Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-10-25
VIEWS OF THE SOUTHERN
PRESS.
Lincoln the SOuth's Best Ally .-- The
independence of the South Secured
by his e-electiOn.


tFrom the Richmond Examiner, Oct. III
Some doubt remains as to the political
complexion of Pennsylvania. The press of
the United States has become so radically
mendacious that it is impossible to put
trust in the first accounts even of an event
so public and plain as the result of an cleo
ton. Some days may yet elapse before GER
titude is attained. Butwe entertain strong
hope that the Republicans have done what
they seemed at first to have done, and con-
fess q deep desire that the present result
may foreshadow the reelection of Abra-
ham Lincoln. For Abrdham Lincoln is the
Soutfs best ally. This Contederacy had
million and quarter of men capable of
bearing arms at the outset of the contest, a
force sufficient to repel any invading pow
er and defy the possibility of subjugation.
The only danger lay in the difficulty of
bringing this force into the field. abraham
Lincoln removed this difficulty By the character
1chtch he impaired to The acdr. He made Goths
and Vandals of his troops, and proclaimed
devastation, confscation and determination
as his purpose. 1t was thus that he in
voked into the field those powerful south
ern armies which have so successfully re-
sisted his assaults. 1t is scarcely possible
to conceive how conflict could have been
rendered more envenomed than the pres
ent one has become through that truculent
policy of Mr.. Lincoln. Yet this man found
a means of intensifying its ferocity. He
proclaimed insurrection to the slaves, and
armed all the blacks which he could seduce
into his service, against the whites who had
been their masters. By this policy he eff
fectually succeeded in calling out and COM
bining every element of resistance in the
South-a strong element of that resistance
is yet to come, as will appear soon after
the meeting OF the Confederate Congress-
The enemy talk of the despotism which
drags conscripts into the southern armies,
and forces old men and children into the
bitches, but the despotism which coerces
the South is seated at Washington, and not
at Richmond. The Confederacy has proved
that it had nerve and resolution to achieve
an independent destiny; but it is indebted
to Lincoln for forcing these qualities into
action.
The disruption OF old political associations
is always a hazardous experiment. The
great majority of minds in wealthy and
prosperous community are averse to change
and revolution, preferring to endure great
evils rather than resort to sanguinary meas
ures for redress. No man ever felt the
weight of this truth more forcibly than
those who inaugurated the movement for
the experiment consisted in that conserva-
tive aversion to change and convulsion
which possesses the popular masses. On
this rock the secession cause might have
split, if it had not been safely pilOted past By
the pains of Abraham Lincoln. The cause
was saved in 1862 by the conscription; and
Lincoln-not the Examiner ernewspaper-may
be said to have been the author of the con-
scription; because, except for the ferocious
policy which he pursued, it could never
have been enforced. He has rendered re-
sistance an absolute duty and necessity, and
brought that duty and necessity home to
every mans door: isomuch, that no man in
the South having any self-respect or regard
for the opinions of his neighbors, dares to
I disobey the call of his country to arms.
But for the incentives supplied by Mr..
| Lincoln, the South, by want of union and
energy, might have failed to deserve the
respect of mankind; might have been un-
| able to levy great armies; and the forces in
| the field might have fought with little en-
ergy or restoration. The popular majority
might have been disposed, at the first soft
words from the enemy, to renounce the
Southern cause and return to the enjoy
ment of repose, prosperity, and dishonor.
Mr.. Lincoln has prevented such contin-
gency, and relieved the South of all
these dangers by course of policy
which rendered reconciliation impossible
By driUing as TO extremity, he has combined
every element of our strength, and insured our
success. If the South could be conquered
at all, there is but one mode by which it
could be done. If the armies of the North
were entirely withdrawn, and an invitation
proposed for convention of all the States,
for the purpose of devising terms of conE
ciliation, then our independence might be
seriously endangered. Such would have
been the policy of Pierce or Vallandigham;
such, possibly, though not probably, might
become the policy OF Mcclellan. But Mr..
Lincoln relieves us of this only possible
danger by policy which drives every man
to arms, and renders reconstruction an op-
probium throughout the land.
While the South has much for which to
thank Mr.. Lincoln, the North has still more
for which to curse him. His Administra-
tion has cost the United States at least half
a million of men, eleven States, with ten
millions of population, embracing many
thousands of millions of wealth, and has
entailed three millions of public debt. He
is the very genius of ruin and destruction
to his country, and seems to have endeared
himself in its affections by the very loss
and woe he has inflicted upon it.
If the people of the United States choose
to re-elect him, they thereby pronounce a de-
cree stablishiag the Independence of the South.
We can bring larger armies into the field
to fight Lincoln than any other Northern
President, and his continuation in office will
inspire every Southern breast with the re-
solve to win independence as the only al
tarnativp tO eytprminatiOn