March 4, 1861; The Charleston Mercury
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, as President of the States that have not withdrawn from the Union, speaks for the first time today. He can scarcely avoid foreshadowing, in some degree, the policy of his administration. He must proclaim peace or declare war. He must virtually recognize the independence of the Confederate States, or encounter them in a conflict of arms. In his Western railroad speeches, which sedulously flattering the vanity and the ignorance of the rabble, by his frequent and pleasant allusions to the (?) of the laws, he has been shrewd enough to allow himself a wide margin for a change of mind. How far will he avail himself of this comfortable reservation, he will probably tell us today. His wily advisers are evidently in sore distress. They begin to understand the madness of coercion, yet looking upon the tide of Northern prejudice and ambition which has thus far borne them upward, they dare not falter. Like Frankenstein, they have raised a monster which they cannot quell. Let them solve their riddle as best they may. The strength of the South is her safety.