Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-01-28

materials of weakness in the present, as Mr.
Lincoln. Even in that half of the Union
which acknowledged him as President there
was large, and at that time dangerous, mi
nority, that hardly admitted his claim to the
Office, and IN the party that elected him there
was also large minority that suspected him
Of being secretly communicate with the
church Of Laodicea. All that he did was
sure to be viruently attacked as ultra on one
side; all that was left undone, TO be stigma
tized as proof of his lukewarmness and back
sliding BY the other Meanwhile, he was TO
carry on a truly colossal war by means of
both; he was to disengage the country from
diplomatic entanglements of unprecedented
peril, undisturbed by the help or the him
drance OF either, and to win from the crown
ing dangers OF his administration, in the con-
hdence OF the people, the means of his safe
ty and their own. He has contrived TO do it,
and perhaps none of our Presidents since
W ashlngton has stood so firm in the conf
dence OF the people as he does, after three
years OF stormy administration.
Mr.. Lincoln's policy was testative one,
and nightly He laid down no programme
which must compel him to be either inconsis-
tent or unwise, no cast-iron theorem to which
circumstances must be fitted as they rose, or
else be useless to his ends. He seemed to
have chosen MaZarin's motto, LIE temps ct moi.
The moi, to be sure, was not very prominent
at first; but it has grown more and more so,
Ill the world is beginning to be persuaded
that it stands for a character of marked indi-
vduality and capacity for affairs Time was
his prime minister, and, we began to think at
one period, his general-in-chief also. At first
he was so slow that he tired out all those who
see no evidence OF progress but in blowing up
the engine: then he was so fast, that he took
the breath away from those who think there
is no getting on safely while there is spark
OF fire under the boilers. God is the only
beng who has time enough; but a prudent
man, who knows how to seize occasion, can
commonly make a shift to find as much as he
needs. Mr.. Lincoln, as it seems to US in re-
viewing his career, though We have some
times in our impatience thought otherwise,
has always waited, as wise man should till
the right moment brought up all his reserves.
Senlper ''oc1at dtte'e pa,atS is sound axiom,
but the really efficacious man will also be
sure to know when he is not ready, and be
firm against all persuasion and reproach till
he is
One would be apt to think, from some of
the criticisms made on Mr.. Lincoln's course
by those who mainly agree with him in prin-
ciple, that the chief object of statesman
should be rather to proclaim his adhesion to
certain doctrines, than to achieve their tri-
umph by quietly accomplishing his ends. In
our opinion, there is no more unsafe politician
than conscientiously rigid doctrmaire moth
ing more sure to end in disaster than a theor-
etc scheme of policy that admits ot no plia-
bility for contingencies True, there lisa pop
ular image of an impossible He, in whose plas-
tic hands the submissive destnies of mankind
become as wax, and to whose commanding
necessity the toughest facts yield with the
graceful pliancy Of fiction; but in real life we
commonly find that the men who control cir
cumstances, as it is called, are those who
have learned to allow for the influence Of their
eddies, and have the nerve to turn them to
account at the happy instant. Mr.. Lincoln's
perilous task has been to carry rather shack
ing raft through the rapids, making fast the
unrulier logs as he could snatch opportunity,
and the countryis to be congratulated that
he did not think it his duty to run straight at
all hazards, but cautiously to assure himself
with his setting-pol where the main current
was, and keep steadily to that. He is still in
wild water, but we have faith that his skill
and sureness of eye will bring him out right
at last.