The Emancipation proclamation.
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Lincoln's infamous proclamation is creating as much consternation in the
North as it was expected to do in the
South.
The Chicago
Times says:
‘
Two days ago the
President was wonderfully strong in the confidence of the country, not because of his military conduct of the war, for, in the opinion of all men, that had been disastrous, but because he had steadily manifested an apparently inflexible determination to adhere faithfully to the
Constitution in the political management of the war and in the administration of the government.
It was the merit of this adherence that, in the minds of all good and right thinking men, covered his multitude of sins in the military conduct of the war. So long as he seemed to be fast anchored to the
Constitution, good and right-thinking men never ceased to hope and believe that experience would teach him to correct and overcome his military mistakes, and that finally the government of the
Constitution would prevail over rebellion, and that the
Union would be re-established.
’
Now that he has cut loose from the
Constitution — now that he has resorted to the same higher law then the
Constitution for the professed purpose of suppressing the rebellion by which the rebellion justifies itself — good and right thinking men know not what to think or believe, or whither to turn for anchorage.
They are mitten with a sense of alarm and dismay.
They feel that the foundations of the
Government are unsettled, if not broken up — that the ship is adrift without master, compass or rudder, and that the chances of wreck are vastly greater than of safety.
