The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-06-12
letters to the editor
Lincoln.
Editor The Advertiser:

EDITOR Inc advertiser:
Professor Memories cites in your col
umns today with exactness of truth, in
eidents in the revolutionary conduct of
President Lincoln and your comment
On the Professors letter, is instructive.
.tion in statecraft? The fact of
neglect of education in statecraft
among am 18th, the =. present generation of
able because of the native genius of
our people. II unshackled, in the art of
free government. But only set out to
say that MIR. McMorriess letter and
your editorial are each and both val
liable literature in the high field of pol
itical science.
Was President Lincoln a friend of
the South He was as much so as any
man might be who could not or would
not see that unless the argument of the
South survived. the Federal Constitu-
said on the floor of Congress it has be-
come. of no value in practical govern
ment. Only the other day, Associate
Justice Harlan said from the bench
that the Supreme Court instead of &C
cepting its own function had assumed
to amend the Constitution to suit a
cause at bar"
Mr.. Lincoln was 4 very great leader
of tremendous revelution-the great
est social and political revolution of
the ages.
That he changed opinions and varied
his policies in prosecution of his one
design, was n part of his greatness
1t is hardly speculation to say that but
for him there would have been no APP
pomattox.
President Lincoln. at different times
during the war, proposed to pay for
was his policy to preserve the integ-
rity of the Union There are some for
gotten facts along this line. On the
night of April 10, 1865, a vast and ex-
cited crowd assembled in front of the
| White House to serenade President
Lincoln in honor of Appomattox, which
had occurred the day before. The late
| William Crawford Bibb of Montgomery,
had been sent to Washington by Gov
ernor Watts to interview Mr.. Lincoln
on a project of exchange of cotton at
Alabama soldiers. Mr.. Bibb stood d.
rectly in front of the President when
he came out to address the crowd. The
speech was extremely pacific: After
| the President spoke, son of Secretary
of State, w. H. Seward, read from
an upper window of the White House
the proclamation of the President call
ing on all the Southern States to as
semble their Legislatures, to elect mem
berS of Congress and return to the
Union just as IL nothing had occurred
On April nth, the day following, Mr..
Bibb, by pre-arrangement, met with
the President privately in the White
House. The interview was lengthy and
nation should have been published in
the morning papers, but that various
persons (radicals) had called on him
to insist that the publication be de-
Iayed. Congress was not in session.
He consented to a brief delay, but
he assured Mr.. Bibb, 1t would be. pub
ton was never published
On the night of April IA, the Presi-
dent was assassinated. Mr.. Bibb has
left over his own signature record of
conspiracy was formed to muir
der the President to prevent the
publication of the proclamo ton and
that the conspirators Were men in high
place
That is not all Horace Greedy in
his Tribune made the serious sugges-
tions of conspiracy. He pursued the
idea with so much energy that Stanton,
Secretary of War, who was suspected,
retained the greatest criminal lawyer
in New York to prosecute Greedy
The files of The Advertiser contain
Stanton's correspondence with his New
York lawyer.
Mr.. Lincoln told Mr.. Bibb in answer
to categorical question, that not
hair of Southern man shall be hurt
if I can help it," What will be
done with the slaves?" asked Bib.
Left with me" was the prompt reply.
L would pay for them"
We have got to realize that the real
objective of the war was, the restora-
ton of .--e tariff. by which the manu-
featuring States could keep Europe out
of the Southern markets Under the
Walker tariff. of 1916, the South was
trading with Europe and growing rich
faster than the North. Mobile sent
nearly one third of her cotton direct
to Liverpool in 1S59-60. That course of
trade had to be stopped. Mr.. Lincoln
was one of the .ortnern leaders who
cared nothing for the negro. His OBJ
ject was me consolidation of the gov
eminent and empire. To that extent.
he was foe to the South. To that
end he bent all his energy.
j. w. D.