American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-07-12

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, tion and slow resolve, when such huge
interests are at stake. That is for diplo.
matists and strategists Men do not stor
to calculate the odds, the chances, or the
dangers, when it is a question of resent
ing contumely, or defending the object
of their love. They did not wait to
be schooled to Q sense of their interests,
or duties, or the necessities of the times
any more than to the knowledge or the
use OF arms. 70 affirm, as has not been
unusual IN high places, that they require
to be educated by their rulers up 10 the
level Of such an occasion, is to ignore the
whole experience OF that memorable day.
whose manifestations took the doubling BY
surprise, and soutterly confouuded all the
calculations of the few amongst ourselves
who looked Tor, aud had promised divi-
ded North. The call itself was but re-
sponse to the popular desire, which had
anticipated it. The answer was aa assu
rance TO the Government that it would be
sustained IN every measure OF severity
that the crisis might demand.
Bat it was a still greater disadvantage
| to the new Executive that the full import
Of this rebellion was not even compre
hended by mauy Of those to whom he was
expected to look for advice, in a crisis
where the ordinary responsibilities OF the
ONCE were so much enlarged. Although
Its causes, its history, aud It's objects were
] obviously such as to render compromise
Rnpossible-although the leaders of the
volt had voluntarily Addicted their pIa-
oo' y the Government, an gone out from
u,' WIN they might have dictated their
Wv" ,o'N-and although they had con
So"i ..'..S pt.oo.uS spuruei every overture for
e - 'o'''o,hN,pd affected no clnceaIment
~ 1no'I ueePNEa.ed and i'm ,iaca1le ha-
,io' '"V ooiy Ut Nrselves, bui pf our very
lof'n oi Ant-there were still
"anSuine ana creuA us men in emmln,
Posltlrns, who belteva,Ihat the rebellion
could be suppresse | ihXI dnv.-no, NV
\ war, but by dipIomacyAst by strkiny
al its causes, but by ignorih, yhem-nn7
by furnishing its authors, baAbv indul-
glng them-not by a changeSr ,ncas.
ures, but by persistence in the w. noL
icy that had brought it on. In TIN iow
Of men like these, every forward step\,s
fraught with danger Even the simh
aud obvious proposition to repeal the lla
hat made the capital Of free nation the
home and market Of the slave, and the
/ fruitful nursery of the rebellion itself,
was represented as so full Of mischief, at
such time, that the President himself
was almost staggered by the shadowy
forms of terror that were evoked to stay
his hand If lie had yielded to them,
we should not have reacl ed the great
measure of tine proclamation for at least
another year, if ever 1t met the same
resistance as the other, but the practical
good sense of the President, backed up
aud fortified by the high courage and uu
answerabln logic of az least one member
Of his Cabinet, at length ayermastcred alI
these Influences and the great charter OF
the black map w,.z produce before them
as a .nea are upon which he had already
privately Determined, upon his own re
sponsibiiiry TO the nation. 1t is due 70
the Just fame of Abraham Lincoln that
the world, instead Of dividing the honor
OF the act with other possible claimants
in future times, should know how little
he WAS aided in the task-how much ol
opposition he was called upon 10 neet--
and how much of moral heroism that lc,
involved. 1t was no trifiHg disadvantage
certainly to new and Impractical states
man, in position of such unusual respOn-
sibility, To be surrounded with men Of
weak nerves, who had not the courage to
face the exige@cy. which their own couu-
se.s had pleciptated. The occasion call
ed for intrepid statesmen as well as gen.
erals who, with just confidence IN the
people, instead Of stopping to calculate the
possible odds, and betraylug hesitation
thab-at. .east resembied fear, and thereby
throwing away all the advantage which
the possession of the Government gave
them, would have struck at once and with
lightning Ike rapidity at the very heart
oi the rebellion. The sublime respOn e
which the people had already made, was
an assurance that they could be trusted.
1t was a sore trial too for them to see
their fiery legi0ns condemned to stagnate
in inglOrlOus repOse until, In some Instan
| CSS, lileiT tel us VI stINlCb htlc dpfiO Ca
piring, while their very capitol was be
leagured by an lnsolent banditti, whom
they could have swept like chAf before
them. Nogovernmeut in the world could
have survived it but our own, and it is
+ no marvel therefore that some of the most
enlightened statesmen of Europe, educa
ted in the traditional notion that the dem.
ocratc idea was delusion, and that q
government like ours, though formidable
in external wR, was helpless for self-con
servation, and must fall prey to the first
intestine CONFUSION, and reasoning from
the abject condition aud low intelligence
OF the people around them, should have
hurried to recognize the rebels rs beilig
.erents, and staked their regulations on the
, opinion that the great American kepub
, lc, the wonder and terror of the world
and the standing reproach of all It's mon
archies, was rent irreparably in twain
DO not speak of this now as a thing tt
be regretted. 1t seems as though, in the
providence of God, it had been intended
not only to cleanse this land of its grea
sin, but to confound the unbelievers in
the high capabilities and lofty destinies o.