to the defence of New Orleans, a city which they could not have held half an hour, had the protecting naval force been withdrawn.  The Southwest was mostly abandoned by our troops, and the tide of war had rolled back to the banks of the Ohio.  Nashville was looked upon as lost, Louisville was in great danger of being taken, and for some days there was a perfect panic throughout the country respecting the fate of Cincinnati, the prevailing opinion being that the enemy had as good a chance of getting possession of that town as we had of maintaining possession of it.  There was hardly a quarter to which a Unionist could look without encountering something that filled his mind with vexation, disappointment, shame, and gloom.  All that the most hopeful of loyal men could say was, that the enemy had been made to evacuate Maryland, and that they had not proceeded beyond threats against any Northern State:  and that was a fine theme for congratulations, after seventeen months of warfare, in which the Rebels were to have been beaten and the Union restored!

Such was the state of affairs, when, six days after the Battle of Antietam, President Lincoln issued his Proclamation against slavery.  Some persons were pleased to be much astonished when it appeared.  They said they had been deceived.  They were right.  They were self-deceived.  They had deceived themselves.  The President had received their pledge of support, which they, with an egotism which is not uncommon with politicians, had construed into a pledge from him to support slavery at all hazards, under all circumstances, and against all comers.  He had given no pledge either to them or to their opponents.  Plainly as man could speak, he had said that his object was the nation’s safety, either with slavery or without it, the fate of slavery being with him a secondary matter.  If any construction was to be put upon his words to Mr. Greeley beyond their plainest possible meaning, it was that he preferred the destruction of slavery to its conservation, for it was known that he had been an anti-slavery man for years, and he had been made President by a party which was charged by its foes with being so fanatically opposed to slavery that it was ready to destroy the Constitution in order to gain a place from which it could hope to effect its extermination.  But Mr. Lincoln meant neither more nor less than what he said, his sole object being the overthrow of the Rebels.  He has done no more than any President would have been compelled to do who should have sought to do his duty.  Mr. Douglas could have done no less, had he been chosen President, and had rebellion followed his election, as we believe would have been the fact.  The Proclamation is not an “Abolition” state-paper.  Not one line of it is of such matter as any Abolitionist would have penned, though all Abolitionists may be glad that it has appeared, because its promulgation is a step in the right direction,—­a step sure to be taken, unless the first Federal efforts