are not lost, though the law cease to exist. On the other hand, if it
confers no actual rights on any who are beyond its reach,--if it is
merely an _offer_ of freedom to all who can come and receive it,--then
those only who do receive it while the offer continues will have any
rights by it when it has ceased to be in force.

The position of Mr. Adams on this subject seems to have been
misunderstood. When his remarks in Congress are carefully examined, it
will be found that he did not claim that the proclamation of a military
commander would operate, like a statute, to confer the right of freedom
upon all the slaves in an invaded country. But he asserted a general
principle of international law,--that the commander of an invading army
is not bound to recognize the municipal laws of the country,--that he
may treat all as freemen, though some are slaves. And he claimed, that,
in case of a servile war in this country, our army would have a right to
suppress the insurrection by giving freedom to the insurgents. In regard
to the effect of such a proclamation upon those not liberated by the
military power, he expressed no opinion.

The precedents usually cited are not any more satisfactory. In Hayti,
and in the South-American republics, emancipation became an established
fact by the action of the civil power. In each case a proclamation by
the military power was the initial step; but the consummation was
attained by the fact that the same power afterwards became dominant in
civil, as well as in military affairs.

Conceding, then, that the Proclamation is but a declaration of the
war-policy, designed and adapted to secure a still higher end,--the
preservation and perpetuity of our free institutions,--it is still
claimed that the Government has the right to pursue this policy until
Slavery is abolished, _and forever prohibited_, within all the Rebel
States.

Though we speak of the Rebellion as an "insurrection," it has assumed
such proportions that we are in a state of actual war. Nor does it make
any difference that it is a _civil_ war. It has just been decided by
the Supreme Court of the United States, _that we have the same rights
against the people and States in rebellion_, by the law of nations, that
we should have against _alien enemies_. The property of non-combatants
is liable to confiscation, as _enemies'_ property; and it makes no
difference that some of them are _personally_ loyal. All the inhabitants
of the Rebel