Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-05-23
Mr.. Liucoln's Views OF Resto.
ration Were.

WASHINGTON, D. C, Feb. rs, 1856.
Mr.. PRESIDENT Among the numer
GUS allegations made against you BY tn
ultra A~bolitionists, I hear none repeated
so often as this /: That you have desertet
the principles upon which you were elect
ed, and turned aside from the path il
which your lamented predecessor woulc
have walked if he had lived. 1t seems L
be believed by some, that Mr.. Lincoln
could have been used by the Radicals fol
all of their purposes, including the des-
truction of the Government, the overthrow
Of the Constitution, and the indefinite
postponement Of union and harmony
among the States.
I need not say to you or any well-in-
formed man that the masses Of that power
full party which supported Mr.. Lincoln
and you in the canvass of 1864, were sin
cerely attached TO the Union, and de.
voted believers in the Constitution.
They everywhere asserted that the OBJ
iect Of the war was to r~e-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 Of the Constitu-
ton in all the States.
II is true that the party included some
malignants who hated the Union, and
tried to destroy it before the war began
and their pretended love Of the Union du-
ring the wal was more than suspected to
be insincere and hypocritical. But they
kept prudently silent. Mr.. Thaddeus
Stevens was, TO the best Of my knowledge,
the only leading man il the party shame
less and imputent enough to avow his hos
,ility TO the Union. He was not the ex-
ponent of our views. as he represented not
even a fractional part of the honest mil
lions 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 wha, l know concerning the personal
sentiments OF Mr.. Lincoln himself, and l
claim now to be the same kind Of a Re.
publican as I was when I voted for him.
at his first and second election. l was his
partner in the practice Of law for a num-
Der Of years. I came here with him as his
special friend, and was Marshal Of this
District during the whole Of his Admins!
tratinn. Down to the day Of his death I
was in the most confidential and intimate
relations with him. I 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 restoration. I 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 a. 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 given
to q vigorous prosecution Of the war"
while the rebellion lasted; but he was
equally determined upon u vigorous
prosecution Of peace" as soon as an armed
hostility should be 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 CO.
roboration of this statement is needed. It
may be found in the fact that the ultra
Abolitlonists had actually begun the III
CRY against him before his death, and the
moderate men everywhere, North and
South. sincerely mourned his fall as a
calamity which deprived them Of their
best friend. II that inscrutable Provi-
dence, whose ways are past finding out,
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 denunciation Of his policy
as they are Of yours. Mr.. Stevens de-
mand for the head of "that nan at the
other end of the avenue" would not have
been one whit less ferocious." .
OF course he could not, and did not.
anticipate the precise shape Of the meas
ures which the Radicals might adopt to
prevent reconstruction. The Freedmen's
Bureau Bill, which recently met its death
at your hands, was not born in his life
time. But l pronounce it a foul Islander
upon his memory to assert that he would
have signed q bill so palpably in conflict
with the Constitution. and so plainly in
tended to promote the one bad purpose OF
perpetual disunion.
! did love Mr.. Lincoln with a sincere
and faithful affection. and my reverence
for his memory Is intensified by the horri-
BILE circumstances in 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 vindi-
cate his good name. II there be any in
suit upon his reputation which they
should resent more Indignantly than an
other, it is the assertion that he would
have been the tool and instrument in the
hands Of such men as those who now lead
the hear,less and ~unprincipled contest
against you.
I have the honor to be, your obedient
servant. WARD II. LAMoN.