The National tribune., 1909-10-21
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
CONTINUED from page one.)

firing slowly and with deliberate am.
The Alabama tried to disable the Kear-
sarge at long range with her great
Blakeley rifle, but the aim was bad.
and the kearsarge steamed up rapidly
to where her smashing 11-inch guns
could get in their fierce work. and i'm
mediately her trained gunners began
to show that they were worthy of their
predecessors in the War of 1872 Every
shot from the deep-mouthed Dahlgrens
struck the Alabama Ike a thunderbolt
and tore ragged gaps in her sides. 1t
was the same marvellous story as that
of the frigate actions between the Brit
sh and American ships in the War Of
1912, where an American frigate would
run alongside OF the best ship OF her
class in the enemy's navy, and in a
few minutes reduce her to a helpless
hulk by the superiority of her fire.
In less than an hour the Kearsarge
had the Alabama at her mercy. and
ranged across her bow with a raking
FIRE to complete the victory, when
Semmes hauled down his flag. and
shortly after the ship sank beneath the
water.
This brilliant success of the Kear-
sarge took a heavy weight from Presi-
dent Lincoln's mind, and cleared up
our foreign relations in the most de-
iightful way. 1t paid off a good many
of the old scores which our people had
been laying up against Great Britain.
and, somehow or other. the Courts of
st. James and the Tuileries began to be
oppressed by graver doubts than ever
as to the expediency of recognizing the
Southern Confederacy.
Lowering Political Skies.
The lack of decisive military success
brought its usual train of troubles in a
still more fragrant form. The arrest
and banishment of Valland CHAM had
only temporarily repressed the activi-
ties of the knights of the Golden Cir
Gle. They grew more audacious. more
numerous, more outspOken. with every
discouraging, saddening whisper that
came up from the South. They changed
the name of the military part of their
organization from I'm shts of the Gold
en- Circle to Sons of Liberty. American
Knights, Illinii, etc. But il was the
same traitorous organization all the
same. AT one time there were, accord
ing to reliable evidence, 10000 of
them in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Mis-
souri,. They were enrolled into regular
military companies. met periodically for
drill, and held themselves in readiness
for general uprising when some
crushing defeat should overtake Grant
or Sherman.
Nor was this the only fire in the rear
which President Lincoln had to en-
counter. 1t can hardly be said that one
member of his Cabinet, save Edwin NJ.
Stanton. was truly loyal to him. The
whole body of Washington politicians
and the majority of those thruout the
States We're more or less distinctly hos
tile to him. The politicians in WASH
ington are generally out of sorts with
the President of their own party, but
Lincoln had to meet more of this than
any other President, unless possibly
Grant Secretary Chase was openly
succession to President Lincoln, and
gathered around him a powerful clique
of politicians and newspapers. These
were sharply critical of Lincoln's every
act, either condemning the act itself or
Its manner of execution. Chase had
started out as Democrat, and con-
tinued to be Democrat to the end of
his days. He only left his party because
of its subserviency to slavery, and he
never ceased to hope that the Demo-
Gratis of the North would shake off their
connections with the Pro-Slavery ele-
ment, and unite with the moderate Re-
publicans to make him President He
had been Governor of Ohio and United
States Senator by such a coalition, and
he hoped until the day of his death for
a similar combination to carry him into
Still more disturbing was the attf-
tude of the radical Republicans and
Aboiitionists, who inveighed bitterly
and persistently that the war was not
being prosecuted with sufficient vigor:
that the destruction of slavery was not
made more radical and thoro feature
of 1t; that President Lincoln was too
weak for his great office, and that his
Administration had been guilty of all
manner of extravaganza, wastefulness,
corruption, fayoritism and heartless sac
rif1ce of human lives to no purpose.
The men who held this attitude issued
call 'to the radical men of the
Union" in pursuance of which a Ma
tional convention met at Cleveland,
May 81, 1864. This planted itself on
the principle that more than one term
as President should be denied any man.
demanded that the rebellion be sup
pressed by force of arms, slavery pro-
hibited by constitutional amendment,
that there be a constitutional amend
ment to elect the President and Vice
President by direct vote of the peo-
pie, and that the lands of the rebels
should be confiscated and distributed to
soldiers and actual settlers. Upon tn s
PLATFORM they nominated Gen. John C.
Fremont FOR President and John C.
COchrane for Vice President.
President Lincoln had apparently been
all unmindful of the many intrigues
and Vaccinations against his renomi-
nation. He was bent only upon prose-
cutting the war to victory, restoring the
Union, and so expressed himself and
acted on all occasions. 1t became nee
essary to issue another call for 3OO.-
600 more men, and to stimulate enlist
ments by an order to draft unless the
quotas were filled. 1t was ATTEMPTED to
dissuade him from this on the ground
OF political expediency, as II could not
heip hurting immensely his prospects
for denomination. He did not hesitate
a moment under the influence of these
arguments, but issued the CALL and or
dered the draft.
The National Convention.
The National Convention of the Re-
publican Party was held at Baltimore
June 8, 1864, and the interest of the
country was naturally intense as to the
nominee. Few of the leading politi-
clans and newspapers desired Lincoln's
denomination, and many OF them We're
outspokenly against it. The New York
Herald had tried to maintain an inde-
pendent position, was for awhile dis
tinctly opposed to the denomination,
and loud in its calls for a new nan.
Horace Greeley and the New York
Tribune changed mind from day to
day. sometimes being for Lincoln, but
more often for some new man VINO
would be more radical and aggressive
and more distinctly hostile to slavery.
Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky We're
loud in their opposition to Lincoln with
the arratic II fnyp