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DECEMBER, 1862     DOUGLASS MONTHLY.     765
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They have twice given to the authorities and army of over half a million of men; they have opened their purses and allowed these authorities to take money as it was wanted; and they have submitted to derangements of business, to a currency of sticking plasters, to heavy taxation, and to disasters in the field, not merely with patience and without dismay, but with a cheerfulness and hope for the future that has enlisted the wonder of Europe, and finds no example in the annals of any other nation.

All this arose from the sincere, and earnest, and invincible devotion of the people to their institutions, and particularly to that Union by which their institutions are guaranteed and vivified.  But that devotion is no less strong now than it was a year and a half ago; we are still forwarding troops to the army; we are still contributing money; we are still determined that the rebellion shall be suppressed; and we are still confident that no power on earth, neither our own divisions nor the malignant hatred of the old monarchies, will succeed in separating this once proud and harmonious Republic into a multitude of factions and warring States.  What then, means the singular revolution of political sentiment which is testified by the late elections in nearly all the middle States?  Are Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New York weary of the war?  Are they willing to say to the States in rebellion, 'Wayward sisters, go in peace!'  Are they ready to confess that all their past efforts have been causeless and in vain, and to recall their gallant soldiers from the battlefield?  Not at all: not at all!  But they do say, in emphatic and imperative tones, that they are wholly dissatisfied with the manner in which the war has been conducted.

Minor causes have unquestionably aided in the results before us.  The agents of Secession at the North have used every means of perverting public opinion; many men have been frightened by the threat of the draft; such of the trading classes as have no principles but their pockets, have desired a return of the easy prosperity of peace; old prejudices of party have been appealed to, and the withdrawal of hundreds of thousands of men to the army have produced a vast local changes.  But these influences all together were as nothing to the depression, amounting almost to despair, which the inactive and expectant policy of the Administration has produced in the hearts of the warmest and sincerest supporters of the war.  The whole nation, after its gigantic preparations and sacrifices, has looked for the adequate returns——and looked in vain.  It's all its armies not used in the field, but perishing in pestilential swamps; it's all its treasures wasted in long Winter encampments or in fruitless coast expeditions; and it saw a huge burden of debt rolling up, larger and larger every day, with no prospect of greater military efficiency then had marked the eighteen months of the past.  It remonstrated, it expostulated, it advised, and it implored, and though it was constantly put off by the rose-colored sixty-day vaticinations of Mr. Seward, it found itself further from the goal at the end of each sixty days than it was at the beginning.

These repeated disappointments were more than any people could well endure. They waited patiently enough, and the more earnest friends of the Administration, indeed, disguised their discontents, abated criticism, overlooked faults, and maintained a port of confidence and composure which current events scarcely justified, in the hope of a rapid change of policy and speedy improvement. Meanwhile, others, not so well disposed to the persons or party in power, have availed themselves of the pervading sentiment of distrust to organize an opposition. They have been joined by all the elements of discord in the community by open and secret disunionists, by the sympathizers with the South, by the turbulent spirit who would gladly see a civil war at the North, by capitalists who have selfish schemes, by the timid, afraid of the draft, and by the large foreign influence which seeks the restoration of trade. But their most powerful assistant has been the discouragement 
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and apathy diffused everywhere by out military failure. They have triumphed, not in their own strength, not by the presentation of any new, peculiar, and effective policy, but through sheer force of general dissatisfaction. Let the authorities at Washington be rebuked significantly, it is said on all sides, and they will do better for the future.

We trust they will ; we trust the incidents of the day have impressed upon their minds two solemn and important lessons: First, that war, when it has been once undertaken, is to be fought as war, according to war principles, and not as politics, according to the interests of localities or classes, or the schemes of wily intriguers and managers. The mistake of the Administration from the beginning has been that it has regarded the war not as a deadly and inevitable encounter between two forms of society struggling for the mastery of a continent, but as a neighborhood feud, which must end in a compromise, mutual conciliation, and a final shaking of hands. It has accordingly allowed at the head of the armies Generals who sought to exhaust both sides by delays, rather than to fight battles ; who have never made attacks, and who, when they were forced into fight and won victories, were certain never to follow them up. And for the same reason it has not supplied the nation or the armies until recently with any definite method of dealing with that enormous evil of Slavery which was the cause of the war, and which, as the whole world confesses, will determine the end of the war. But hereafter, the nation says to it, remove all the do-nothings ; make ware in earnest ; strike your blows at the heart of the enemy's resources and power, and literally and at once crushed out this infernal rebellion.

