The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1862-12-17
The Rochester Unien on the,
MESA GE,.

Probably two thirds of the whole mes
sage-we have. not made. any accurate
measurcment--is devoted to "the inevi.
table nigger.'i It favors us with one
more Abolition Programmes scheme
which is intended to culminate in the
year of our Lord one thousand nine hun
dredl If Congress, and the people, and
rebels, and "the rest Of mankind . only
adopt the plan ho new presents, and will
adhere to it faithfully and undeviatingly
! through the balance of the century, and
Mr.. Lincoln will refrain from Matching
Eup some still newer scheme with which to
lsupersede the one now under considera-
ftion; why, if all these things shall hap
pen, then thirty-seyea years hence, after
twenty or thirty millions Of whites now
linhabiting or hereafter to inhabit this
country shall have gone to their graves,
the niggers will all be free Whew, what
glorious spectacle to contemplate But
little circumstance, too insignificant,
however, to be mentioned in message
devoted almost exclusively to the exalta-
tion of the nigger, ought to be mention
ed in this connection. This benefceDt
scheme, reckoning from its indistinct and
shadowy beginnings, will have cost the
lives of more than five hundred thousand
robust white men. slain in battle or dying
of wounds or disease received or contract
ed on the field or in the camp; it will have
made tens of thousands of widows, and
probably hundreds of thousands of or
phans; it will have filled our country with
the crippled and the MANNED; it will
have devastated some of the fairest por-
tions of the whole earth; it will have en-
gendered hates and animosities which even
the grave can but partially extinguish-
for they will descend to the children of
thousands who have no other heritage to
bequath; and it will have cost in the fruits
of human labor (including principal and
INTEREST," vastly more than all the wealth
of the whole country now in existence.
The President keeps his eye and his mind
So steadfastly upon ths niger that all
these things have escaped him. He seems
to value the "war power" the power to
amend the Constitution, the power to is
sue ssshinplasters," the power to fight and
the power to make peace, only as they can
or can not be made subseryient to the
nigger! The war per Sc is ignored. Ex-
cept incidentally, it is not even mentioned
in the message. The fact that million of
his fellow citizens (white men) are absent
from their homes, incurring the dangers
and undergoing the discomforts and pri-
ii7a.ions of state Of war, seems to have
made no impression on his mind The
nigger monopolizes his attention, and
alone affects his sensibilities. The hun
dreds of thousands of homes once happy,
now filled with anxiety for their absent
husbands, sons, fathers-many of them
destined to return no more-seem to find
no place in Mr.. Lineolns thoughts. But
the present and future condition of the
black race absorbs all his powers of reHec-
ton, and furnishes almost the only topic
for his official theme. a s9a8
1t is noteworthy that Mr.. Lincoln
maintains the silence Of the grave on the
subject of arbitrary arrests. Men as loyal
as himself, and as much entitled to liberty
as he is to the occupation Of the Presi-
dental chair, have been arrested on an
illegal order, transmitted by telegraph,
hurried off to distant prisons, kept for
months without being advised Of the
charges against them, and finally discharg-
ed without trial, indemnity, apology or
Explanation. But all these men are white,
and the President has not one solitary
word in their behalf, or in behalf of the
sacred rights which have been violated in
their persons.
This message, as we remark in conclu-
sion, will lower us, and especially our
! Government, in the estimation of the
whole civilized world. Every intelligent
and candid American at home or abroad
will feel humiliated by it. But enough.