Daily national Republican. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1862-1866, 1866-01-11
THURsDAY:::::::;:::::JANUARY IL, 1865.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND ANDREW
JOHNsON-THE POLICY OF RE-
CONTRIBUTION.

CONTRADICTION.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President Of the Uni.
ted States, and Commander. in Chief of the
Army and Navy thereof raised armies and
increased the naval force for the sake Of pre-.
serving the States and saving the Union. He
invaded those States upon land and block.
AIDED them by sea for the purpose of crush.
ing out" treason from their midst, but not
with the intention of Destroying tie State,
tcith the crime.
Treason existed rs q disturbing element in
each State precisely in the same sense that a
disease infects the human body. Mr.. LIN.
coins course was an exact parallel to that
OF the physician who seeks to prescribe q
remedy for disease in order that the human
body may be saUed and become healthy. The
treatment is generally governed by the char
actor Of the disease and the condition Of the
patient. II the cause Of the infection Is sg.
q gravating, the remedy must be more power.
full, even ifit requires the amputation Of a
limb to save the life.
diseases desperate grown,
BY desperate appliances are relieved,
Or not at ALL
Mr.. LINCOLN did not intend that the REM
edy should be worse than tho disease, else
he would have given no protection to the
Southern people, but would have invaded
with the torch as well as the sword and ex-
terminated instead Of displaying the olive
branch wherever his victorious armies
marched or his vessels of war sailed.
The disease which infected the Southern
States was treason. The infecter purposed
the destruction of those States. President
LINCOLN sought to destroy the infection and
the injector, and thus save the States. To
accomplish this, he moved his armies and
naval ships with orders to his commanders to
strike only the disease, and to protect the
healthy part of the body. Hence the armed
traitors were pursued and routed, and killed
and wounded, and cities, towns, and villages
were captured, until we conquered whole
States. As fast as this was done sufficiently to
warrant the constitutional convalescents to go
alone, Mr.. LINCOLN gave them permission to
put on their "easy robes of peace" and walk
forth in stately attitude, though pale and
sickly did they appear.
Thus Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, and
Virginia, were recognized as having suff-
GENTLY recovered from the reasonable infec-
ton as to be able severally to resume the
functions of States IN the Union, not out Of
the Unioni nor as so much loose territory lay.
ing around nmOTganiEd.
Mr.. LINCOLN always discarded the doc
trine that traitors could break up this Union
The momen: 1t is admitted that the rebellion
has taken a State out Of the Union, that
moment it is conceded that the Union has
been disSOIUed, and that traitors have done it.
The disease was scattered through the re.
bellious States to destroy the Union. The
remedy now attempted to be applied by
honest but impracticable men is worse than
the disease, for it recognizes the power of
rebels to break up this Union whenever they
please. Mr.. LINCOLN never believed in such
an absurd doctrine. In all his State papers
he speaks of restoring the STATES. When
he dispatched his SECRETARY OF STATE to
Fortress Monroe to confer with the agents Of
the arch-traitor, Mr.. LIScoLS's first indis-
pensible requirement was 1.-THE RESTORATION
or THE NATIONAL AUTHORITY THROUGHOUT
ALL THE STATES"
With these hastily-written remarks we
now ask the careful attention of our readers
to President LISCoLN's last legacy to the
American people, printed upon our outside
to-day. TWAS thoughtfuIIy prepared, care
fully written, and with unusual particularly
did he revise the proof as II appeared in the
NArIoHAL REPUBLICAN, two days before no