White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1911-02-12

should exist in one state and not in
another; that evil could be partly
good, and good partly evil. If slay-
cry was right, it was wholly right, if
it was wrong, il was wholly wrong.
With the eonsummate skill of a
master, Lincoln drove Douglas from
one position to another; shattered
his hold upon the South; destroyed
the confidence of the North in his
sincerity, and left him a national
figure ithout a following and one
whose race was run.
The climax of the debate was
Lincoln's declaration that a house
divided against itself could not
stand, and his question whether, in
the opinion of Douglas, the federal
government had the power, under
the Constitution, to exclude slavery
from the Territories? 1t was a
startling question. If Douglas an
swered in the affirmative. he lost the
South, If he answered in the mega
tive, he lost the North. The result
was as Lincoln had ~foreseen, his
great antagonist threw away the flu
ture for a present advantage, while
Lincoln yielded the moment and
gained eternity. Who can ever for
get the pathos of his life when Lin
coin simply said with me the race
of ambition has been a failure, with
him it has been a splendid success.
Everybody expects Judge Douglas TO
be President, nobody believes that |
will ever be President"
Throughout the debate, Lincoln's
appeal was more to the South than
to the North, as he tried 10 recall his
own people to their sense of duty
before the stern necessities of war
should desolate the land. He hated
slavery with all the vigor of his ma
ture. but he sought to reclaim the
slave holders by every concession,
short of principle, which the nation
could yield. To Lincoln the Union
was everything, to the preservation
of which even slavery must be sac
rificed. His election to the Presi-
dency in 1860 was the direct result
of the conflict of 1858. America,
even in those days of internal strife,
was still the land of opportunity.
Within twenty-five years from the
I'm ~ 3tdoth W NC a L
laborer, he was President of the
United States, called to the exercise
of more power than any sovereign
since Napoleon has attempted to
WELD.
1t may perhaps he said thai the
darkest period of his life was the
stretch of four months between the
date of his election and his inaugu-
ration. He vas committed to the
preservation of the Union. Without
knowing, or caring TO know, without
a proper understanding of his aims,
heedlessly and impetuously. the
South had embraced secession. Lin
coin had not promised to destroy
slavery, he had no intention of in
t%erfering with the economic condi-
lions of the South, nor to break up
its domestic arrangements. He had
thought that slavery would itself
reach a position of gradual extinc-
ton by the purchase of the freedom
of the slaves by the government
Emancipation was not involved in
the contest, except as the South it.
self involved 1t, and with Lincoln il
was always compensated emancipa-
ton. He realized the South of 1860
had inherited its slaves, that il had
grown up under a system for which
1t was not responsible but which had
come to it from generations of the
past. And he knew the South had
itself in the earlier days, against the
opposition of New England, attempt
ed TO wipe out the stain of slavery.
In hta hrnaI aharf9xy onl lN,1 -w.,
of justice. Lincoln shrank from the
infection of suffering upon the
southern people. either through the
loss of property for which he ear
nestly sought to pay. or through the
calamities of war. which he was
strenuously struggling to prevent.
But it's attitude admitted of nc
accommodation and it attempted to
force the recognition of its program
by the destruction of the Union. TIC
this mad policy was the greater err
ror of the establishment on this con-
tinent of a distinctive slave power,
with an Independent government OF
its own, by the folly of making one
people strangers and aliens. Day
after day, during this period of the
most melancholy forebodings, the
administration of Buchanan, quietly
and reasonably, continued to un-
dermine the foundations of the re-
public. 1t is doubtful if history can
produce a parallel for the perfidy
and cunning; for the shameless be-
trayal of trust, which characterized
the last months of that administra-
tion. There is something SO sinister
in covert treason, so despicable in
him who betrays, hat the hearts OF
men instinctively recoil in horror.
Lincoln knew the strength of the
Union was slowly ebbing away, al.
ready he felt the blows that were
struck against its existence and he
saw armies made ready to attack il.