The story of the Sun, New York, 1833-1918 / by Frank M. O'Brien.

186

THE STORY OF "THE SUN"

The reelection of Abraham Lincoln announces to the
world how firmly we have resolved to be a free and
united people.
After the assassination of President Lincoln the Sun
said:
In the death of Mr. Lincoln the Southern people have
lost one of the best friends they had at the North. He
would have treated them with more gentleness than any
other statesman. From him they would have obtained
concessions it is now almost impossible for our rulers
and people to grant.
The Sun's attitude toward the copperheads and
deluded pacifists of the North is reflected in an editorial
article published on June 5, 1863. The North was then
in its worst panic. Only a month previously Lee had
defeated Hooker at Chancellorsville, and the victorious
Confederates were marching through Maryland into
Pennsylvania. At a mass-meeting in Cooper Union,
George Francis Train and other copperheads denounced
the war, praised Vallandigham, of Ohio, who had been
banished into the South for his unpatriotic conduct, and
declared for "peace and reunion." It was largely a
Democratic meeting, but the Sun would not stomach the
disloyal outburst:
The fact that over ten thousand people assembled in
and about Cooper Union on Thursday evening to listen
to speeches and adopt an address and resolutions prepared under that "eye single to the public welfare,"
discloses the ease with which a few political tricksters
may present false issues to the unthinking and, in the
excitement of the moment, induce their hearers to applaud sentiments that, when calmly considered, are unworthy of a great and free people. Taking advantage
of the blunders of the present administration, these selfstyled Democrats raise their banners and, under the
guise of proclaiming peace, in reality proclaim a war

I