Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-01-24
From the State JOurn1l.
The Arrest of Mr.. Lincoln.

We make all due allowance for the necessity
that the United States Marshals and their Dep.
uties should sacrifice their manhood in the Pres
ident's service We do not doubt their inten-
tions to crafty him by the manner in which
they do their work We are aware that he is a
hard master, and that none but base hunkies
will answer his purposes; and we admit they
have intended nothing meaner than what they
thought he required of them; therefore, if in
the seizure of an unresisting teacher in his
school in this county, ironing him and putting
hun in Jail over night, depTiTed of all means of
communicating with his friends, merely TO earn
their fees and take him to Cleveland, where
they knew, BY the result of arrests for the same
charge, he would be discharged on his own re-
cornizance, they made mistake and exceeded
the decree of meanness required, we know il
was an error of the head, not of the heart, for
it is utterly impossible to imagine that any one
with a heart of higher grade than that of q
hound, should be engaged in such dirty work
But these officials mistake the degree of base
ness that is demanded, and, in their zeal to dc
their whole duty to their masters they use bru-
| tality and indecency that is damaging his in
terests Their master, the President, wishes
ONLY that such a show of conformity to the law
should be made as will relieve him from the sus
pieion of the South, or lukewarmness IN Its
cause; but it is not for his interest that the Ad
ministration should be made odious to the
people of the North by the oppression of his of.
| fcial flunkies Mr. Buchanan knows that wher-
ever the spirit of manhood exists, it will be
aroused by such insoIence and oppression il
office. These deputies of the Marshal are much
dirlier dogs than the President requires. Such
brutality as was used in the arrest of Mr.. Lin
foalinr nf In1tuuatInD
among Democrats Itmay suggest the inquiry,
what we are coming to, when the officials of i
Democratic Government are more insolent and
oppressive than those of any despOt. The low
est reptile will sometimes turn on the foot that
crushes it, and even manhood, cowed by a long
course of Democratic training, may revolt at
this attempt to crush the liberties of white men.
1t will be policy for the Marshal of the North
ern District to disown this outrage of his tools.
We expect to hear from him. He cannot afford
TO assume the odium of their acts. If our leg
lslature had not occupied one session ID breaking
down every barrier that had been set up in this
State against the use of its institutions for the
kidnapper and negro-catcheT, we might hope
that this use of the Jail of Franklin county for
the outrage of these cheap rufhans, would at
tract some Legislative notice to the abuse of our
iails in the service of the United States, but we
suppose they will regard this act as the highest
development of Democracy. No doubt the jail
or could make his institution perfectly safe to
hold q man who was guilty of no crime, al
though when congeniaI spirits are confined
there it seems to have great want ofretention.
We observe that Davis, the deputy, excuses
himself in the Statesman by alleging that Mr..
Lincoln was terrible fellow, and he was afraid.
1t is quite probable. Such a fellow would be
frightened by his shadow in moonlight.