we had, indeed, divided
counsels. The old Southern Democrats whined and yelped, and attempted
'peace-parties' and the like; but they have vanished, and traitors now
confine themselves to less offensive measures, while their ranks have
been woefully thinned. We may have disasters; nay, we can hardly hope to
escape them. But in the present state of the war we may fairly boast of
having the upper-hand. And the Northern tenacity which did not yield
when misfortune lowered around, will not be likely to loose its hold now
that it has learned to measure its might, man for man, with the arrogant
enemy.

Under the wise and judicious policy inaugurated by President Lincoln, we
see Slavery, the great cause of this trouble, in a fair way to disappear
in a manner which can give offence to no one. His 'remuneration
message'--the shrewdest document which ever emanated from an American
Executive--shows itself, as events proceed, to be a master-stroke of
genius. The longer the cotton States prolong their resistance, the more
precarious does slave property become, and the more inclined are the
men of the tobacco States to sell their human chattels. Already in
Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, and Delaware, people are longing to
'realize' something on what bids fair to become altogether intangible
amid the turns and tides of skirmishes and battles. Meanwhile with every
day's delay Emancipation, as a predetermined necessity, gains ground
among the people, and very rapidly indeed in the army. It was the lowest
and most tyrannical form of an aristocracy--that of slaveholding
planterdom--which caused and is still causing all this trouble, and it
is beginning to work its way into the minds of the multitude that it is
hardly worth while to risk every thing, and see the real criminals
reinstated after all in their privileges and possessions, when the one
can only serve to continue the old sore, while the other might be better
employed in free labor. And better employed, we may add, in rewarding
those noble men whose lives were risked in defense of our liberties.

This consideration brings us to the very important question: How shall
we reward our army, and what should be its future mission in the
reconstruction which every freeman will be called to aid?

There is no use in disguising facts, shirking inevitable issues, or
trying to cheat either destiny or honest labor. We have got this
question of rewarding our soldiers with the property of rebel