The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL S.

-4 -
TIMES.—No ono who has given himself the trop.
ble to compare the conditions under which the pre-
sent election of a President for the United States is
carried on with the position of affairs when the same
momentous event took place four years ego will find
the least difficulty in accounting for the event we
yesterday announced as almost certain—the return
of Mr Lincoln a second time as President of the
United Slates by a very large majority. In 1860
the great fabric of the American Union was still
in vigorous existence; nobody could surmise that
it was so deeply undermined, or that the walls
which seemed so strong and so massive rested only
on wooden props, and were already tottering to
their fall. Mr Lincoln was elected President in
1860 by the persons chosen for that purpose by
the votes of the whole Union, From the
Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic
to the spurs of the Rocky Mountains, a single
people met together, and the Republican party,
which proved to be the stronger, prevailed. At that
time the Democrats had in their hands the disposal
of the Executive Government and all ttle power and
influence it confers. They had, besides, the votes of
Southern States, which, since the dividing line of
American politics has become the question between
the maintenance and the abolition of slavery, have
uniformly cast their vote on the side of the Demo-
cratic party. They had the advantage of a long ad-
ministration of power and of being opposed by a
candidate probably the most obscure whom the
caprice of fortune and the suffrages of the multi-
tude ever raised to sovereign power, even in the
United States of America. Yet with all these
advantages they were utterly and completely
defeated, and from that defeat has sprung the
civil war which has so effectually prepared the
way for a second disaster to their cause, The
Southern States, which then voted on the side
of Democracy, are there to vote no longer; they
have left the Union and the Constitution, and sur-
rendered altogether the right of influencing the
election of a President to whose Government they
no longer mean to submit themselves, and with
whose nomination, therefore, they no longer claim
to have any concern. The whole of the votes of
these States must therefore at once be deducted from
the Democratic strength. They have lost, besides
that, the power of control over the civil Government,
and the influence derived from the enormous patro-
nage it possesses. At the last election they had the
disposal of the finances of the State; but the Repub-
licans at the present time dispose not only of the
comparatively insignificant sum which is raised by
annual taxation, butof the incredibleamounts which
are produced by loans raised for the purpose of car-
rying on a war distinguished by a prodigality of
treasure even greater than its prodigality of blood.
The Republicans have, besides, the absolute com.
mend of the army and the navy ; they appoint the
officers of both, and the troops vote under their im-
mediate direction and influence. Besides all this,
they have manufactured sham Constitutions and
claim for their President the votes of States which
are really out of the Union, and which, had they
been in it, would inevitably have voted against him.
They overawe great provinces and large cities by
the most barefaced exercise of military power; and,
not content with all this, they impose arbitrary tests
of their own creat ion on the voter before he is ad-
mitted to the suffrage. The Democrats, on the other
hand, are thoroughly disunited among themselves,
The nomination of Gen.M'Clellan at Chicago was ob-
tained by something very closely resembling false pre-
tences ; he was nominated as the advocate of peace
and reconciliation—a character which, as soon as his
nomination was secure, he lost no time in pointedly
disowning. The party was divided, and, though it
was too late to mend the error it could not be
expected that those who suffered by it should be
very earnest in the cause of a man into the support
of whom they had been disingenuously trepanned.
Under the influence of these concurrent causes
Mr. Lincoln has, no doubt, been, as everybody
foresaw he would be, elected President. The ques-
tion which concerns us now is not so much how
he came to this second elevation as what in-
fluence that elevation is likely to have on our own
relations with the United States. On this point
we see no reason for alarm ; nay, it may pro-
bably be that we are safer in the hands of Mr.
Lincoln than we should be in those of any one
else. As regards foreign States, ourselves in par.
titular, we may reasonably believe that he has
sown his wild oats; he has gone through the course
of defying and insulting England, which is the tra-
ditional way of obtaining the Irish vote, and we may
not unreasonably hope that he is unlikely to repeat
the experiment. Ever since he found himself firmly
established in his office, and the first effervescence
of national feeling had begun to subside, we have
had no great reason to complain of the conduct of
Mr Lincoln towards England. His tone has been less
exacting, his language has been less offensive, and,
due allowance being made fcr the immense diffi•
culties of his situation, we could have parted with
Mr Lincoln, had such been the pleasure of the
American people, without any vestige of ill- will or
illefeeling. He has done as regards this country
what tie necessities of its situation demanded from
him, and he has done no more. A new President
might possibly feel called upon for a demonstration
of more hostile spirit. It is an ordeal through
which all American politicians must pass, and we
may deem ourselves fortunate in having to deal
with one who has passed through it already.
