Horace Greeley said, some time after the death of President Lincoln:
“After the Civil War began, Lincoln’s tenacity of purpose paralleled his
former immobility; I believe he would have been nearly the last, if not
the very last, man in America to recognize the Southern Confederacy had
its armies been triumphant. He would have preferred death.”
“PUNCH” AND HIS LITTLE PICTURE.
London “Punch” was not satisfied with anything President Lincoln did. On
December 3rd, 1864, after Mr. Lincoln’s re-election to the Presidency,
a cartoon appeared in one of the pages of that genial publication,
the reproduction being printed here, labeled “The Federal Phoenix.” It
attracted great attention at the time, and was particularly pleasing to
the enemies of the United States, as it showed Lincoln as the Phoenix
arising from the ashes of the Federal Constitution, the Public Credit,
the Freedom of the Press, State Rights and the Commerce of the North
American Republic.
President Lincoln’s endorsement by the people of the United States meant
that the Confederacy was to be crushed, no matter what the cost; that
the Union of States was to be preserved, and that State Rights was
a thing of the past. “Punch” wished to create the impression that
President Lincoln’s re-election was a personal victory; that he would
set up a despotism, with himself at its head, and trample upon the
Constitution of the United States and all the rights the citizens of the
Republic ever possessed.
The result showed that “Punch” was suffering from an acute attack of
needless alarm.