The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1866-04-19
The Views of Mr.. Lincoln on the Scheme
of the Disunionists.


The following important letter on the
views Of Mr. LINCOLN on the radicals
and the question of restoration has been
addressed to President JOHNSON by ex-
United States Marshall LaaoS. Mr. LIN
COINS intimate friend and former law
partner:
Mr.. PRESIDENT: Among the auner-
Gus allegations made against you by the
ultra aboiitionists, hear none repeated
SO often as this-that vou have deserted
the principles upon which you were
elected, and turned aside from the path
in which your lamented predecessor
would have walked 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 government, the
overthrow of the Constitution, and the
indefinite postpo nement OF union and
harmony among the States. | need not
say TO yoa or to any well informed man,
that the masses of that powerful party
which supported Mr. Lincoln and you in
the canvass oil 1851 were sincerely at
tached to the Union, and devoted be-
lievers in the Constitution. They ev
erywhere asserted 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 para
mount authority Of the Constitution in
all the States.
1t is true that the party included some
malignants who hated the Union and
tried to destroy it before tbs war began,
and their pretended love of the Union
during the war was more than suspected
to be insincere and hypocritieal, but
they we're kept prudently silent. Mr..
Thaddeus Stevens was, to the best of
my knowledge, the only leading man in
the party shameless and impudent
enough to avow his hostility to the
Union. Hewas 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
government of their fathers. All this
you know. / write now to tell you what
| know concerning the personal senti-
ments of Mr.. Lincoln himself, and l
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 the
law for a number of years. l came here
with him as his special friend, and was
marshal of the district during the whole
of his administration. Down to the day
OF his death, l was in the most eonfiden-
tial and intimate relations with him. l
knew him as well as one man can be
known to another. l had many and free
conversations with him on this very SUBJ
ject OF reconstruction.
| was made entirely certain by his own
repeated declarations to me, that he
would exert all his authority, power and
influence, to bring about an immediate
reconciliation between the two sections
of the country. As far as depended up
on 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 given to vigorous prosecution of
the war while the rebellion lasted, but
he was equally determined upon
vigorous prosecution of peace, as soon
as armed resistance could be ended. He
knew the base designs of tue radicals to
keep up the strife for their own advan-
tage, and he was determined to thwart
them. AS he himself told me very of
ment is needed, it may be found in the
fact that the ultra abolitionists had actu9
ally begun the outcry against him be-
fore his death, and the moderate men
everywhere. North and South, sincerely
mourn his fell as a calamity which de-
priyed them of their best friend. If that
inscrutable Providence, whose ways are
past finding ont, had permitted his life to
continue until this time, there can be no
doubt that the Northern disunionists
would now be as loud in their denunci-
alton of his policy as they are of yours.
Mr.. Stevens demand for the head of
''tllat man at the other side of the avenue
would not have been one whit less fero-
cious. OF course he could not and did
not anticipate the precise shape of mea
sures which the radicals might adopt, to
prevent reconstruction. The Freed
men Bureau bill, which recently met
its death ut your hands, was not born in
his life time; but l pronounce it foul
SANDER upon his memory to assert that
he would have signed bill SO palpably
in conflict with the Constitution, and SO
plainly intended to promote the one bad
purpose of perpetual disunion.
| did love Mr.. Lincoln with sincere
and faithful affection, and my reverence
for his memory is intensified by the hor-
ribIe circumstances under which his
high career was closed Now that death
has disarmed him of the power to de-
fend himself, his true friends should
stand forth to vindicate his good name
IF there be any insult upon his reputa-
ton which they should resent more in
dignantly than another, it is the asser-
ton that he would have been the tool
and instrument in the hands of such
men as those who now lead the heartIess
and unprincipled contest against you.
have the honor to be your obedient
servant, WARD Fl. LAMoN