Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-09-24

now ended with the dismemberment of the
Danish kingdom. 1t is remarkable also that
civil wars produced by disputed SUGGESTIONS,
invariably begin with resistance, by some
one or more of the states or provinces which
constitute the Empire, Kir gdom or Republic
whichis disturbed 1t was so with the Unit
ed States of Mexico. 1t was so with the
United States Of Columbia, and the case was
the same in the United States of Venezuela
Now il is certain that in 1860 we elected
Abraham Lincoln, lawfully and constitution
ally to be President of the whole OF. the Unit
ed States of America. Seven of the States
Immediately thereon rushed into disunion,
and summoning eight more to their alliance,
they set up a revolutionary government
They levied war against us, to effect a sepa-
ration, and establish a distinct sovereignty
and independence.
We accepted the war in defense of the I'm
ion. The only grievance of the insurgents
was that their choice of John G. Breckin-
ridge for President, was cOnstitutionally
oyerruled in the election of Lincoln. They
rejected Lincoln and set up a usurper. The
executive power of the United States is now,
therefore, by force, practically suspended be-
tweeL the usurper jefferson Davis, aud that
constitutional President Abraham Lincoln.
The war is waged by the usurper toexpel that
constitutional President from the capital,
which in some sort is constantly held ia siege
and to conquer the States which Loyalty ID
here TO him. The war is maintained on our
side TO suppress the usurper, and to bring
the insurgent States back, under the author
ity of the constitutional President. The war
is at its crisis. 1t is clear, therefore, that
we are lighting To make Abraham Lincoln
President of the whole United States, under
the election of 1866, to continue until the 4lh
of March, 1865. In voting for President of
the United States, can We wisely or safely
vote out the identical person whom, with
force and arms we are fighting into the Presi-
deney? no. No.)
You Justly say No. 1t would be nothing
less than to give up the very object of the
war at the ballot box. The moral strength
which makes our loyal position impregnable,
would pass from US, and when that moral
strength has passed away, material forces are
no longer effective, or even available. By
such proceeding we will have agreed with
the enemy, and shall have given him the vic
tory. But in that agreement the Constitution
and the Union will have persisted, because
when il shall have once been proven that a
minority can by force or circumvention, de-
feat the full accession of a constitutionally
chosen President, no President thereafter,
can hope to exercise the Executive powers
unOpposed throughout the whole country
One of two things must follow that fatal error.
Either contest between your newly elected
compromise President, and the same usurper,
in which the usurper must prevail, or else a
combination between them, through which
the usurper or his successor, subverting your
Constitution and substituting his own, will
become President, King or Emperor of the
United States, without foreign aid, if he can,
with iorcigR Intervention if necessary
Chats SOY
To be sure it is so; nothing is more certain
than that either the United States and their
Constitutional President, or the so-called Con-
federate States, and their usurping President,
must rule within the limits of this Republic.
therefore regard the pending Presidential
election as involving the question whether,
hereafter, we shall have a Constitution and a
Country left us. How shall we vote, then, to
save our country from this fearful danger
Vote Lincoln il again.l You have hit it ex-
actly, my friend. We must vote Lincoln in
again, and fight him in at the same time. If
we do this the rebellion will perish and leave
no root. If we do otherwise, we have only
the alternatives of acquiescenee in perpet-
ual usurpation, or of entering an endless sue
cession of civil and social wars. Upon these
grounds, entirely irrespective of platform and
candidate, / consider the recommendations of
the Convention at Chicago, as tending to sub
vert the Republic. Cts so, that's fact.)
1t will seem hard thing when imply,
that party, Ike the Democratic party, can
either mediate or blindly adopt measures, to
overthrow the Republic. All experience,
however, shows that it is by the malice or
the madness of great parties that Free States
have been brought down to destruction
You often hear alarms that party in power
is subverting the State, and it sometimes hap
pens so. But nine times out of ten, it is a
party out of power, that in its impotence or
its ambition OverthroWs a Republic.
The Democratic party, of course, leaving
off the Loyal Union Democrats, opposed the
election of Abraham Lincoln, in 1860. In
doing so they divided and organized in three
columns. One a reasonable column, of State
Rights, disuniOn Democrats under Breckin-
ridge. A second, a loyal northern column,
under Douglas. The third a eonciliatory
flying column, under John Bell, who has since
Joined the insurgents. We thereupon in
vitcd the two loyal columns to combine with
the Republican party to oppose the disunion
democratic column. They declined. On the
eve of the election in 1860, told the follow
ers of Douglas and of Bell, that when the
election should have closed, they would find
they had inadvertently favored disuniOn and
rebellion. They persisted, and the attempt
ed revolution came Disunion then present.
ed itself, in the practical form of preventing
Abraham Lincoln from assuming the Exeeu-
tive authority. Thus the Democratic party
produced that calamity, the Southern Demo-
Gratis acting from design, the Northern Demo-
Gratis passive through inadvertenee. The
disputed succession still remains unadjusted.
A new election has come on. For a time the
Northern Democrats, with notable exceptions,
gave more or less liberal support to the
government, against the Democratic insur-
gents of the South. But the same Democrat
ic forces which figured in the election Of
1860, now appear in the political field, with
positions and policy unchanged since that
time, as / think, except for the worse. The
Southern Democracy is still in arms under
the usurper at Dichmond The Douglas and
Bell columns consolidated, are found at Chi
cago, and all three of the parties are compass
ing the rejection of the Constitutional Presi-
dent of the United States They agree not
only in this attempt, but they assign the
same reasons for it-namely, that Abraham
Lincoln is a tyrant
They agree, also, that the real usurper at
Richmond is blameless, and pure, at least the
Richmond democracy affirm it, and the Chica-
90 do not gainsay it. To me, therefore, the
democracy at Richmond and the democracy
at Chicago, like Caesar and Pompey, seem to
retain all their original family resemblance.
They are very much alike-expecially Pom
pey. But it is not in mere externals that
their similarity lies. They talk very much
alike, as have already shown you. When