THE LATE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 290, 20 July 1865, Page 1

THE LATE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA.

[From the New Zealand Herald, July 11.]

Abraham Lincoln will rank as one of the “ representative men ”of America. His career as President—at a most difficult and trying time, when his country was torn asunder by internal dissensions, and the passions of the masses on both sides were necessarily very greatly excited, —has been one of calm, steady, and determined progress on that path which the portion of the nation he represented has marked out as its course.

Born in a humble rank of life, and laboring as a rail splitter, he worked his way through various upward stages until at last he had gained the highest eminence to which an American citizen can aspire, the Presidential chair, and the White House at Washington, and his conduct met with such approval from his countrymen, that he was elected a second time to his high office, it being the evident desire of the people that Abraham Lincoln should re-unite the States, and restore order to the Union, founded by Washington and his compeers. The hand of an assassin has stopped the career of Lincoln before he had consummated his work, but not before he had overcome the South, and made any regular warlike opposition by it, all but, if not quite, impossible. The late President was evidently a man of enlarged mind and shrewed common sense. Mistakes he may have made but we must give him the credit of pursuing his purpose of restoring the Union with a perseverance and singleness of purpose which do him infinite credit. That Lincoln has been of great value to America in respect to her foreign relations there can be no doubt. He- has ever steadily set bis face against any. attempt to embroil his country in wars with- other nations. When officers of the United States, more zealons than discreet, as in the Trent affair, have violated international law, Abraham Lincoln has frankly and honorably repudiated their actions and offered reparation. In the affair of the Southern raiders who attempted to make Canada a standpoint from whence they would in fact wage war against the States, the ferment of the masses was great, and one military officer we believe took the initiative in what might have been the first act in a war with Britain, but Lincoln reined in his fiery adherents and used his power and his influence on the side of peace.

Yet of this we may be quite certain, that the leading men of the ~South would never degrade themselves to .a participation in such an act as that of assassination, and that they will repudiate having had any share in the transaction.

The death of the President being the most important and startling news, we have dwelt at some length upon it, and must not conclude our remarks without noticing that the British House of Commons had unanimously passed resolutions condemnatory of the foul deed, and that her Majesty the Queen, had written an autograph letter to Mrs Lincoln offering her condolence on the distressing event. Here we might notice, en passant that there is something very striking in this prompt action of the Queen of England in sending to the bereaved widow of Mr Lincoln her touching, words .of comfort. The action is not only graceful and kind, and good natured : it is not simply that of one who had lost the best of husbands, by disease, forwarding her words of sympathy to another who had lost her husband by a sudden and violent death, but is also the action of the greatest Monarch on. earth, of one who speaks the mind and will of the great English nation from whose loins principally the great democracy of America, has sprung. And the Americans will appreciate this deep friendly feeling of the English Queen and Parliament at this great calamity. The occasion may do much towards causing both parties to look at the actions of each other with a less unfriendly eye, to prove to both that there is deep well of mutual and much good feeling towards each other, and that any minor causes of irritation should be looked at through the diminishing glass of charity rather than through the magnifying glass of suspicion and hate The Vice-President Johnston is now President, How he will acquit himself remains

to be seen. Appearances are greatly against him.: He is totally uneducated, and disgraced himself , at the inauguration of the late President, Causing the blush to rise on the cheek of all Americans, and ‘a trembling in their hearts lest anythirig' should happen to raise him to the Presidential chair. It is to be hoped that he will have this much of wisdom, to allow the Government of the country to be carried on by wiser heads than his own, and to be himself content to acquiesce in what they may consider for the best. Those who have been opposed to his attempt to subdue the South, and who would have been glad had the latter succeeded in obtaining her independence, will yet candidly acknowledge that Lincoln has displayed high qualities, and considering his previous pursuits, has distinguished himself greatly in the Presidential chair. History must pass a calm auf unbiassed opinion on his acts and his government, and every people and nation will deplore the deed that ended his career. He was high in the estimation of a large portion of his countrymen before, but now he will be raised to the lofty rank of a martyr for the Union, and we may be quite certain that the North will now be still more determined to obtain that for which it will say Lincoln was shot. Whether 'the cowardly deed was done by a Southern man, at the bidding of a Southern faction, or whether it has been done by one of his opponents in the North, we are not told. But in either way Lincoln has died for the Union.