The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-02-21
HE GOES no wAsHrNaroN.


left Springfield, which for quarter of a
century had been his happy home, to the
crowd of his friends and neighbors whom he
farewell: g. know not how soon / shall see
you again. A duty has devolved upon me,
greater than that which has devolved upon
any other man since Washington. He never
would have succeeded, except for the aid OF
Divine Providence, upon which he at all
times relied. On the same Almighty Being
Iplace my reliance Pray that I may receive
that Divine assistance, without which i can
not succeed, but with which success is
certain" To the men of Indiana he said
am but an accidental, temporary, instru-
ment; it is your business to rise up and pre-
serve the Union and liberty" At the capitol
of Ohio he said: Without name. without
a reason why I should have name there
has fallen upon me task such as did not
rert even upon the Father of his country. y
At various places III New York, especially at
Albany before the Legislature, which tender
ed him the united support of the great EN-
pire State, he said: While hold myself
the humblest of all the individuals who have
ever been elevated to the Presidency, / have
more difficult task to perform than any Of
them. bring true heart to the work. /
must rely upon the people of the whole coun-
try for support; and with their sustaining aid
even I, humble as I am, cannot fail to carry
the ship of State safely through the storm. =
To the assembly of New jersey at Trenton,
he explained shall take the ground I
deem most just to the North, the East, the
West, the South, and the whole country, in
good temper, certainly with no malice to any
section. am devoted to peace, but it may
be necessary to put down the foot firmly
In the old Independence Hall of Philadelphia
he said 81 have never had feeling pOlti-
cally that did not spring from the sentiments
embodied in the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, which gave liberty, not alone to the
people of this country, but to the world in
all future time If the country cannot be
saved without giving up that principle,
would rather be assassinated on the spot than
surrender it. / have said nothing but what
am willing to live and die by"
IN WHAT STATE HE FOUND THE COUNTRY.
Travelling in the dead of night to escape
assassination, Lincoln arrived at Washing
ton nine days before his Inauguration The
outgoing President, at the opening of the
session of Congress, had still kept as the
majority of his advisers men engaged in
treason had declared that in case of even an
imaginary" apprehension of danger from
notions of freedom among the slaves, "dis-
union would become inevitable" Lincoln
and others had questioned the opinion of
fancy such impugning he ascribed to the
"factious temper Of the times" The favorite
doctrine of the majority of the Democratic
party on the power of territorial legislature
over slavery he condemned as an attack On
6 the sacred rights ofprepesty." The State
Legislatures, he insisted, must repeal what be
called their unconstitutional and obnoxious
enactments," and if such Were MOI declared
null and void" it would be impossible for
any human power to save the Union Nay |!
if these unimportant acts were not repealed,
the injured States would be justified in re
evolutionary resistance to the Government of
the Union" He maintained that no State
might secede at its sovereign will and pleas
ure that the Union was meant for perpetuity !;
and that Congress might attempt to preserve,
but only by Cancellation; that 1.-The sword
was not placed in their hands to preserve it
by force" that " the last desperate remedy
of a despairing people" would be AN ex-
pianatory amendment recognizing the de-
cision of the Supreme Court of the United
States" The American Union he called "a
confederacy" of States, and he Thought it
duty to make the appeal for the amend
ment before any of these States SHOULD
separate themselves from. the Union."-
The views of the Lieutenant General, con-
tanning some patriotic advice, conceded the
right of secession" pronounced quadruple
rupture of the Union "a smaller evil than the
reuniting of the fragments by the sword"
and "eschewed the idea of invading sece-
ded State" After changes in the Cabinet,
the President informed Congress that mat
tiers were still worse; that 1.-The South suffer-
cred serious grievances" which should I've re-
dressed in peace" The day after this mes
sage the flag of the Union was fred upon
from fort Moultrie, and the insult not reyen-
ged nor noticed. Senators in Congress tele-
egraphed to their constituents to seize the
national forts, and they were not arrested
The finances of the country were previously
embarrassed. Its little army was not within
reaeh-the part of it in Texas, with all its
stores, was made over by its commander to
the seeding insurgents. One State after an
other voted in Convention to go out of tho
Union. A peace congress, so-called, met at
the request of Virginia, to concert the terms
of capitulatien for the continuance OF the
Union. Congress in both branches sought
to devise conciliatory expedients the Terri
tories of the country were organized in man
ner not to conflict with any preAensions of
the South, or any decision of the Supreme
Court; and nevertheless, the seeding States
formed at Montgomery provisional gsyesn
ment, and pushed their relentless prrpose
with such success that the Lieutczant Gen
al feared the city of Washington might find
itself Included in, a foreign country, !" and
proposed, among the options for the cDnsid
Grafton Of Lincoln, to bid the secfsAed States
"depart in peace" The great RepuBlic SEEM
ed to have its emblem in the vast safinished
Capitol, at that moment surrounded by mas
ses of stone and PROSTATE columns never yet
lifted into their places; seemingly the mon
ument of high but delusive aspirations, the
confused wreck of inchoate mn@niticence-
sadder than any ruins of Egyptian Thebes
or Athens.
HIS INAUGURATION.
The fourth of March came. With instinct
i've wisdom, the new President, speaking to.
the people on taking the oath of office, put
aside every question that divided the coun-
try, and gained a right to universaHsupport,
by planting himself on the singS idea of
Union. That Union he declared tn be I'M
broken and perpetual; and he annOznced his
determination to fulfill ''the simple duty OF
taking care that the laws be faithfully execu+-
ted in all the States" Seven days hter, the.
convention of Confederate States unnimous
ly adopted a constitution of their own and
the new government was authoritativcly an
nounced to be founded on the idea tbat slave
~ is the natural and normal condition of the
negro race. The issue was made up whether
tho erreof Reuullic WAC IN rnainfafu IFS 1,rf-