The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1864-03-10
Mr.. Lincoln and the next Presidency.

Mr.. Lincoln and the next Presidency.
Tho expression in favor of the re-
election of Mr.. LINCOLN, is triumph
antly indicating itself against the
charge that it is merelY-jn response to
the promptings of "politicians." It's
proving itself to be as spontaneous as
it is general. Uttered as it is simulta-
neously and unqualiiedly from all the
loyal States and Territories, through
out all the vast regions stretching be-
tween the shores of the two oceans,
and coming up at the same time from
the rescued loyalists of the conquered
portions of the rebel States, the ex-
preston is too general and too hearty
not to be thus spontaneous.
The instructive sentiment of the
great mass of the loyal people every.
where thus most evidently is that JUS
tice to him conspires with the necessi.
ties of the country to demand that he
be reelected to that Presidency of the
United States, his full occupancy of
which by virtue of his election of 1860,
treason has hitherto barred, whilst ac-
cumulating upon him a hundred, fold,
its burthens and responsibilities.
Let us see if this popular sentiment
be not just if this demand be not well
founded. Let us see if he be not in
justice entitled to have the plaudit,
swell done good and faithful servant"
expressed in the unequivocal form of a
reelection which shall make him IN fact
the President of the s,hole country
during at least a portion of second
term, whilst relieving him from the
superadded burthens of the first. Let
us see if, irrespective of any consider
atoms of justice to him, we can afford
to discard one who has served us so
faithfully who has toiled under the
burthens so patiently; who has proved
so true and stout of heart; who has
secured for us so large a measure of
substantial and enduring success; and
who in all he has achieved, endured
and in all he has given guaranty that
he will continue thus to endure and
achieve so long as his country shall
claim his services.
A brief review of the circumstances
attending his accession to the Presiden-
cy, Of the merely military achievements
Of his administration and of the hostile
agencies which have confronted and
surrounded him. from the first, may
prompt to a safe and rightful answer to
these questions
Mr.. Lincoln entered upon the Presi-
dency not like each of his predecessors,
with the acquiescence of political OPP
ponents, but with almost the entire body
of them in the fifteen slave States,
armed and organized for rebellion al
ready openly commenced in most OF
them.
The perjurious treasons of BuchaI-
ans Cabinet and the perjurious and
reasonable im6eciHty of Buchanan
himself, had not only inaugurated that
rebellion, but had made amplest pre-
parations for enabling it to become, as
it did very soon become, the most for
midable known in the worlds history.
The perjured traitors, Cobb and Tt omp-
son, had emptied the Treasury of
money and securities, and wilfully pros.
trated the national credit. The per
jured traitor, John b. Floyd, had rob
bed the arsenals of the loyal, and trans
f,rrcd the arms and munitions to those
OF the disloyal States, and stationed
The national forces at remote points
where they would be captured by the
rebels, or if not captured, be useless
for the defense of the country. The
perjured traitor, Isaac Toucey, mcaner
and more Infamous than Floyd because
born and reared in the North, doubly
a traitor because traitor to his own ma
tive section as well as to the country as
whole, had stolen all tie vessels OF
the Navy from the loyal ports, dis
patched most of them into distant seas
and slowed the rest in the traitorOus
harbor of NOrfork, where they are now
lying wrecked and sunken by treason
Under the fostering patronage o.
Buchanan's administration and weeks
before Mr.. Lincoln's had existence, the
war of the rebellion was actually and
openly waged by the rebels in the seiz
ure by their organized military forces
of Federal arsenals, Notifications
mints, custom houses, post Offices ane
revenue cutters; the blockade of thu
Mississippi river by batteries at Vlcks
burg and other points, and the firing
upon the Federal steamship, Star of thu
West, when attempting to enter thu
harbOr of Charleston with provision
for the beleagured garrison of For
Sumter already reduced to short ra
tons. Seven States had alread.
formly "seceded" and had their scores
of thousands organized, armed, drilled
and ready for the field.
Such was the condition of the fnan
cial, military, and naval departments t.
the Federal Government, such the pro
gress of actual, overt hostilities by til,
rebels and such the preparations TO
making them successful, when Mr.
Lincoln entered upon the Presidency
The two States enclosing the nationa
capital were as openly traitorous a
those that had seeded. Virginia will
meanly false and treacherous pretence
to neutrality, was fully in arms, hat