The publication of Lincoln's reply was accompanied by other
comment in the more important papers in which rebuke to
Greeley was freely expressed. The National Intelligencer, of
Washington, for example, hoped that now Lincoln had stated
his position Greeley would be "less arrogant, dictatorial, and
acrimonious." It added: "Twenty millions of Greeley's country-
men have a right to claim this at his hands in deference to the
high office whose incumbent he ventures to arraign before the
bar of public opinion in their name."
Lincoln was delighted with the response from the press to his note. He found that the better understanding between himself and the newspapers paved the way, to a certain extent, for the Emancipation Proclamation issued on the 22d of the following month. When that appeared, Greeley wrote another famous editorial which concluded, in capital letters, "GOD BLESS ABRAHAM LINCOLN."
In the South the curtailed newspapers had, on the whole, but little room for editorials. Most of their space was given to the news of campaigns, with here and there an injection of comment by the editor. Southern newspapers of the War Period have not been so extensively preserved as in the North : consequently, the problem is harder to pick the most influential editorial. Pos- sibly none attracted greater attention, not only in the South, but also in the North, than the one which early appeared in The Courier, of Charleston, South Carolina, when it indited the fol- lowing:
The sword must cut asunder the last tie that bound us to a people, whom, in spite of wrongs and injustice wantonly inflicted through a long series of years, we had not yet utterly hated and despised. The last expiring spark of affection must be quenched in blood. Some of the most splendid pages in our glorious history must be blurred. A blow must be struck that would make the ears of every Republican fanatic tingle, and whose dreadful effects will be felt by generations yet to come. We must transmit a heritage of rankling and undying hate to our chil- dren.
This editorial from The Courier must be judged by the stand- ards of the period and not by those of to-day. It was no worse than some of the treasonable doctrine advanced by the Copper- head press of the
