retribution.  It has placed their soil, their mansions, their crops and poor slaves in the possession of the hated men of the North, and under the laws and control of the government they affected to despise.  When the last gun had sounded from the ramparts at Port Royal, and the Stars and Stripes again resumed their supremacy on the soil of South Carolina, a new era dawned over these beautiful islands and waters, and the day that witnessed the retreat of the rebel forces should hereafter mark, like the flight of Mahomet, the inauguration of a new dispensation for this land and its people.  Let us, therefore, in continuing our chronicles, cast the horoscope, and, without claiming any spirit of prophecy, show the duties of our nation in this contingency, and the beneficial results that must flow from it, if carried out with the energy, perseverance, and practical Christianity due to our country and the age in which we live.

The accession to any government of new territory brings with it new duties, which it is always important should be performed with energy and decision, so that the greatest good, to the greatest number, may be the result.  A good Providence has placed the domain under consideration in our possession.  Its political condition is to us unique, and almost embarrassing.  If the question is asked, ’Can we hold and dispose of a part, or whole, of a sovereign State as a conquered province?’ the answer must be in the affirmative.  Government is supreme, and must be exercised, particularly to protect the weak, and for the general good of the whole nation.  Here is a region, as fair as the sun shines upon, now in a great measure deserted and lying waste.  What is to be done with it? and what is our duty in this exigency?  The first want is a government, for without a proper one no progress can be made.  Let Congress then at once establish a territorial government over so much of the State as we now have in our possession, and over what we may in future obtain;—­not a government to exhibit pomp, and show, but one practical and useful, with a court and its proper officers.  Let every large unrepresented estate be placed in the hands of a temporary administrator, who should be a practical and honest man, and held to a strict account for all properties entrusted to his keeping, and who should act also as guardian to the slaves belonging to the estate.  Then enforce the collection of a tax; and if the owner comes forward within sixty days, pays the tax, takes the oath of allegiance, and agrees to remain in the territory and assist in enforcing and executing the laws, during that and the succeeding year, let him resume his property, and be protected in all his rights.  But in default of any loyal response from the proprietor, the property should be disposed of, in moderate quantities, to actual settlers, who should be bound to do duty for its defense, whenever called upon.

But then comes the great difficulty, the disposition of the slaves,—­the great question which has so long been discussed as a theory, and which now has to be met as a practical measure.  Let us meet it as men and patriots, and, rising above the clamor of fanatics, or the proclamations of new-fangled and demagoguing brigadiers, look at the permanent result to our whole country, and the real good of the African race.