people had elected to the highest post in the land; and
the people are bound, by way of vindicating their dignity and
establishing their power, to make Mr. Lincoln President of the _United_
States, to compel the acknowledgment of his legal right to be the chief
magistrate of the nation as unreservedly, from South Carolina as from
Massachusetts. His authority should be admitted as fully in Virginia as
it is in New York, in Georgia and Alabama as in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
This can follow only from his reelection; and it can follow only from
his reelection by a decisive majority. That insolent spirit which led
the South to become so easy a prey to the Secession faction, when not a
tenth part of its people were Secessionists, should be thoroughly,
emphatically rebuked, and its chief representatives severely punished,
by extorting from the rebellious section a practical admission of the
enormity of the crime of which it was guilty when it resisted the lawful
authority of a President who was chosen in strict accordance with the
requirements of the Constitution, and who entertained no more intention
of interfering with the constitutional rights of the South than he
thought of instituting a crusade for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.
The majesty of the law should be asserted and established, and that can
best be done by placing President Lincoln a second time at the head of
the Republic, the revolt of the slaveholders being directed against him
personally as well as against that principle of which he was the legally
elected representative. In him the spirit of order is incarnate; and his
reelection by a great popular vote would be the establishment of the
fact that under our system it is possible to maintain order, and to
humiliate and subdue the children of anarchy.

President Lincoln should be reelected, if for no other reason, that
there may go forth to the world a pointed approval of his conduct from
his constituents. As we have said, we do not claim perfection for the
policy and acts of the Administration; but we are of opinion that its
mistakes have been no greater than in most instances would have been
committed by any body of men that could have been selected from the
entire population of the country. Take the policy that has been pursued
with reference to Slavery. Many of us thought that the President issued
his Emancipation Proclamation at least a year too late; but we must now
see that the time selected for its pr