Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-01-31
why Lincoln should he Reelected
g. The Death of Slavery.

The New FORK Times late SFwARD's 8 organ.
devotcs In its issue of last Thursday over q
column to an argument for the reelection
of Mr.. LINCOLN. But for its gravity one
would be tempted to think the Times was
ioking. It makes absurd and false state
ments with serious face that is quite anus
inc. Il speaks of the perfect guarantee
Mr.. LINCOLN has given that "he will not
break down State lines or State rights
We suppose the Times finds this guarantee
in the sanction Mr.. LINCOLN gave to the
dismcmberment of the State of Virginia
and in his notification of State Constitu-
tions and State laws. In its logic we are
not TO know the tree by its fruits. but to
expect thorns to bear grapes, and thistlcs
figs.
The Times says LINcoLN's amnesty
proclamation impairs 10 principle in our
system, and yet opens the way to COM
plete restoration of the Union on its old
basis, But it strikes directly at the heart
of that system. when it substantially con-
yerts States into Territories, and demands
that. If they come into the Union at all they
shall come in with altered or new Con-
stitutions framed in accordance with his
Emancipation Proclamation. lie "opens
the way,r according to the Times, Ito COM
plete restoration of the Union on the old
basis.n The old basis of the Union is the
Constitution of the United States. That
Constitution guarantees to the several States
their Constitutions as they were before the
rebellion broke out. Yet Mr.. LINCOLN. in
violation of that guarantee, proclaims that
the Constitutions of certain States must
lie changed or set aside, else those States
cannot be recognized as members of the
Union. That is restoring the Union on the
old basis, to use common phrase, with a
vengeance"
The Times says "that the work of recon-
struction which has been commenced In
Louisiana must soon be directed to all the
rebel States" The country knows what
Mr.. LINCOLN is doing in Louisiana; that he
has, to all intents and purposes, made 1t II
territory under military rule, and that the
Constitution, and the laws of the State
enacted in pursuance thereof, are to be held
null and void. The same course of nullili-
cation and abrogation Of States and Stat"
Constitutions is to be continued In the South
under the radical revolutionary policy, and
this Is the main reason the Times gives why
Mr.. LINCOLN should be retained in Office
another term--that he may perfect the sys-
tenn of State destruction already in prog
ress.
There Is another poiut in the Times arti-
Gle worthy of note. 1t is that the institr-
tion of slavery ''has perished beyond the
possibility of resurrection" If that is so,
why do the Times and other radical pa
pers continually harp upon the necessity of
extirpating the institution? Where is the
propriety or the sense of constantly stab
bing and kicking dead thing? And what
above all things. the need of violating the
National Constitution and its most sacred
guarantees and abolishing State Constitu-
tions and laws which that instrument
pledges the United States to maintain, in
order to kill that which is already declared
to be dead "beyond the possibility of resur-
rection2" Cannot the Federal and State
courts be trusted to hold that as no longer
in existence which has been constitutional
ly put an end to? Or have the radicals no
faith in their own positive assertion that
slavery is dead "beyond the possibility of
resurrection" q.