Year: 1863

The question, Who sh all be the next President
of the United States begins press on all minds.
IL is ia fact the grand question of the winter.
Military movements will be suspended for some
months, and political movements will occupy the
attention of the people. Congress will be at
at the great privilege and duty of the CITIZEN the
discussion of public measures, and the determi
nation of the future public policy.


If il were possible O. throw aside entirely all
party prejudice and partisan feeling, and look
coolly and calmly on the Presidential question:
it would certainly do every man good to spend an
hour OF two in such an exercise. II would be
well to ask what sort of man shall he be, rath-
er than who shall he be2 What shall be his
principles, his style OF abilityf There are some
points on which all men will agree who have the
nations interest at heart. There are Others on
which they all ought to agree but about which
there is doubtless some difference of opinion.


He ought to be man. By this we mean
that he ought not to be any man that has been
mixed pin Washington politics, plunder and in
trigues, who has been debauched and destroyed
by those influences which surround Office holders
at the Capitol. If men looked on the character
OF those whom they select for rulers, 10 be in
trusted with their gravest interests, carefully
as they look on the character of clerks they en-
ploy in ;heir Offices, or the men to whom they
| lend money or trust their fortunes, they would
choose rulers elsewhere than among the men who
| have made politics at the national capital their
trade for years. 1t is of now 70 tel us
that we want men OF experienre. We wasd men
OF honesty and ability, and there is not man of
that measure in America whose experience during
the past three years has not just as well fitted
| him for the Presidency that OF any person now
at Washington. The grand desideratum is man
who is wholly out of the ring which exists at
Washington to-day, very much one existed,
few weeks ago, in New York city politics 1t
would be fatal error to elect, next fall, any
man now involved in the intrigues OF that ring.
| 1t would be terrible error to place power, for
/ four years to come, in the hands of any man
whose interest it is to draw the veil OF secresy
over the history OF the present Administration,
TO continue its contracts, and to carry out its
measures without question No. let the next
President be a new man.


| He should be man Of youth and vigor of
mind. He will be called on to direct the pacif.
cation OF the people and the restoration to pros
perity of this afflicted nation We cannot emerge
from the terrible scenes surrounding us without
r convusion well nigh equal TO that which at
tended our entrance into them. lt has been
! comparatively easy matter for President to per-
form nOmnally the functions of his Office during
the war. 1t will be ten fold, hundred fold,
harder to perform them at its close. Why hesi-
tate to express the exact truth which is in every
/
nor his Administration has fought this war2 1t
has fought itselfl We have drifted, drifted,
drited from battle TO battle, from experiment to
experiment, from accident TO accident. The
army of the people has been in the field, and the
politicians at Washington have had no more con
ceptioD, three or six months ahead, what would
be could be the state of affairs than they have
had of the condition of affairs in the next cen
tury. A war can 60 on for years in this way.
l.
demands strength and vigor of intellect, clear
appreciation of military matters, and mind
awake to every possible emergency and its re
quirements great man, a strong man, a
yo6bg man, all these should be the character.
istics of the leader of the American people who
is 70 rescue US from the present calamities.
! He should know how to lead armies and to
achieve peace the grand OBJECT of Is
| there any one who has failed to mourn the igno
rance of military affairs at Washington If he
would but have the wisdom not TO interfere in
military affairs, but to leave them entirely to
soldiers. then indeed it might not be necessary
| that he should himself understand war But we
/ are now to choose a man who is 20 be command
err chief of the American army and in a of
magnitude unsurpassed in the whole history of
nations We are hot yet at the end of that war
| 1t stretches far away in the fature Shall we
| allow il TO proceed heretofore, with constant
|
overthroWing of campaigns by the interference of
civilians, and the terrible continuation of folly
through which it has been rolling along? Mr.
Lincoln chooses his Generals We chose him.
| He is the appointee of the people Ii they had
expected that be was to be commander-in-chief
in a great war. it Is hardly probable that they
would have fixed on him the man. But
the future is toleraby visible. Il is a future of
war. Nor is it by any means certain that the





end. Foreign complications. into which this Ad-
ministraton has allowed us to drift. remain un-
settled The mailed tread OF French armies
shakes the continent. Who can foresee the future
of unhappy Americal Let US choose Presi-
dent with our eyes open to the grand which
his administration must in all human probability
direct


Let him be a man of refined Christian heart
The whole country ought to unite in this desire
Where is the conscience of the men. who ooast
their civilization, who will to morrow appear i'm
their pews as Christian worshippers. who yet dis
regard this grand requirement in the character of
their political leaders and make no distinction in
voting between profane, infidel men, and men
who believe in responsibility TO God and in liv-
ing up to that responsibility. Let one mistake
US. We do not mean TO mingIe religion with
politics, nor TO make the question OF church
membership a question of votes. But we say
ana cnallenge contradiction tDat IL Is most I'M
portant question in choosing a President of the
United States-whether he is man over whose
life the refining effects of Christian education
and associations have shed their influences tor
good. We have been sufficiently often called to
fasting and to thanksgiving for the nation &c feel
that the hand of God is in the who.e matter of
fate If it be our duty-and who doubts it?-
thus 10 recognize the nterposition Of the Divine
hand. il IS certainly most desirable that our re-
cognitiOn should be something more than mere
formalities and spasmodic demonstrations. But
more than all this. this war must be brought to
successful end, if at all, by the of such means
as the highest civilization and Christianity de-
mand We cannot escape that truth Men may
1 endeavOr tn win success by barbarism, by re-
vengelu feelings, by the 6ercest exercise of hu-
man passions. when. after ALL it is plain as the
sunshine that we shall never the end until the
gentle and holy influences which are born of true
Christianity shall calm the tempestuous hearts of
men and give US peace We need a man who
shall be strong for action, skillful as a leader,
free from the malgn influences of old political
bonds in the Capitol. who shall know how to con-
duct war 30 that its success shall be peace and
that not the peace OF death or jesolation, but
peace on the principles of Christianity aud civil
ization.


Letter of ur. vaIlandigham To the


Sanitary Fatr at Cincinnati