilated the last hope of the last of our
Stuart Kings.
Abraham Lincoln offers mercy and restoration to the States of
Virginia,
North and
South Carolina, and their Confederates, if they will lay down their arms, fulfill the terms of his emancipation edict, and return to the
Union.
He will pardon all citizens who shall take an oath of allegiance to the
Federal Government, swear to obey all acts of the Federal Congress, and swear submission to that decree which pretends to liberate four millions of slaves; but to this gracious offer of mercy there is a terrible list of exceptions extending from
Jefferson Davis down to the
junior clerk in the public service and the jailor general in the army; in plain
English, this proposal, made not to the conquered foes, but to a powerful nation, victorious in nearly every battle, and having 300,000 men under arms, amounts to this: "I will hang every man of eminence or note among you; every one who has served your Government, in field or in council — perhaps some four or five hundred of the best men in the country.
I will confiscate two thirds of your property, and destroy the value of the remainder."
"After that, if you will swear allegiance to an authority to which you never owed allegiance, and forswear your fidelity to that State Constitution under which you were born and have been brought up; if you will declare your intention to obey a series of acts which no court of law dare pronounce valid, and acquiesce in an usurpation without parallel.
In the history of political revolutions, you may retain the wrecks of your property and your liberties, and even enjoy the privilege of recording your votes for members of Congress, side by side with the slaves whom my will has made your equals."
We need not dwell either on the astonishing folly of such an offer to an unvanquished and undaunted enemy, or on the devilish malignity which dictated the list of exceptions. "This is not an amnesty; it is a proscription" It offers nothing which could be withheld if the last Southern town had been taken, and the last Southern regiment out to pieces; it promises merely to none whom it would be practically possible to hang, if the
South were absolutely at the merely of the
Yankee terrorists.
It is such an edit as might have been drawn up by
Beecher and
Charles Sumner, and countersigned by Robespierre and
One little fragment of practical meaning is discernible amid the frantic ebullition of ferocious insolence and blood-thirsty menace.
The President has taken the sinister but subtle advice often tendered to him by some of his more sooner friends, and is about to carry into effect a notable device for insuring his own re-election and the apparent re-construction of the
Union. "
Manhattan" has pointed out that without the
Southern States, it will be, in all probability, impossible to obtain a legal majority either in the Electoral College or in the House of Representatives for any
President.
The
North would, therefore, be placed, in 1865, in a serious dilemma, being compelled either to acknowledge that the
Southern States are no longer in the
Union, or to forage the election of a legally qualified
Chief Magistrate.
To avoid this difficulty,
Mr. Lincoln proposes to constitute a fictitious South; to establish a pseudo State Government wherever he can find a secure foothold in a Southern State, and collect there a decent number of voters.
As fugitive slaves, camp-followers, and soldiers, will be admitted, it will not be difficult to get up a pretense of the presence of "one teath of the whose number" of electors in several Southern States; and any embarrassment that may arise will be smoothed away by judicious manipulation of the battle-box.
Thus
Florida,
Louisiana,
Arkansas,
Tennessee, and
North Carolina, will, by the mouths of invading soldiers, sutlers, thieves, and negroes vote themselves back into the
Union; and, with is still better, choose Presidential Electors pledged to cast their votes for
Abraham Lincoln.
The scheme is transparent enough; but it will do for the
Yankees, for
Mr. Seward's diplomacy, and for the
European organs of the
Federal Government; and if Lord Russell will only present to be deceived by it, it will have fully accomplished the almost hopes of the originators.
