<? 
 
 IJevotod to tlu} Union from Llio bruiijiiiiig, 1 wilLiiot 
 desert it now. in this the hour of its sorest trial 
 
THE RECORD 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM 
 
 
 ON 
 
 ABOLITION, THE UNION, AND THE 
 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 " I>o RIGHT; AND TRUST TO GOD, AND TRUTH, AND THE PEOPLE. PEBISH omcs, PERISH 
 
 PER7RM MKB ITSELF, BUT PO THK THING THAT IS RIGHT, AND DO IT LIKE A MAN. ... I APTEAJUiB 
 
 ro TIME, AND RIGHT NOBLY HATH THE AVENGER ANSWERED ME." Speech of January 14, 1HC3. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY J. WALTER & CO. 
 
 FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 1863. 
 
E4 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 
 J. WALTER & CO., 
 
 in the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern 
 District of Ohio. 
 
PUBLISHERS NOTICE. 
 
 THIS work offers, in a convenient form, the principal speeches of Hon. 
 C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, on the Constitution, the Union, and the Cioil War. 
 Extracts from other speeches are added; also, a variety of facts and inci 
 dents. The object is to furnish the means of forming a correct judgment 
 in relation to a man who, through the malignant assaults of his enemies, 
 and the esteem of his friends, has become one of the most generally 
 talked-of men of these times. 
 
 This Record shows why Mr. VALLANDIGHAM has so many enemies, and 
 all of one class why negrophilistic fanaticism includes, as one of its essen 
 tial qualities, an intense hatred of VALLANDIGHAM. This fact is explained 
 by showing that, not only his six years in Congress, but his whole public 
 life, has been a clear, uniform, and unequivocal expression of a deep and 
 true love of his country, the Union, and that he has ever been among the 
 foremost to stand by and defend its institutions and laws. 
 
 In the darkest and most trying hours of the great national conflict, 
 etill pending, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM has never deviated a moment from the 
 old and true principles of Democracy, whereby the Union was formed 
 and preserved, and by which alone it can be saved from destruction, 
 restored, and perpetuated. If his words and acts have been treason, then 
 was the Government itself, through the whole period of its history, down 
 to the inauguration of Mr. LINCOLN, one continued act of treason. In 
 common with all democratic and conservative statesmen, he had, before the 
 commencement of the war, uniformly, maintained that the principles 
 around which the Abolition party was organized, were hostile to the 
 Union, and would endanger its peace and perpetuity, if permitted to get 
 control. Those warnings were not heeded, and the fatal mistake was com 
 mitted of placing in power men whose cherished principles were enemies 
 of the Union. A deadly national conflict ensued; and then Mr. VALLAX- 
 DIGHAM did differ from many in whom the people had reposed full faith 
 and confidence. He stood by his principles, held his position uninoved, 
 
 (2) 
 
4 PUBLISHERS NOTICE. 
 
 while the strong current of a raving fanaticism, that swept by and around 
 him, bore off many of his old companions, knocked from their feet. 
 
 Of the war, its causes and attending circumstances, many have said 
 more than Mr. VALLANDIGHAM; but few, if any, have said so much that 
 comes square up to the record of events, as history unfolds them. The 
 doctrines announced by him, and the few who have stood with him, are 
 rapidly forming themselves into the public sentiment of the country. 
 The conviction that those men have been right thus far, gives value to 
 their opinions in relation to the probable course of coming events. 
 
 Those who have been accustomed to denounce Mr. VALLANDIGHAM as a 
 traitor and disunionist, will not take a favorable interest in this Record, 
 for they will find their slanderous accusations nailed to the wall, and 
 hung up to the gaze of the public. This work will, however, be gladly 
 welcomed by a large number of honest men, who have hitherto been de 
 ceived by false reports, continuously and persistently circulated. They 
 will discover a pure, able, consistent patriot, a devoted friend and de 
 fender of the Union, in one, whom, through slander and misrepresenta 
 tion, they had been led to regard as a traitor, to whom permission to 
 live was an extra and unmerited allowance. To that immense circle of 
 friends who, with inflexible firmness, have adhered to Mr. VALLAXDIQHAM, 
 amidst all the malignant and deadly assaults of his enemies, this Record 
 will be a sure testimony that their confidence has not been misplaced. 
 And they will here be furnished with the means, not only to correct the 
 misjudgments of those who have been honestly deceived, but to silence 
 the slanders of those who delight in falsehood and injustice. 
 
 The above remarks tell why this Record has been prepared, and is now 
 
 offered to the public. 
 
