The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1863-06-24
IIr. LIncOin as n Congressman
on the President

The New York Leader exhumes Mr.. Llu.
coins single speech m Congress in 1913. iu
which he discussed the message oil President
Polk and the war with Mexico. The ex.
tracts given below NAV perhaps throw light
on what sort OF talk Mr.. Lincoln will permit
TO be uttered concerning himself:
Let him (the Presldent) answer fully,
fairly and candidly. Let him answer with
member he its where Washington sat; and
so remembering let him answer as Wash
ington would answer. as q nltion should
not, and the Almighty t0iH not, be evaded,
so let him attempt no evasion, no equivoca-
ton.
But il be cannot or tOiu not do this--if, on
any pretense, or 40 pretense, he shall refuse
or omit it--then | shall be fully convinced
of what more than suspect already, that
| he is deeply conscious OF being in the wrong;
that he feels the blood oil this war, like the
blood Of Able, is crying to heaven against
him. that he ordered Gen. Taylor in the
midst Of peaceful Mexican settlement pur-
posey to bring on war; that, originally
having some strong motive--what will not
, stop now to give my opinion concerning--to
| involve the two countries in war, and,
| trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the pub
| lie gaze upon the exceeding brightness OF
military glory--that attractive rainbow that
raises in showers of bloOd--that charms to
/ destroy--he plunged into it, a. d was swept
on and on till, disappointed in bis calculation
of the case with which Mexico might be
subdued, be now finds himself he knows
not where. How like the hall insane nums
bling Of a fever dream is the whole war
part Of the late message!
y
All this shows that the President is in no
wise satisfied with his own positions. First,
he takes up one, and in attempting to argue
Us into it, he argues himself out of it; then
seizes another, and goes through the same
process; and then, confused by not being able
to think Of nothing new, he snatches up the
old one again, which he has sometime before
cast off. His mind, tasked beyond its pow
er is running hther and thithe, like some
tortured creature on burning surface, find
ing no position on which it can settle down
and be at ease,
/ Again, it is a singular omission in this
message that it nowhere intimates tohen the
President expects the war TO terminate. AT
ITS beginning General Scott was by the Press
ident, driven into disavor, if not disgrace,
for irtimating that peace could not be con-
quered in less than three or four months
But now, at the end OF about twenty months
during which time our arms have given
US the most splendid successes--every de-
partment, every part land and water off
GERS and privates, regulars and volunteers,
doing all that men could do, and hundreds oil
things which it had never before been
thought men could not do--after all this,
this same President gives us long message,
without showing us that, as to the end, he
has himself even an immagihary conception.
He is q bewildered and niserably peIpiexed
man. God grant he may be able to show
there is not something about his conscience
more painful than all his mental perplexity.