Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-11-19
From the Wisconsin State Journal.
For Eight YeaPs---What il Means.


The name of ABRAHAM LINCOLN is enrolled
amo"g the great men who, in the Presiden-
tial chair, have so won the confidence of the
American people that they have been marked
out for the distinguished honor of being twice
entrusted with the Chief Magistracy. Since
the days of ANDREW JACKSON no man has
been twice elected President until now.
Such recognition of the ability, fidelity,
patriotism and devotion which Mr.. LINCOLN
has exhibited in the discharge of the mighty
paraleled trial and difficulty, is an encourag-
ing evidence of the intelligence and stead
fastness of the popular masses, and a happy
augury for the future. oE
1t announces to the people of the insurree-
tionary States our unchanged and unchange-
able determination to make no terms with re-
bellion except absolute submission to the
Constitution and the laws. 1t tells them to
look for no change of policy, no wavering, no
relentment, but only vigorous, unremitting,
relentless war, with the whole power of. the.
National arms, until rebellion is crushed
and loyalty to the National flag is again iesr
tablished over every inch of the soil of the
Republic. . h ..,-xF 33s
A convention representing whatever there
was of baseness, of cowardice, and of treason
in the North met at Chicago, It represented
yetmofe, The programme, Of its proceed
ings was the productof joint delibegation be-.
tween Southern traitors and Northern sympa-
thizers meeting upon British SOIL That Con
vention said to the American people +" 1t is
stime,to stop fighting; 60 to the ballot-box
aud proclaim the DISSOLUTION of the Republic.
The war lisa failure let the, nation. commit
shicide.n And the American people respond,
not with all the indignant emphasis which
would have characterized their answer had
the proposition been presented in its naked.
enormity, instead of being as it was, care
fully and blandly. garmented in ambiguous
phrases, specious Acircumlocutions, false pro-
fessiens, and sdi u !&aN Z
"Argunsnts Of sne inposture."E ysb
But the answer is unmistakabie. '.No" shout
the people, if this great Republic must
die--if the inevitable hourShas ,come-ws
have some choice as to the manner of its
death. Let itnot fall, if fall it must, by a
craven suicide. Let itmest its fate il, a man.
ner worthy of its past history and worthy Of
its grand aspirations. Let itperish, if perish
it must, in an heroic struggle to maintain
itself overwhelmed by superior force but un-
conquered in spirit, going down like the glo-i
rious old .Caps6eglpad, her innsbruck flag still
waving aIoft, ths,symnpl Of indomitable and
deathless reseut.on.""1oa o. crane : S'oI'
b And the people know and feel that there
is no such melancholy alternative as rational
.dissolutieneby suicide or the ,suferior, power
of rebellion presented, The. Republic will
neither surrender nor besoverwhelned She
will not stoop her naughty forehead in the
dust, either at the dictation of rebels at the
South, or of their craven abettors at the
North. She never stood more proudly erect,
more firmly selfceatered, or felt "a more
auroral hope" than now, as, with barred arm
and defiant eye, she holds aloft the old flag,
and utters the inspiring battle-cry:
"FoR THE GREAT EMPIRE OF LIBERTY, For.
wARDin