Dox, have not hesitated. They simply inquire for the surest means to secure a speedy triumph and lasting peace. It is undeniable that the rebellion had its origin, not in any danger, either fancied or real, menacing the institution of slavery in the Southern States-for all parties were agreed to let it alone there--but it had reference entirely to its growth and spread in the future over territory now possessed, and hereafter to be acquired. Visions of a great despotic empire, the foundation stone of which should be slavery, had taken strong hold of the imaginations of the bold, bad men who lead the Southern mind. In a community already corrupted by the idleness, ignorance and servility which necessairly comes of such a social system, these leaders found it easy to impress the great mass of the people with their own designs. So long as any fair prospect remained that the Union might be made subserv ient to their grand purpose, none clamored so loudly for it as they. All such as warmly supported the system of free gov ernment based upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence, were fiercely denounced as disunionists. But the moment it appeared that the Union could no longer be used for such a purpose they proceeded at once to break it up, and to lay carefully the foundations of their new system.

That this was done with consummate tact is now evident. Knowing well that no great revolution can be effected without some great leading idea as its foundation, they boldly proclaimed the only one left to them and resolutely planted themselves upon it. That the system of slave labor is the best and most beneficent which man can devise, was now, for the first. time, I believe, declared as a fundamental principle of government. It was even pronounced to be the divine system of the economy of labor. It has, therefore, from the first, been relied upon as the principal source of strength to the rebellion, and such it has undoubtedly proved to be. Its first effect was to unite substantially the Southern people, who are mainly com posed of two classes, to-wit:

1st. The aristocracy who own the slaves, and have the deep

est interest in the establishment of the new order of things; and

2nd. The ignorant and debased non-slaveholding whites of the South, who are too proud to work, and too poor to buy laborers; but, nevertheless, still live in hope that, by some means or other, at some time they may attain to the high felicity of owning a slave.

The leading traitors, therefore, have been able to appeal powerfully to all the worst passions of every class. To the aristocratic slaveholder they have promised, not only security for his present position, but greatly increased wealth, dominion and power. The result of the rebellion, if successful, we easily understand is to be a strong military government, in which himself and his associates will be the only ruling class; and in the not far distance he beholds principalities and powers, stars and garters, and all the paraphernalia of despotic empire. Shall we wonder that men taught in the school of the plantation, the ideas of absolute power, and scorn of control, fight desperately for the accomplishment of these magnificent objects. While such ideas prevail with the men of wealth and position, they promise the ignorant class that when the hated Yankees are once put down, and the old government destroyed, there will be nothing left to prevent them from rising to the class of masters; then the slave trade shall be re opened, and negroes plenty and cheap shall reward their valor, and secure their position in the ruling class.

Stimulated by these ideas, combined with the always popular notion of independence, the Southern people have endured privations and hardships, and put forth exertions, which would be admirable if done in a good cause. Nor can it be controverted successfully, that thus far their system has been a tower of strength to them. It has not been necessary for them to withdraw their laborers from the field, to any considerable extent, to aid them in carrying on the operations of war. The slave has continued, as heretofore, to till the soil, and by his unpaid labor to produce the means to enable his master to take up the sword in behalf of the rebellion. He really feeds and clothes

the soldier, buys the arms and munitions of war, and supplies the fuel to the tremendous flame that is consuming our country, And yet the rebellion offers nothing to him. It does not even allow him to hope that at some time away in the far off future, the sweat and the toil and the bondage may cease. On the contrary, the very foundation of the Confederate system is that his degredation shall never end, but grow deeper and more unbearable from generation to generation, and forever.

Here, then, lies the incurable weakness of the South, and our own invincible strength. Their despotism we must fight with liberty. This servile class, composing almost the entire body of the producers of the revolted States, must necessarily be our friends, loyal in feeling and anxious to become loyal in action, whenever we will allow them the smallest rights of men. The only price they ask is freedom; a price which we can easily pay, but which the rebel government cannot offer without destroying its entire fabric.

