Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1875-08-18

Lincoln Always spoke Words Rsdt.
ant with Conviction and Hope.
1t does ones soul good to peruse the
calm, hopeful, gracious words of Mr..
Lincoln during the great struggle for
national life. His state papers and let.
ters were read with the greatest avidity
and deepest interest around the home
firesides and the camp fire during the
war, and his utterances led inflexibly
to conviction in the Judgments of men,
and the warmest outbursts of the pat
riotic heart in approval. His words
invariably cheered the patriot and
nerved him to renewed energy. Amer
lean citizens to day read his sayings,
and rise from the reading with q
warmer side towards the grand and
noble features Of the Republic and the
purity and nohlcness of soul of that
truly great man who uttered them.
August Goth, 1863. no met at the hands
chiefly OF the Democratic party, floods
of abuse and threatninge, because of
his act of Emancipation and because
he proposed 10 give the colored man q
chance TO fight for the Union. He bore
all patiently and calmly, as was his
wont he uttered no words of bitter
ness in reply; he parted assaults by
kind, simple words, containing mas.
terly arguments, against which the
waves of passion and prejudice,
though set in motion by men of the
most renowned, ability, beat in vain.
Always right. no was irresistible. In
that letter Of August 1868, he talked
to his opponents and 10 the country as
follows:
:" You say you will not light to free negroes.
| Some OF them seem willing to light for you; but
| no matter. Fight you then, exclusively to save
che Union. l issued the proclamation on purpose
| to aid you In saving the Union. Whenever you
shall have conquered oil resistance to the Union,
IL shall urge you to continue lighting, 1t will be
an apt timo then for you to declare you will not
fight TO free negroes. thought that in your
struggle for the Union, to whatever extent the
negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that
extent 1t weakened the enemy In his resistance
to you. Do you think differently? / thought
Whatever negroes can be got TO do as soldiers,
10 ayes just so much less for white soldiers to do
In saving the Union. Docs 1t appear otherwise to
your But negroes, like other people, act upon
motives. Why should they do anything for us.if
We will do nothing for them7 II they stake their
lives for rs. they must be prompted BY the strong
est motives, even the promise Of freedom. And
the promise, being made, must be kept.
1.-THE signs look better. The Father Of Waters
again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the
great Northwest for Il nor yet wholly to them,
Three hundred miles mp they met New England,
Empire. Keystone, and Jersey hewlng their way
right and left. The Sunny South, too, in more
coiors shan one, also lent helping hand. On the
spot, their part was j0tted down In black and
white. The job was Q great national one, and lie.
none be sighted who bore an honorable part In
1t. And while those who nave cleared the great
river may well DO proud but that Is not all 1t is
hard to say that anything has been more bravely
end well done than at AntIetam, Murfreesboro,
Gettysburg, and on many fields Of less note. Nor
must Uncle Sans web feet be forgotten. At oil
the watery margins they have been present. no,
only on the deep see, the broad bay aud the rapid
| river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and
wherever the ground was q little damp they have
been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For
the Republic for the principle 1t lives by and
keeps alive-for mans vast future-thsnks to all.
'Peace does not appear 30 distant a. It did /
hope II will come soon, and come to stay; and so
come as to be worth the keeping for all future
time. 1t will have then been proved that among
freemen there can be no successful appeal from
the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take
such an appeal are sure 70 lose the case and pay
the cost. There will he some black men who can
remember how with silent tongue and clenched
teeth andsteady eye, and we'll poised bayonet, they
have helped mankind to this great contamination,
while fear there Will be some white ones unable
to forget that with malignant heart and ieceitful
speech they have striven to hinder 1t.
''Still let us not DO over sangnine ofs speedy,
final triumph. Lat Us he quite sober. Lat US
diligently apply the means, never doubling that .
Just GOD. in his own good time. will give us the
fightful result.