Year: 1864

Campaign fOr the Presidency.


The year Of our Lord 1864. from -, the indi-
cations around US, will, by the future historian
q hundred or thousand years hence, be marked
as embracing the most momentous and COM
prehensive events, military and political, in the
annals of the United States. We are upon the
threshold of a military campaign in which is
involved decisive triumph Of the Union cause
or disastrous failure and . political cam
paign is before us which may inaugurate
new epoch of national unity. prosperity and
power, or reign OF chaos and terror.


First in order and importance is the grand
struggle Of the war upon which we are about to
enter; for upon its results the Presidential con-
test will be shaped and determined Even in
the interval to the Baltimore June Convention
agreat victory over the rebellion or great dis
aster may completely break up all the existing
plans, combinations and estimates of Presi-
dent-making politicians on all sides, and pre-
cipitate a new organization of parties, new
candidates and new issues for the national No
vember election. All the energies of the
loyal States and their people should accord
ingly be brought now to bear in support of
Gen. Grant and our brave armies under his
command. The crisis demands the union Of
the North in decisive prosecution Of the war,
and warns US Of the dangers Of political dis
fractions and divisions while yet the issue of
the war remains to be settled.


We have, however, some half dozen politi-
cal factions at work, mining and countermin-
ing, plotting and contemplating, and wrang
ling with each other over the anticipated spoils
and plunder of the Presidential succession, as
If the overthrow or the success of JEFF. Davis
were secondary question. Most prominent
among these disturbing factions is that of the
ofice-bolding and shoddy republicans, marshal
led under the banner of President Lincoln.
Their name is legion, and their ravages are like
those of the locusts of Egypt; but their aims
and objects are not those Of the great body Of
the people. Next we have the Chase repub-
lican faction, extensively composed of outside
advocates Of the doctrine Of rotation in Office,
and the zone term principle" Then como the
hungry democracy, divided into two factions
the war faction, qualified with numerous
s'buts" and "i's," and the peace faction, whose
adherents stand ready at the tapsof the drum
to stir up reign of blood and carnage in the
North in order to secure the blessings Of peace
to Davis and his confederacy. And then we
have the radical German Fremont faction,
largely made up Of philosophers of the old
European liberty, equality and fraternity"
school, and dreamers of the near approach of
the millennium.


How are these discordant factions to be
quieted for a month or two? We answer by a
proclamation from President Lincoln-not o
negro, an amnesty or new draft proclama-
ton; for we have had enough of these-but
proclamation announcing to the country his
withdrawal from the field as a Presidential
candidate, and appealing to his friends to drop
politics for season and unite heartily with
him and Gen. Grant in the paramount work Of
putting down the rebellion. Such proclama-
ton will strike terror among the rebels and
the shoddy politicians; but it will be hailed
with delight by the masses Of the people. In
the next place, let Honest Old Abe deal
magnanimously with Gen. Mcclellan and Gen.
Fremont. by placing each in some active COM





each will insist upon being withdrawn from the
Presidential agitation. Thus not only will the
war democrats and the Fremont faction be
pacified, but that old political fossil, Amos
Kendall, will be permitted to retire to the
shades Of oblivion, where he properly belongs
In short, the retirement Of Mr.. Lincoln from
the Presidential field is the one thing most
needed to secure the fusion of all parties in the
North in support Of the war.


We would earnestly call upon him, there.
fore, to issue the patriotic proclamation sug-
gested. In his present position he stands as
the head and front Of the disorgsnizing cleo
tioneering factions Of the day. This is not a
position becoming his grave responsibilities
and the wants Of the country at this crisis He
cannot possibly make . mistake in gracefully
retiring; but, on the other hand, in adhering to
this one idea of another term, he may in the
end discover that he has committed the un-
pardonable blunder Of bis administration.
Meantime, however, let the patriotic people
of the loyal States, through their primary as
semblages, denounce these premature wrang-
lings over the Presidential succession, and the
factions concerned, including word Of whole
some advice to Abraham Lincoln, and let them
solemnly appeal for the temporary fusion Of all
parties in support Of General Grant and the
war, and possibly even Old Abe himself may
regard these expressions Of public opinion as
something too serious to be answered by q
smutty joke.


The ENTERPRISE OF THE WEsT.-While New
England, with its puritanical notions, It's ex-
trems selHshness and its disbolical hatred
Of everything outside Ito limits, is fast
losing its prestige for enterprise and
public spirit, the Great West is advancing
L L.. H. IL - L.