North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1863-12-23
The Presidents Plan Of C0ncilfation--ine
Creased Cartridge Policy.

Creased Cartridge Policy.
Had President Lincoln excrted all his In
genuity and taxed the ingenuity of his cab
met counselors to devise that insult to the
Southern people which should be by them
regarded as the most odious and maddening,
he could have fallen on nothing better adapt
ed to his purpose than the strange oath he
has rendered them to support his proclama-
ton of emancipation, and all other proclamG-
tions having reference to slaves which he may
think fit to issue. Purporting to be an
emollient, and put forth under the guise Of an
amnesty, it seeks out the sorest, the most in
famed, the most sensitive spot in the south
crn mind, and applies to it burning brand.
1t is proposition which the South will feel
that it cannot accept without a degree
Of voluntary self lf-degredation which every
Southerner of spirit and character will regard
as worse than death. 1t is idle for Mr.. Lin
coins apologist to prate about what may
seem reasonable and just from the extreme
abolition stand point through abolition eyes.
When, few years ago, the British came near
losing great portion of their Indian empire
BY compelling the Sepoys to use creased car.
trdges, it would have been entirely beside
the purpose for British statesman to have
addressed TO the British people an argument
demonstrating the absurdity of the Sepoy
prejudices. British soldiers, it is true, bit off
the ends of the creased cartridges with as
much unconcern as they would eat their ra
tions. 1t would be possible to prove, on
strict physiological grounds, that this practice
was harmless to the body of Sepoy as to
that of Britton, and, on grounds of Christian
doctrine, that it could no more contaminate
or imperil the soul of the one than of the
other But all such arguments would have
been the sheerest trif1ng and impertiDence,
and no man having the slightest pretensluns
to craftsmanship could have used them.
"It is the imagination" said Napoleon
once, "that rules the world" All great
revolutionary movements are inspired and
dominated by ideas. Men engaged in revo,
luton are always in a state of mental exalta
ton, which causes them to see the matters in
contest through an ideal atmosphere. A
slight tax upon tea, regarded on it's prose
side, was petty question of threepence in
the pocket of a colonist as weighed against
the support of the public revenue, George
the Third and Lord North, by refusing, in
their blindness, to make allowance for the
6 h. nh ioh rtol
that tax into the symbol of tyrrany, convuls
ed and dismem Der ed the British empire
Louis the Sixteenth was the mildest of French
~sovereigns, and De Tocquevle says that
monarchy never pressed 80 lightly on the
people as at the outbreak of the revolution.
Bnt the French mind has passed under the
dominion Of great ideas, and the old instItu
tions could no more control them than fax
en- band can fetter fame. The e1sltation OF
feeling which supplies impulse 10 revolution
may be poetry or 1t may be madness, which
Us a sort of diseased poetry--its character
in this respect depends on the goodness of the
cause; bnt whether it inspire heroism or de
monisrn, it is a thing to be managed rather
than reasoned with.
President Lincoln has shown himself utter
ly destitute of the statesmanlike tact requi
site for dealing with great people in revolt );
he is as blind as was Philip the Second, OF
Spain when he lost the Netherlands, Never,
since the creation of man, has there been a
people so led captive by their imaginations,
so subject to the despotism of ideas, as the
people of the South. Call their ideal griev.
ances prejudices, if you will brand their
black and rampant treas on !; but, under every
aspect in which their conduct can be viewed,
the fact stands mistaken that they are a peo
pie surrendered to their ideas. If Mr.. Lin
of ordinary prudence and sagacity, he would
SET the necessity Of touching the peculiar
wound of the South with as light hand as
possible. Instead of this he chafes and IN
flames it. Not strong enough himself, though
welding the whole power of the government,
to resist the revolutionary exaltation and ia
natic feryor OF the abolitionsts, how can he
expect private citizens of the South to brave
an eRalation and fervor which, in that sec
tion, is all but unanimous IF he had stood
firm against the abolition current he would
have had great majority of the northern
people to keep him in countenance but who
in the South would not scorn the men who
could so degrade and humiliate himself as to
take the abolition oath 2
We might ask, and in due time we shall
ask, by ,rhat right Mr.. Lincoln assumes to
propose such an oath2 We, of course, know
that he pretends to derive it from the par
doning power; but this whimsical deduction
is filter topic for derision than for serious
argument. As he can offer conditional par
don, he claims that he can impose any con =