FUTURE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

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his colleagues have accepted the mission. The proclamations are part of the work, and are preparing the way for a yet brighter day. Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase feel and acknowledge that slavery must be buried in the same grave with the rebellion. Everywhere in all the states, where the owners have forfeited their estates, and where the law confiscates their property, does the proclamation of January, 1863, come, giving liberty to the slave. Whatever is done with the states as subjugated republics the individual rebels are disqualified for government appointments within those territories, and for legislative functions in a recognized state. A new order of institutions must, therefore, be inaugurated in all slavedom. The border states cannot now retain their coloured fellow-men in slavery, and liberty and a free commerce will assert their sway. America must all become the land of the brave and the free.

The policy to be pursued hereafter is indicated in the Message of the President to Congress, December, 1863; and the following extract from it is alike consistent with the good faith and sound judgment of Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet. The reconstruction of the rebellious states is necessarily a question in prospect of the termination of the war, and the President says:

"An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived state. government constructed in whole, or in preponderating part, from the very element against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing elements so as to build only from the sound, and that test is a sufficiently liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will make a sworn recantation of his former movements. if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the political body an oath of allegiance to the United States and to the Union under it, why not also to the laws and proclamations in regard to slavery? Those laws and procla

FF

But

mations were put forth for the purpose of aiding in the suppression of the rebellion. To give them the fullest effect, there had to be a pledge for their maintenance. In my judgment they have aided, and will further aid, the cause for which they were intended. To now abandon them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but would also be a cruel and astounding breach of faith. I may add at this point, while I remain in my present position, I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation; nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress. For these and other reasons, it is thought best that support of these measures shall be included in the oath; and it is believed that the executive may lawfully claim it in return for pardon and restoration of forfeited rights, which he has a clear constitutional power to withhold altogether, or grant upon the terms he shall deem wisest for the public interest.'

In order to give greater definiteness and point to the contemplated arrangement, a proclamation is added, and to complete the outline, I subjoin the paragraphs which provide for a reconstruction:

"Therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have directly or by implication participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves; and in property cases where the rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate, and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the enor and effect following, to wit:

"I,, do solemnly swear in presence of Almighty God that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States and the Union of the states thereunder; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so

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long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress, or by the decision of the Supreme Court; and that I will in like manner abide and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God.'

"The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are, all who are or shall have been, civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the so-called Confederate Government; all who have left judicial stations, under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are or shall have been military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Government above the rank of colonel in the army, of lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion.

"All who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States, and afterwards aided the rebellion, and all who have engaged in any way in treating coloured persons, or white persons in chargé of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, who have been found in the United States service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity.

“And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever, in any of the states of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such state, at the presidential election of the year of our Lord, 1860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the state existing immediately before the so-called Act of Secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish a State Government which shall be Republican, and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true Government of the state, and the state shall receive thereunder the benefit of the constitutional provision which declares that

"The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a Republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, on application of the

legislature, or of the executive, when the legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence.'

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision which may be adopted by such state. Government in reference to the freed people of such state which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as a labouring, landless, and houseless class, will not be objected to by the National Executive.

"And it is engaged as not improper that, in constructing a loyal state government in any state, the name of the state, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new state government."

This proclamation leaves it as a point which may be litigated in the Supreme Court whether the Emancipation proclamation is according to law, or may be invalidated. This contingency is deprecated by some earnest friends of the coloured freedman. I cannot profess to correct their judgment. But my hope is, that an effective defence against any evil result from this quarter will be found in the prevalence of anti-slavery sentiment among the people, and abolition legislation in the Congress. The condition of the coloured man in the United States is under the guardianship of public opinion, which moves presidents, judges, senators, and all possessors of authority. The voice of truth and the power of liberty will triumph.

CHAPTER XI.

AMERICAN JOURNALISM-THE CONDUCT AND INFLUENCE OF

PARTISANS.

EVERY facility is given by postal authority in America for the conveyance throughout the country of periodical publications. Except, however, in New York, perhaps too in Boston, I found no letter carrying or delivery of letters or papers by postal officials. Boxes at the offices, ranged in alphabetical order, received all such communications for resident inhabitants, which lay there till called for. Lists of unclaimed letters were periodically printed. America has not kept pace with England in this respect. But in conveying newspapers from place to place she excels. Weekly papers, within the county where published, go free. Charges are so made for other publications that they may be paid quarterly, either at the place of issue, or of reception. The rates chargeable per quarter for a daily paper do not reach half a dollar, going all over the United States, when it is under three ounces; if under an ounce and a half the charge is only half the amount. Recently arrangements have been made by which packets may be sent at much lower rates. This is shown in the following note from the publisher of the "American Missionary :"

"By the new law, to take effect July 1, 1863, the postage on the American Missionary' paper or magazine, will be one cent a number, or three cents a quarter; but packages of not over four ounces (that is, five papers or three magazines) can be sent to one address for the same