Macomb Eagle
The last Proclamation.
Our President is fruitful in proclamations. He multiplies and replenishes the earth with them. Job’s wild ass snuffed up the east wind, and probably accumulated no fat at the business. Abraham snuffs up the nigger and forthwith from his lank loins delivers himself a proclamation. These proclamations are professedly to restore the Union; but Abraham is a “cunning man,” and diligently has he practiced the art of how not to do it. When the first unclean proclamation was cast out (Fremont), the chamber was swept and garnished; but the unclean proclamation taketh seven other proclamations and entereth in dwelleth there, and the last state of that man Abraham is worst than the first. A better plan and surer to be rejected by the South could not have been devised. It is simply an absurdity to suppose it would meet with any other reception. The emancipation scheme is hated by the South above all other of Lincoln’s acts, and to divide it into individual doses to be administered in the form of an oath, is about as wise as would be an attempt to convert the Jews by swearing them to dine on pork. No wonder, as a contemporary remarks, that on this system Mr. Lincoln expects his new State governments will be the work of a chosen few. This scheme of government is no less absurd. It is to be a pyramid resting on its apex; States are to be created by less than one-tenth of the legal voters. And to cap the absurdity this is to be done under color of that provision of the Constitution by which the United States guarantee to every State a republican form of government. It is an odd kind of republicanism which divides a community into two classes by presenting an odious oath which a vast majority are certain to reject, and then erect the minority into a privileged class, and investing them with all the political power. Mr. Madison, in explaining in the Federalist the provision of the Constitution relating to the guarantee to the States of a republican form of government, asks, “What, then, are the distinctive char- [obscured]. In answering this question (the italic word is his) he says: “It is essential to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion or a favored class of it.” And yet Mr. Lincoln, pretending to act under this very clause of the Constitution, proposes to invest the government of a State in one-tenth of its voting population. – And he makes sure that his political aristocracy or governing class will not be too large by compelling all its members to swear allegiance to the emancipation proclamation. Mr. Lincoln’s allegation against the disloyal States is as false in fact as it is absurd in theory. It is not true that these States or any part of them have abandoned the republican form of government. – While adhering to republican government, they are committing treason by levying war against the United States. Mr. Seward, in the dispatch from which we have already quoted, admits and maintains that the seceded States have not changed their republican form. He said:
“The rights of the States and the condition of every human being in them will remain precisely the same, whether the revolution shall succeed or whether it shall fail. In one case the States would be federally connected with the new Confederacy; in the other they would, as now, be members of the United States; but their constitutions and laws, customs, habits, and institutions, in either case, will remain the same.”
It is clear, then, that Mr. Lincoln’s scheme is not only preposterous in itself, but that it is the very height of absurdity to pretend to find authority for it in that part of the Constitution which guarantees to the States a republican form of government. It is well adapted for immediate political effect in the North, and for obstructing and defeating the object of the war in the South.
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→ A republican paper asks the question whether “republicans shall be republicans still?” We say, unhesitatingly, yes. The best thing a republican can do at any time is to be still. A republican when he is still is by no means so bad a citizen as is sometimes supposed; and if, like sin, they must come into the world, they cannot do better than to keep still – unless indeed they turn Democrats.
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Who is Responsible?
It will be remembered that in his first message to Congress, Mr. Lincoln said that in every seceded State but one (South Carolina), a majority of the people were opposed to secession. We should like to have some abolitionist tell us what has changed this majority – what has made them our enemies instead of our friends, and how it comes that now the southern people are so united on the question of secession, and declare they will be satisfied with nothing short of a permanent separation? Even admitting that there was not a majority of Union men at the South at the time Lincoln made the assertion, it is certainly evident the Union feeling was strong there. – Now all this is changed. Somebody has caused the change, and converted millions of former friends into resolute enemies. The Democratic party is not responsible for it, because that party has had no influence in conducting the government. On the contrary their counsels have been derided and despised. Mr. Lincoln and the abolitionists must then be held responsible for the change. He has conducted the government so as to destroy the friends and increase the enemies of the Union. The emancipation proclamations, the confiscation act, the arming of negroes, the refusal to let States return to the Union, and many other proceedings of the Lincoln administration have accomplished the infernal business of uniting the South in resolute rebellion. This administration has abused the confidence of the people, misdirected the affairs of the nation, shown itself ignorant of the true principles of our government, has been controled by fanatics and swindlers, and is destitute of the ability or the courage to grapple with the unarmed foes within as well as the armed rebels without. – The people should remove them from place and power.
