OUR GOVERNMENT ON INTERVENTION.

The following" declarations and protests," adopted (March 3,) by both Houses of Congress with remarkable unanimity, show very clearly how all among us, except rebels, and their abetters at home and abroad, have from the first regarded every attempt at foreign interference, whether by "mediation, arbitration or other measures."

Whereas, It appears from the diplomatic correspondence submitted to Congress, that a proposition, friendly in form, looking to a pacification through foreign mediation, has been made to the United States by the Emperor of the French, and promptly declined by the President; and whereas the idea of mediation or intervention in some shape may be regarded by foreign governments as practicable, and such Governments, through this misunderstanding, may be led to proceedings tending to embarrass the friendly relations which now exist between them and the United States; and whereas, in order to remove for the future all chance of misunderstanding on this subject, and to secure for the United States the full enjoyment of that freedom from foreign intervention which is one of the highest rights of independent States, it seems fit that Congress should declare its convictions thereon; therefore

Resolved, 1. That, while in times past the United States have sought and accepted the friendly mediation or arbitration of foreign powers for the pacific adjustment of international questions, where the United States were the party of the one part, and some other sovereign power the party of the other part, and while they are not disposed to misconstrue the natural and humane desire of foreign powers to aid in arresting domestic troubles, which, widening in their influence, have afflicted other countries, especially in view of the circumstance, deeply regretted by the American people, that the blow aimed by the rebellion at the national life has fallen heavily upon the laboring population of Europe; yet, notwithstanding these things, Congress can not hesitate to regard every proposition of foreign interference in the present conflict as so far unreasonable and inadmissible, that its only explanation will be found in a misunderstanding of the true state of the question, and of the real character of the war in which the Republic is engaged.

2. That the United States are now grappling with an unprovoked and wicked rebellion, which is seeking the destruction of the Republic that it may build up a new power, whose corner-stone, according to the confession of its chiefs, shali be slavery; that for the suppression of this rebellion, and thus to save the Republic, and prevent the establishment of such a power, the National Government is now employing armies and fleets, in full faith thit through these efforts all the purposes of the conspirators and rebels will be crushed; that, while engaged in this struggle on which so much depends, any proposition from a foreign power, whatever form it may take, having for its eflect the arrest of these efforts, is, just in proportion to its influence, an encouragement to the rebellion and to its declared principles, and on this account is calculated to prolong and embitter the conflict, to cause increased expenditure of blood and treasure, and to postpone the much desired day of peace; that with these convictions, and not doubting that every such proposition, although made with good intent, is injurious to the national interests, Congress will be obliged to look upon any further attempts in the same direction as an unfriendly act which it earnestly deprecites, to the end that nothing may occur abroad to strengthen the rebellion, or weaken those relations of good-will with foreign powers which the United States are happy to cultivate.

3. That the rebellion, from its beginning, and far back even in the conspiracy which preceded the outbreak, was encouraged by the hope of support from foreign powers; that its chiefs frequently boasted that the people of Europe were dependent upon the regular supplies of the great Southern staple; that sooner or later their governments would be constrained to take side with the rebellion in some effective form, even to the extreme of forcible intervention, if the milder form did not prevail; that the rebellion is now sustained by this hope, which every proposition of foreign interference quickens anew; and that without this life-giving support it must soon yield to the great and paternal authority of the National Government; that, considering these things, which are aggravated by the motive of the resistance thus encouraged, the United States regret that foreign powers have not told the chiefs of the rebellion, that the work in which they are engaged is hateful, and that a new Government, such as they seek to found, with slavery as its corner stone, and with no other declared object of separate existence, is so far shocking to civilization, and the moral sense of mankind, that it must not expect welcome or recognition in the commonwealth of nations.

4. That the United States, confident in the justice of their cause, which is the cause also of good government and of human rights everywhere among men, anxious for the speedy restoration of a peace which shall secure tranquility at home, and remove all occasion for complaint abroad, and waiting with well-assured trust the final suppression of the rebellion, through which all these things, rescued from present danger, will be secured forever, and the Republic, one and indivisible, triumphant over its enemies, will continue to stand an example to mankind, hereby announce as their unalterable purpose, that the war will be vigorously prosecuted, according to the humane principles of Christian States, until the rebellion shall be suppressed; and they reverently invoke upon their cause the blessing of Almighty God.