Though, however, we have no reason as impar-
tial lookers-on to complain of the re-election of a
Chief Magistrate with whom we have, at any rate,
contrived during the last four years to keep up
friendly relations, the case is very different with
regard to the nation which has thus re-elected him
for its chief. The case of the Democratic minority
is soon stated. Even while the election was yet
pending, while an arbitrary or unpopular act might
lose much valuable support and embitter much luke-
warm opposition, they were denied the franchise
which the Constitution gives them by the Generals
of the President, and the denial was supported in
words and in writing by the President himself.
What fate have they to expect when the election is
decided ? What right will be held sacred when this
right of election, on which all others rest, is boldly
and advisedly set at naught by the very candidate
who is seeking for the suffrages which he violates ?
Henceforth we may consider the Democratic party as
expelled from the arena of practical politics, and
destined to purchase either an ignominious impunity
by inaction and submission, or to suffer all the
miseries that tyrants can inflict or martyrs can en.
dare. We can regard the reappointment of Mr Lin-
coln as little less than an abdication by the American
people of the right of self-government, as an avowed
step towards the foundation of a military despotism
towards the subversion of a popular Government,
which may still exist in form, but which in substance
is gone. We would not be supposed to insinuate
that it is the destiny of Mr Lincoln to be the
real founder of the dynasty to which he has taken
so long a step; whatever be his merits, his warmest
admirers themselves can scarcely contend that he is
made of Imperial stuff. His hand has shaken the
tree, but we yet await the man who is to gather the
fruit. Future historians will probably date from the
second presidency of Mr Lincoln the period when
the American Constitution was thoroughly abro.
gated, and had entered on that transition stage, so
well known to the students of history, through
which republics pass on their way from democracy
to tyranny.

HERALD.—On the Bth inst. took place the voting
for the Electoral Colleges by which the President
is to be chosen in every state which still really or
nominally, willingly or perforce, adheres to the
Union. In New Orleans, and the few parishes in
its neighbourhood which are occupied by Banks's
army, a rabble of negroes, camp followers, and
other scum of the earth, cast the votes of the great
Creole State for the nominees of a man whom every
Louisianian curses in his daily prayers. In the
fortified posts which are all that remains to the
Union of the backwoods State of Arkansas; in
Pensacola, the Federal pied-a-terre in Florida; in
those fragments of Tennessee which own the rule of
Andy Johnson and groan under the vilest and most
vulgar tyranny that ever afflicted any portion of
God's creatures ; in unhappy Maryland, where three-
fifths of the population dare not show their faces at
the polls for fear of military violence • in little Delas
ware, equally crushed under the heel of the despot
whom his victims despise even more than they dread
him • in divided, bloodstained, miserable Kentucky ;
in Missouri, which has so lately furnished men and
supplies in liberal abundance to her patriot sol.
dier and statesman, General Sterling Price—the
same dishonest farce has been enacted. In none
of these States has election a meaning or an exist-
ence; the power is in the hands of military
tyrants (who have no more authority to interfere
with elections in America than in iEngland, but
who nevertheless surround every polling-place and
enforce illegal oaths on every voter), and the man
who cast his vote for M'Clellan has done so at the
risk of liberty, property, and even of life itself. He
is an outlaw to whom the ruling authorities will
give no protection—whose house may be burnt by
Federal soldiers, whose cattle may b 3 stolen by his
Republican neighbours, whose letters will be opened
in the post-office, whose family will be subject to
menace and insult at the hands of Federal officers,
end whose person may at any moment be carried
off to undergo the discipline of labour with ball and
chain in some military prison, or of solitary con-
finement in a fortress. No wrong done him will be
punished—no right claimed by him will be granted.
The military authorities would drive such a coin.
plainaut from their doors—the civil power has
ceased, for all practical purposes, to exercise
any functions whatsoever. Under these circum-
stances the result of the election in those States

so.""
was ascertained before the contest began. In Ne4vl
England it is known that the majority are Reptio,
lican, and approve the worst acts of tyre any er
which their candidate for re-election has been guilty,:
They are Puritans to the backbone; they have a!'
the contempt for law, all the intolerance of opPo.9'''
Lion, all the love of minute, absolute, inquisitive:
and vexatious tyranny that characterised the PI;
grim Fathers and the Parliamentary Rebels, the
Scotch Covenanters, and the English Common'
wealth. Mr Lincoln need not interfere with them,
he was sure of their votes. With New York, Pert!"
sylvania, and California he dared not meddle. The
West was safer game. No general coercion conid
be attempted ; but here and there disbanded.
or discharged soldiers could be encouraged
to attack a Democratic procession, to over:
throw a polling place, to burn books a"
ballot boxes which showed an adverse majority'
Therefore whatever the Democrats of the Nonh
may have said; whatever hopes may have been held
out to the supporters of M'Clellan, no one in tble
country has for a moment doubted that the returns
must show a large majority in the total of the State
Colleges in favour of the re-election of Abrahani,
Lincoln. This result is one which certainly could
not have been been anticipated a year or two ago.
