POOR OLD ABE.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 51, 27 September 1864, Page 3

POOR OLD ABE.

As in a holly-contested election in an English borough every opponent of a candidate considers himself privileged to rake up every possible scandal, public or private, against the man he wishes to defeat, so in America, which at the time of a presidential election is but one huge rot ten borough seething with political hate and animosity, the candidate must wear much whiter robes than those from which the designation is derived if he would escape the asper.-ious of his unemies and be purer than the angels if he would not be bespattered by foul abuse and persistent malignity. While Mr. Lincoln was simply President, he was not treated with much discourtesy even by his hostile political foes. The worst that was publicly said of liim was by his fricn I Mr. Wendell Phillips, who called him "an imbecile " Privately he was called a "buffoon" and an " obscene jester ;" but these epithets seldom or never found their way into print. .Since his appearance as a candidate for re-election however, thou'di he has not formally accepted the Baltimore nomination, all delicacy in tliis matter has been set aside. It is as if the tongues in a thousand Billingsgates had been suddenly united, and each were employed in the most shameless and shameful as well as most forcible and unsavoury vernacular in hurling vile epithets against the President. The leadiu" Democratic journal of this city, in an article " On calling things by their names," justifies the change of tone adopted towards Mr. Lincoln because he desires to be President for another term, and has therefore to be as unreservedly spoken of as anyother citizen aspiring to the same position. " It: would have been indecorous,*' it says, " to call Mr. Lincoln the buffoon that he is if he had been merely our chief magis' rate ; but the truth must be told when he is a chief magistrate seeking re-election ;" and, acting upon this principle, it assails him as morally unlit for his high position, cites the opinion of a leading member of one of the great religious organisations who went a deputation to Washington, that " Mr. Lincoln's demeanour and lauguage were those of a buifoon and a gowk " (Scottice, a fool), and of a senator of the United States, who declared that " he was compelled to leave the President's presence because his selfrespect would not permit, him to listen to the filthy language which he employed. " When to these assaults upon Mr. Lincoln's person and manners have to be added the attacks thundering on him from every side, accusing him of violation of the law and the Constitution, of imbecility, of intermeddling, of corrupt practices.of mismanagement of the war, and declaring the obvious tendency of all his publio acts to establish a despotism for his own behoof, or that of some ablo member of his party, it is easy to see that the approaching election will be fertile in invective and denunciations, and impossible not to fear that the passions that will be excited, tbe more especially in the not improbable case of military reverses and financial disaster in the interval between this aud the first week in November, may lead to scenes of violence that have had no parallel in America, and that may imperil the stability of the Government as much as the loss of a score of battles. Were Mr. Lincoln a truly wise man, he would refuse to listen to the Baltimore charmers who wish to make a tool of him, and leave the exalted position wlrich he so uncomfortably — and, without disrespect to him, it may be said so ungracefully and inefficiently — occupies, to some bolder statesman, some higher principled philosopher, and some astuter politician and manager than himself. As a President, he is the worst failure that America has ever produced, and both parties in the State admit him to be so. It is a pity that he cannot see himself in the same 'light, .aiid"- that 'he does not earn the respect of his true "friends' and the forbearance of his foes by retiring into private lifo. That he may yet do so ;is possible. It will be happy for himself as well as for his country if such be his determination. — Correspondent of Times.