The Portland daily press., 1862-11-11
A Magazine of Proiectiles Exploded.

by an old whig who himself opposed the Mex
lean war, and who at that time stood POLITICAL
ly with our present Chief Magstrate-Abra-
/ ham Lincoln-has an article with the follow
ing threatening caption: Hoc Lincoln sup
ported a President in time Of acdr." In the
article following such significant and fearful
heading, we find whole magazine--a regular
internal machine'-let loose upon President
Lincoln, and Intended, probably, to explode
him into the smallest possible fragments. The
Journal opens thus:
It's favorite theme upon which abolition
lists love to expatiate, that the country is en-
gagged in war, and that the fact makes it the
duty of every citizen cordially to support the
President in ,chaterer he may think necessary
| TO its conduct, that we must all commit our
selves TO his guidance and go ii blind in which
ever direction be may point. Let us see hoao
Mr.. Lincoln himself ,ciu stand this test.
Before going further we would simply ask
the editor of the Journal, whatever Mr.. Lin
coins course might have been at the time, and
whatever he may have said to oppose the then
President and to discourage him in his arduous
efforts to carry on foreign war, if he then,
at that time, either rebuked the tall Illinois,
/
courage the heart of President Polk2 We
hope he will answer like a man; for if he him
self, was politically allied TO Mr.. Lincoln at
that time, and sustained the party in whose
behalf Mr.. Lincoln spake. and whose voice he
uttered, then, as modest man, he should hold
his peace now; because, if for no other reason,
Mr.. Lincoln has had the same space for re-
pentance'-if he was in the wrong-that his
then supporter who is now of the Belfast
Journal, has had. But we pass along to see
President Lincoln brought up before the test
or Judgment seat that he himself set up as a
Representative from the State of Illinois.
Says the Journal:
In 1S4S, the country was engaged in carry
| ing on the war with Mexico, a war demanded
by our honor and safety, waged against a for
eign nation by Democratic Administration.
There were dark days in that war as in this.
| Reverses came. like the surrender of Cassius
NJ. Clay with his forces. Terrible disasters
threatened, as at Buena Vista, when the re-
splendent genius of Taylor saved the army
Taylor. ,chose plantation acds sacked by Fed
erdt soldiers the other day.
We stop here to notice the patriotic fling at
the Federal soldiers" contained in the last
two lines Why, like honest man, disposed
to be just as well as truthful, does the Bel
fast man make this fling to dsparage repub-
lican President and republican administra-
ton which is upholding the present war, and
keep out of sight the fact that the vandalism
committed at Baton Rouge, if vandalism there
was, was committed by the soldiers of a de-
partnent under Democratic Commander
Mai. Gen. B. +. Buter-and that one OF the
regiments most actively engaged, was COM
manded by a leading Democrat of the County
of Waldo, neighbor of the Journal, Col.
Frank S. Nickerson,-as true soldier, as gal
liant gentleman, and as loyal Democrat as
ever raised his voice or unsheathed his sword
in his country's defence! Why don't he tell
the whole story, and not by innuendo attempt
to make President Lincoln suffer in reputation
for the excuses of soldiers entrusted by him
to Democratic ofiicers But read again from
| the Journal:
| During the darkest days of that tcdr, Abra-
ham Lincoln was a member of Congress from
Illinois, and when the Presidents message
was under consideration in the House, Jan. IL
lS4s, he made a speech bitterly attacking
President Polk and his war policy.
Dates are important, and we ask the reader
carefully to note the foregoing. Mr.. Lincoln
was member of Congress 'turing the dark
est days." of that war. when terrible disast-
ers threatened US, as at Buena VISTA" &c
This is singled out as the dark spot in the
darkest days Of the war;" Now it happens
that Abraham Lincoln took his seat as Rep
resentative from Illinois, on the first Monday
in December, ls47. The battle of Buena Wis
ia was fought on the 22d of the preceding
February-the anniversary oil Washington's
birth day!
This is not all Mr. Lincoln is accused of
making speech on the 18th of Jan. 1s4s, OPP
posing the war, and refusing to support the
President in carrying it on. Now the last
battle of that war was at the capture of the
City of Mexico, and Gen. SCOTS official re-
port of that capture is dated Sept. 16. lS47,
nearly three months prior to the meeting of
the Congress of which Mr.. Lincoln was first a
member!
Col. Benton tells US that Mr.. Trist signed
the Treaty of Peace concluded by him sin the
beginning of Feb, 1S4s. The same authority
disO Us tHdl ue9OildllOns were peuulng
three months prior to the signing of the treaty
and that, during these three months there was
no Operations of arms" Surely then, if the
fighting had ceased, if negotiations for peace
were pending long before Mr.. Lincoln entered
Congress, 1t was not very clark day" when
he made the speech referred to. So much for
the Journals attempt to condemn Mr.. Lin
coin by test of lis own creation.
But the Journal misrepresents the object of
the speech referred to, as much as it confuses
dates. That speech was not in opposition to
the war-which existed simply in that the
armies were not Withdrawn from Mexico
but it was IN opposition to some of the pro-
posed conditions of settlement-some OF the
exactions to be made upon the enemy And
We will only add, without going further into
details, or swelling this article, already too
long, that the extract from Mr.. Lincoln's
speech which the Journal copies, is precisely
the same in spirit, and similar in language, as
the remarks of Col Ben.on-a leading Demo-
crat at the time-upon the same subject.
Vide "Thirty Years in the Senate" VOL 2,
pages 10, I'll.
GEN. BUrLER's CoLoRED REGIMENTS