The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-15

of dealing with vital, living questions, they
60 back TO the dead past, and try TO have it
believed that the North aud the South are still
engaged in a contention about the questions
which were forever settled by the war. They
might as we'll stick spear handle in ths
ground and expect ii to bud and blossom, as
to think the public mind can be again inter
ested in the obsolete question of secession.
But if secession is no longer an issue, what do
the Republicans mean by their incessant
vituperation of the Southern whites as Rebels,
and of the Democratic party as their abetters
in rebellion 2
The turn which the supporters of General
Grant attempt to give to the canvass makes it
proper to recall the object for which the war
was prosecuted. On this topic there can be,
for Republicans, no higher authority than the
late President Lincoln. If the DemooEatc
party are rebels, then he was a rebel through
out his administration, and died an inoorrigi-
BILE rebel, plotting the very things which tue
radicals have been strenuously opposing ever
since his death. He made emauGi patton itself
entirely subordinate to the restoration of the
Union. He aided in reconstrucung Louisians
and Arkansas on a white basis. The last
speech he made was a strenuous protest
against undOing his work. General Grant and
Secretary Stanton both swore, last year, be-
fore committee of Congress, that President
JObnson's plan, as embodied in his North
Carolina prCclamatiOn-the model of all the
others-was the identical plan of Mr.. Lincoln,
and a copy from his draft The Democratic
party stand on the very ground occupied by
President JohnsOns predecessor; and when
ate mpts are made to identify their position
with that of the rebels, it is proper to recall
this fact, which eXplodes the aspersion, and
puts its authors to shame. Ii We are disloyal,
! we will force the Republicans to acknowledge
that we sin IN good company.
We ask those who pretend to revere the
memory of Mr.. Lincoln, and yet denounce
! Democrats as Rebels, to cansder the following
! language used by him in the second year of
the war:-"If there be those" said he, "who
wOuld not save the Union unless they could at
| the same time save slavery, | do not agree with
| them. II there be those who would not save
the Union unless they could at the same time
destroy slavery, | do not agree with them. My
paramount object in this struggle is to save
the Union, and il not either to save or destroy
slavery. If | could save the Union without
freeing any slave would do it; and if | could
do it by freeing all the slaves, | would do it;
and If could do it by freeing some and leav-
ing others alone, | would also do that. What
L do about slavery and the colored race, | do
because | believe it helps to save the Union;
ard what forbear, fOrbear because do not
believe it would help to save the Union.
shall do less whenever | shall believe what
am doing hurts the cause, and shall do more
whenever | shall believe doing more will help
the cause.''
The Union would have been completely re-
stored three years ago if the Republican party
had acted in the spirit of this patriotic utter
ance. The spirit of loyalty, as embodied in
the Chief Magistrate who conducted the war,
required the Union to be- restored at the earli-
est moment possible, and not to be delayed q
single day in behalf of the special interests o
the colored race. This was Mr.. Lincolu's doc
trine, and it is also the doctrine of the Demo
cratic party. When the Republicans accuse
us of standing where the Rebels stood in the
late war; we have triumphant reply in the
fact that we stand precisely where the leader
of the loyal cause stood in the late war. |
that position was consistent with his patriot
ism, why may it not be with ours
Another striking proof of the liberality with
which he was disposed to treat the Rebels i'm
mediately on their laying down their arms, il
found in the terms he Offered them when h
and Secretary Seward attended the famous
conference on shipboard, at Hampton Roads,
in February, 1865. Even the instructions tt
Mr.. Seward, which were written for the public
and intended as a screen or cover to Wha
actually took place, insisted on nothing be
yond the disbanding Of the Southern armies
and acquiescence in er ancpatiOn.
But we lay the chief stress on Mr.. Lincoln'i
last speech, just before his assassination, il
Xefense of the reconstruction he had begun il
Louisiana, and on the fact testified to by Gen
eral Grant and Mr. Stanton that Presiden
Johnson's North Carolina proclamation was
copied from Mr. Lincoln's draft. These proof
are the most important, because they SHOW
what Mr. Lincoln's mind was after the wa
, had ended, and reconstruction had become tn
! foremost problem in the national councils.
the Republicans will insist on going back Il
Mr. Lincoln's time, and identifying the presen
issues with the old questions, we are prepared
to give them all they want of that kind O
, controversy.