The Athens Post

The abolition prints are filled with commendations of Lincoln's emancipation message. They all agree that Abraham, the rail-splitter, is on the "right track at last." We suspect, however, that when the people of the North begin to understand that they, together with the people of the States where emancipation is to occur, non-slaveholders and all, are to be taxed on all they eat, and all they wear, on their money and their lands, and every horse, hog, cow, or sheep they raise or own, to pay for the liberated niggers, they will strike a very different note. The idea of emancipating the slaves and taxing the people indiscriminately to pay for them, as must be done if they are to be paid for at all, was a bright one. Whenever that question is brought to the test in East Tennessee, you'll hear some howl. Abe is wrong again—the non-slaveholders will never consent to be taxed for any such purpose.