and humanity affected to establish, instead of that, the
heritage of their and our Washington and his compeers, which had made
our country powerful among nations, and blessed it with equal laws and
equal protection to all? What shall we say of the constitution that
ordained slavery as the corner stone of a new confederacy, to teach
mankind the folly of Christian civilization, and bring back the
'statelier Eden' of the dark ages? To which party in this terrible
strife of brothers does 'liberty' look for protection to-day? Which of
the two armies of brothers now arrayed against each other on the plains
of Virginia and Georgia, is fighting for the principle of order, which
is the 'public welfare'? Let these questions be answered, and then it
will appear how much reason there is in the declaration that 'liberty,
justice, humanity, and the public welfare' demand the 'cessation of
hostilities.' On the contrary, these very principles demand that the war
be continued without abatement till they are guaranteed safe residence
and sure protection under the United States Constitution.

But, it is objected, you ignore the basis on which, this 'cessation of
hostilities' is proposed, namely, 'the Federal Union of the States.'
There is a word to be said in reference to this clause which will
illustrate the high-toned patriotism of some of the convention which
adopted it. There was an alteration in the wording of the resolution,
and some of the papers printed it accordingly, '_the basis of the
Federal States_.' The editor of the _New York Freeman's Journal_ (a
paper which zealously supports the Chicago platform and all peace
measures, and is called Democratic), being requested to explain which
version was correct, said, in a late issue of his journal, that in the
original draft of the resolution 'it was not the _bold doctrine_ of
Federal States;' it was the _delusion and snare_ of a Federal 'Union,'
and that therefore the latter must be taken as the correct version.

Replying to the above objection, we say that we neither ignore this
'delusion and snare' of the Federal Union as the basis of the proposed
peace, nor those other words in the fourth resolution, 'that the aim and
object of the Democratic party is to preserve the Federal Union and the
rights of the States unimpaired.' The question is, how possibly to
reconcile the demand for an immediate 'cessation of hostilities' with
this great anxiety to preserve the Federal Union? For th