Remove these millions of workers from the plantations and work shops of the South, and it is plain that rebellion cannot last a year. One chief difficulty thus far has been, not in repossessing the Southern country, but in holding it afterwards. Our armies have passed over and taken formal possession of extensive regions of the Southern territory, driving out the organized forces of the Confederacy, but leaving the property of the people untouched, and existing institutions undisturbed. Upon this system it has been found necessary to keep as large a force in such regions to hold them, as it did to take them in the first instance. If the army passes on, these people immediately rise in its rear, cut off its communications, destroy its munitions and supplies, seize its reinforcements in small detachments, and thus become more dangerous than before. It follows that the further we progress, the more difficult our task becomes. The army is constantly reduced by detachments for garrison duty and keeping open communica tions, until it becomes too weak for offensive operations. At

the same time our occupation does not harm the rebel government materially; its people adhere firmly to that cause, and their means of warfare remain much the same. Unless this condition of things can be changed our cause is plainly hopeless, without long years of war, accompanied by sacrifices appalling to contemplate, and which we can hardly expect our people to make.

Seeing this clearly and after a year and a half of effort to subdue the Rebellion without disturbing existing laws and institutions in the insurgent States, the government of the Uni ted States has adopted the two great remedies of emancipation and confiscation. We are about to strike hands with the en tire loyal population of the South, whether white or black. We shall no longer respect the claim of a white traitor to com pel a black loyalist to aid him in destroying the government; neither shall we any further admit his title to use his property of any sort for the same purpose. By the proclamations of September 22d, 1862, and January 1st, 1863, the President, by virtue of the power vested in him as Commander-in-Chief of the armies and navies of the United States, has by a single blow struck the shackles from near 3,000,000 of slaves, and added them to the loyal free people of the Republic. This act will be memorable as long as history endures. It has been done for the strengthening of the country against its enemies and under the war power; but it is not forbidden to the philanthropist and the good every where to rejoice in the redemption of a race. With it fades away the one great and humiliating stain upon our National escutcheon. From this point our country starts upon a new course, and the experiment of Republican liberty may be fairly tried. Of the necessity and legality of this great measure, there is little room for doubt. And it is hardly worth while to stop to answer the feeble croaking of that class of people who always find in the Constitution an insurmounta ble bar to everything that justice and truth require to be done. Their wicked pretences and aimless logic are only a thin disguise of real disloyalty.

The President has now not only to execute the ordinary powers of government conferred upon him by the Constitution, but he has also to protect and defend the Constitution itself from destruction. By virtue of that instrument he is Commander in Chief, and as such, in conjunction with Congress, he possesses all the war powers possessed by the most despotic government on earth, and for the exercise of those vast powers he is responsible only to the Congress elected by the people. The Constitution itself has not undertaken to prescribe the manner of the exercise of those powers, but has left that to be determined by the exigencies of the case. But that it would be exercised arbitrarily and contrary to the usual forms in many cases is clearly contemplated, by the 2d sub-division of Section 9, which permits the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in cases of rebellion or invasion, if the public safety requires it. That is the only limit. Whatever the public safety requires, is not only within the power of the President to do, but it is his solemn duty to do it. The slow processes of the law, which are sufficient in time of peace, fail altogether in the presence of war. The schemes of the public enemies must be met with decision and promptness, and put down summarily and by whatever means may for the time being be most effectual. If the presence of a spy of the enemy is known in the army in Tennessee, and upon undertaking to arrest him he should escape into Michigan, would there be any doubt of the power and duty of the Commander-in-Chief to pursue and take him in defiance of the habeas corpus, or the power of any civil magistrate, and return him to be dealt with according to the military code? and under that code he might be summarily tried, condemned and executed, or he might be closely confined so long as the public exigency required it, without trial at all. If this be true in the case supposed, would it be any the less true if the spy in question resided in Michigan, and carried on his operations by secret correspondence with the enemy, with the assistance of others like himself, reaching the same object by a more circuitous method? In times of great public dan