Summary

The article excerpted from the New York Herald a description of Lincoln's objectives. It argued that the Republicans, led by Lincoln, will pursue a war against the South if they are elected. The Democratic editors had little doubt that Republicans will use the slavery question to polarize public opinion. If the Republicans stopped their agitation, they argued, the issue would fall from the spotlight and work itself out.

EXCERPT:

"The first step will be the appointment to every post of executive or administrative power within the gift of the President, of men who believe that slavery is an evil and a sin; that it is their moral and social, as well as political duty, to make war upon it in every way."

"With men holding these views as judges and officers of the federal courts, as postmasters and collectors of customs, as district attorneys and marshals of the United States, there will commence an agitation of the slavery question such as the world never witnessed."

Full-text web version of newspaper

"In the heat of the campaign of 1860 both Franklin Democrats and Republicans shifted their emphasis on slavery."