Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1862-11-11
what Lincoln has done for Freedom.

~
IT has been but twenty months since
the reins of the United States Govern
ment were entrusted to the hands ofthe
"rail splitter" of Springfield, ILLINOIS,
Since then he has been running the ma
chine" as he so elegantly expressed it..
:" Let US see," in the language OF the
Richmond Dispatch, "what he has done
for the United States, and what he will
do with it before he returns to has ma
| tive obscurity in Springfield. He has
completely revolutionized its Constltu-
ton, and blotted out every vestige OF
| freedom in what are called par erceI-
leasce the free States. He has establish
ed on the ruins of the great Republic
a despotisn only equalled, ifthat equals
lit, by the memorable despotism OF Rus
sia.- He has crowded dungeons with po-
litical prisoners, and accumulated ma
! tionaE debt of over thousand millions.
He has sent two hundred thousand OF
his miserable dupes to bloody graves In
a land he has vanity sought to subJu-
gate. He has made the American name
q kissing bye-word throughout the earth.
he has now resolved to extend martial
law. over all the North, to obliterate all
traces of State independence, and to es.
tablish one consolidated Government for
| the North during the remainder OF the
war. All this he had done in two short
years, and let US see what more he pro
poses to do.
We will assume that he can carry out
| his abolition and determination pro
gramme, although no one on the face OF
the earth but his own deluded subjects
believes it practicable. What then p
What will Abraham Lincoln have then
accomplished for the United States? r.
Before his object can be accomplished
| the proprietors of the Southern soil must
be annihilated, and with them the in
Itelligence and skill which have guided
ISouthern labor, and made the Southern
soil the garden of the earth. 1t was the
productions of the South which mainly
supported the Government, and which
gave the North its prepondering wealth
and power. The gigantic efforts which
| the United States have made for the re
lstoration of the South are the best evi
dence Of the estimate which it puts upon
the money value OF the Southern States.
That value, however, has been derived
| from the peculiar labor which Lincoln
has determined to destroy, and without
which, as all experience proves, it's i'm
possible to cultivate Southern soil. The
example of st. Domingo proves that the
most fertile spot of the earth can be con
verted into wilderness by precisely that
process which Lincoln proposes to apply
| to the Southern Confederacy. What,
then, would be the value of the South
to the United States What would be-
lcome of the cotton, tobacco, AMI rlcey
And without them what would be the
| fate of Northern commerce and manu-
features and revenues? The more com
Iplete its victory over the South, the
more thorough and remedilessiwould be
| its own ruin. England alone, ifshe could
raise sufficient cotton supply in her
possessions. would be the gamer, but the
United States would behopelessly bank
rupt, with all the sources of wealth de-
stroyed, and no possibility for future re-
cuperation. The South would fall like
the strong man in the temple, dragging
down the Philistines with him. But,
happily, no such fate is in reserve for
the South. The just God, who rules in
the armies Of heaven and among the in
habitants of earth, and who has hitherto
baffied the devices OF our enemies, will
continue to aid rs in our struggle for
independence of the most corrupt and
wicked despotism Of modern times
Whatever the event of the war, the q
nited States have fallen forever, and en-
every pillar Of that grand Republican
edifice, which once challenged the ad-
miration of the world, is writ
ssThA Oh