If the Proclamation is a law, it must be conceded, that, like all the laws of war, it will cease to be in force when the war is closed. But if, like a legislative act, it confers actual rights on the slaves, whether they are able to secure them in fact or not, then those _rights_ 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.