The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1861-07-24
New York Daily News on Lincoln's
MESSAGE.

News, n staunch Southern paper in feeling,
and which has set at defiance the repeated
threats Of the rowdy mobrocrats of New
York city ever since the wnr commenced
Depraved and hardened in falsehood and
deceit was the brain that conceived and the
hand that penned the Presidents recent mes
sage. Ii is II tissue of misstatements, per-
versions of well known historical facts, II
logical deductions, and impudcnt PROPOSE
tons from beginning to end. II il untrue
that the original policy of Mr.. Lincoln was
"to exhaust peaceful measures before re.
sorting TO stronger ones" lie declared tae
contrary in nearly every one Of the speech
es he delivered between Springfield and
Harrisburg, and in his war proclamation he
distinctly averrcd that his Inaugural Addres.
meant war. 1t is untrue that "he only in.
tended originally, to hold the places not
yet wres,ed from the Government" In his
inaugural he openly threatened TO rctakc
! "nll property belonging to the United States
and, ut indianapolis and Cleveland, he pro
claimed that to send an army into South
Carolina "would not be INVASION" and tn at
to seize the fortresses in the hands of the
| seeding States would not be cuercion-
The whole Fort Sumter story, rs related by
| the President, is so intamOusly mendacious
that III one acquainted with the real facts
of the case. or who has read the statements
of Judge Campbell and Of the three Com
missOners from Montgomery, can fail to
pronounce the fabrications it contains more
worthy Of the d.nizen of State prison,
than Of the head of an enlightened people
Line by line, the sentences Of the Pr-sidcn
tial apology for cndeavoring to re-rnforce
and provision Major Anderson, are so pack
with deliberate untruthS, that each syllable
may be said to embody some separate false
hood Of its own.
Mr.. Lincoln PASSES from his Fort Sumter
romance to the beginning of the war. Tie
falsely states that mo choice was left but
to call out the war power Of the Govern
mcnt, and 80 10 resist the force employed
for its destruction by force for its preserva.
ton" No choice left BY the advice of
his abolition assnciates, he actually ~ indlcd
the country into the fratricidal conflict which
he No basely innugurated. Neither could
he summon "ont the war power of the
Government" for outside OF the twelve
thousand men comp,.ing the Federal army
snch n "wur power" did not exist, nor could
u, without perjury, be created by him
Neither had any force been employed for
The obstruction Of the Government" and
consequently no "forcc for its preservation
was needed From so baseless aud empty
a preface, Mr.. Lincoln gnes on to Justify his
subsequent proceedings. In the teeth Of
his pretended respect Tor authority. he rec
ognizes the bogus Governor and l.pgsa
ture of Western Virginn. and misstates
the material facts connected with the action
of that State. He says that the call Cor
three years volunteers was "ventnred upon
whether legal or not, under what appeared
I" be II necessity. trusting then, ~ now that
Congress would ratity the same ~ He
then proceeds to Justify the violation of the
suspension Of writ o: habeas corpus, with n
detail Of untruths with respect TO the cause
of That high handed measure, which We
shall take n future OCCASION to expose ~
they deserve. With u wrrtchedness of
special pleading seldom equaled, he endra
vors to show that the trainers of the Con.
stitulion intended to intrust the President
with the power Of setting the writ aside.
although in the preceding paragraph he had
virtually confessed thai he had been guilty
of Il shameful usnrpalion in doing NO.
In face of the fact that the relstions Of
the U. States with foreign Powers are OF
The most precariOus description, and that
we ARE, perhaps, on the eve of war with
both Great Britain and France, and not i'm
possibly Spain, Mr.. Lincoln asserts that Il
general sympathy is manifested with this
country throughout the world" Neverthe
less, he cont. sses that his own policy had
iel them to believe that the "ea.ly de.truc
ton Of our National Union was probable
lie then proceeds TO the single paragraph
which embodies all for which he really felt
compelled to cni Congress together, name-
iy, to obtain money. lie wants, he says,
lat least 40O, 900 men and $4OO O0O, 900 and
pre.suPpose, II debt for the present year of
no less than $500, 100000, which lie flip.
PANTY tells Js il really no amount ut all, "a
iess sum per head than was the debt Of our
Revolution when We came out Of that
struggle and surely" he continues, "oach
man has ns strong motive now to pre-.
serve our liberties CD as each had then TO
Of impostufe Our liberties" to be "pre.
served" BY bankrupting the Republic, in or
der TO enslave ten millions OF our fellow
citizens, and reduce their territory 10 the
condition of wresched, subjugatsd pro.
vince
The remainder Of the message is exclu
sNeIy uefOteu 10 hiseTaOle essay on state
sovereignty. in which the exploded errors
Of Federalism are swamped in so silly, dis.
Connected and slovenly manner, that even
our most ferocious Republican colempora
r,es are ashamed and disguised with the per
formance. He interlards il with pusil,ani.
mos appeals, ad misericordidm, bad jokes
and hypocrItical bUncombe Cor the benefit
Of The Beecher and Tying school Of parsons
which are simply nauseous The only true
statement this or any other portion Of The
document contains is, that not single reg
iment has been sent South "out of which
President, Cabinet and Congress could
not be selected" as good as those now in
Washington No sensible man will dispute
this. Mr. Lincoln would have been nearer
the truth had he declared that it would be
Impossible to choose from the very worst
regiment, even in Missouri a Chief Magis-
traie aud Government more untruthfui, dis
honest aud undescrsing Of public conf.
dence.