March 6, 1863, The New York Herald
It is the duty of the President to put down the rebellion. The Congress just deceased invested President Lincoln with extraordinary powers. The militia of all the States, the finances of the whole country and the liberties of all the people are placed under his control by the Conscription act, the financial measures and the act authorizing the suspension of the habeas corpus. President Lincoln is now in effect a temporary dictator. What then? Does not the crisis demand extraordinary powers? It not the Union worth the price of a temporary dictatorship? Does not the constitution give Congress the right to confer upon the President such supreme authority in cases of war or invasion? Let copperheads complain and traitors tremble. Patriots will support the President in order to save the nation.
It is the duty of the people to sustain the President. The war will soon fairly begin. President Lincoln and Jeff. Davis are now on an equality as regards their powers, but President Lincoln has the advantage of far superior resources. If this administration can put down the rebellion, now is its opportunity. Hitherto the niggerheads have charged that our want of success arose, not from their diabolical intrigues, but from our neglect to employ all the means we had. There is no longer room for this charge. All our means, all our men – every dollar and every life in the country – are now at the disposal of the President. Jeff. Davis has the same power over the Southern people – with this difference, that the President possesses his powers constitutionally and by consent of Congress, while Jeff. Davis is a usurper. The struggle between the government and the rebellion is therefore a fair one. Neither side can say that one of its hands is tied. We cannot and do not doubt the result. The rebellion must be suppressed. Properly managed, our forces will sweep the rebels from their last stronghold within the next six months. That they will be properly managed is almost certain. With extraordinary powers Congress has also conferred upon the President extraordinary responsibilities. These responsibilities will make him more prudent with regard to whom he entrust commands. The administration has hitherto squandered its resources like a foolish spendthrift. Now this spendthrift has all his remaining fortune placed in his hands, and he understands that he must use it wisely or be utterly ruined.
It is in vain for copperhead journals like the Express, World and Journal of Commerce to rant and rave against these laws of Congress, and to assure the American people that they are slaves, and that the President is a despot. Such silly bombast frightens no sensible men. Let these papers tell us plainly what they mean and what they wish. Do they intend to submit to these laws? If so, why not do it quietly and respectfully? Do they intend to resist the laws? If they attempt this they are lost. They have no supporters beyond a few copperhead leaders, who have not brains enough to comprehend this crisis, nor courage enough to put their words into action. The so-called democratic party is not represented by these papers. The conservative party emphatically disowns them. Like the three tailors of Threadneedle street the three copperhead papers of this city may bluster defiantly; but all their courage oozes out at their fingers’ ends, and they shed ink instead of blood. Do they desire the dissolution of the Union? They are as bad as the rebels with whom they sympathize and whom they thus encourage. Do they wish to restore the Union? Then why not heartily support all measures tending to advance this object? No honest man can aver that the acts passed by Congress are not necessary to our success. Accursed be that infernal abolition fanaticism which has rendered them necessary; but still we cannot remove the pernicious effect by abusing the abominable cause. As matters stand there is no other way to proceed. We cannot consent to disunion. We must push on the war, and we are obliged, therefore, to have men to fill up our armies and money to pay them. The arts of the niggerheads have made volunteers and money equally scarce. Consequently it was necessary to pass the Conscription bill and issue more paper money. We may regret the necessity, but we cannot deny that it exists.
Whether we regard the copperheads as partisans or as patriots, we find them equally imbecile, ignorant and offensive. They do not seem to have sense enough to know that the people are fully aware who made these laws indispensable and what party is responsible for them. The niggerhead journals like the Tribune, Times and Post strive in vain to dodge this issue; for the practical common sense of the masses is not be deceived, and there is scarcely a man, woman of child, from one end of the country to the other, who does not fully appreciate the fact that the reason why every able-bodied man must soon be prepared to go to war or to pay three hundred dollars is the mismanagement of the niggerheads and their desperate efforts to elevate the negro at the expense of the white man and the nation. As partisans, therefore, the copperheads have only to wait in patience and they will see the republican party annihilated at the next Presidential election. Loud talk and diffusion societies amount to nothing. The Conscription bill, the Tax bill, the Indemnity bill – these are the electioneering documents which are killing the republican party and thus doubly saving the country: first, from the rebels, and secondly from the niggerheads. As partisans the copperheads commit a grave error in spouting threats of revolutions instead of quietly submitting to what is unavoidable and fixing the responsibility of these measures where it really belongs. But as patriots they are still more gravely at fault. The duty of the people is to heartily support the government, and the President as the representative of the government. This duty is only the more obvious and important because the war is now to begin in earnest. The copperheads do not do their duty. Let them join with the loyal people in standing by the president, and the President will do his duty by deserving the cordial assistance he receives. By and by when the rebellion is suppressed, the loyal people will complete the programme by putting down the niggerheads as summarily at the polls.