Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-04-18
rnE aEws FROM SENECA.

The following was read before the
library association by Mrs. o. #. Bacon:
Character Sketch of Abraham Lincoln
Compared to That of Stoneman, alius
Tbadens Stephens:
Abraham Lincoln came upon the scene
of American history at a time when the
nation was going through the most try
ing experience of its life. During his
administration the Southern States,
eleven in number, seeded from the
Union, led by our own beloved, hot
headed State of South Carolina. Per-
haps no othsi circumstances less trying
could have developed the splendid traits
of character of this great statesman. OF
humble parentage, native born Ken.
tuckian, Ii was natural he should have
felt sy mpathy for the South, as he was
one of her sons, and have dealt out to
her that justice which she 30 richly de-
served and which the Republican party
saw she received very little c!. Lincoln
steered the chip of State with clear
brain and steady hand. Had Congress
sustained him in his mild concilatory
measures toward the South much suffer
ing and injustice could have been
of Congress, representing the Republican
party, was Stoneman, alias Thadeus
Stephens, as he figures in the Clansman.
Stoneman was man of great genius;
nature had given him brilliant mind in
a deformed body. His vast intellect was
used to carry out his ideas of policy
by which the rebelious Southern States,
or Provinces, (he scorned to call them
States) should be utterly crushed, claim
ing that they had lost all political rights.
He instituted series of reconstruction
acts by which he meant to utterly subdue
the South, for he exclaimed in one OF his
interviews with Lincoln, 81 mean to
wipe out the South; it is conquered soil"
When Lincoln asked him the reason for
this unnatural hatred, he refused to give
it, admitting, however, a personal griev-
ance, which in later years he confessed
to be the destruction of his iron mills by
Lees army as it ma, ched through Penn
syivania. These mills consisted of most
of his property, and when he saw them
consumed in flames he then and there
vowed undying vengeance on the South,
which he carried out to the letter. Part
of his policy toward the South was to
disfranchise the white owners, give the
ballot to the negroes, their former slaves,
arming and organizing the negroes into
troops and giving them authority over
the whites as military for the States, to
keep the whites subdued and humiliate
them-a terrible vengeance, one that in
the end rebounded on its author. He
had not counted on the reviving
spirit of these down-trodden Southerners,
spirit that might be overwhelmed by
mum bers, not conquered in it's true sense.
And so the clan secret societies sprang
into existence to put down negro rule
and regain white supremacy, which, by
working together in unison, they sue
ceeded in doing. Stoneman saw his
boasted system of reconstruction acts, so
far as the ballot and negro militia were
concerned, fail right under his eyes-a
just punishment for his cruel revenge on
noble people. How different in spirit
from Abraham Lincoln, who said in his
second inaugural: with malace toward
none, with charity for all, with firmness
in the right as God gives us to see the
right, let us strive on to finish the work
we are in; to bind up the nations
wounds; to care for him who shall have
borne the battle and for his widow and
children; to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations"