Louisville Daily Courier, May 26, 1860

Mr. Lincoln has accepted the Presidential nomination tendered him by the Black Republicans. Whatever may be the result of future Conventions held by other parties, we know now who is to lead on the formidable, well-drilled, and hopeful hosts of the main body of those who are warring upon the institution of slavery. The "irrepressible conflict," despite our wishes, our hopes, our struggles to arrest or postpone it, is now upon us. A million and a half of votes, controlled and managed by able, adroit, ambitious, and, in too many instances, unprincipled leaders, flushed with the prospects of victory, animated by the hope of immediate reward, all united in one compact and thorough political organization, are now in the field. Their success must be secured by the cooperation and united exertion of the friends of the institution of slavery, of those who will stand by the Constitutional rights of all sections, of the true patriots North and South who will abide by the compact our fathers made, of all who would perpetuate the Federal Union, preserve the liberties of the people, and maintain the independence of the States.

We may regret it, we may wilfully shut our eyes to the fact, we may be deaf, if we can, to the mutterings of the coming storm, but we had as well attempt by deprecatory appeals to the elements to change the course of the hurricane or to still the rage of the winds as to try to evade the issue tendered us, to pretermit its discussion or to escape its consequences. Neither is it the part of wisdom, of patriotism, of honor, nor of safety. The minor wing of the Opposition, not a party, without an organization, destitute of a hope, its future not penetrated by one ray of light, feeble, fickle, changeable as the moon, may claim that the "solution of the slavery question cannot be reached by popular agitation," that "parties cannot honestly agree respecting it," that "the people cannot," and thus found a pretext for "pretermitting" any expression of opinion on this absorbing, controlling, "irrepressible issue." But the conflict yet goes on. The major wing of the Opposition, struggling for power, with the control of the Government almost in its reach, catering to the passions and to the prejudices of the ignorant, feeding the fires of fanaticism and madness, with the Constitution, fraternity, and equality on their lips, are pressing on to the extinguishment of slavery, though to reach this end it be necessary to trample under foot the Constitution, to invade the sovereignty of the States, to violate the rights of individuals, to dissolve the Union, to inaugurate strife, anarchy, and civil war.

If the friends of the South, of the Constitution, of the American Union, of civil and religious liberty, will consent to immolate their prejudices, their preferences, their individual opinions on matters of lesser importance on the altar of patriotism, and agree to unite against a common enemy for the common good, Black Republicanism may be overthrown, the sectionalists may be defeated, and the consequences of the triumph of the party of which Mr. Lincoln is the representative and leader, from the contemplation of which the mind shrinks appalled, may be averted. This cannot be done by cowardly attempts at evasion, by concessions, by abandement of principle, and by a surrender of rights. It may be all wrong, useless, even dangerous, for the masses to "agitate" any question about which they cannot agree. It might be better if the people would consent to give up the consideration of questions affecting their interests or their rights, and leave all such matters to the superior judgment and greater patriotism of such statesmen as Bell and Everett, as modestly proposed by the Louisville Journal; but the Black Republicans will not give up their capital, and the men of the South will not give up their rights and abandon their principles—the one will not submit their pretentions, nor the other their honor and safety, to the arbitrament even of statesmen and patriots whose antecedents cannot be any guarantee to either party to the controversy, and whose present position might justly subject them to suspicion. On one hand is the Black Republican party, on the other is all those who will maintain at all hazards and to any extent the Constitutional rights of the citizens of the slaveholding States. No pretermitting of opinions, no evasions, no dodge, will relieve parties, factions, organizations, or individuals from the responsibility of determining what those rights are; and when this point is settled, the only other question is, whether they shall be guaranteed or withheld. In such a contest, involving such interests, there can be no neutrality. Every freeman must array himself upon one side or the other.

Mr. Lincoln is the candidate of the Black Republicans. In his behalf a thousand presses are laboring, and to bring about his election forces are being drilled, means and munitions of war collected, and all the appliances, ordinary and extraordinary, known to politicians are being brought into requisition. The only course consistent with the honor and dignity of the threatened States, the only hope of safety, is to meet the issue presented at Chicago, frankly, squarely, and unequivocally, and to make an honest and manly appeal to the intelligence, the good sense, the interest, and the patriotism of the country. Any other course must not only lead to defeat, but would entail dishonor.

Mr. Lincoln is before us. How is he to be opposed? "Shall Mr. Douglas be nominated, who only differs from Mr. Lincoln as to which has the power to exclude a portion of the citizens of the United States from all the advantages of emigration to the new Territories, Congress or the inchoate people? Both acknowledge the theory or false premise of anti-slavery, viz: that negro subordination, or so-called slavery, cannot exist without positive enactment—that it is created by municipal regulation or the lex loci, hence that it is not a thing existing in nature, but unnatural, and if so, it must be wrong—an evil, and then follows all the logical sequences of the anti-slaveryites, even down to John Brownism. What sort of a fight can we make with an adversary while we allow his premises? If Mr. Lincoln believes that "slavery is an evil," we do not see how he could consistently be less an anti-slavery man than he is, for he declares he would vote for a Fugitive Slave Law, and for every other right which he believed the South entitled to under the Constitution, though it conflicted never so much with his own prejudices. He even goes so far as to say in one of his speeches (and he drives this point home upon Mr. Douglas with tremendous power) that if he believed that the Dred Scott decision properly construed the Constitution, and that Southern men had the right to take their "slaves" into the new Territories in defiance of the will of Congress, he would not only favor it, but he would, if in Congress, vote to enact such laws for the protection of slave property in the Territories as to make the right practical. He says he thinks he would be no less than a perjured man, after taking the oath to support the Constitution, if he believed, as Mr. Douglas does, that Southern men had the right to go into a Territory with their "slaves," and then he should refuse to vote for such laws as would give vitality to that right. We know that such sentiments as these will not fail to command respect even from Mr. Lincoln's opponents, and we are free to confess that we know of no arguments with which to oppose them, except to strike at the very foundation of the whole superstructure of fraud and delusion which anti-slaveryism has erected. Mr. Lincoln's doctrines are the most subtle and dangerous form of anti-slaveryism, and if we do not have a candidate who is opposed to them, why, there can in reality be no fight. True, we may have a sham battle to determine who is to have the offices and the emoluments; but we shall not be a whit nearer settling disputed principles. Men of sense, who never fight except when they are in earnest, we feel sure, can have no stomach for such a Presidential contest, and they will either look on, or retire from the field in disgust. To nominate Douglas is at once and in advance to give up the fight.