Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-01-30
The President and his palier.
Extract from an article in the North Americ
Review for IanuarV 1881

II
strain as ours during the last three years ;
neTer has amp shown itself stronger; and
never could that strength be so directly traced
to the virtue and intelligence of the people,
to that general enlightenment and prompt
efficiency of public opinion possible only I'M
der the influence of a political framework
like our own. We find it hard to understand
how even foreigner should be blind to the
grandeur of the combat ofideas that has been
going on here, to the heroic energy, persist
ency, and selfreliance of a nation proving
| that il knows how much 'dearer greatness is
than mere power; and we own that it is i'm
possible for US to conceive the mental and
moral condition of the American who does
not feel his spirit braced and heightened by
being even spectator of such qualities and
achievements That steady purpose and a
definite aim have been given TO the Earring
forces which, at the beginning of the war,
spent themselves in the discussion of schemes
which could only become operative, if at all,
after the war was over; that a popular ex-
| element has been slowly intensified into an
earnest, national will that a somewhat i'm
practicable moral sentiment has been made
the unconscious instrument of a practical,
moral end; that the treason of covert enc
mics, the jealousy of rivals, the unwise zeal
friends, have been made not only useless for
mischief, but even useful for good that the
conscientious sensitiveness of England to the
horrors of civil conflict has been prevented
from complicating domestic with a foreign
war all these results, any one of which
might suffice to prove greatness in a
ruler, have been mainly due to the good sense,
the good hun1or, the sagacity, the large-mind-
edneSs, and the unselfish honesty of
the unknown man whom blind fortune, as it
kaI fka1 I, - he
most dangerous and difficult eminence ofmod-
ern times. 1t is by presence of mind in I'M
tried emergencies that the native metal of Il
man is tested; it is by the sagacity to see, and
the fearless honesty to admit, whatever of
truth there may be in an adverse opinion, in
order more convincingly to expose the fallacy
that turks behind il, that reasoner at length
gains for his mere statement of fact the
force of argument; it is by wise forecast
which allows hostile combinations to go so far
as by the inevitable reaction to become ele-
ments of his own power, that politician
proves his genius for Statecraft and espeei
ally il is by so gently guiding public senti-
ment that he seems to follow it, by so yield
ing doubtful points that he can be firm with
out seeming obstinate in essential ones, and
thus gain the advantages of compromise with
out the weakness of concession, by so instinct
dices OF people as TO make them gradually
conscious of the superior wisdom of his free
dom from temper and preiudce-it is by quail
tiles such as these that a magistrate shows
himself worthy to be chiefin a commonwealth
of freemen. And il is for qualities such as
these that we firmly believe History will rank
Mr.. Lincoln among the most prudent of state
men and the most successful of rulers. Ii we
wish 10 appreciate him, We have only to con
ceive the inevitable chaos in which we shom
now be weitering had weak man or an un-
wise one been chosen in his stead.
''Bare is back" says the Morse proverb
''without brother behind it," and this is, by
analogy, true of an elective magistracy. The
hereditary ruler in any critical emergency
may reckon GA the inexhaustible resources of
prestige, of sentiment, of superstition, of de-
pendent interest, while the new man must
slowly and painfully create all these out of
the unwilling material around him, by supe-
riority of character, by patient singleness of
purpose, by sagaciouS presentiment of popu-
lar tendencies and instructive sympathy with
the national character Mr.. Lincoln's task
was one of peculiar and exceptional difficulty.
Long habit had accustomed the American
people to the notion of party in power, and
of President as its creature and organ, while
the more vital fact, that the executive for
the time being represents the abstract idea
of government, as a permanent principle, SUI
periOr to all party and all private interest, had
gradually become unfamiliar. They had so
long seen the public policy more or less di-
reeted by views OF party, and often even of
personal advantage, as to be ready TO suspect
the motives of a chief magistrate compelled,
for the first time in our history, to feel him
self the head and hand of great nation, and
to act upon the fundamental maxim, laid
down by all publicists, that the first duty of
a government is TO defend and maintain its
own existence. Accordingly, a powerful
weapon seemed TO be put into the hands of
the Opposition by the necessity under which
the Administration found itself, of applying
this old truth to new relations They were
not slow in turning il to use, but the patriot
ism and common sense of the people were
more than Il match for any sOphistry of mere
party.
The radical mistake of the leaders of the
Opposition was in forgetting that they had a
country, and expecting similar obliviousness
on the part of the people. In the undisturb-
ed possession of Office for so many years, they
had come to consider the Government as a
kind of public Gift Enterprise conducted by
themselves, and whose profits were nOminally
to be shared among the holders of their tick
cts, though all the prizes had trick of fall
ing to the lot of the managers. Amid the
tumult of war, when the life of the nation
was at stake, when the principles of despot-
ism and freedom were graphing in deadly
conflict, they had no higher conception of the
crisis than such as would serve the purpose of
contested election; no thought but of adj
vertising the tickets for the next drawing of
that private speculation which they miscalled
the Democratic party. But they we're too
little in sympathy with the American people
10 understand them, or the motives by which
they we're governed. 1t became more and
more clear that, in embarrassing the Admin
istration, their design was to cripple the
country; that, by strict construction of the
Constitution, they meant nothing more than
the locking up of the only arsenal whence
effective arms could be drawn to defend the
nation. Fortunately, insincerity by its very
nature by its necessary want of conviction,
must ere long betray itself by its inconsistent
cies. 1t was hard to believe that men had
any real horror of sectional war, who were
busy in fomenting jealousies between East
and West; that they could be in favor of a
war for the Union as it was, who were for ac-
cepting the violent amendments of rebellion
that they could be heartily opposed to insur-
rection in the South who threatened the Gov
| eminent with forcible resistance in the North
| or that they were humanely anxious to stay
the effusion of blood, who did not scruple to
| stir I'D the mob of our chief city to murder
and arson, and to compliment the patriotism
of assassins with arms in their hands. Be-
| levers, if they believe anything, in the di-
I IL Ia 81.