The National tribune., 1901-10-31
THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR.


ended in the election of Abraham Lincoln
Very many of the shrewdest thinkers %
the country believed that its victory woulC
he the certain destruction of the youns
party. 1t was coalition of men of the
widest divergence of views on public
questions generally, and only united in op
position TO the farther extension of slav
cry. 1t was made up of Democrats and
| Wings, who had fought each other al
their lives, on every issue, from internal
improvements to Tariff and National
Bank. Even on slavery there was an al
most antipodal difference. A very large
portion would have done nothing worse to
slavery than re-enact the Missouri Com
promise, giving everything south of 360
So to slavery, and making all soil north
of that free. They would have given adj
ditional guarantees that slavery should be
protected where it already existed, and
the great mass Of the party would not
have disturbed it there. At the opposite
extreme were the radical Abolitionists,
comparatively few in number, but very
active and vociferous, who. would instant
ly wipe the blot of human bondage from
the Nation.
Only the war and LincOln's genius con-
tinued the Republican party.
South Carolina promptly answered Lin
coins election by the bold bluff of passing
the Ordinance of Secession, and the other
cotton States prepared to follow.
This produced wild confusion, not only
in the ranks of the Republican party, but
among the loyal Democrats. Horace
Greeley, editor of the most influential Re
publican paper, wanted to let the ''erring
sisters go in peace" and very many men
of light, and leading openly recognized
that the Union was dissolved, and began
suggesting new divisions.
Col. a. h. Mcclure, who had great op-
portunities for familiar acquaintance with
the feeling at those times, has recently
asserted very positively that but for Jeff
Davis's folly of firing on Fort Sumter
there would have been no war, and the
Southern Confederacy world have estab-
lished itself.
We do not believe this at all, but Col.
Mcclure correctly represents belief COM
mon among many prominent men.
Thus the last two months of 1860 passed
away.
The last two months of 1861 saw a
change that the most extrayagant could
not have prophesied. The sickeling I'M
certainty Of the past year as to whether
the people cared enough for the Union
to fight for it had been gloriously dis
PEELED by The wonderful uprising all over
the North and West. An army of 600,
900 was in camp in long line stretching
from Fort Monroe to the middle of New
Mexico. Against this the rebels had about
300, 900 men in battle array.
We had gained some initial skirmishes,
by which West Virginia and Missouri
were detached from the Confederacy, and
held TO the Union, and Kentucky was re-
garded as reasonably safe. We had suf-
fered the humiliating defeat of Bull Run,
the sickening disaster at Balls Bluff, and
a sad loss in the death of Lyon at the
drawn battle of Wilson's Greek, but we
were in high hopes of what our army
would do us soon as it should be ready
to move forward.
Hopeful enthusiasm and determination
had replaced the sickening despair and
doubt of the year before, and the untried
of Abraham Lincoln was
its enemies by its wisdom
and vigor. Lincoln's genius for leadership
had welded the discordant Republican
party into a mighty political engine.
The closing months of 1862 saw us
plunged in gloom. Our giant army had
not crushed the rebellion, as was conf
IDENTIFY expected. 1t had won great vic
tories, it had reached to within a few
miles of the rebel capital, Norfolk, Nash
vile, Memphis and New Orleans had been
taken and were still held, but the rebels
had gathered themselves up again, invaded
Maryland in the East, and run US back
to the Ohio in the West. The bloody
battles of Antietam, Perryville and Stone
River had been indecisive; II 900 men had
been sacrificed to no purpose before Fred
ericksburg, and Sherman had sustained a
bloody repulse before Vicksburg. Five
hundred thousand more men had been
called out, and the exhausted combatants
were now resting and preparing for new
The closing months of 1868 saw the
prospects for the Union much brighter,
Dul dlSt ItNtditu IUe Oh lllt
work yet to be done. Gettysburg and
Nicksburg had been stunning blows for
the Confederacy, and put an end to the
menace Of foreign intervention, but the
rebels had made a savage return blow
at Chickamauga, which had been glorious
ly reversed at Chattanooga. We were
now firmly holding a large part of the
sO-called Southern Confederacy, but as
much more remained to be conquered.
The closing months Of 1864 saw the be-
ginning of the end. Sheridan had at last
disposed of the troublesome Shenandoah
Valley, and destroyed the army defending
it. Sherman had made his march TO the
sea, and taken Savannah, and Thomas had
destroyed Hoods army before Nashville.
1t was only a question Of short time
when Grant would do the same with Lees
army.
The year 1865, therefore, dawned very
and its early months saw
for the first time in the long, weary years
the most sanguine Of the hopes Of the pa
triots fulfilled. The year closed with US
graphing the problems of Reconstruction.
LET'S SEE ABOUT THIS.