Mr. Forney of the Philadelphia Press, knows men and parties in this country as thoroughly as any other man and his views are justly entitled to a consideration in all matters of political expediency. – What he says in the following paragraph of on his recent letters, however, carries with it intrinsic force, to all men who can read the signs of the times:
“The republican party can be the party of the whole country, now that the democracy has fallen into the hands of the Breckenridge leaders, if the wise and weighty counsels of such men as W. Pitt Fessenden of Maine, and John Sherman of Ohio, are heeded and acted on. I say of the whole country, unless we acknowledge the justice of secession by recognizing the theory, (Mr. Sumner’s) that the revolted states are, by the compelled action of a dominant minority, out of the Union forever, in which case the whole secession domain would revert to the federal government, and the great object of the war, the restoration of the Union would be postponed or defeated. – Indeed immediate peace, whether honorable or not, must follow upon the heels of any such idea as the recognition of cession, by the passage of a law subordinating the seceded states into territories. This much at all events, seems to be certain. The republican party has been most successfully vindicated against the charge of sectionalism since Mr. Lincoln’s election to the presidency – Chosen by the northern states, his very first act was to prove his obligation to the whole Union, and his friends in Congress have proceeded upon the same idea. The Breckenridge leaders anxious to recover power, charge that Mr. Lincoln and the republicans do not wish to see the Union restored. Under this allegation and in the midst of loyal professions they had their sympathies with the traitors in arms, and awaken partisan prejudices. The common sense duty is to defeat this crafty scheme. Remember it is not the highest statesmanship to dissipate prejudices against the republicans in the South, but to hold secure possession of the confidence of the North and northwest. Divided in the latter, the Breckenridge organization would rush in between the contending republican factions and reassume its tyrannical and intolerant ascendency. It may by years before the cotton states can be fairly sealed to the Union; and during that interval the republicans should have all their intellects and experience about them, so as to loose nothing when the time of reunion has arrived.”
– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862
“The republican party can be the party of the whole country, now that the democracy has fallen into the hands of the Breckenridge leaders, if the wise and weighty counsels of such men as W. Pitt Fessenden of Maine, and John Sherman of Ohio, are heeded and acted on. I say of the whole country, unless we acknowledge the justice of secession by recognizing the theory, (Mr. Sumner’s) that the revolted states are, by the compelled action of a dominant minority, out of the Union forever, in which case the whole secession domain would revert to the federal government, and the great object of the war, the restoration of the Union would be postponed or defeated. – Indeed immediate peace, whether honorable or not, must follow upon the heels of any such idea as the recognition of cession, by the passage of a law subordinating the seceded states into territories. This much at all events, seems to be certain. The republican party has been most successfully vindicated against the charge of sectionalism since Mr. Lincoln’s election to the presidency – Chosen by the northern states, his very first act was to prove his obligation to the whole Union, and his friends in Congress have proceeded upon the same idea. The Breckenridge leaders anxious to recover power, charge that Mr. Lincoln and the republicans do not wish to see the Union restored. Under this allegation and in the midst of loyal professions they had their sympathies with the traitors in arms, and awaken partisan prejudices. The common sense duty is to defeat this crafty scheme. Remember it is not the highest statesmanship to dissipate prejudices against the republicans in the South, but to hold secure possession of the confidence of the North and northwest. Divided in the latter, the Breckenridge organization would rush in between the contending republican factions and reassume its tyrannical and intolerant ascendency. It may by years before the cotton states can be fairly sealed to the Union; and during that interval the republicans should have all their intellects and experience about them, so as to loose nothing when the time of reunion has arrived.”
– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862
No comments:
Post a Comment