16
DOMINATED BY SEWARD AXD STANTON.
And Joseph Medill, of the Chicago Tribune, wrote to Schuyler Colfax in 1862,, saying:
"Seward must be got out of the cabinet; he is Lincoln's evil genius. He has been President de facto, and has kept a sponge saturated with chloroform to Uncle Abe's nose all the while, except one or two brief spells." (1 Bancroft's Seward, p—.)
The "Pennsylvanian" characterized Mr. Lincoln's first inaugural as a "tiger's claw concealed under the fur of Sewardism," and the "Atlas and Argus," of Albany, as "weak, rambling, loose- jointed" and as "inviting civil war." (See 2 Tarbell's Lincoln, p. 13.)
We refer to these last citations especially to show, what we have always maintained, viz: that Mr. Lincoln was dominated by Seward and Stanton, in our opinion, two of the worst men this country has ever produced.
In his speech at Cooper Institute in 1864 Wendell Phillips said:
"I judge Mr. Lincoln by his acts, his violations of the law, his overthrow of liberty in the Northern States. I judge Mr. Lincoln by his words and deeds, and so judging him, I am unwilling to trust Abraham Lincoln with the future of this country. Mr. Lincoln is a politician; politicians are like the bones of a horse's fore shoulder—not a straight one in it." (Facts and Falsehoods, p. 17.)
Mr. Lincoln was asked if he had seen the speech of Wendell Phillips, and he said:
"I have seen enough to satisfy me that I am a failure, not only in the opinion of the people in rebellion, but of many distinguished politicians of my own party." (Lamon's Recollections, p. 187.)
But enough of this; and we have made these citations only for the purpose of showing, first, that the character of Mr. Lincoln, as now presented to the world, is utterly at variance with his character as understood by those who knew him best and were daily brought in contact with him whilst living; and, secondly, to show that if his character was such as is presented to us by those who best knew him in life, that character was in keeping with his conduct towards the people of the South in the great war from '61 to '65.
