Still more absurd is the ‘Democratic’ opposition, since Abolition for the sake of the Negro has been changed into the cry of Emancipation for the sake of the White Man.  Before this cry, before the inevitable and mighty demand of the free white labor of the future on the territories of the South, all protestations against ‘meddling’ with emancipation shrivel up into trifles and become contemptible.  The prayer of the ant petitioning against the removal of a mountain, where a nation was to found its capital, was not more verily frivolous and inconsiderable than are these timid ones of ‘let it alone!’ And why let it alone?  The Emancipation-for-the-sake-of-the-white-man party, as represented by President Lincoln’s Message, commending remuneration, asks for no undue haste, no violent or sudden aggressive measures.  It is satisfied to let the South free itself when it shall be disposed so to do; simply offering it a kindly aid when this measure shall become popular and expedient.  More than this we have never asked for in these columns; yet it would be hard to imagine a term of ‘newspaper abuse,’ which has not been given us by the ‘Democratic’ press.  Yes, at a time when ninety-nine men in a hundred in the free States avow that they would like to see slavery ‘out of the way,’ if only to avoid the endless war which its continuance must entail, all mention of it is tabooed by the men who claim to head the party of the virtual majority!  No matter how far off the friends of Emancipation and of the Administration are willing to postpone the practical execution of the measure, ’it must not be mentioned.’  For the greater part, these Northern friends of the South at present still earnestly desire the perpetual establishment of slavery ‘on a constitutional basis.’

The contemptible efforts at Washington to build up a separate and distinct Democratic party, when no party save that of the Union existed, will condemn to everlasting opprobrium the Vallandighams, Carlisles, Garret Davises, and other false friends of freedom, who at such a time crowded together like hungry political cormorants, to hatch out the egg of faction, and secure a prospective share of the spoils.  Have these ‘Conservatives’ reflected on the disgraceful show which their names will make in history, in after-years, when freedom shall have been proclaimed throughout the land, and when those who opposed its progress will appear like nothing else than traitors!  Heaven help the men who, at a time when others were gathering in full measure of glory in a holy cause, were piling up naught but shame for their posterity.  For it is not more certain that God is just, than that the full measure of iniquity will be heaped upon their names in the after-chronicles of freedom.

Even to the present moment, the ‘Conservative’ alias the ’Democratic’—­or the Black, alias the White—­party struggles with might and main to defend and protect its old Southern whippers-in, even at the risk of dividing and distracting the Union.  To effect this, it has—­almost successfully—­insolently thrust the Commander-in-chief forward as its centre, and broadly slandered the Secretary of War and President in no measured terms, as having toiled to defeat McClellan and prolong the war.  Through all the glossy web of lies, the light of truth shines or will shine to their disgrace.