ragement; but it soon became
evident that the conservative sentiment of the Republicans and the
country was with Mr. Lincoln, and that the confidence of the people in
his patriotism and integrity was such as could not be shaken.
Nevertheless, a small band of the radicals held out and would not assent
to his benignant policy. These malcontents undertook to create a
distinct political organization which, if possessed of power, would make
a more fierce and unrelenting war on the rebels, break down their local
institutions, overturn their State governments, subjugate the whites,
elevate the blacks, and give not only freedom to the slaves, but by
national decree override the States, and give suffrage to the whole
colored race. These extreme and rancorous notions found no favor with
Mr. Lincoln, who, though nominally a Whig in the past, had respect for
the Constitution, loved the Federal Union, and had a sacred regard for
the rights of the States, which the Whigs as a party did not entertain.
War two years after secession commenced brought emancipation, but
emancipation did not dissolve the Union, consolidate the Government, or
clothe it with absolute power; nor did it impair the authority and
rights which the States had reserved. Emancipation was a necessary, not
a revolutionary measure, forced upon the Administration by the
secessionists themselves, who insisted that slavery which was local and
sectional should be made national.

The war was, in fact, defensive on the part of the Government against a
sectional insurrection which had seized the fortresses and public
property of the nation; a war for the maintenance of the Union, not for
its dissolution; a war for the preservation of individual, State, and
Federal rights; good administration would permit neither to be
sacrificed nor one to encroach on the other. The necessary exercise of
extraordinary war powers to suppress the Rebellion had given
encouragement and strength to the centralists who advocated the
consolidation and concentration of authority in the general Government
in peace as well as war, and national supervision over the States and
people. Neither the radical enthusiasts nor the designing centralists
admitted or subscribed to the doctrine that political power emanated
from the people; but it was the theory of both that the authority
exercised by the States was by grant derived from the parental or
general Government. It was their theory that the Government cr