Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-11-03
Count GaSpaFin on American. Politics.
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Frenchman who has exhibited s. much inter
est in the American struggle, s.. intimate a
knowledge of Ger institutions, ana such hearty
friendship AMI sympathy for the rAuse of our
nationality, has written long nd earnest
letter, addressed to the American people re-
specting the approaching Presidential cleo
ton.
We have room for but an extract or two,
which will suggest the spirit and significance
Of the whole. 1t is proper to say that the
Count is by no means prej1diced against Ne
CLELLAN as man, and regards him as the
most worthy of all the candidates favored by
any considerable number of the opposition
1t is as the representative of a reactionary
and ignoble peace movement that he opposes
him. After abiding to the Baltimore and
Chicago platforms, he says that both declare
for the maintenance of the Union and only
di fer as to the means! He then adds:
While Mr.. Lincoln announces that the war
will be energetically prosecuted, Gen. Nc
CIellan gives us glimpse Of an armistice
and the opening of negotiations.
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testabIe exhaustion.of the South leaves no
doubt concerning the results that would thus
be obtained Perseverance, that American
virtue, should be the motto of the North, as
it is that of Gen. Grant. See what perseve-
rance has already accomplished: through
sometimes striking defeats, through offensive
vicisitudes and momentary invasions that you
have had to endure, you have always advanc-
ed, and what you have taken you have never
lost Perseverance has carried back your flag
into all the insurgent States, without excep-
ton; perseverance has reconquered the Mis-
sissippi and New Orleans; perseverance has
taken Vicksbuag; perseverance has taken
Atlanta; perseverance will take Richmond.
Aud 1t IS proposed to you not to porsevere!
Is it not persevering to offer an armistice
and open negotiations. Upon what basis
The authors take care not to tell you, for they
are anxious to trumpet loudly the word peace,
oeitbout artjc,doting tie conditions OF peace.
Abiding to the charge that Mr.. LINCOLN
has suppressed liberty Of speech and the free
dom of the press, he says:
Here is a government engaged in an armed
struggle with the most formidable rebellion
of which human annals make mention this
rebellion took its rise in a vast treason for
which the way had been paved by goodly
number of those who were directing affairs
at the moment when Mr.. Lincoln was elected.
1t had for its almost constant point Of support
complexities which betrayed to the South the
secret Of the operations meditated against it
at the moment when the South was most in
need of efficient aid, there arose, now resis.
tance to the CONSUMPTION, then the hideous
and bloody New York riot, then manifestos
designed, as it seemed, to restore courage to
the rebels, and announce to them that the
war could not be sustained. Well, this gov
eminent, thus attacked, has not suspended for
a single day the national liberties. We
receive the America journals, and we
know whether they are restricted in
mbicb at times confoomds as, the policy of
Nj Lincoln, his person, his intentions. Have
not both houses Of Congress sat every year
during long months, and have not their dis
cussions taken place in broad daylight Have
the legislative assemblies of the seperate
States been subject to an exceptional regime?
Have the parties that divide America lost the
right of conyoking immense meetings, and Of
discussing there all the interests of the coun-
try? Have men ceased to speak, to publish,
to organize? We Europeans have not per-
celved it. Those immense conflicts of
public opinion that mingle with the noise of
Of battles; that political existence that is
maintained entire through an unexampled
crisis, that supreme reign of the Constitu-
ton, the law, of liberty, which the extreme
peril of the nation has not suspended-all
these strike US with establishment, and | con
TESS, with admiration.