hrough
most of the present year, respecting the position of slavery, is very
evident to all who know what it did, and what it refused to do, with
regard to that institution. With a hardiness that would have been
strongly offensive, if it had not been singularly ridiculous, Mr. Seward
told the astonished world of Europe that the fate of slavery did not
depend upon the event of our contest,--which was as much as to say that
we should not injure it, happen what might; and no one then supposed
that the Confederates would willingly strike a blow at it, either to
conciliate foreign nations or to obtain black soldiers. The words of the
Secretary of State did us harm in England, with the religious portion of
whose people it is something like an article of faith that slavery is
an addition to the list of deadly sins. They injured us, too, with the
members of the various schools of liberal politicians over all Europe;
and they furnished to our enemies abroad the argument that there really
was no difference between the North and the South on the slavery
question, and that therefore the sympathies of all generous minds
should be with the Southrons, who were the weaker party. Our cause was
irreparably damaged in Europe through the indiscretion of the Honorable
Secretary, who cannot be accused of any love for slavery, but who was
then, as he appears to be up to the present hour, ignorant of the nature
and the extent of the contest of which his country is the scene. Other
members of the Administration had sounder ideas, but their weight in it
was not equal to that of the Secretary of State.

It is but fair to the President to say, that his conduct was such that
it was obvious that he did not favor slavery because he had any respect
for it. He pulled so hard upon the chains that bound him, that his
desire to throw them off was clear to the world; but they were too
strong, and too well fastened, to be got rid of easily. He feared that
all the Unionists of the Border States would be lost, if he should adopt
the views of the Emancipationists; and the fear was natural, though in
point of fact his course had no good effect in those States, beyond that
of conciliating a portion of the Kentuckians. North Carolina, under the
old system the most moderate of the Slave States, was as far gone in
Secession as South Carolina, and furnished far more men to the Southern
armies than her neighbor. The Virginians and Missourians who went with
us would h