The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-06-03
Allu5ing 70 the assassination of Lincoln,

Abiding to the ASSASSINATION OF Lncoln,
he said
with scarcely an exception, and none
- ali among the brave, the Confederates, |
even in moments OF EXTREMIST charity, re-
oarded the assassin of Lincoln as, at best. |
= mailman who, after absenting himself
from the battlefield when his bayonet
might have done service, had the temerity.
as well as the moral atrocity, to obtrude
himself and his petty imaginary grievances,
or his love of notoriety into the settlement
of great questions (casting, also, a shade
upon his honorable ancestral name), by de-
priving them as well as all others of our
country, Of the wise, firm and humane
chief magistrate who could most success
fully have conducted that reconstruction
which all felt TO be the one great need of
the American Union"
Drawing picture Of the terrorism, pri-
vate assassinations, and massacres which
once followed the wars of Europe, he said:
But the history Of our own civil war
presents but single victim Of an over
wrought sense of justice, or of burning
thirst for vengeance of an atrociOus crime
and even IN that case. the innocence of
Mrs. Surratt has found its boldest and
ablest defenders among the magnanimous
lawyers and soldiers of the cause which she
was accused Of betraying.
Remarking upon the conduct Of the
great leaders Of the Confederates, and of
the masses, at the close Of the strife, he
said:
THE doubts of timid statesmen were re-
/ ooIo -, IL
were hushed into silence by the conduct Of
the great mass Of the Confederates after
the defeat Of their cause. The lynx-eyed
diplomacy of the United States watched,
for time, the few whom stern pride, rath-
er than any apprehension OF personal peril,
had led into exile. But it soon discovered
that Americans, who had risked their lives
on the battle field, scorned to be conspira-
tors haunting the ante-chambers of for
eign cabinets, to plot against their native
land; and that among those exiles exhib-
iting American skill, energy aud persever-
ance in the business pursuits Of private
life, it could find, when occasion presented
itself, its firm friends and steadtast sup
porters.
AT home, too, how noble was the con-
trast they presented when compared with
others, of whom history tells us, who took
the losing side in civil war Instead of
continuing the contest by wild guerilla
warfare. they at once, like the Union sol
diers, DOTTED the military garb to return to
useful pursuits With few exceptions they
and their leaders refused to linger around
the grave of dead past, wrapping them
selves up in the cloak of dismal memories,
and bowling incantations to evoke the
ghosts of defunct political ideas. They
advanced boldly into the sunlight of the
, actual present, ready to show, in both pri-
vate and public life, that they were legiti-
mate scions OF the great American race,
pre- eminent for its practical common sense
as well as for its manly fortitude in adver-
sity. Nor did their chiefs in general fail
to exercise that greatest Of talents an IN
successful leader can exhibit, during the
transition period before the inevitable OBJ
llvion Of past discords-a talent for 81
lence'
And OF the emancipated, he said
History gives scarcely an example, il
any, of a war conducted with intent to
emauciPate subjected class, in which that
class has not sullled the common cause by
domestic instruction with its customary
accompanying horrors. To the eternal
credit of our 'cOlored brethren, as we OF
the South have always delighted to call
them, our new citizens are not indebted
for their present privileges to any massacre
Of those with whom in their former rela-
tons they had associated from childhood
: Both races are honored, and to great ex
tent acquitted Of the disparaging charges
formerly brought against each, by the fact
that whenever the American freedman
mingled in the strife it was on lawful bat
tle-helds, and not with the torch or knife
in homes tenanted by women, graybeards
and children"
What a rebuke are these utterances to
those who plowed down the graves of ., OOC
, (('nptipunI ~, tk;rrt \