 J. W. & CO. 
 
 CINCINNATI, April 13, 1863. 
 
RECORD 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. C. L. VALLANDiaHAM 
 
 ON 
 
 ABOLITION, THE UNION, AND THE CIVIL WAS." 
 
 NUMBER ONE. 
 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED AT A DEMOCRATIC MEETING HELD IN DAYTON, OHIO, 
 OCTOBER 29, 1855. 
 
 WE open this RECORD with a copy of the speech delivered by Mr. 
 VALLANDIGHAM, at a Democratic meeting held in Dayton, on the 
 evening of the 29th of October, 1855, a few days after the election 
 which resulted in the choice of SALMON P. CHASE as Governor of 
 Ohio. Three hundred and one thousand votes had been cast at that 
 election, of which Mr. CHASE, the " Free Soil " candidate, received 
 one hundred and forty-six thousand, being less than half, but enough 
 to elect him. The Democratic candidate received one hundred and 
 thirty-one thousand, and the remaining twenty thousand were given to 
 Mr. TRIMBLE, whom the old-line Whigs supported. The Democratic 
 party being thus temporarily defeated, and thrown out of power, an 
 excellent opportunity was offered for giving the history of the causes 
 which led to the defeat, and for indicating, also, the means which 
 would u restore it to sound doctrine and discipline, and, therefore, to 
 power and usefulness. 91 This task was performed by Mr. VALLAN 
 DIGHAM, on the occasion referred to, in a speech characterized by 
 extraordinary logical accuracy and clearness of statement, as well as 
 extensive and thorough historical research. The general purpose for 
 
 (5) 
 
6 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 which the meeting had convened was to consider " THE PRESENT 
 
 STATE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN OHIO, AND ITS DUTY." 
 
 After some preliminary remarks, explanatory of the object of the 
 meeting, and the reasons why it was proper and expedient thus early 
 to discuss before the people the great question which must make up 
 the chief issue in the campaign of 1856, and to organize preparatory 
 thereto, Mr. YAELANDIGHAM said that he proposed as the text or 
 " rubric " of what he had to say to-night, the following inquiries : 
 
 WHY HAS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUFFERED DEFEAT IN OHIO? 
 WHY IS IT- .SO GREATLY DISORGANIZED? WlIAT WILL RESTORE 
 JT TO SOUND. DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE, AND, THEREFORE, TO 
 
 POWER AND USE FULNESS ? 
 
 THESE, Mr. President, are grave questions. I propose to answer 
 them plainly boldly not as a partisan, but as a patriot ; and for 
 the opinions which I shall this night avow, I alone am responsible. 
 I speak not to please, but to instruct, to warn, to arouse, arid, if it 
 be not presumption, to save, while to be saved is yet possible. The 
 time for plain Anglo-Saxon out-speaking is corne. Let us hear no 
 more the lullaby of peace, when there is no peace; but rather the 
 sharp clang of the trumpet stirring to battle ; at least, the alarm 
 bell in the night, when the house is on fire over our heads. Or, 
 better still, give us warning while the incendiary is yet stealing, 
 " with whispering and most guilty diligence," and flaming torch, 
 toward our dwelling, that we may be ready and armed against his 
 approach. 
 
 First, then : The Democratic party of Ohio suffered defeat because 
 it became disorganized; and it was disorganized because it held riot, 
 in all things, to sound doctrine, vigorous discipline, and to true and 
 good men. It began to tamper with heresy and with unsound men 
 to look after policy, falsely so called, and forget sometimes the TRUE 
 and HONEST; not mindful, with Jackson, that the right is always 
 expedient at least, that the wrong never is ; and that an invigorating 
 defeat is ever better than a triumph which leaves the victor weaker 
 than the conquered. This is a law of nature, gentlemen, and we 
 may claim no immunity from punishment for its infraction. I speak 
 of the Democratic party of Ohio, because we are our own masters, 
 and have a work of our own to perform. But the evil, in part, lies 
 outside the State. It infects the whole party of the Union, as such. 
 It ascends into high places, and sits down hard by the throne. But 
 I affect the wise caution of Sallust, remembering that concerning Car 
 thage it is better to be silent, than speak too little. Yet we, as mem 
 bers, must partake of the weakness and enervation of other parts of 
 the system ; and atrophy is quite as fatal, though it may not be so 
 Bpeedy, as corruption and gangrene. 
 
