The Pleasantville press., 1912-10-09
WILSON ON LINCOLN.

the Republican national commit
tee, has issued the following:
At this time, when the negroes
throughout the United States are
celebrating in various ways the
fiftieth anniversary Of the first
proclamation of emancipation
and when the Democratic candi-
date for the presidency, Woodrow
Wilson, is appealing to the peo-
pie Of the western states to sup
port him, 1t is fitting that the
chairman of the political commit
tee organizedto further the cause
of the candidates of the Repub-
lican party for president and vice
president should call attention to
an expression of opinion by Gov
ernor Wilson at period in his
career when possibly he never
dreamed of being candidate for
a political office.
That expression of opinion was
made in his capacity of historian,
and it adds to the cumulative tes
timony that he was until he be-
came candidate and that he is
now un-American in his views OF
public questions and at heart
contemptuous Of more than one
class of American citizens and
out of sympathy with their aims,
their purposes and their beliefs.
1t was on Sept. %, 1862. that
President Lincoln issued proc
lamation giving formal notice
that unless the southern states
returned to their allegiance to
the Union within a hundred days
he would declare the slaves with
in their borders free, and it was
on the 1st of January, 1863, fol
lowing, that a definite proclama-
ton Of emancipation was issued.
OF this crowning event of the ca
reer Of the immortal Lincoln,
Woodrow Wilson says in his
History of the American Peo-
ple,' written forty years after
ward:
"The proclamation when 1t
came was no law, but only his
(Lincoln's) deliberate declaration
Of policy for himself and for his
party, and changed, as he meant
that it should change, the whole
air Of the struggle and of politics
as we'll"
1t is safe to say that not even
the most radical RECONSTRUCTED
southern man would attribute to
Lincoln this motive which it re-
NAMED for the historian Wood
row Wilson alone to discover,
that Lincoln abolished slavery
to further his own political ambi-
tions and those of his political
party. The statement adds proof
to much already at hand that
Woodrow Wilson forty years aft
er the war was and presumably
still is devoid of sympathy for
the motive and results of the
civil war;
The quotation from the Demo
craticcandidates writings proves
that he is not a reliable historian
ncr a fair commentator. 1t goes
to show what has been often as
serted, that Governor Wilson is
not at heart an admirer of or
believer inAmerican institutions,
as his other writings and speech
es show that he is not a eulogist
of American industries nor a d<-
fender of American labor. He
continuously ISLANDERS millions of
adopted citizens from abroad
who have become good Ameri-
cans. He sneers at trade unions.
and apparently he would If he
could close every American mill
and buy In foreign markets, be-
cause tn the first place he is an
aristocrat born and bred and be-
cause he wants the American
people to buy where they can
buy the cheapest.
Everything that can be learned
about Governor Wilson from his
writings. from his speeches and
from his manner of living indi-
cate that he is not the type of
man who can successfully appeal
for the support of the American