'
At this stage of the present writing, and having just transferred these
manly, patriotic, and statesmanlike sentiments to our columns, hoping
that they might foreshadow the fixed policy of the Administration, of
which Mr. Chase is so able and distinguished a member, we are overtaken
by more than a full fruition of the hope in the publication of the
President's Message and Proclamation of Amnesty to the South, upon the
sole condition of the perpetual maintenance of the Proclamation of
Emancipation issued a year ago; in other words, upon the condition of
the total and definitive extinction of Slavery in the South. The men of
the South who are ready for this are to be recognized as the loyal
citizens, the New South--precisely what ought to be done. The machinery
of the old State Governments is to remain intact, but to be turned over
to this regenerated Southern party for administration. The whole
military and civil force of the Union is to retain its guardianship over
the South, during the transition, and to remain pledged to the
maintenance of the status of freedom united with loyalty, until, by the
growth and stability of the new order of things, the conquered territory
shall dispense with its continued intervention. The plan devised by the
President is admirable, and symptoms already exist that, like so many
other of his leading measures, it is destined to meet with unbounded
acceptance and popularity, from even the most diverse and disharmonious
quarters.
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