The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1903-01-31

Ism OF the tine the bloody cue OF his
taxing OIL to mount the steeds and spur
the flanks Of vengeance. For Lincoln
entertained, with respect to the rehabi-
liation of the Union, the single wish that
the Southern States--to use his homely
phraseology should come back home
and behave themselves" and, II he had
lived he would have made this wish Of
fectual 70 which he seriously addressed
himself.
Ills was the genius OF common sense.
| Of perfect intellectual aplomb, he sprang
from Virginia pedigree and was born
IN Kentucky. He knew all about the
south, its institutions, its traditions and
its peculiarities. He was an old-line
Whig OF the school OF Henry Clay, with
strong emancipation leaning, never an
abolitionist ''If slavery be not wrong,n
he said, nothing Ii wrong,n but he also
said, and reiterated II time and again.
- have no prejudice against the South
ern people. They are just what we
would be in their situation. II slavery
did notnow exist among them they would
notintroduce IL. II II did now exist among
us, We would not INSTANTLY giveit up"
From first TO last throughout the an
cry debates preceding the war, amid all
the passions Of the war itself, not one
yindictiye, proscriptive word fell from
his tongue, or pen, whilst during It's pro-
gross there was scarcely a day when 1t
did not project his great personality be-
tween some Southern man or women and
danger. Yet the South does not know,
except as kind OF hearsay, that this
big drained, ,big-souled man was friend,
n friend ut court, when friends were
most in need, having tho win and the
power 10 rescue it from the wolves Of
brutality and rapine whom tho history Of
all wars tells US the lust OF victory, the
very smell Of battle, lures from their
hiding to prey upon the helpless, the
dying and the dead. Bat, poru5ing the
after-story of those dread days, Jcffer-
son Davis know this and died doing full
juftice TO the character Of Abraham
Lincoln.
Considerable discussion has been heard
latterly, touching what did and what did
not happen upon the occasion Of n ia
nous historic episode known as the
Hampton Roads Conference. That Mr..
Lincoln metand conferred with the Of
fetal representatives Of the Confederate
government, led by the yice-president Of
the Confederate States, when IL must
have been known to him that the Com
federacy was nearing the end OF It's re-
sources, 10 euflicient proof Of the breadth
both Of his humanity ana mis- patriotsm,
Yet he went TO Fortress Monroe prcpar-
, ed not only to make whatever conees-
. sions toward the restoration Of Union
TO make, but to offer some concessions
J which could in the nature OF the case
: go no further at that time than his per
! sonal assurance. His constitutional pow
! ers were limited. But he was In him
self the embodiment of the great moral
power.
r The story that he offered payment for
J the slavesso often affirmed and denied
: lis in either case but quibble with the
actual facts. He could not have made
, such an offer except tentatively, lacking
! the means to carry IL out. He was not
. given the opportunity to make it, be-
! cause the Confederate commissioners
, we're under instructions TO treat solely
/ on the basis Of the recognition Of the in
dependence of the Confederacy. The
: conference came TO naught. II ended
: where it began. But there is ample evil
: dence that he went to Hampton Roads
resolved TO commit himself TO that pro-
position. He did, according to the Off
cial reports, refer to it in specific terms,
having already formulated plan Of
: procedure. This plan required no veri-
fication. II exists and may be seen in
his own handwriting. II embraced a
joint resolution to be submitted by the
president to the two houses OF congress
appropriating four hundred millions Of
dollars ito be distributed among the
Southern States on the basis Of the
slave population Of each according TO the
census Of 1860, and proclamation to be
issued by himself, as president, when
this joint resolution had been passed by
Congress.
There can be no possible controversy
among honest students of history on this
point. That Mr.. Lincoln said to Mr..
Stephens. "Let me write Union at the
tep Of this page and you may write be-
low it whatever else you please" /" 10 re-
ferable to Mr., Stephens statement made
TO many friends and attestedby anumber
OF reliable persons still living. But, that
he meditated the most liberal terms, in
GLIDING payment for the slaves, rests
neither upon conjecture nor ayerment,
but on indisputable documentary proof.
1t may be argued that he could not have
secured the adoption Of any such plan;
but Of his purpose, and its genuineness,
there can be no question and there ought
to be no equiyocation.
Indeed, payment for the slaves had
been all along in his mind. He believed
the North equally guilty with the South
for the original existence OF slavery. He
clearly understood that the "irTepressi-
Bile conflict was conflict Of systems,
not merely sectional and partisan quar-
rel. He was a just man, abhorring pro-
scription; an old Conscience Whig, in
deed, who stood in awe Of the constitu-
ton and his oath of office. He wanted
to leave the South no right to claim
that the North, finding slave labor un-
rerhunerative, had sold its negroes to
the South and turned about and by force
~ or,,,e ooufiacatad what il had unload |