Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-09-03
The Presidential Brief Review,
From uarper's " eekly.

From IIarper's Weekly.
! The practical sagacity Of the President is
daily Justified His impulses are wiser than
the wary plans Of more cunning men. 1t is
true, that i'll writing the letter to the Albany
| Committee, he was family accused in some
quarters OF want OF dignity. But both the
| resolution to write and the time of writing
were the most happy illustrations OF his
! shrewdness while the letter itself is unan-
swerable, and will be henceforth a CON
sttuent part of the body Of Constitutional
| Interpretation. His replies to Governor Sey-
mour are not less excellent i'll their way.
In fact, from the moment Of his Inaugural,
ton it will appear that he has fulfilled every
duty of his great office with an ability not
less remarkable than his honesty. The des-
perate effort to make him seem TO be a parti
san has utterly failed He has aimed only at
the maintenance Of the Government: and to
secure that end he has no more hesitated to
adopt policy which his own party approved
than he has to take measures which the party
opposed to him applauded. He has filed the
chief posts OF command with men OF all DO
Iitical views. Yet he has been most sharply
denounced from the beginning of the war no
less by his old party friends than his enemies
The consequence is, that at this moment. he
stands a little outside OF all parties even
among loyal men, The rebels and their tools
the Copperheads, Of course, hate him, The
War Democrats doubt some points Of his pol
icy The Conservative Republicans think
him too much in the hands OF the radicals
while the radical republicans think him too
slow, yielding, and half-hearted. And yet,
without doubt, the more thoughtful and pat
| liotic men of all parties cannot but see how
time confirms his wisdom, and were a Presi-
dent to be named tomorrow they would de-
clare for Mr.. Lincoln.
So calm is his temperament, and so patri-
otto his policy, that the emancipation act
from his hands could not seem, and never
has seemed, to be a partisan movement
From the beginning, he did not doubt the
right of emancipation as military measure
But he carefully declared the object Of the
war to be the maintenance Of the Govern
ment. When Fremont and Hunter issued
their orders he quietly revoked them, not, as
he said, because such measures were wrong.
but because in his view the time for them had
not come, and when it came, he must exer-
else the power. When it did come, he warn
ed the rebels last September, that he had
never doubted the possible military necessity
might arise that military measure so grave
and so long agitated should not be summarily
adopted; that he admonished them, if they
feared the consequences Of such a measure,
to escape them by submission to the laws :;
and that if they did not submit within three
months the measure would become part of
the policy of the Government.
The rebels sneered, and their allies the
Copperheads organized The disastrous fail
ure Of McClellan's and Pope's campaigns, with
the retirement of Lee in good order after An
tietam, the long inaction Of the autumn, and
the removal OF Mcclellan, dispirited many
and disaffected some to the war The conse-
quences were seen in the elections Mr.
HOratio Seymour is a specimen of the re-
suit. But the President did not wayer. The
country was to be saved, if at ALL by policy
which was not approved by the virtual friends
Of the rebellion. The opposition of such
gentlemen as Mr. Seymour and his managers
was the conclusive argument for that policy
Therefore, on the lst of January, the order of
emancipation was issued and all persons held
on that day as slaves within specified limits
were freed
70 that order, and the policy which dicta-
ted it, every sincerely loyal man accedes
For it was clearly not an act of the President,
as partisan Republican, but as Commander
in-Chief sworn to defend the Government
by every military resource. The loyal men
who sustain it to-day are of all the late polit-
zeal parties and of all shades of opinion in
regard to Slavery. The order was not issued
by the Commander-in-Ch Chief, nor is it sup
ported by the loyal country, because, slavery
is wrong, but because it helps the enemy
Doubtless the conviction that it is the root of
the war has made many assent with more
| alacrity to the act of emancipation; but the
President adopted it as military and not as
t moral measure. The way in which it was
done, and the time, are both indications of
| the practical wisdom Of the Chief Magistrate.
History will vindicate the President, even
! if our Impotence should be unjust to him. 1t
will show that succeeding to the executive
head Of the Government at a moment of most
complicated military and political peril, and
when national salvation seemed almost i'm
possible, he displayed such simplicity, ear
nestness, honesty, patience, and sagacity-
neither overwhelmed by disaster, nor CON
founded by treachery, nor disquieted by the
distrust of friends-that he may be truly
called Providential man.
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