The second lesson taught is the rights of peaceful and loyal citizens―the acknowledged guaranties of civil liberty―are not to be trifled with. We acquit the Administration wholly, in its various arrests of individuals and its suppressions of newspapers, of the purpose to do wrong. We believe that in the majority of instances in which they have incarcerated persons in Fort Warren or Fort Lafayette they have done no substantial Injustice ;  we hold, too, that in times of civil war these exceptional proceedings are so often absolutely necessary ; but we approve and applaud at the same time the jealousy with which the popular mind always watches such resorts. They should be used only under imperative circumstances ; the reasons for them should be made public whenever that is possible ; and they should never be suffered to wear a color of caprice or of personal whim. While a poor country editor, for instance, whose sheet does not reach a thousand readers, is suddenly hauled up by the officers of the law for an incautious expression of treason, the rich city editor, who speaks to hundreds of thousands, who lies without scruple, and who boldly promote anarchy, invites military despotism, and vilifies every officer of the government, should not go scot-free. Such inconsistencies show that the arrests are rather voluntary than imperative ; while they strengthen, and even embitter, the natural resentment with which every interference with the operations of courts of justice is regarded.

The Administration will be warned in time, we hope, by the results of the recent elections. It is too late to repair the past .All the requisite power is still in his hands. The people are good-natured still. They have chastised, not so much in anger, as in hope. They want to see the cause of the Union defended with a vigor worthy of the greatness of the cause; they are as ready as ever they were to do and die in its behalf ; but they no more tolerate rose-water statesmanship, or generals who are afraid to hurt the enemy ; or a policy which drifts with events like a piece of cork upon a stream. Action―stern, hearty, energetic, irresistible―is the one demand of the hour, without which we shall be carried into unimaginaable difficulties, but with which we can compel an honorable peace long before the trees, which are now stopped and barren, shall resume the green liveries of Spring.
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From the Commercial Advertiser.

THE RESULT OF THE ELECTION.

We have met the enemy, and to all seeming have―――been defeated. While quite disposed to adopt Gen. Wadsworth's counsel, and wait till we hear from the remoter sections of the State, we are free to say that we have no doubt of the election of Mr. Seymour and the entire ticket, with the majority of the members of Congress. Very well. It is the vote of the people, fairly and deliberately uttered, and we submit, with all cheerfulness, for we believe heartily in the sovereignty of an American constituency. We think that they hav ebeen misled and deceived, and that before a year has passed they will wish they had pronounced a different verdict. But the present is no loss the popular decree is binding upon the minority.

When this Government was framed, and the sovereignty of the people was secured by our matchless Constitution, it was well understood that the people would sometimes err, that they were by no means infallible, and would sometimes yield to sinister influences. But it was not less heartily concealed that as a rule the popular verdict would be a just one, and frequent opportunities of correcting any error into which the people might fall were provided. We are free to add also that we regard yesterday's election as a fair expression of the present opinions and sentiments of at least the people of this city and Brooklyn, to which only our personal observation extended. A more orderly election we never saw, and we doubt if ten fraudulent votes were cast in either city.

We repeat, that while thus declaring our loyal and unqualified submission to the popular will, we none the less regard the verdict which the people of the State appear to have pronounced as harsh and incorrect. Our opponents had the advantage over the Administration. The necessities of its position have been such that it has been compelled to do things that were open to great misrepresentation by its enemies, and it is by virtue of such misrepresentations that they have gained the victory of yesterday. Never before in the history of this Republic has an Administration been similarly circumstanced, driven not only to grapple with a formidable open insurrection, but to treat individual citizens with hardness and severity, and this, too, when it could not explain the reasons for its apparently arbitrary proceedings. It has had to assume also all those adjuncts of a war, which however just and necessary the war my be, are easily made unpopular, and the instruments of hostility to and Administration, by designing men. And to a very great extent this means of provoking opposition to the Government and of achieving the Democratic triumph of yesterday has been employed by our opponents. The Administration's policy and purpose have been most grossly misrepresented ; all its measures have been caviled at, while the necessities of its position have been carefully kept out of sight. In fact the President and his Cabinet have been ungenerously dealt with, and for the time the people have been in some degree led to mistrust them. 

The three points on which the opponents have laid most stress have been the slow progress of the war, the arrests that have been arbitrarily made, and the Emancipation proclamation ; and each has had its influence in bringing about the present result. The old Democratic love of Slavery has been fully aroused by the last measure, and some timid men out of the Democratic ranks have been alarmed by the cry of 'Radical' and 'Abolition,' which has been set up in connection with it. Without doubt, the Democracy have wielded this weapon vigorously, skillfully, and effectually. Now that it is no long necessary to keep up a false alarm and excitement about that Proclamation, the 'sober second thought' of the people will be allowed to come into play, and the necessity for that act of Congress and the President's Proclamation under it will be so obvious that the President's course will be sustained by the people of the Empire State, despite their vote of yesterday. It is well
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