The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1863-04-03
Lincoln The Last.
From the London Times. ]

is the esult of balanced power. occupy
the great Western World-iA those far
away days industrious students, peering
| into the past, will rest with interest and
eXpatiate with fondness upon every item
of those events which crowd upon US al
most faster than we can chronicle them.
TO the Americans of those times, divided
into powerful communities which had
been drawn together by the never failing
influences of a common interest, the
events thai are now progressing before
our eyeswjlk;be as the beginning of all
thingkflle subjects or citizens of
great svstefn Of independent States will
trace the early throes 10y which new
condition of society was born, and note
by what happy course OF events they had
been exempted from the course of CO.
lossal democracy, bearing within itself the
elements of discord and a constitutional
proneness towards anarchy. Ex-Gov-
ernor Morehead's account of the first
schsln will steal into history. If the Iii
visions which shall by those times be con
solidated shall have been gradually ard
wisely made so that each at its establish
ment may be an adult nation, not only
having an identity Of interest among its
members, but sufficiency OF aggregate
power, then those mighty populations
will bless the scenes OF slaughter at which
contemporaries now shudder, even as
Americans of the present day bless the
hard battles OF the War of independence.
Young America will wonder at the blind
ness which sought to join and mortice
together the old Union with bayonets and
blood, just as we English despise the folly
of our ancestors in attempting to conquer
and hold the Western world by arms
In that future while reading the course
of history in some spot now waste and
tenantless, the shool-boy will be taught
that the story of the commencement OF
the great convulsion was first told in
room of the British town of Liverpool
An exile who had taken part in the ear
lest meeting between the last President
Of the United States and the delegates to
the Peace Conference told the story to
Liverpool audience how the men OF the
South went to Washington to cement a
peace, and how they had left the pres
ence Of Mr.. Lincoln, to prepare their arms
for the wars which followed.
The greatest events are not always the
most imposing in their outward clrcum-
stances. AS Mr.. Morehead describes the
scene, few would surmise that the fate OF
the world hung on talk which was held
around fire 10y a little knot of men, and
was carried on with quaint anecdotes, and
illustrated by familiar slaps upon the
shoulder. Seated in chair with rounds
to it, with his feet upon the highest
round, sat long, lauky man, with has el-
bows uI on his knees, and his hands upon
the side of his face in on attitude OF lis
tenlng; when he would speak he would
drop his hands and raise his head sud
denly. This was Lincoln the Lust -
In u half circle about him sat the Gov
ernors, Senators, or Deputies from the
Southern States. They had come to him
because he had been made President by
party hostile to the Southern interest,
and they were come to ask for guaran-
tees that their part under the Consttu
ton should be preserved to them. Sew
+ ard, his prOximate prime minister, aboun-
ded in easy iaIsehood but was not be-
lieved; and Lincoln, when he spoke,
talked OF his party platform" tried to
explain away his speeches, and at last,
when hard pushed for an actual engage
ment, took refuge in quaint stories or in
Esop's Fables. These Lincoln stories
are very rife, but they all have a moral
of very unscrupulous morality. He told
them on this occasion that he once had
case that came out'so very bad on the ev-
idence that even the old farmer who was
his client said "Guv it up" I&nGoln
would not give it up, but he did not say
he gained it. Again, when he quoted
the fable of the lion who wanted to mar
ry the fair young lady, and who allowed
his nails to be paired and his teeth
drawn out by the young lady's parents,
and was knocked on the head as a con.
sequence Of his folly. Mr.. Lincoln com
pares himself to the lion, and the South
to the young lady, and declares his reso-
luton to avoid the fate of the lion. 1t
could hardly be submitted to President
who compares himself to an advocate who
had an unjust case which he would per-
tinaciously support, and then 10 strong
beast with an evil will. The story OF this
interview, if it be faithfully related, gives
us better insight into the character Of
Mr. Lincoln than we have hitherto an APP
portunty of obtaining. Honest Abe"
is honest in the sense Of fidelity 10 his
party platform. He is honest to the Re-
publicans, but not the people of the
United States. His honesty in this re-
spect is. in itself, an intolerable evil, and
sufficient provocation 10 Secession.
Our English theory is, that a representa-.
tive once chosen, represents the whole
body of constituents, and indeed, the ma.
ton at large. l.incoln's honesty binds
him to insure four years OF domestic ty-
ranny to faction which is not even
minority. He is shrewd and eager for
bargain. rs is shown by the readiness
with which he threw down his hands and
raised his head at something Mr.. Riyes,
of Virginia, advanced, and tried to drive
bargain with him to detach Virginia
from the South. That beyond this party
honesty he has no other principle than
to carry out his views either by force or
fraud. he does not even seem to profess
His oath of office, which he feigned to
consider as obliging him to enforce the
law and the Constitution in the South
has not prevented his abolishing or sus'
pending the laws or the Constitution
| both in the North and the South.
Impartiality as a Governor he does not
even affect, for his enemies, the demo-
Gratis, are kept down, and fill the prisons,
and the republicans, who are his support
ers do as they please with impunity.-
He does nor even see scandal in the cor.
ruption which so shocked our European
nations when ostentatously proved and
made public by the Washington Congress.
lie had story ready also for this
When asked at the White House why he
did not hang the fraudulent contractors,
he replied by telling his questioner an an
ecdote Of circumstance that occurred 10
him when he was farming in illinois,
"l was troubled" he said, with skunks