February 14, 1864
John W. Forney, Pennsylvania and Washington newspaper editor, writes President Lincoln from New York: “The condition of my health, greatly improved since I left Washington a week ago, has kept me in New York for several days. During my stay there I heard and saw sufficient to convince me that there is a determined opposition to your re-election in quarters unnecessary to point out to you. I regret that the most violent of those who lead in this movement are persons dependent on one branch of your administration. But, in New York as in Philadelphia, you have the people at your back, and to them the party managers must yield. Here this feeling is overwhelming. As a slight sign of the times read the following editorial from our leading evening paper of yesterday:
The point in the admirable lecture of Mr. George William Curtis, last evening, which elicited the most spontaneous, universal and repeated outbursts of applause, was his noble defence of President Lincoln and his policy. The discourse, like everything Mr. Curtis has to say, was filled with graceful and forcible suggestions as to “The Way of Peace,” and the Musical Fund Hall never contained a larger, more intelligent or more attentive audience. But when the speaker vindicated the moderation, calm wisdom and ripe statesmanship of the President, the enthusiasm of every hearer was most cordial. He declared that Mr. Lincoln was true to his best instincts in countermanding the Emancipation orders of Fremont and Hunter, and that the time was just ripe when his own Proclamation of Freedom was issued. He maintained that no man in the world knew better than Mr. Lincoln the difference between fitful enthusiasm and the steady purpose of a great nation to vindicate its authority, and he maintained that were the Presidential election to take place next week Mr. Lincoln would again be chosen by a larger majority than any President has ever received.
These sentiments will meet with the most instantaneous recognition and endorsement in any local audience, and day by day it becomes clearer that our noble President sways the hearts of all true men as no man since Washington and Jackson has controlled them. No event in the future is more absolutely certain than that he will enjoy a four years term of Peace after a stormy one of War.
After the editorial from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Forney concluded: “This the honest reflection of the popular will. When I return I will show you some more striking proof of the movement to which I have referred.
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 
Leave a Reply