 The inquiries, gentlemen, which 1 have proposed, assume the 
 truth of the facts which they imply. Are they not true ? That wo 
 
HISTOKY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 7 
 
 have been defeated, is now become history. But defeat did not 
 disorganize us. Had not discipline first been lost, we could not 
 have been overpowered. I know, indeed, that some have affirmed 
 that we, too, are an effete party, ready to be dissolved and pass away. 
 It is not so. Dissolution and disorganization are whoHy different 
 things. The Democratic party is not a thing of shreds and patches, 
 organized for a transient purpose, and thrown hap-hazard together, in 
 undistinguishable mass, without form, consistency, or proportion, by 
 some sudden and temporary pressure, and passing away with the 
 occasion which gave it being; or catching, for a renewed, but yet 
 more ephemeral existence, at each flitting exigency, as it arises in 
 the State ; molding itself to the form of every popular humor, and 
 seeking to nil its sails with every new wind of doctrine, as it passes, 
 either in zephyr or tempest, over the waves of public caprice born 
 and dying with the breath which made it. No, sir. The Demo 
 cratic party is founded upon PRINCIPLES which never die : hence it 
 is itself immortal. It may alter its forms; it must change its meas 
 ures for, as in principle it is essentially conservative, so in policy it 
 is the party of true progress its individual members and its leading 
 spirits, its representative men, can not remain the same. But 
 wherever there is a people wholly or partially free, there will be a 
 Democratic party more or less developed and organized. But no 
 party, gentlemen, is at all times equally pure and true to principle 
 /ind its mission. And whenever the Democratic party forgets these, 
 it loses its cementing and power-bestowing element; it waxes weak, 
 is disorganized, is defeated till, purging itself of its impurities, and 
 failing back and rallying within its impregnable intrenchments of 
 original and eternal principles, it returns, like " eagle lately bathed," 
 with irresistible might and majesty, to the conflict, full of hope, and 
 confident in victory. Sir, it is this recuperative power this vis 
 medicatrix which distinguishes the Democratic party from every 
 other; and it owes this wholly to its conservative element, FIXED 
 POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. I say political principles principles dealing 
 peculiarly with government because it is a POLITICAL party, and 
 must be judged according to its nature and constitution. Recog 
 nizing, in their fullest extent, the imperative obligations of personal 
 religion and morality upon its members, and also that, in its aggre 
 gate being, it dare not violate the principles of either, it is yet 
 neither a Church nor a lyceum. It is no part of its mission to set 
 itself up as an expounder of ethical or divine truth. Still less is 
 it a mere philanthropic or eleemosynary institution. All these are 
 great and noble, each within its peculiar province, but they form no 
 part of the immediate business and end of the Democratic party. 
 And it is because that party sometimes will forget that it is the first 
 and highest duty of ita mission to be the depositary of immutable 
 political principles, and steps aside after the dreams and visions of 
 a false and fanatical progress sometimes political, commonly phil 
 anthropic or moral that it ceases to be powerful and victorious ; 
 for God has ordained that truth shall ever, in the end, be vindicated, 
 and error chastised. 
 
5 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 Forgetting the true province of a political party, the Democracy 
 of France and Germany has always failed, and ever must fail. It 
 aims at too much. It invokes government to regenerate man, and 
 set him free from the taint and the evils of sin and suffering; it 
 seeks to coritrol the domestic, social, individual, moral, and spiritual 
 relations of man ; it ignores or usurps the place of the fireside, the 
 Church, and the lyceum : and, emulating the folly of Icarus, and 
 spreading its wings for too lofty a flight into upper air, it has 
 melted like wax before the sun. Indirectly, indeed, government will 
 always, sir. affect more or less all these relations for good or evil. 
 But departing from its appointed orbit, confusion, not less surely or 
 disastrously, must follow, than from a like departure by the heavenly 
 bodies from their fixed laws of motion. And, indeed, the greater, 
 and by far the gravest part of the errors of Democracy everywhere, 
 are to be traced directly to neglect or infraction of the fundamental 
 principle of its constitution that man is to be considered and dealt 
 with by government strictly in reference to his relations as a polit 
 ical being. 
 
 These reflections, Mr. President, naturally lead me to the first 
 inquiry. 
 
