saw the like of.  He who cuts down a tree must take forethought how it may fall, or he will perchance find himself crushed.  He who in a tremendous conflagration would blow up a block of houses with powder, must, even amid the riot and roar, so manage the explosion that lives be not wantonly lost.  We must clear the chips away as our work advances.  The matter in hand is the war—­if you choose, nothing but the war.  But pushing on singly and simply at the war implies some wisdom and a certain regard to the future and to consequences.  The mere abolitionist of the old school, who regards the Constitution as a league with death and a covenant with hell, may, if he pleases, see in the war only an opportunity to wreak vengeance on the South and free the black.  But the ‘emancipationist’ sees this in a very different light.  He sees that we are not fighting for the Negro, or out of hatred to anybody.  He knows that we are fighting to restore the Union, and that this is the first great thought, to be carried out at all hazards.  But he feels that this carrying out involves some action at the same time on the great trouble which first caused the war, and which, if neglected, will prolong the war forever.  He feels that the future of the greatest republic in existence depends on settling this question now and forever, and that if it be left to the chances of war to settle itself, there is imminent danger that even a victory may not prevent a disrupture of the Union.  For, disguise it as we may, there is a vast and uncontrollable body at the North who hate slavery, and pity the black, and these men will not be silent or inactive.  Did the election of Abraham Lincoln involve nothing of this?  We know that it did.  Will this ‘extreme left,’ this radical party, keep quiet and do nothing?  Why they are the most fiercely active men on our continent.  Let him who would prevent this battle degenerating into a furious strife between radical abolition and its opponents weigh this matter well.  There are fearful elements at work, which may be neutralized, if we who fight for the Union will be wise betimes, and remove the bone of contention.

Above all, let every man bear in mind that, even as the war stands, something must be done to regulate and settle the Negro question.  After what has been already effected in the border States and South Carolina, it would be impossible to leave the Negro and his owner in such an undefined relation as now exists.  And yet this very fact—­one of the strongest which can be alleged to prove the necessity of legislation and order—­is cited to prove that the matter will settle itself.  Take, for instance, the following from the correspondence of a daily cotemporary:—­