The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-11-19
.haracter were of Il nature to disarm

VI ucI, lCSS FlISlctlVe. InuuSCflOllS,
pains taking, domestic, full of quaint
good humor, striving with limited
knowledge or capacity to do what
seemed best at the moment, thrust
into the midst of difficulties almost
beyond the grasp Of human intellect,
he struggled on-as he termed it in
his homely language, ''pegging away"
until the world saw that under an
uncouth exterior there was a large
fund Of shrcwd sense and mother-wit.
with an entire absence of malice. :
instructive sense of this led all to
shudder at his fate. He was an I'M
tutored child Of nature, and the man
ner of his death seemed an outrage
on nature, on mankind. But now,
that expression has been fully given
to these feelings, we must not permit
truth to be sacrificed. As President
Of the United States, the rule of Abra-
ham Lincoln stands wholly apart from
personal qualities, good or bad. That
rule is proper matter for criticism,
and must stand a keener test than
that Of sentiment. Respect is net to
be paid to the memory of the dead by
fulsome praise or justification of his
tory. Unfortunately, it is a proverb-
ial expression, ''to lie like an epitaph;'
but no such license may be used
where great principles and the tles-
tlnics of millions of people are ut
stake
President Lincoln was another cx-
ample of that deplorable rule. long
enforced by the exigencies Of the
Union, which practically excludes all
able and eminent men from the Pre-
sidential Office. Mr.. Seward, the pro-
per chief of the Republican party,
was passed over, rs in other times
Clay, Webster and Calhoun 70
prevent Il disruption of the party, it
was necessary to nominate a person
unknown even by name to the inf
mite majority of the American people
Mr.. Lincoln was therefore chosen us
usual, not by virtue Of his eminence,
but by virtue of not being eminent.
He was by birth Southern man,
Kentuckian /; his wife was also South
ern, some of her relatives being on
the Confederate side throughout the
war. He entered upon Office uncon-
trolled by q popular decision. If,
indeed it might be said that any
leaning of the public mind could be
detected, the majority in the North
appeared to have rcconcilcd them
selves to peaceful separation, and
leading politicians, such as Mr.. Sc
ward and Mr.. Everett, had expressed
their adherence of the idea of she'd
ding their brothers blood. The Cot
ton States had seeded, but the great
Border States, with Virginia at their
head, clung ;.nXiously to the Union.
The history of the United States af-
forded a valuable guide in this emer-
gency. The Union had been broken
up before, peacefully. Two of the
States were out of it for quite two
years, at the end of which time, find
ing their isolated condition intolera-
BILE, they re-entered the fold. Now,
SO long as the Border States remained
with the Union, twas hardly possible
for the Cotton States to Aorm an an
tagonistic power that could endure.
Not only the vast resources of the
North, but the greatest of their own
sister States would have been against
them, Had statesman been in office
ut Washington he would probably
have spoken thus ''I hold that your
action is wholly wrong. [ believe
you have no warrant for it in the
Constitution, no just cause in any
fact that has occurred. Try the ex-
pertinent, however, if you are resolved
to do so. It has been tried by North
Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, who
fonnd it not to answer Meantime /
must take such measures for sclf-pro-
lection as Judgment may direct ; but
unless attacked I will not lift one
finger to shed the blood of my fellow
citizens" Had this course been
taken, it can hardly be doubted that
the Union would have been restored
in much less time, without bloodshea,
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