\/ x/ ** v \ --SgK* /% -W-* ♦* ** >*.^>V ,°*.C^."V ^.^..V c «? S\ IS \s '% PROFESSOR LABORLAYE, GREAT FRIEND OF AMERICA, PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. [TRANSLATION] Of a paper r«ceiv€» offered by General McClellan and his party ; it is a transac- tion he cost of which will be borne by the wretched negro. This transaction is disguised under fine phrases, tor to dare to state it plainly would cause men to shrink tron, it ft* called to provide for the security, m the future, of the (Mm ZW rights of eaeh State. Admirable mouthum ing tor 10 those who like to pay off in fine words ! In plain language it means to say that the North renounces having anything to do with Slavery ; and that Slavery shall be maintained at the South as long as it shall please the South to maintain it. It is to the privileged few that General HcClellan remits the care of abolishing the privilege : we may be well assured the South will not abuse this permission. The South has made war to maintain the supremacy of the pro-slavery policy, the slave is delivered up to it to make peace. The North resigns itself to this. For the love of peace it accepts complicity in this infamy, which for four years it has rejected. Thus you hsve in all its nakedness what the democratic party call a transaction. Perhaps at the North there may be people who, tired of the war, and caring very little about the miseries of Slavery, willingly yield to this arrangement. But I fear not to say they greatly deceive themselves ; this arrangement is imprac- ticable. To bargain about interests is most easy, and often most just, but we cannot bargain about right and wrong, between Slavery and Freedom. To sacrifice four millions of human beings to a political interest, even for the safety of the moment, is a crime, and like all crimes, is a blunder and and a danger. Let us suppose that General McClellan is elected President. What will he do ? He will propose an armistice to the South ; commissioners will be appointed, perhaps a convention, to regulate the transaction wished for. But we know before- hand what conditions the North proposes. Slavery is aban- doned to the South, as an institution which concerns it only ; all that is asked of the rebels is to be pleased to come back into the Union. What is this transaction for the North ? It is the loss of four years of war — of ten thousand millions of disbursement ; the idle sacrifice of blood poured out on twenty battle-fields. The South will have insanely violated the Constitution, ruined thousands of homes, after which it will come back into the Union, more invulnerable, more arrogant, and more insolent than ever. For the negroes, no hope ; for the poor whites, eternal dependence, perpetual debasement ; for the rich planters, the intoxication of power and of success. And is it imagined that on such conditions the Union will 11 be reestablished? That between a humiliated democracy, after so many and such generous efforts, and a triumphant aristocracy, a friendship will spring up which will soon heal all the wounds of war? No! that is the dream of insanity, no one can believe it, except he be blinded by a vain ambition. On the day which the North shall subscribe to such condi- tions, it will be the abdication of her political and social posi- tion which she will sign. At the bottom of this new bargain may be witten : The End of America. The America of Washington will have disappeared from ihe world, and forever ! Peace concluded, what will be the attitude of the North towards the South ? That of powerlessness and resignation ; for in fine, it cannot be glossed over, if the South is yielded to, it is because it could not be overcome ; it is that, notwith- standing fine sounding words, the North, in its inmost feel- ings, acknowledges itself to be conquered. If in this respect some illusion should exist at the North, the first newspaper from Europe will suffice to dissipate it. For thirty years Europe has treated the American Democracy disdainfully, because that democracy pattered with slavery. To repel this unjust and interested disdain, the North excused itself on the ground that from love of peace, from respect for the constitution, it resigned itself to a condition it had not made. The excuse was legitimate, it was accepted by the world in good faith. But from the day when slavery shall be triumphantly re-established with the ac- quiesence of the North; when the chains of the negro shall be rivetted by the very hands which at this moment are breaking them, the North will not escape the terrible accusa- tion of complicity; and then — what joy for the enemies of America and of Liberty ! What grief ! what shame for all their friends ! The great Republic will be dishonored, what mat- ters, it will be said, the opinion of Europe ; America re-united cares little for the old continent, perhaps she will soon have some accounts to settle with those who have mocked at her quarrels. Be it so, let us put aside public opinion, although it may be like justice : more easy to brave it in words than to escape its blows. But there is a tribunal which none can fly from — it is conscience. The day when peace shall be signed, what will the North think of itself, how judge itself? I 12 say nothing of the avowal that will come from the South, that will prove that if the Is orth had made a supreme effort, all resistance was at an end and the Union would be established on the principles of Liberty and Equality; but after the first festivals and first rejoicings on peace, what will the falling back on the inward thought be ; and then what sadness, what hu- miliation. How will the truth be felt