The Evening Post. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1865.

Evening Post, Issue 198, 26 September 1865, Page 2

The Evening Post. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1865.

The next great misfortune to losing a battle is to gain one. The Federal army in America hare narrowly escaped the lormer only to plunge into the latter. 'I hey have conquered the Confederates, but how are they to pacify them, to soothe the angry passions which have raged for over four long years as passions never raged before, to eradicate the cause of the disruption a.itl restore the ancient brotherhood which made itself respected all over the world. Asking what can restore' the Union moans virtually what led to its dissolution. Some said it wbb slavery, others that it was Protectionist tariff), the great cause of unpleasantness now in Victoria ; others thought that the constitution was so framed as to necessitate a grand smash sooner or, later, while, good people, looking piousFy on from a distance, saw in it the judgments, of Heaven on the pvide of the one party and the sins of the other. Each of these reasons no doubt had something in it, and went a short way to explain the phenomenon, and then left us confronted by an entirely opposite reason. The Southern era themselves steered all along a well defined course 5 they wauted to cut with ,the Yankees— neither more nor leas. The Northerners' never succeeded in- so explicitly- 'defining their policy ; they were all fighting .for the Union, but they were not all agreed as to what the Union meant, whether U involved slavery as one of its essential elements or had for its object the abolition of slavery — whether it was based ,on a distinct homogeneous nationality or was merely a parchment alliance between so many independent states. The war is practically over, but the subjects of. dispute which gave rise to it nearly all remain to be settled. The opening questions of a former age still gnpe threateningly upon Johnson's Cabinet. If any one thing caused the war more than another, it was the condition of the territories. They were the materials out of which States were made, and according as the manufactured article suited North or South,so was their relative power increased or diminished. From this point of vievr the struggle can be seen stripped of its ambiguity. It was represented to be a political struggle, and yet with equal truth it could be said that slavery was the cause of it. The Federals hated slavery ; the Confederates no doubt found slave hbour very convenient and profitable, bu<; their attachment to it was faotioualy increased by the influence it conferred on them. In fact it was their last weapon against the growing supremacy of the Northern States. The slaveholders themselves numbered only about a quarter of a million, and yet for half a century their will was law, not

only to the aix millions of whites in their own State-*, but to the thirteen millions of free citizens in the North. One source of their great power was a clause in the constitution which allowed slaves in the formation of new Stntes, nnd for electoral purposes, to be reckoned as three-fifths of the value of free persons. That clause enabled this handful o.f slaveholders to count as fully two find a half million 9 , the slave quota being generally about two and a quarter millions. Up to the year 1808 the Southern States considered themselves the Republic, and for twelve years after their supremacy remained undisputed ; meanwhile, as the importation of slaves intotheSouth ceased, free immigration into the North increased >apidly. In 1820 both divisions were alike fully peopled, equally strong and desirous of new territory ; their peculiar institutions came in contact with each other ; each coveted all the space it could get for its own forms of industry. After Missouri, Texas, and Kansas, were the successive battle grounds of the rival interests, then the Armageddon itself followed, and the result is that free labour and free institutions have won the day. So much is certain, whatever else may be done in the matter. What policy Johnson and his Cabinet will adopt to restore universal peace, is still a secret, but the news by the mail now due may make it plain. They have now everything in their own hands 5 it is their ideal which is destined to mould the future history of America. Daniel Webster's Republic, with its free and sacred institutions, and supreme laws, will henceforth be the grand object of Asnerican ambition.