Resolved, That the President be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions, through the Secretary of State, to the Ministers of the United States in foreign countries, that the declarations and protests herein set forth may be communicated by them to the governments to which they are accredited."

These resolutions, at once so courteous, explicit and decided, must compel the foreign abetters of our rebellion either to remain quiet, or throw off their mask, and array themselves openly on the side of those who are trying to establish here a new despotism confessedly resting on Slavery as its corner-stone. There is in truth no other issue, nor has been from the first; and those, whether at home or abroad, who interfere in any way with the efforts of our Government to crush this rebellion, must practically show themselves the allies of Slavery and the Slave-power. The ruling classes abroad gladly would, if they safely could, espouse the cause of our rebels; but their salutary fear of their own people, and of the world's opinion, will, we trust and believe, hold them back from any decisive committal. If not, we must prepare for such a general embroilment as has not been witnessed for the last three centuries. Monarchy or aristocracy, no less than democracy, is now on trial; and the real question is, whether the people as a body, or the aristocratic few, shall rule. It is a vital question; and if the aristocrats of Europe shall strike hands openly and actively with our

slaveholding aristocrats, they will very probably bring on such a conflict of opinion and interest as may yet shake to its base every government in Christendom.

AMERICAN NON-INTERVENTION.-In protesting against the interference of foreign governments with our own affairs, whether by active foree, by threats, mediation or moral influence, we merely ask them to treat us as we have uniformly treated them. Rev. Albert Barnes, so well known in both hemispheres, illustrates this point in a late discourse with equal truth, force and beauty:

"The past is fixed in regard to our treatment of the nations of the Old World, and fixed in a manner which we have little to regret, and little that we might wish now to have changed. We have desired sincerely to be with all those nations at peace. We have been disposed to make equal and just treaties with them in regard to commerce. We have sought to take no improper advantage of them. We have been willing to visit with them every distant sea, and every distant port, and to share with them in the fair avails of commerce. We have impressed none of their seamen into our service. We have made no war on their peaceful pursuits. We have never intermeddled with their affairs, but have aimed to stand not merely professedly but really aloof from all the conflicts which they have waged among themselves; to maintain not a hollow and hypocritical, but a real neutrality in regard to the wars, right or wrong, in which they have been engaged.

We

We have seen them often waging what we regarded as unjust wars. have seen them invading peaceful nations. We have seen them attempt to suppress insurrection and rebellion in their own provinces by means that we could not but regard as barbarous and cruel-in a manner, that, in the language of the Earl of Chatham, describing a measure which had been deliberately proposed in the House of Lords to be pursued in reference to the revolted colonies of America, “shocked us as lovers of honorable war, and as detesters of murderous barbarity." We have seen them binding men to the cannon's mouth, and sweeping them by scores into eternity. We have seen them, for the purpose of compelling a foreign nation to admit as an article of commerce, and of consumption, against their own just and humane laws, a drug most deleterious to the bodies and the souls of men-destructive to morals; destructive to religion; destructive to domestic peace; destructive to national progress-waging a fearful, a bloody and a horrid war, until the object was accomplished, and the ports of the greatest nation in the world were compelled to be thrown open to admit that in commerce which would spread woe, and sorrow and wretchedness everywhere. We have not interfered. We have not even taken part with the oppressed and the wronged, We have not, in a public and national manner, uttered the language of remonstrance at such barbarities and atrocities.

We did indeed interpose when Scio was laid waste by fire and sword, and her beautiful villas and gardens were smoking ruins; when the olive-yards of the Peloponessus were cut down, and the Turk had laid all waste; when Greece, once the land of beauty, and the home of civilization and art, was suffering all the ills of famine from the desolation of a ruthless war, then we did interfere by the noble resolution in Congress, and the noble

speech of Mr. Webster, and by contributions, not of arms and implements of death, but of food for the famishing, from churches, and villages and private citizens, to relieve those sufferers. And when the scourge of famine and pestilence swept over Ireland, and England failed to supply the wants of the famishing, we did interfere-we hastened to relieve them; an act which Ireland has never forgotten, but which England has.

Beyond things like these, we have not ventured to interfere in the affairs of nations, remote or near. In regard to nations, we have at least the consciousness that in our treatment of them we have endeavored to carry out the great principles which we have designed to lay at the foundation of our own prosperity, that justice, and truth and honesty are the best foundation of a nation's progress, as they are of the welfare of an individual-that righteousness exalteth a nation." That we are innocent in regard to all men--to those within our own borders, the Indian and the African-we can not indeed affirm; but to foreign nations our course has not been one of dishonor and shame, and we are willing that it should be known and read by all men."