of that great saying of Franklin : " Those who to obtain a moment of security, sacri- fice liberty, do not deserve to obtain either liberty or scwrityP Yes, it will be said, the war was severe, sufferings were ex- treme, a base currency swallowed up private fortunes, as well as the public wealth, but, in the midst of these miseries, the war was in a sacred cause, blood was offered up for liberty. Religion, the country placed their hopes on us. The ills were great without doubt, but these ills, victory has cured them ; with that the Republic has recovered its greatness and its prosperity. But that which a lame peace will never cure, is the leprosy of slavery ; that which it will never efface, is that black stain which soils our continent. During four years we rolled upward the rock of Sysiphus ; for want of a final effort it has rolled back upon us, and to overwhelm us. Hence- forth we must live giving perpetually the lie to the Gospels, by paltering with iniquity, and all this to leave to our children what we received from our fathers, an incurable evil that will destroy the Republic and liberty. Disquiets, regrets, remorse, these are all that transaction on which the democrats pride themselves in advance, will give — that transaction which they present as a title to the confidence of an abused people whose suffrages they lay claim to. But that transaction, shameful as it may be for the North, will the South accept it? I venture to say no. If General McClellan gains, that will be his deception and the first chastisement of his party. An aristocracy, not numer- ous, which holds together, feels its force, and knows how to choose the favorable moment. What would the election of General McClellan show, except that the democracy is tired out, that its efforts are thwarted, that it wishes for peace at any price. All is extreme in democracy, feebleness as well as energy, self-abandonment as well as heroism. A democracy which no longer is willing to war, will accept any conditions except to curse the next day those that lead it astray. It is 13 certain the Scmth will avail itself of this advantage and will again seize upon, at the first moment that supremacy *hich four vears of warfare have caused it to lose ; or it w.U not re- main in the Union; or, if it re-enter, it will only he to appear- ance, and assuming there a position by itself, in propose, perhaps, the exclusion of New England, or the smgular sys- em of two republics, internally independent, but represented abroad by one President. In a word, that sovereignty which fs acknowledged by treating with it, the South w,U maintain, and will make triumphant. The chief of the new TJmon es- tablished on the ruins of the old, in sound justice shon d be the conquerer. The true President of America, reconstituted by the democrats, is not General McClellan, hut ft Jetterson D Wil'l the American Democracy let itself he again deceived by a party which for thirty years has always led rt Why! Ha M to such degree desire and thirst for peace that it is fe to sacrifice to it honor, interest the future o, the co^ W Among this people that for four years has achieved uch great tlfings, will the democrats sneceed m recruiting a l|li to breakaway from a glorious past, and accept he shame of a bargain? AVill it disown those noble soldiers whTin the midst of their sufferings only ask a con.inuanceoi Z war Are they going to turn off Grant, Meade, Sherman, mm 4»» * ' he admiraU0n ° f A T n ° a P f the aegeneidieu. h lgery did 14 energy and perseverance, should yield miserably to discour- agement, when with a last effort it can crush the rebellion. The hope of the enemies of the great Republic shall be foiled. Rejuvenated by victory, refreshed by trials, America will banish slavery from the world, and will set an example still greater than that of the war of Independence. Twice will she have established liberty ; political liberty in 1776, civil liberty in 1861. Neither Greece nor Rome have left behind them such great memories. An old friend of the United States, the vivacity of my ex- pressions, should not cause surprise. The world is a solidarity, and the cause of America is the cause of Liberty. So long as there shall be across the Atlantic a society of thirty mil- lions of men, living happily and peacefully under a govern- ment of their choice, with laws made by themselves, liberty will cast her rays over Europe like an illuminating pharos. America disencumbered of slavery, will be the country of all ardent spirits, of all generous hearts. But should liberty be- come eclipsed in the new world, it would become night in Europe, and we shall see the work of "Washington, of the Franklins, of the Hamiltons, spit upon and trampled under foot by the whole school which believes only in violence and in success. Therefore we wait with impatience the result of the presi- dential election, praying God that the name which shall stand first on the ballot shall be that of honest and upright Abra- ham Lincoln ; for that name will be a presage of victory, the triumph of Justice and of Law. To vote for McClellan is to vote for the humiliation of the North, the perpetual uphold- ing of slavery, the severance of the great republic. To vote for Lincoln, is to vote for Union and for Liberty. EDWARD LABOULAYE. r.h P1ESIBEHTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1884. [on. E. D. MORGAN, of New York. I Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. " JAS. HARLAN, of Iowa. " R. B. VAN VALKENBTJRG, N. Y. " L.M. MORRILL, of Maine. " J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. {Senate.) " J. G. 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