Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-08-29
09Ilo Statesman,
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
The Ohio Statesman Company.
MONDAY MORNING, AUG. 30.
A Westerner on One of MIR. Lin
coins Stories.

Mr.. M M. Pomeroy, editor of The La
Crosse (Wisconsin) Democrat, and better
known throughout the West by the name
of ''Brick' Pomeroy, thus happily hits of
in his sprightly paper Mr.. LincOln's Oft
told story about swapping horses when
crossing a stream:
The illustrious widow-maker now en-
throned at the White House in Washington
has made joke into an aphorism, and for
the third time in his life calls up the story
of swapping horses when crossing stream.
To judge from the elongated monarch's sly
reference to the equine quadruped, one
would infer that lie was born in O stable,
which may account for his unstable char
acter. He says it is bad time to swap
horses when crossing stream, yet has ap-
piled his argument to others in full re-
versal. We are willing to agree with Abe
that, ordinarily speaking, it is bad to swap
horses while crossing. But when the horse
insisted that he could cross the stream in
three months-when the keeper of the
horse assured the country that 10 one
would be hurt while crossing-when the
three months have gone into four years
when instead of crossing the stream direct
ly, he has been carried far below the start
ing point, and has lost sight of the land
marks he struck out for-when he has
changed his course, and, instead of making
across the stream, goes plunging wildly
down it to the sea OF destruction; when q
million of groomsmen have been lost by
him, when the granary of his keepers is
eXhaus,eu, when every original plan except
"my plan" is lost sight OF, we think it time
to swap. When crossing the stream it may
be well enough to hold on, but when going
down the stream, and each day the stream
is growing wider, till its banks are lost in
the distance, it is time to swap.
But let us see if the national sexton has
lived up to his tripleted ideas. When this
war broke out he swapped the counsels OF
Douglas for those of Seward. He swapped
the vigor Of America for the emasculated
weakness ofSpain. He swapped Mcdowell
for Mcclellan crossing the Potomac. He
swapped Mcclellan for Burnside crossing
the Rappahannock. He swapped Burnside
for Hooker crossing the same stream. He
swapped Hooker for Meade crossing the
Potomac. He swapped Meade for Grant
crossing the Rapidan. He swapped Butler
the beast for Banks the blunderer, crossing
the mouth of the Mississippi. He swapped
Banks for Candy crossing the Red river.
He swapped Curtis for Schofeld crossing
the upper Mississippi. He snapped Hun
ter for Gilmore crossing the bar at Charles
ton. He swapped Dupont for Dahlgren be-
fore Fort Sumter. He swapped Fremont
for Curtis in the river before st Louis. He
has swapped the sword for an outlandish
proclamation when crossing the Halfspont.
He swapped Hamlin for johnson when
crossing the Rubicon. He has swapped
gold for worthless currency. He has swap
ped the Constitution of our country for the
bedlamite mouthings of fanatics. He has
swapped the Goddess of Liberty, our ma
tional figure-head, for the pate and wool OF
Niger. He has swapped land of peace
for desert of graves. He has swapped
prosperity for taxation-joy for mourning,
and national greatness for certain ruin. He
has snapped all these as he once snapped
jokes in an old saloon in Illinois, yet has the
face to say to the country in this hour OF
trial, when jokes sicken in the heart that it
is no time to swap him for any other horse
or ass.