vents heretofore unforeseen and unprepared
for are throwing our vast nation into incalculable confusion, and when
it becomes absolutely imperative that the head of the Government must
act decisively and according to the promptness of his honest judgment,
and when we know equally well that that judgment, be it what it may,
cannot accord with the various and diverse opinions of _all_ men, then
it behooves his countrymen, if not to acquiesce in, to support whatever
that honest judgment may decide to be best for the emergency. No doubt,
errors have been made, but they are errors inconceivably less in their
results than would be the unpardonable sin of the people, should they,
because differing in opinion, weaken the hands and confuse the purposes
of the powers that be. With secret and treacherous foes in our very
midst, hidden behind the masks of a painted loyalty, the President,
after deep and earnest consultation and reflection, deemed it his duty
to authorize arrests under circumstances which he solemnly believed were
the best adapted to arrest the evil, though, by so doing, many good and
innocent men might temporarily suffer with the bad. So too with regard
to the proclamation of freedom--be the step wise or unwise, and there is
by no means a unity of sentiment on this head--the President conceived
it to be the duty of his office--a duty which never entered into his
plans or intentions until the war had increased to gigantic and
threatening proportions--to level a blow at what he and millions of his
countrymen believe to be the stronghold of the enemy, viz., that system
of human servitude which nourished the body politic and social now
standing in armed and fearful resistance to the Constitution and the
laws. It matters not, so far as opinion goes, whether the step was wise
or foolish, if the executive head deemed it wise. Nor was it a hasty or
spasmodic movement on his part. Months were devoted to its
consideration, and every argument was patiently and candidly listened to
from all the representatives of political theory for and against. Even
then no hasty step was taken; but, on the contrary, our deluded
countrymen in arms against us were forewarned, and earnestly,
respectfully advised and entreated to take that step in behalf of Union
and peace, which would leave their institution as it had existed. Nay,
more: terms whereby no personal inconvenience or pecuniary loss to them
would be involved if they would but be simpl