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The war is not waged by the Government for the overthrow of slavery. The President has declared, on the contrary, that it is to restore the "constitutional relations between the United States and each of the States" in which that relation is or may be suspended. The resolutions passed by Congress, before the war, with almost unanimous consent, recognized the rights of the States in this regard. Vermont has recently repealed the statutes supposed to be inconsistent therewith. Massachusetts had done so before. Slavery existed by consent and constitutional guaranty: violence and war will inevitably bring it to an end. It is imposssible that any military man, in the event of continued war, should counsel the preservation of slave property in the rebel States. If it is to be preserved, war must cease, and the former constitutional relations be again established.

The first gun at Sumter proclaimed emancipation. The continuance of the contest there commenced will consummate that end, and the history of the age will leave no other permanen trace of the rebellion. Its leaders will have accomplished what other men could not have done. The boldest Abolitionist is a cypher when compared with the leaders of the rebellion. What mystery pervades the works of Providence! We submit to its decrees, but stand enfounded at the awful manifestations of its wisdom and power! The great problem of the age, apparently environed with labyrinthic complications, is likely to be suddenly lifted out of human hands. We may control the incidents of the contest, but we cannot circumvent or defeat the end. It will be left us only to assuage the horrors of internecine conflict, and to precastinate the processes of transition. Local and national interests are therefore alike dependent upon the suppression of the rebellion.

No pecuniary sacrifice can be too great an equivalent for peace. But it should be permanent peace, and embrace all subjects of discontent. It is written ou the blue arch above us; the distant voices of the future-the waves that beat our coast-the skeletons that sit at our tables, and fill the vacant places of desolate and mourning firesides, all cry out that this war must not be repeated hereafter.

Contest, in public as in social life, strengthens and consolidates brotherly affection. England, France, Austria, Italy-every land fertile enough to make a history, has had its desolating civil wars. It is a baseless nationality that has not tested its strength against domestic enemies. The success of local interests narrows the destiny of a people, and is followed' by secession, starvation and sorrow, A divided country and perpetual war make possession a delusion and life a calamity. The triumph of national interests widens the scope of human history, and is attended with peace, prosperity and power. It is out of such contests that great nations are born. What hallowed memories float around us! New Orleans is a shrine as sacred as Bunker Hill! On the Aroostook and the Oregon the names of Washington, Jackson and Taylor are breathed with as deep a reverence as on the James or the Mississippi. Let us fulfil the conditions of this last great trial, and become a nation-a grand nation-with sense enough to govern ourselves and strength enough to stand against the world united!

N. P. BANKS,

Major General Commanding.

BY ORDER OF MAJOR GENERAL BANKS:

RICHARD B. IRWIN,

Lieutenant Colonel, Assistant Adjutant General,

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION.

WAR DEPARTMENT ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, }

WASHINGTON. Sept. 24. 1862.

General Orders No. 139.

The following Proclamation by the President is published for the in or nation and government of the army and all concerned:

1. Abraham Lincoln President of the United States of America, and commander-in-chief of the army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States and each of the States, and the people the of, in which States that relation is or may be suspended or dis urbed.

That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the fice acceptance or rejection of all slave States, so called, the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which States may then have voluntarily ado: ted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there, will be continued

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as s'aves within any State or desig nated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion again-t the United States, shall be then, henceforward and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and nava authority thereof, will recognise and maintain the fredom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

That the executive will, on the 1st oay of Ja uary aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states, and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong counter vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and he people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.

That attention is hereby called 10 an act of Congress entitled 'An act to make an additional article of war, " approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words and figure following:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following shall be pro mulgated as an additional article of war for the government of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such:

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All officers or persons in the milinaval service of the United States

are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due; and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after its passage.

Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled "An act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purpose, approved July 17 162, and which sections are in the words and figures following:

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SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That slaves of persons who shall hereaf er be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the line- of the army; and al' slaves captured from such persons, or deserted by them and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the sorces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory or the District of Columbia, from any other State shall be delivered up, or in any way impered or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offense against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall firs make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the servi e or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act and sections above recited.

And the exective will in due time recommend that all citizens of he United States who shall bave remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States and their respective States and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

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No. 117.

New Orleans, December 24, 1862.

I. Owing to the necessities of the service and to preserve the reputation of the Army, all horses, mules, wagons, carriages and other means of transportation, in the possession of officers, soldiers or employees of the government in this city and throughout the Department, will be delivered to the Chief Quartermaster, or such officers of his department as he may designate. Horses, wagons, etc., which have been purchased in the State of Louisiana by such parties, must be reported and registered at the office of the Chief Quartermaster. A certified copy of the bill of sale, giving the date, place of purchase, from whom bought and amount paid, with a description of the property, will be deposited at the same time. Officers entitled to horses, and having them in possession, as above stated, may have them appraised and paid for by getting proper authority so to do.

All commanding officers, provost marshals, quartermasters and other military agents of the Government, are directed to enforce this order. Every violation or evasion of it will be reported to the Chief Quartermaster.

II. The Chief Quartermaster will cause all seized or confiscated houses not assigned by his authority, to be vacated, without delay. Regimental officers will be provided with quarters near their regiments.

III. All General and Staff Officers, regularly assigned to duty in this city, will be paid commutation of quarters and fuel, provided fuel is not issued in kind, and that no such officer occupy a seized or confiscated house, or other building rented for the Government.

IV. All houses, irregularly seized, occupied or confiscated, will be disposed of by the Chief Quartermaster, who will, as far as practicable, deliver them to responsible persons, to be held by them subject to the future disposition of the Government. The Provost Marshal will give any assistance necessary to carry out this order.

BY COMMAND OF MAJOR GENERAL BANKS :

RICHARD B. IRWIN,

Lieutenant Colonel, Assistant Adjutant Generai.

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