Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-13
NUMBER 274,

playing Augustulus. He desired some day
to play Augustus. Abolitionism should be
Matched under no influences but his own.--
How he lectured one of his editors for inn
patience. Conservatives held up his hands.
while he prevailed against these Radicals.
He toyed with emigration, colonization and
compensation schemes. He made gradu-
al emancipation theory with 0 short fuse
which soon exploded. 1t hurt no ,ones But
the time come for him to play revolution
ist; and with seeming reluctance, he Issued
the Proclamation Of Emancipation. He
desired the people to pass on it. They did.
They condemned 1t In 1862. he adhered to
1t. In his Springfield letter, and in his late
message, he dedicates all power to Its exc
cution. Meanwhile, q contest springs up
as to the State suicide doctrine. 1t divides
his party; and even the Cabinet.E He has
Missouri on his hands, Radicals are ram
pant. He acts CONSERVATIVES awhile until
the days of November, 1854, begin to ap-
proach; then, 10 this message as the cli-
max of his long series of ambiguities.-
That / may do the President noinjustice,
quote from his own partisan-Se Pom
eroy, in his circular. who says: "The peo-
pie have lost all confidence in Mr.. Lincoln's
ability to suppress the rebellion and restore
the Union. He has been weak and vacilla-
ting, wasteful of national blood and treas-
ure, profigate and corrupt"
There is only one solution for these in
constituencies. He is trying to please both
wings of his party, to secure his nomina-
tion. With dexterous chicanery he has
phrased and framed his late plan, so that IL
may admit of two voices. He will not give
up his Emancipation Proclamation or the
Confscation and penal laws. TO abandon
them now," he says, ''would be not only to
relinquish lever of power, but would also
be a cruel and an astounding breach Of
faith" This should suit the Radicals. For
lighter shade of his party he promises
what Is mere delusion-an adjudication
of the questions of their legality by the Su-
preme Court. True, he has declared all
means like these which he now promulges,
unconstitutional; yet he would submit
them to the Court! When and how? Why,
after he has made the slave freedman by
the sword! What mockery is such sub
mission. But it will do to make him can
dldate; and more than that. 1t might elect
him President. If his plan of making one
tenth rule in the States should succeed,
then he will have ready at hand, the cleo
toral votes of Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana,
Tennessee, North Carolina, and other
States. He began this business in Florida
the other day, and the blood which flowed
at Olustee is the result of this scheme OF
personal ambition Ha 9l
Nine States, without South Carolina, reI-
resenting 6793l0 voters in 1860, will now,
by this peculiar republican form Of recon-
struction, cast electoral votes for the 67,93l.
who, as One-tenth are to be registered.
How many of these will be stipendiaries,
or how many bona fide citizens of the StatesS
But, surely candidate with so fair chance
for gigantic, almost continental fraud as,
this, must commend himself to a party,
whose use of power has made a debt of two
billions and an expenditure equal to the ex-
penditure of all former administrations.
Hence, when this amnesty to rebels was
announced, it was regarded as political
movement only, and the excitement did not
equal that of prize fight. No one was
affected by it. No opponent was changed
to, and no friend alienated from the admin
istration, either North or South. If 1t had
been an act of good faith and not a partisan
manOeuvre, it ought to have bound closer
to the administration every friend, and
challenged the admiration OF every oppo-
nent. The bells should have been rung, the
bon-fres blazed, and huzzahs have rent the
air-as the throb of hope pulsated through
the fevered veins of our nation. No such
thing. 1t was nothing but bold attempt
to perpetuate power, at the hazard of rev.
olutionary war in the North and protracted
war in the South. For as surely as the
great States of New York, New Jersey,.
Pennsylvania and the Northwest, are over
DOluC ny bHC SOdlillOi vi JilCoC DdStaIu
States and rotten boroughs South, with
New England abolition, SO surely will the
tocsin of inevitable necessity sound the
alarm of resistance throughout the land.
The people may sleep now, drugged by the
opiate of temporary prosperity, but the ex-
element of the Presidential election will
stir to its very depth the popular disatfee-
tion, and in wild saturnalia the vessel of our
hopes may founder forever in sea Of
blood.
The pretence of the President is to recon-
struct the Union. Where didh get his au-
thority to build anew-what we can never
agree has been destroyedY Is it part of
the war power, or the pardoning powerP It
is the ''best mode the Executive can sug-
gest, with his present impressions" VIII
any one point out the clause of the Consti
tuition which would even create an Empress
sion" that the Executive has the function
either of Supreme Law Giver, State Con-
structor or Supreme Dictator! His meek
ness in referring to Congress and the Ju-
dietary, the legality of his acts, after they
are accomplished, is piece of effrontery,
to which Louis Napoleon has not yet ar
rived. Where did this unfedged Caesar get
his warrant to create Sovereignty? a )
In discussing this plan, 1t would be sufs
ficient without questioning the right of the
President to construct States on condition
whether the conditions and terms are, wise,
practical and likely to do good. But pro-
pose somewhat in detail to discuss the Pres,
idents plan, in the following order: ~
1st the oath; I'd, the republican form of
the government to be reconstructed; Sd,
the question whetherthe State governments
in the rebel States are vital; 4th, some
wise and practical plan such as will aid
in restoring the Union under the ConstI-
tuition. SN ~. t-N.si' sl~s ~
/. The oati.---There is a sort Of otssms
historicum attached to all political, test oaths.
They are not original with the President j
They have been the bane and foil Of good
government ever since bigotry began and
revenge ruled. You cannot make eight 4
millions OF, people, nearly all IN revolt at
what they regard as the detestable usurpa-
tions of abolition, forswear their hatred 10
abolition. You force by this oath the freed
negro Into the very nostrils Of the South
ern man, whose submission to law you seek.
I The conditions Of the pardon only In
fame and do not quench rebellion. The
rebellion was In such q state when the ann
nesty was offered that il was golden op-p
portunity for magnanimous statesmanshipl
to proffer generous terms. An amnesty
based on another kind of oath III oathsyoti
would have that Heaven would not record
=. IL 4