guarded and preserved, as the condition on which alone our form of government and the constitutional rights and liberties of the people themselves can be saved from the wreck of anarchy or from the gulf od despotism.

In submission to the laws which may have been or which may be duly enacted, and to the lawful orders of the President, co- operating always in our own spheres with the National Government, we mean to continue in the most vigorous exercise of all our lawful and proper powers, contending against treason, rebellion, and the public enemies, and, whether in public life or in private station, supporting the arms of the Union until its cause shall conquer, until final victory shall perch upon its standard, or the rebel foe shall yield a dutiful, rightful, and unconditional submission.

And, impressed with the conviction that an army of reserve ought, until the war shall end, to be constantly kept on foot, to be raised, armed, equipped, and trained at home, and ready for emergencies, we respectfully ask the President to call for such a force of volunteers for one-year's service, of not less than 100,000 in the aggregate, the quotas of each State to be raised after it shall have filled its quota of the requisitions already made both for volunteers and militia. We believe that this would be a measure of military prudence, while it would greatly promote the military education of the people.

We hail with heartfelt gratitude and encouraged hope the proclamation of the President issued on the 22nd instant declaring emancipated from their bondage all persons held to service or labor as slaves in the rebel States, whose rebellion shall last until the 1st day of January now next ensuing.* The right of any person to retain authority to compel any portion of the subjects of the National Government to rebel against it, or to maintain its enemies, implies in those who are allowed possession of such authority the right to rebel themselves; and therefore the right to establish martial law or military government in a State or Territory in rebellion implied the right and the duty of the Government to liberate the minds of all men living therein by appropriate proclamations and assurances of protection, in order that all who are capable, intellectually and mortally, of loyalty and obedience, may not be forced into treason as the unwilling tools of rebellious traitors. To have continued indefinitely the most efficient cause, support, and stay of the rebellion would have been, in our judgment, unjust to the loyal people whose treasures and lives are made a willing sacrifice on the altar of patriotism-would have discriminated against the wife who is compelled to surrender her husband, against the parent who is to surrender his child to the hardships of the camp and the perils of battle, in favor of rebel masters permitted to retain their slaves. It would have been a final decision alike against humanity, justice, the rights and dignity of the Government, and against sound and wise national policy. The decision of the President to strike at the root of the rebellion will lend new vigor to the efforts and new life and hope to the hearts of the people. Cordially tendering to the President our respectful assurances of personal and official confidence, we trust and believe that the policy now inaugurated will be crowned with success, will give speedy and triumphant victories over our enemies, and secure to this Nation and this people the blessing and favor of Almighty God. We believe that the blood of the heroes who have already fallen, and those who may yet give their lines to their country, will not have been shed in vain.

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*Proclamation embodied in General Orders, Numbers 139, next post.

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