the power to prescribe the punishment
of treason, and undoubtedly the Supreme Court will hold the Confiscation
Act under that power to be constitutional and valid.

But does not the Emancipation Proclamation operate to confer freedom on
all slaves within the rebel States? This question must likewise be
brought to the Supreme Court for adjudication. If the Proclamation can
be shown to have the qualities of a legislative act, doubtless it will
operate as a statute of freedom to all slaves within the districts named
in it. But it must be remembered that the Executive cannot make law. The
Proclamation, as an edict of the military commander, can only operate
upon the condition of such slaves as are in a position to take advantage
of its terms. As such military edict, therefore, it might be of no force
outside of the actual military lines of the United States armies.

But the fact of freedom to many thousands of slaves by reason of this
war, and the inevitable speedy breaking down of the institution of
slavery as one of the consequences to slaveholders of their mad folly,
are beyond dispute, and assure us of the wise Providence of Him who
maketh even the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath
He will restrain.

VIRGINIA.

One of the most curious and interesting results of that eclectic spirit
which has brought into suggestive relations the different spheres of
human knowledge and inquiry, is the application of geographical facts to
historical interpretation. The comprehensive researches of Ritter and
the scientific expositions of Humboldt enable us to recognize the vast
influence of local conditions upon social development, and to account
for the peculiar traits of special civilization by the distribution of
land and water, and the agency of climate and position. In the calm
retrospect of the present crisis of our national history, when the
philosopher takes the place of the partisan and the exciting incidents
of the present are viewed in the chastened light of the past, it will be
seen and felt that a kind of poetical justice and moral necessity made
Virginia the scene of civil and physical strife. Of all the States, she
represents, both in her annals and her resources, her scenery, and her
social character, the average national characteristics: natives of each
section of the land find within her limits congenial facts of life and
nature, of manners and industry: like her Southern sisters, she has