The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-02-24
Can such things be,
And overcome us like summer cloud,
without our special wonder ~

sanction TO Sucn base ana corrupt practlceS
We certainly would hope otherwise.
Were We an enemy of the distinguished
Secretary of the Treasury, and did we wish
his hurt, and did we desire to place an inn
measurable and impossible distance between
him and the Presidency, we could ask nothing
better suited to this purpose, than to connect
him with cabal, the fruit of whose action is
such pamphlet as this, and such slanderous
articles as are weekly appearing against Mr..
Lincoln in the columns of Wilkes Spirit of
the Times.
The enemies of Mr.. Lincoln declare thatit
is too early to discuss the Presidential ques-
ton. But we claim it is none too early to ex-
pose the secret, willy acts of a cabal. aiming
to divide and mislead the people. 1t is that
the people may know what is going on, that
they may understand the mischievous capa-
bilities of certain Union men, that we have
placed in our columns the anonymous, calum-
mons pamphlet, which is being industriously,
but slyly circulated, to poison the minds of
the people. Fora0arned, torearmedt
We have 10 disposition to give undue
prominence at this time,. TO the consideration
of the Presidential election. But in the dis
charge of q solemn duty to the people, we
have felt it obligatory on us to communicate
to them the developed fact of the existence
of a factious attempt to destroy Mr.. Lincoln,
by maligning his character and his intentions,
to pave the way for another.
Let Justice be done. Let this unpatriotic
scheme of selfish men be nipped in the bud,
before faction ripens into ruinous dissension.
The Pamphleteers say it is too early to con-
slider the Presidential succession. We de-
clare, that it is none too early for thoughtful
patriots to give due heed to this momentous
question, for on the decision of the succession,
undoubtedly, hangs the destiny of the Re-
public. Let no man be deceived, then, by the
clamor that tits too early, nor by that other
specious. deceptive, hollow device, .athe one
term principle.n Set ali these "artful dodges''
over to the credit of the venomous pamphlet
eers, and dare to do the thing that seems to
be right.
In the true instincts, in the intelligent
Judgment, in the patriotic impulses of the
| loyal masses of the people, we must look for
our strength and our safety. When faction
shall have spent its force, when caballers shall
| have hidden away in darkness, when the
oyerreaching and greedy ambition of selfish
aspirants shall have received its reward in the
rebuke of the just; then will the honest and
devoted patriot who urselfshly labors for
the best good Of the great whole, receive, as
he will deserve to receive the unstinted,
Y heartfelt plaudts of a generous, because a
/ just and grateful people.
Having said SO much, by way of an expo
sition of the signs of the times, we would
hand that true patriot, that honest, sagacious
and able man, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, over to
the protecting @gis of just and right-judg-
4 ing people, where he will be forever safe from
the enycnomed shafts of malignant place
hunters. 4.