A NEW STANDARD OF CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.-A letter from Philadelphia to a religious paper in Boston, published with commendation, says, "this war is developing some of the finest traits of Christian character. The North Baptist church, under the pastoral care of Rev. Wm. Hall, have given more than half their male membership to the service of the country. One hundred and two from this church and congregation have gone to the war! It is believed to be the banner church of the country in this respect." How equivocal a test of "Christian character" is ordinary patriotism, may be seen in the fact that the rebel Christians (?) equally extol on their side the so-called patriotism which fights for slavery, and for the overthrow of a government whose chief fault has been, in their estimation, that it would not help them extend and perpetuate this great sin, shame and curse. Did Christ or his apostles ever recognize such a test of "Christian character"? Will it stand the ordeal of the final judgment?

THE CONSCRIPTION.

Here we find democracy at last inaugurating the war-system in all its rigor, a full enthronement of the war-god. It is a practical acknowledgment that only the despotic power embodied in the war system, can now save us. It is a sad, humiliating confession, and as true, we fear, as it is deplorable. Hardly anything, short of utter dismemberment or anarchy, could so strikingly show us how far we have fallen. Conscription! it has always been to us a word of abhorrence and terror, as the very climax of oppression reached by the worst despotisms of the Old World. Yet here we have it in all its length and breadth, enacted by democratic legislators, made imperative upon a democratic executive, and sustained by a free people, as their only alternative for an inevitable, if not irretrievable anarchy

We will not deny, trained to such war habits as we have been, the seeming, if not real, necessity of a measure so extreme. May God in his mercy grant that the remedy do not prove as bad as the disease! It is so offensive to our feelings, so like what we most despise and abhor in the governments of Europe, that we may not perhaps cease to loathe the foul and bitter pill that we take only to save our national life, and may thus return ere long to our old habits of acquiescence in law enforced without the necessity of ever-present bayonets. If this be not the result, we are doomed at no distant day to a despotism worse, we fear, than any that is now grinding the millions of Europe in the dust.

If we must, however, have the war-system in full operation, we see not how our rulers could well have devised a conscription act less liable to objection than the one they have just adopted. It is as fair, its inevitable pressure as equable and as slight, as the case will admit. The burden is made as universal as possible. Every one, not physically disqualified, is compelled either "to fight, pay, or flee." Neither office, nor profession, nor scruples of conscience, are allowed to exempt any man. The only favor shown is to the poor, the helpless and suffering. Every family in the land is indirectly interested in this act. We give an abstract:

"All able-bodied male citizens, and those who have declared their intentions to become such, or have exercised the right of suffrage, between the ages of 20 and 45 years, constitute the National forces of the United States, and are liable to perform military duty when called out by the President. The exempts are those who are physically or mentally unfit, the Vice President, heads of Executive Departments, United States Judges, Governors of States; the only son of an indigent widow, or infirm parent, or one such son where there are two or more, to be selected by the parent; also the only brother of orphan children under twelve years; also the father of motherless children of the same age; and where two of a family are in military service, the remainder of such family, not exceeding two, shall be exempt.

The National force, not now in service, is to be divided into two classes; the first class embracing all between 20 and 35 years of age, and all unmarried men between 35 and 45 years of age. The second class embraces all the others, and will not be called into service until after the first class. For convenience of enrollment, districts are made corresponding with the Congressional districts, in each of which the President appoints a Provost Marshal, with rank and pay of Captain of Cavalry, or he may detail an officer of similar rank who shall have a Bureau in the War Department, and shall make the needful rules and regulations for carrying out the provisions of this act. These marshals are to arrest deserters, detect spies, &c. In each district there is to be a Board of Enrollment, consisting of the Provost Marshal and two other persons, appointed by the President, one of whom is to be a physician and surgeon. This board shall divide the district into convenient sub-districts, and perfect an enrollment once in each year, each class to be enrolled separately. Persons thus enrolled are subject for two years to be called into service to serve for three years or Curing the war, on the same footing with the present volunteers, advance pay, bounty money, &c., included.

When necessary to make a draft, the President shall indicate the num