The Chattanooga Daily Rebel. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1862-1864, 1863-08-06

This river is our surest base. Ii rolls in from
OF the enemy like passless guerdon. Itcoils
at our feet, like lasso, which we may wind
about the loins Of the foe. We can never SEE
it go from us; and with the new recruits, wis
are beginning to pour in--wth the renewed
spirit which the responsibility resting upon
them is animating our army--we shall hold the
stream, and all that it embraces II we can
defeat Rosecrans ct this distance from hi
base, farewell to him for ever.
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lnsignifcance has usually one blessing al
ached to it, that Of immunity from danger
but how wretched must be that poor man,
such as the President Of the United States, Wit
shares all the perils of elevation without reaps
ing any Of its rewards either in the confidence
of his people, or the respect Of his fellow men .
Among the thousand-and one fairy tales, where
with the hereafter will invest America-how
it rose on the sight Of Columbus, like vision
in dream-how it opened to all Europe new
field of labor and adventure, grauder and more
romantic than the crusade lands-how il first
became peoped, and then free--how, under a
wise, liberal, and just policy, it rose nation
OF the earth, whose arms Of commerce and cul.
ture stretched around the whole world, and
whose wondrous household drew millions of
exies to its nourishng Preside, and thousands
of tourists with admiring eyes throughout it's
rolling panorama of mountain river and cave
and how at last the strange events of three
centuries and half were crowned with such
a civil commotion as no other land ha room to
produce--no story will be read with more per-
picking wonder, than that of Abraham Lincoln.
His hapless, outof-theway career is one of
the curiosities of history, whose eccentrcty
stands unriyalled
If Lincoln were a man, possessing any char
acteristics of emnenee whatsoever, there
would be less cause to marvel Or, if as the
ages show us, he, like other men of mean abil-
tiles, had by lucky chance achieved some
signal feat Of hand or heart, there had been
left MS clue to the aims of fortune But a
man without mind or manners--a limbless in
intellect as ungracelul in persona rude, vul~
gar, obscure back-woods pettifogger becomes
chief of a nation the most powerful in exist
ence. and thence leader to a revolution never
equalled in the world and reflection seeks
yainly for rhyme or reason in it. IL resembles
most the fables told of the days when witches
held dominion over tho fate of men, when ogres
and satyrs roamed abroad, when Cinderella
was turned by magic into fine lady and the
Beast was touched BY Beauty into Prince and
bridegroom. Arc tie days Of magic and mir
acle quite gone by9
4 Abraham Lincoln is man above the medium
height He passes the six-foot mark by an
inch or two. lie 10 raw.boned, shambe.gaited
bow.legged, knock kneed, pigeon-toed, swob.
sided, q shapeless skeleton in very tough
very dirty, nnwholesome skin. His hair is, or
was black and shaggy, his eyes dark and fire.
less, like coal Crate in winter time. His lips
! are large and protrude beyond the natural leve
of the face, but are pale and smeared with to
bacco juice. His teeth are filthy. Ia our iu-
i venile days we were struck with yirgils des
criphon Of the ferryman, who rowed the dis,
embodied souls Of men over tho river Of death
! Lincoln, If our memory fail US not, must be
near kinsmaD Of that official Of the other world
Q AT all events they look alike and Il relation
. ship DO claimed when Abraham reaches q
ferry, no win be able, we do not doubt, to g
over free Of toll In the next place, his voic,
e is coarse, untutored, harsh, the voice Of on,
= who has no intellect aud less moral nature
% His manners are low in the extreme, and wher,
his talk 10 not obscene, it is seuseess 10
word, Lincoln, born and bred railsplitter. il
a rail-spliher still Bottom ;he Weaver wal
not more out Of place in the lap Of fitania, hal
he on the throne Of tho exFepublic,
And this is the man, who incapable Of
stronger or higher inspiration than dat Of re
10 vtnge aspires to be master Of the free South
az be is Of the enslaved and slayish North
This is the man who bids armies rise and dghl
and commands and dismisses Generals at vii
Y This 10 the man, who proclaims las such cou
only DOL tho equality Of .hc races, black wit
white This lie the man, who ihcites ssrvii
&c inbuneoiion, ordains pluudor and encourage
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