North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1866-04-11
The Views Of MIR, Lincoln ON the scheme
Ofthe DlaHnionistss

views of Mr.. Lincoln on the RADICALS AND
the question of restoration has been address
ed to President johnson by ex-United
| States Marshal Lamon, Mr.. Lincolns init
mate friend and former law partner:
Mr. PREsIDENr-Among the numerous
allegations made against you by the ultra
Abolitionists, | hear none repeated SO often
as this-that you have deserted the princi-
pies upon which you were elected, and
turned aside from the path in which your
lamcnted predecessor would have wake if
he had lived. 1t seems to be believed by
some that Mr.. Lincoln could have been
used by the Radicals for all their purposes,
including the destruction of the Govern
ment, the overthrow of the Constitution and
the indefinite postponement of Union and
harmony among the States.
| need not say to you or any well inform
ed man thae the masses of that powerful
party which supported Mr.. Lincoln and
you in the canvass of 1864, were sincerely
attached to the Union and devote believers
in the Constitution. They everywhere as
serted that the object Of the war was to re-
establish the Union with the least possible
delay, and one of the resolutions of the
Baltimore Convention pledged you both to
restore the paramount authority ofthe Con-
stitution in all the States. 1t is true that
the party included some malignants who
hated the Union and tried to destroy it be-
fore the war began, ,and their pretended love
of the Union during the war was more than
suspected to be insincere and hypocritical
but they kept prudently silent Mr.. Thad.
Stevens was, to the best of my knowledge,
the leading man in the party shameless and
impudent enough to avow his hostility to
the Union. He was not the exponent of
our views, and he represented not even a
fractional part of the honest millions who
cast their votes, spent their money and
shed their blood to bring back the govern
ment of their fathers.
All this you know. write now to tell
you what | know concerning the personal
sentiments of Mr. Lincon himself, and I
claim now to be the same kind of Re-
publican that was when | voted for him
at his first and second election. | was his
partner in the practice of law for num-
Der Of years. | came here with him as his
special friend, and was Marshal of this
District during the whole of his admins
tration. Down TO the day of his death, /
was in the most confidential and intimate
relations with him. knew him as we'll
as one man can be known to another. |
had many and free conversations with him
on this very subject of reconstruction
| was made entirely certain by bis own
repeated declarations to me, that he would
exert all bis authority, power and infu-
ence to bring about an immediate recon-
struction between the two sections of the
country. As far as depended upon him,
he would have had the Southern States
represented in both Houses of Congress
within the shortest possible time.
All the energies of his nature were Civ
! en- to a vigorous prosecution of the war
while the rebellion lasted, but he was equal
" determined upon a vigorous prosecution
of peace, os soon as armed hostility was
ended. He knew the base designs Of the
Radicals to keep up the strife for their own
advantage, and he was determined to thwart
them. As he himself told me very often,
if any corroboration of this statement is
needed, it may be found in the fact that
the ultra Abolitionists had actually begun
the outcry against him before his death. and
the moderate men everywhere, North and
South, sincerely mourned his fall as Ca
lamity which deprived them of their best
| friend. If that inscrutablc Providence
whose ways are past'f finding out, had per-
mitted his life to continue until this time,
there can be no doubt that the Northern
disunionists would now be as loud in their
denunciation of his policy as they are Of
yours. Mr.. Stevens demand for the head
of THAT man at the other end ofthe avenue"
would not have been one whit less ferocious
Of course he could not and did not antici-
pate the precise shape of the measure
which the Radicals might adopt to prevent
reconstruction. The Freedmen's Bureau
bill which recently met his death at your
hands was not born in his life time; but I
pronounce it foul slander upon his mem
ory to assert that he would have signed a
bill so palpably in conflict with the Con
stitution and so plainly intended to pro-
mote the one bad purpose Of perpetual dis
union.
did love Mr. Lincoln with a sincere
and faithful affection, and my reverence for
his memory is intensified by the horrible
circumstances under which his high career
was closed. Now that death has disarmed
him of the power to defend himself, his
true friends should stand forth to vindlcate
his good name. Ifthere be any insult up
on his reputation which they should resent
more Indignantly than another, it is the as
sertion that be would have been the fool
and instrument IN the hands of such men
as those who now lead the heartless and
unprincipled contest against you.
have the honor to be, your obedient
servant, WARD III. LAMoN.