All that the rational emancipationist requires is a _legal beginning_. We have no desire to see it advance more rapidly than the development of the country requires--in short, what is really needed is simply the assurance that by war or by peace _some_ basis shall be found for ultimately carrying out the views of the fathers of the American Union, and rendering this great nation harmonious and happy. Every day brings us nearer the great issue,--not of slavery and anti-slavery,--but whether slavery is to be assumed as an immutable element in America, or whether government will bring such influences to bear as will lead the way to peace and the rights of free labor. Every step is leading us to THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. O Lord, look kindly on this work for thee! Yes, smile upon the side that's for the right! To them O grant the glorious arm of might, And in the end give them the victory! Free principles are rushing like the sea Which opened for the fleeing Israelite,-- Free principles, to test their worth in fight,-- And woe to them that 'twixt the surges be! And as, O Lord, thou then did'st show thy care, And mad'st a grave to drink thy enemy, So now, O Father, sink him in despair-- The only blight we own--cursed Slavery. O then will end the conflict! Yes, God, then We'll be indeed a nation of FREE MEN! * * * * * The N.O. _Delta_ is full of indignation at the Southern men who are alarmed for their property, and betrays, in its anger, the fact that these disaffected persons are not few in the Pelican State. But, plucking up courage, it declares that-- Our people will retire into the interior, and in their mountains and swamps they will maintain a warfare which must ultimately prove successful. Doubtful--very. In the first place, 'our people' can not very well swamp it like runaway negroes, and, secondly, they will encounter, in the mountains, the Union men of the South. Give us the cities and the level country for a short time, and we shall very soon find the Pelicandidates for comfortable quarters rolling back, by thousands, into Unionism. * * * * *