Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-04-13

men he was entirely dependent Tor his IN II not
for his treasury.
At the commencement of the war, he consent
ed to the plan Of raising the v~olunteer forces
through the State Executives, and allowing them
TO appoint all the regimental and commissary
officers. At this j~uncsuTe there were three hun
dred thousand volunteers assembled and organ
lied in these States. held and controlled by the
State Governors and commanded by officers APP
pointed by them, and still subject to their mill
tary orders as their superior officers. Nearly, if
not quite all of these Governors were clamorous
for radical measures-for tho proclamation-a
measure which they professeG TO believe would
crush the rebellion and the war directly, and that
without it there was no hope of success.
Here was a pressure. Here was a visible, tan
gible power sufficient TO overturn the Govern
ment and hurl Mr.. Lincoln from the Presidential
chais-a measure which we have every reason to
believe was actually contemplated, at least, BY a
portion of these State Executives, and who shall
say that it would not have been actually accom-
plished had the President finally yieldedf Then
there would have been no peaceful October and
November elections. The conservatives would
then have had "A double task to perform, and
would have achieved a double victory. True, he
resisted and complained till the meeting OF the
Governors at Altoona was about to assemble,
and give shape and unity to this mighty force.
aud then who shall say for himself that he would
not have yielded? No doubt there are men who
would not have given way to this threatening,
crushing pressure, but they are the men who
would never have allowed this combination
against the Government and the Constitution, to
have assumed such vast proportions.
Here were facts which have already become
history. and these are the constructions given TO
them by at least a portion of the conservative
Republicans who, with Mr.. Lincoln himself, had
been devoted followers of Henry Clay and Daniel
Webster, and who believed that Mr.. Lincoln told
the truth when he said that at heart he was op-
posed to the violent doctrines of the P-ocla ma
lion, and they firmly believed that he only yielded
bis own judgment and deserted his own cherished
policy under this ais1nst r~esistless pressure They
believed that the A5oliSionists had. with violent
hand, seized him and demanded of him the Proc
lamation and "a change OF policy on pain of depo-
sition. They saw there was no way of Wrestling
him from this violent grlsp-oi discriminating
him from the meshes in which they had entangled
him, that he might conduct the Government and
prosecute the war upon constitutional principles
and for constitutional ends, but in the success of
the Democratic party.
Thus reasoned a portion, but not all of those
who had become disguised and alarmed at the
new policy SO suddenly inaugurated at Washing
ton. Others, and there is no doubt there are
many of them, who believed that Mr.. Lincoln had
at heart been in deep sympathy with the most
radical from the beginning, and had only affected
moderation as a matter of policy, when they
looked back and remembered all he had said and
done, they could see this radicalism cropping out
on -manv occasions, as when he caressed and
cOuntenanced Wendell Phillips, and many other
indications equally suggestive, and upon a review
of his writings and sayings designed to create an
impression ola conservative purpose, they found
certain reservations and qualifications indicating
a preietermination to adopt the radical policy as
soon a he could 90 so safely They now bel eyed
that while he chad held the word of promise to
the ear" he designed "to break it to the hope"
This class of men left him in disgust, for they
had lost all faith in his integrity.
Again, there we're Others whose attention was
arrested principally by the imbecility OF the Ad
ministratiOn. While it was obstinate it was
weak. 1t was incapable of comprehending the
magnitude of the rebellion and the resources and
endurance Of The South, and was utterly unable
eifectua,ly to use the vast resources placed in its
hands so as to produce any adequate results.
They believed that the President was not a Judge
of men nor things That he could neither con-
duct the war himself nor comprehend the capaci-
ty of Others to conduct it. That the whole his
tory of the Administration was a combination of
obstinacy and vacillatIOn. The proclamation, as
a war measure, completed their disgust and des-
troyed their last hope in the ability OF the Ad-
miuistratiOn to prosecute the war to a successful
issue. Ii was mere child's play on a grander
scale than was ever before exhibited in the histo-
| ~ pl Tie NOIIu. IUcN ttlb that the interests.
nav, the life, of the nation were wickedly trifed
with; and that the time had come, if the country
was to be saved at all, for the great mass of the
p~eople-whose servants our rulers are-whOse in
terests are committed to their hands-whose
country and whose Government il is that is to be
saved or lost-to band together under some form,
some organization, and form such a party as by
its numbers and its influence, would make itself
heard and needed at the seat of Government.
| The only way tn l0 this "a "A for all tho copaarva.
tive men OF the nation to rally around the Demo
cratic party.
1t is not my purpose to express an opinion as
to which was nearest right; but by whichever of
these various motives or considerations the Re
publicans who came to our support we're inffu
enced, all agreed in the last conclusion.
Before the smoke of the political battle of 1860
by which Mr.. Lincoln was placed in power, had
cleared away, a civil war was inaugurated, which
had been provoked and led on. though certainly
not justified. by the wild fanatacism of the very
leaders of the party which had placed Mr.. Lin
coin in power, and Democrats were called upon
to 20 aud shed their blood and expend their sub
stance in a war which they believed might have
been avoided by a proper conciliatory course.
which they lad recommended, but had been
treated with contempt by those in power. But
notwithstanding all this, the Democrats had shut
their eyes to all that had gone hef re, and hushed
the involuntary murmurings that the war " a
needlessly provokedby that wild fanaticism which
had Just defeated them at the pills, ana they had
rushed 20 the ranks under Mr.. lincoln, only re.
membering that their country and its Constitu-
ton we're in danger. These conservative Repub-
licans had witnessed all this and they appreciated
il. They saw that the Democrats had come up 20
| the support of the country even more cheeriully
and earnestly than had their political opponents
in whose hanus was all the patronage of both the
civil and the military administration. All could
see that the Democrats had boldly fought and
freely bled from no sordid mctives-to maintain
no party aseendancy. but solely 10 maintain the
Union and the Constitution.
When they saw all this, the conviction was
forced upon them that to the Democratic party
alone must they look for the salvation of the
country and the restoration of peace and the
Union. They found only in the Democratic
party those principles for the conduct of the war
which Mr.. Lincoln had always maintained. OF
professed tn maintain, until he was forced to
abandon them as some of them believed, against
his own settled convictions of right and policy
Thus alone could he be enabled to return or be
forced back to his old conservative policy, which
afforded the only hope of an honorable termina-
ton Of the war, of a restoration of the Union and
a vindication of the Constitution.
Seeing all this. they could not hesitate to aban-
don their old political associates. who had already
Abandoned the principles upon which the war had
hitherto been professedIy conducted, if nos the
President Of their choice, and ally themselves to
the Democrats.
This is the explanation where the votes came
from, and why they came. which gave US the VIC
tory-which produced this great political revolu
ton.
1t is undoubtedly true that but a small portion
of the conservative Republicans who are opposed