It has been for thirty years a rule not to re-elect
Presidents. It is quite true that none of those who,
have filled the chair during that time have deserved
reeelection ; they have been all second-rate or third-
rate men, and during their term of office they have
not displayed such wisdom or talent as to induce
the people to retain their services. But the worst
of them was far better than Mr. Lincoln. A writer
of deserved reputation, in the last number of the
National Review, does, indeed, assert the contrary;
but he offers no kind of argument in support of an
opinion certainly contrary to that of the world at
large, American and foreign. Mr, Lincoln did not
owe his reappointment as Republican candidate 0,
any belief in his personal merit, but to accidental
circumstances, which had made it evident that all
other candidate would divide the party and ensure
the success of the Democrats. He owes his re-elee'
tion to the strength of his party and to his ow. 0
lawless abuse of executive power, not to the belle'
of the people that no better man could have
been chosen, or that he deserves the distinction
of a second term of office. His predecessors aver!
gentlemen; men of some experience either in mill,
tary, diplomatic, or political life ; men at least 0!
average intelligence and of unquestioned personal
integrity; yet they were thought, and right)/
thought, not to have merited re-election. Mr. Liu:
coin is a vulgar, brutal boor, wholly ignorant or
political science, of military affairs, of everything
else which a statesman should know. He has not
connived at peculation, but he has allowed the
public to be robbed to an indefinite extent by his
Ministers, he has shielded them from punishmellrt
continued them in office, and in the only case 10
which the scandal was too bad to be hushed tip at
home he appointed the guilty party,tora firsteelage
embassy. His personal interference was the source
of two of the great disasters of the war. His per'
sonal timidity induced him to thwart the whole
of M‘Clellan's plan of campaign on the Chicks'
hominy, by retaining M'Dowell's corps in front
of Washington. His intrigues' for reelection
were the cause of the expedition to Florida'
which met with such signal and disastrous
defeat. What claim could such a man have to re'
election ; or how can we avoid regarding his re-eleo'
tion, all exceptional as it is, and carried by methoue
so peculiarly flagitious, as a disgrace to the nation
which permitted it ? The North will be fortunate
if she have not reason to repent her error before
many months have passed over. M'Clellan might
have done something to repair her shattered
fortunes. He understands thoroughly the organise:
tion of armies and the conduct of campaigns ; if not
a first-rate leader in the field, he would have been
able to use to the best purpose the enormous re'
sources of his country, and to direct her vast forces
now employed in desultory and disconnected exr
damns, resulting chiefly in plunder and negro°
stealing to some practical end. Mr Lincoln will go
on, in his own phrase, " pegging.away" at objEets
already shown to be unattaicable, will waste ht'
main strength on the impregnable defences of Rich'
mond, and scatter the rest of his forces all over the
frontiers of the South from Galveston to Norton('
and from Western Arkansas to Eastern Virginia;
will accomplish nothing; and may not improbablY
expose himself to some terrible blow from an energ
whose inferior forces are directed by a profound
statesman and led by first-rate generals. For Or
own part we rejoice heartily in the defeat of Ge°'
M'Clellan, as a prelude to the defeat of the North.
We rejoice that the cause of oppression, robber.Y..'
and injustice is entrusted to the hands of a
lating, helpless imbecile, rather then to those of 013
able, resolute, and efficient soldier. Nor do we tbirl
that the hopes of peace have been seriously impaice"
by Mr. Lincoln's success. Peace depends, not 011
the wishes of a man, but on the disposition of the
nation. So long as the North was resolute in the
prosecution of the war neither General M'Clellan
nor even Mr. Vallandinghem could have ined!
peace. So soon as the North shall be heartily ale:
of the war, convinced that victory is impossible, an:
eager for a compromise even on the basis of Souther;
independence, peaco will have become necessary !
Mr. Lincoln, and cculd not be long delayed even ,
a Sumner or a Browalow. We believe that nothing
could tend more strongly to bring about such este
of things as will effectually discourage the War.
party, and dispose the North to abandon its hop!.
,
less enterprise, than thecontinuance of Mr Lincoln
rule ; and in that belief wo hail his re-election ass¢
event of excellent augury for the interests of the
South and of mankind.