Lincoln's management — his election.
When
Lincoln told the snivelling committee from
Tennessee that he meant to manage his "side" of the Presidential election in his "own way," it was readily understood that he meant to do just what he would have done without such announcement, namely: employ all the means in his power — his offices, his detectives, his bribes, his military power, and his uncontrolled and irresponsible authority over all Yankeedom — to secure his own election and defeat
McClellan.
He has been true to his promise.
He has been wide awake, and his machinery has worked beautifully.
Never was there a display of more conning manœurving or more artful management.
He has driven little
Mac already from his defences, but he has no gunboats to "cover under" as he had when
General Lee drove him from his defences near
Richmond.
Lincoln — whilst his own followers are the most dishonest and most unscrupulous body of men on this earth, whilst their organization is reeking with the foulest corruptions — has contrived to fasten upon the
McClellan party election frauds that would do credit to his own supporters.
This is the richest joke ever perpetrated by the Ape. The frauds are proved, and two of their perpetrators have been sentenced to imprisonment for life ! A prominent New Yorker, one
Colonel North, now stands charged with similar frauds, and the military court exhibits a determination, to try his case without delay, of courser that it may bear upon the elections.
One
Judge Parker, of New York, and others, had, by commission from
Governor Seymour, come on to
Washington to assist North in his difficulty.
Judge Parker took high ground at first; but, finding that the odds were terribly against him, moderated his views; in the language of a Yankee letter-writer, "roosted lower !" North is understood to have been an agent of
Governor Seymour to attend to the army vote and see fair play — at least, we suppose, in the New York regiments.
He walked into
Lincoln's trap,. and the Ape will take especial delight in "keel-hauling" him. He has a grudge against
Seymour, and will be most grateful to him for affording him such a chance for a little revenge.
North has by this time "gone up," (Yankee,) under order of his military judges.
A notable feature in these developments is the several confessions made by parties whose testimony convicted themselves and others.
No one, we suppose, imagines that these confessions were the result of anything like remorse or repentance; men in Yankeedom are not in the habit of repenting until their frauds are either discovered or fail altogether.
No; they were induced by bribery, and nothing else.
It is not even certain that the rascals were guilty of all they confessed, though, in the general, men do not confess crime of which they are innocent; a Yankee never, unless he can make money by assuming guilt when innocent, as may have been the case with these confessors to Father Abraham.
It is amusing to see with what holy horror the
Union and Abolition men and the corrupt
Lincoln press affect to regard these frauds of the McClellanites.
Such virtue has been witnessed never before ! The
Tribune tells the world, with triumph, that a batch of one hundred and ninety fraudulent votes, since sold to the
McClellan party, had been "offered to
Mr. Boardman, the
Union candidate for Congress in the Seventh District" (New York), "for a dollar and ninety cents apiece." That virtuous paper adds: "The traffic was indignantly scouted !" No doubt of it. It deserved to be so scouted by any New York politician, because of its contemptible, small retail character.
The vendor underrated his man — a few thousand votes would have met with a much more respectful reception !
Poor
McClellan stands, in effect, convicted before the world, and is as much to be pitied as that poor ass which was, by the beasts in council, condemned to death for nibbling a few blades of grass in the parsonage, while the killing of a score of lambs, by the lion, was pronounced by the prosecutor, the fox, as no offence at all; since lambs, very sheepish and cravenly animals at best, were occasionally necessary for the health and digestion of his royal highness, the king of the forest!
So will the beastly supporters of the Ape tone down and excuse his monstrous outrages and magnify and denounce the short-comings and peccadilloes of his competitor, who has not the stamina to perpetrate any great frauds, and has not the opportunity to do so if he had.
Lincoln will take care of that.
In short,
Lincoln is managing his side of the election in his most approved style.
He will be "sent on" for another term triumphantly.
He is to be still further tried.
He is our best man. His defeat would be the signal for the agitations of conventions and truces at the
South that would produce divisions of an injurious character amongst us, in the midst of which that enemy who meditates our ruin and abasement might gain immense advantages over us. Give us
Lincoln with his brutalities — those in human measures and persecutions which have united our people, given vigor to our resistance, and must finally establish our independence.
