gth by an appeal to the old pro-slavery
prejudices of the country, he merely shows the same unfortunate
unconsciousness of the passage of time, and the changes it brings with
it, that kept him in the trenches at Yorktown till his own defeat
became inevitable. Perhaps he believes that the Rebels would accept
from him what they rejected with contempt when offered by Mr.
Lincoln,--that they would do in compliment to him what they refused to
do from the interest of self-preservation. If they did, it would simply
prove that they were in a condition to submit to terms, and not to
dictate them. If they listened to his advances, their cause must be so
hopeless that it would be a betrayal of his trust to make them. If they
were obstinate, he would be left with the same war on his hands which
has forced Mr. Lincoln into all his measures, and which would not be
less exacting on himself. As a peace candidate he might solicit votes
with some show of reason, but on a war platform we see no good reason
for displacing Mr. Lincoln in his favor except on personal grounds; and
we fear that our campaigns would hardly be conducted with vigor under a
President whom the people should have invested with the office by way
of poultice for his bruised sensibilities as a defeated commander. Once
in the Presidential chair, with a country behind him insisting on a
re-establishment of the Union, and a rebellion before him deaf to all
offers from a government that faltered in its purposes, we do not see
what form of conciliation he would hit upon by which to persuade a
refractory "political organization," except that practised by Hood's
butcher when he was advised to try it on a drove of sheep.
"He seized upon the foremost wether,
And hugged and lugged and tugged him neck and crop,
Just _nolens volens_ through the open shop
(If tails came off he did not care a feather);
Then, walking to the door and smiling grim,
He rubbed his forehead and his sleeve together,--
There! I've _con_ciliated him!'"
It is idle, however, to think of allaying angry feeling or appeasing
resentment while the war lasts, and idler to hope for any permanent
settlement, except in the complete subjugation of the rebellion. There
are persons who profess to be so much shocked at the _word_ subjugation
as to be willing that we should have immediate experience of the
_thing_, by receiving back the Rebels on their own conditions. Mr.
L
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