Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-05-29
Mr.. Lincoln.

Commenting upon paragraph which
appeared In the Dispatch last week, the
Staunton Spectator says
s'The war upon the South was not made
to free the negroes, and no such purpose
was entertained by the Administration
when the war was inaugurated; but it was
for the purpose of enforcing the Federal
laws in the southern States and the pre-
vention of the secession of any OF them
from the Union this it was and pothing
more till Lincoln became convinced that it
was military necessity, and if he had not
been thus convinced he never would have
issued his emancipation proclamation. In
that opinion of its dire necessity he may
have been mistaken, but that opinion is
what Influenced his action"
Surely the Spectator does not mean to
say that the condition of things of which 1t
speaks justified Mr.. Lincoln in emanci-
pating the negroes. The ''dire necessity"
was one of his own creation. If he had re-
fused to make war upon the southern
States he would have had the pleasure OF
seeing all the seeded States compelled by
public opinion to renew their allegiance to
the Union. Virginia, for example, had
shown clearly before Mr.. Lincoln called
upon her for troops that q majority OF forty
thousand of her voters were in favor OF re-
naming in the Union. In word, the
Union feeling was so strong in the southern
States and the benefits and advantages OF
the Union so clearly recognized by the
southern people as whole, that we do not
believe single State would long have re-
manned out Of the Union.-Rich. Dispatch
We do not see how the purpose of the
paragraph of the SPECTATOR quoted by
the Dispatch could be misunderstood, and
particularly that it could be understood as
iustifying the action OF Lincoln. The pur'
pose was to show that the war upon the
South was not inaugurated for the purpose
of emancipating the negroes, as they have
been taught to believe, and that Lincoln
had no idea of emancipating them till he
became convinced that it was necessary t6
do so 10 save the Federal forces from de-
feat, and that whether he was right OF
wrong in that opinion, yet it was that con-
yiction which influenced him to issue his
emancipation proclamation. He careo
nothing about emancipation except as
means to weaken the South and save the
Federal armies from defeat. If he hat
thought that he could succeed in preserving
the Union without the emancipation of the
negroes, he never would have issued hi
proclamation of emancipation-this is evi
| dent from his own declarations, even al
reported by his partial historians Nicholay
and Hay in the Century Magazine.
The views expressed in the paragraph
above copied from the Dispatch are the
views we have always held and maintained
for we felt assured that if the 'waywart
sisters had been allowed to depart in peace,
that it would not have been long before
they would have been asking to be allowed
to return. If that policy had been adopt
ed, as it should have been, and if it hat
been known beforehand that it would be
there never would have been more than tw'
seeding States, and probably not NOR
than one, for, like Virginia, the othe
southern States, though they believed the.
had the right to secede, we're opposed t
doing SO, for they did not consider it
remedy for the evils of which they justl
complained, but thought it would aggra
vate them, and deemed it better to bea
the ills they had than to fly to those the
knew not of.