2

The Proclamation.

It has been shown that Mr. Lincoln's proclamation, proposing to free the slaves of those rebels who should be in arms against the government on the first day of January next, is contrary to the Chicago Platform, contrary to Mr. Lincoln's letter of acceptance, contrary to his inaugural address, contrary to his two messages, contrary to his explicit language to the border states congressmen, and contrary to public remarks to various committees who had visited him. We now have the additional testimony of the president's secretary of state, that in the opinion of Mr. Lincoln, not only would such an attempt to interfere with slavery in the slave states be unconstitutional, but "all his action in that direction would be prevented by the judicial authority, even though assented to by congress and the people."

We insert all that Mr. Seward said upon the subject as we find it in a letter of instruction sent by the secretary of state to Mr. Dayton, our minister to France, and written, as the letter itself states, "by direction of the president:"

"The condition of slavery in the several states will remain just the same, whether it [the rebellion] succeed or fail. The rights of the states, and the condition of every human being in them, will remain subject to exactly the same laws and forms of administration, whether the revolution shall succeed or whether it shall fail. Their constitutions and laws, customs, habits and institution, in either case, will remain the same. It is hardly necessary to add to the incontestable statement the futher fact that the new president, as well as the people through whose suffrages he has come into the administration, has always repudiated all designs, wherever and whenever imputed to him and them, of disturbing the system of slavery as it existed under the constitution and laws. The case, however, would not be fully presented if I were to omit to say that any such effort on his actions in that direction would be prevented by the judicial authority, even though they were assented to by congress and the people."