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What we Owe to Lincoln.
A fawning republican paper says the people of the North “owe the safety of their homes to Mr. Lincoln.” This is about as “big a one” as could be told. Had it not been for Lincoln and the abolitionists our bleeding country would be as united, prosperous, and happy, as it was before he and his “infernal abolitionists,” as Webster called them, ruined it. Truly the people of the North owe Mr. Lincoln nothing but eternal hatred and scorn. – There are 500,000 new-made graves; there are 500,000 orphans; there are 200,000 widows; there is a bottomless sea of blood; there is the Constitution broken; there are liberty and law – liberty in chains and in a dungeon; thieves in the treasury, provost marshals in the seats of justice, butchers in the pulpits – and these are the things which we owe Mr. Lincoln. As the Lord liveth, we shall pay him all that we owe him some day – him, and all the bloody band of traitors, plunderers and knaves, who have wrought the destruction of our country.
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→ Gen. Sherman, who commands the army of the Tennessee, has issued an order for the impressment of all able-bodied men capable of bearing arms. Go it, abolitionism – impress white men and free negroes.
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→ It is intimated that a bill will be introduced in Congress to pay Lincoln’s $25,000 a year in gold. If it is done, we hope some Democrat will move to amend by providing to pay the soldiers in gold. We think the latter are fully as much entitled to the “yellow boys” as Abraham.
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→ Some 25 or 30 recruits left Macomb for Springfield this week. So there’s a little volunteering going on, but it is not enough by half. Six weeks ago some eighteen hundred persons in this county voted that the war in behalf of negro emancipation should go on, but of all that number very few are willing to go shoulder a musket. Shame on the men who wait to be forced to do a thing they say should be done!
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→ Our young friend, W. J. Lea has purchased the fruit and provision store on the north side of the square, and will continue the business at the same place. He has a good stock of fruits, the light groceries, confectioneries, etc., which he offers at the lowest rates. Give him a call when looking for such things.
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Convention of Illinois Farmers. – We learn from the Prairie Farmer, of December 5th, that, under the sanction and call of the State Agricultural Society, there will be a convention of agriculturists at the [?] of Springfield, Illinois, commencing January 5, 1864. All county agricultural societies in this state are requested to appoint delegates to this convention, and farmers generally are invited to be present.
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Items Here and There.
– Who will bring us a turkey – or two of them – for Christmas?
– Winter has begun in earnest. A rain on Saturday and Sunday was followed by a snow which now lies on the ground from four to five inches deep.
– From the “pressure” upon our advertising columns, it is becoming evident that our business men appreciate The Eagle as an advertising medium. Those who want to sell goods or wares of any kind, will not neglect it.
– The sale of the Elting property has been [?] till May. Due notice of the time will be given.
– One of the Beechers has declared his belief that the devil is the “elder brother of Christ,” and Harriet is to incorporate the doctrine in her next nigger novel. We believe the devil sustains a closer relationship to the Beecher family than that of elder brother.
– There is a negro regiment being raised in this State for the war. But there is no loyal league regiment being raised for that purpose.
– The “government” has prohibited the distillation of whisky in Kentucky, and will probably do the same thing in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Cant it also prohibit the people from drinking what is already made, so there may be enough for the officers while the was lasts.
– The Peoria Mail says two banks under the national banking law have been organized in that city, and that a third will probably soon be put in operation.
The Eagle and The Journal 