The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-03-02

1he truth is that there is no man who does
not wear tho livery of Office, or is not in the
pay of the general Government, who does not
feel mortified and humbled that our nation
with its twenty millions of loyal people in the
North, with four millions of auxiiiaries in the
South, to say nothing of a large host of Union
men there, has not succeeded yet in overthrow
ing the insolent slave oligarchy, which does
not number five millions all told !
How is it that Jefferson Davis with his
slender resources, without a navy, without
manufactures, is still defiant at Richmond,
Potomac, putting in jeopardy even the person
al liberty of Mr.. Lincoln himself?
Tt is impossible to prevent the american
people from making humiliating comparison
between the rebel chief and the President of
the United States. They will understand
why this condition of things exist, at the end
of the third year of Mr.. Linceln's term. Thu
fault is not in the want of intelligence and
bravery on the part of our soldiers, or the,
skill of our officers. For both soldiers and Of
fcers have proven on mauy a battle field, that,
in endurance and valor, and all the elecn ,nts,
which constitute the great soldier, they are
the equals, if not the superiors, OF the reb-
els.
It will not do to throw the blame upon the
country, for it hes furnished all the men and
all the money the President has asked
1t will not do to charge it upon the rebel
sympathizers at the North, for they have had
no means cf interfering with the orders of
the President. The responsibility rests alone
upon him. He has been weak and vascilla-
ting throughout, seemingly incapable of set
Ting upon any definite line of policy in re-
gard to the rebellion.
Two theories in regard to it, have and now,
divide the American people. One is, that the
Southern States are still States of the Ameri-
- TT..o- 4Lok III oa-z.1 ----4:k.--.
and laws, though silent in the presence of the
rebel power, will upon the suppression of the
rebellion revive, and the people return to
their former rights.
The other theory is, that they are no long
er States in the American Union, in the sense
of the constitution, but the rebellion having
acquired the strength and consistency of a
belligerent powor, the status of the entire
population has been changed, from citizens
to aliens, and they do not return TO their
rights upon-the suppression of the rebellion,
but only to such as the supreme legislative
power may give them.
Had Mr.. Lincoln adopted either one of
these theories and adhered to it vigorously,
he might long since have ended the rebellion.
Had he chosen the first, he could, before
this, have brought back the States, with their
institutions and laws, slaves and all.
Had he adopted the other, and sustained
Fremont and Hunter, the friends of freedom
know that the rebel armies might long ago,
have been overthrown, and the whole rebel
territory in possession of the United States,
with the. manaeles of every slave stricken of,
from the Susquehannah t. the Rio Grande.
This vasciI,ation and indecision Of the
President, has been the real cause why our
wellappointed armies have not succeeded in
the destruction Of the rebellion.
He has constantly been going between these
two theories, taxing no positive ground for
either, but holding on to the skirts of both.
Whether from the feebleness of his will
which has been unequal to the alternate pres
sure of the respective leaders of these theo-
ries, or whether from the want of intellectual
grasp, he has really been unable to compre
bend their philosophy, or from the want of
political principle and Indifference to truth,
he has with that species of cunning, which
characterizcs a certain class of lawyers, sought
to ride both theories, for the purpose of Sc
curing his reelection.
The can't about "Honest Old Abe" was at
first amusing, it then became ridiculous, but
now it is absolutely criminal.
Honesty signifies nothing unless there is
capacity to WELD the power. In the language
of Wendell Phillips-who cares for the hon.
esty of the President, unless he be capable /;
it is not honesty tut capacity that is wanted.
When the nation again places N the hands
of a commanderin-chief the lives of all its
able-bodied men, and all its material wealth,
it will want a better guarantee than the ante
cedents of our jocular President furnish, that
the power will be welded ably, efficiently,
and surely, for the perpetuity of the Union.
Should Mr.. Lincoln be forced upon the
country in defiance of the Judgment of the
Republican party, and the Democratic party
be judicious In planning a candidate for the
prosecution of the war upon the first theory
above indicated, (Which is their theory Mr..
Lincoln will be most unquestionably defeated,
unless he should be tempted in an evil hour,
to use the. military-power in his hands by sup
pressing the freedom of elections in the loyal
States. A victory won by the sword would
be no victory, but a lamentable defeat to the
friends of liberty.
A convention of patriots, if wise, will nev-
er nominate for the Presidency a military
leader in actual command of an army,zmuch
less the COMMANDMENTS chief, who now has
more than half a million of soldiers under his
lcommand, and if necessary to success, might
have a million before the next Presidential
election.
The temptation to q military candidate to
use the sword to secure his own election is too
great, the warnings of history too impressive,
for the American people ever voluntarily to con-
sent to so hazardous an experiment.
Never before in our history has such a COM
bination of high qualities been required as
will be needed in the administration of the
Government for the next four years.
The war has created a debt the magnitude
of which is astounding to consider. The in
terest alone will Cypress the people for scores
of years to come at the same time the means
of discharging the debt will By the necessary
operations of the war, have been f~earfully
weakened. So many hundreds of thousands
of men have been called from their industrial
pursuits never to return to them so much of
the material wealth of the country have been
destroyed SO many fields for the production
of its great staples laid waste !; indeed its