 Personal dissension : a turning aside after mere temporary and 
 miscalled expediency ; a faith in and following after weak, or uncer 
 tain, or selfish, or heretical men; neglect of party tone and disci 
 pline as essential to the morale, and hence the success of a party, 
 as of an army, and just as legitimate ; these, and the like minor 
 causes of disorganization and defeat, I pass over. They are inci 
 dent to all parties, and although never to be too lightly estimated, 
 yet rarely occasion lasting or very serious detriment. Commonly, 
 indeed, sir, they are but the diagnostic, or visible development of 
 an evil which lies deeper just as boils and blotches upon the sur 
 face of the body show that the system is tainted and distempered 
 within. Neither do I pause, gentlemen, to consider how far the final 
 inauguration of the grand scheme of domestic policy, which the Dem 
 ocratic party so many years struggled for, and the consequent pros 
 tration and dissolution of the Whig party, have contributed to the 
 loss of vigilance and discipline ; since an organization healthy in all 
 other things must soon recover its wonted tone and soundness. Sir, 
 the Democratic party has principle to fall back upon ; and it has, too, 
 a trust to execute not less sacred, and almost as difficult, as its first 
 work. It is its business to preserve and keep pure and incorrupt 
 that which it has established. And this, along with the new polit 
 ical questions which, in the world s progress, from day to day spring 
 up, will give us labor enough, and sweat enough, without a wild 
 foray into the province of the benevolent association, the lyceum, 
 or the Church; to return thence laden, not with the precious things, 
 the incense, and the vessels of silver and gold from off the altar, but 
 the rubbish and the offal the bigotries, the intolerance, the hypoc 
 risies, the persecuting spirit, and whatever else of unmixed evil has 
 crept, through corruption, into the outer or the inner courts of the 
 sanctuary. 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 9 
 
 I know, indeed, gentlemen, that every political party is more or 
 less directly affected, as by a sort of magnetism, by all great public 
 movements upon any subject; and it is one of the peculiar evils of 
 a democracy, that every question of absorbing, though never so 
 transient interest moral, social, religious, scientific, no matter 
 what assumes, sooner or later, a political shape and hue, and 
 enters into the election contests and legislation of the country. 
 For many years, nevertheless, sir, questions not strictly political 
 exerted but small influence upon parties in the United States. The 
 memorable controversies which preceded the American Revolution, 
 and which developed and disciplined the great abilities of the giants 
 of those days founded, indeed, as all must be, upon abstract prin 
 ciples drawn from the nature of man considered in his relation to 
 government were yet strictly legal and political. The men of that 
 day were not cold metaphysicians, nor wicked or mischievous enthu 
 siasts else we had been subjects of Great Britain to this day. 
 Practical men, they dealt with the subject as a practical question; 
 and deducing the right of revolution, the right to institute, alter, 
 or abolish government, from the -inalienable rights of man," the 
 American Congress summed up a long catalogue of injuries and 
 usurpations wholly political, as impelling to the separation, and 
 struck out of the original draught of the Declaration of Independ 
 ence the eloquent, but then mistimed, declamation of Jefferson 
 against the African slave-trade. Sir, it did not occur to even the 
 Hancocks and the Adamses of the New England of that day, that 
 the national sins and immoralities of Great Britain could form the 
 appropriate theme of a great state paper, and supply to a legisla 
 tive assembly the most potent arguments wherewith to justify and 
 defend before the world a momentous political revolution. Discov 
 eries such as these are, belong to the patriots and wise men the 
 Sewards, the Sumners, the Hales, and the Chases of a later and 
 more enlightened age. 
 
 Our ancestors went to war, indeed, about a preamble and a prin 
 ciple : but these were political the right of the British Parliament 
 to tax America. And they did not stop to inquire whether war 
 was humane and consistent with man s notion of the Gospel of 
 Peace. Their political rights were invaded, and they took up arms 
 to repel the aggression. Nor did they, sir, in the temper and spirit 
 of the pharisaic rabbins and sophisters of 55, ask of each other 
 whether, morally or piously, the citizens of the several Colonies 
 were worthy of fellowship. They were resolved to form a POLIT 
 ICAL UNION, so as to establish justice and to secure domestic tran 
 quillity, the common defense, the general welfare, and the blessings 
 of liberty to themselves and posterity. And the Catholic of Mary 
 land and Huguenot of Carolina, the Puritan Roundhead of New 
 England and the Cavalier of Virginia the slavery-hating, though 
 sometimes slave-trading, saint of Boston and the slave-holding sin 
 ner of Savannah Washington and Adams, Rutledge and Sherman, 
 Madison and Franklin, Pinckney and Ellsworth, all joined handa 
 in holy brotherhood to ordain a Constitution which, silent about 
 
10 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 temperance, forbade religious tests and establishments, and provide j, 
 for the extradition of fugitive slaves* 
 
 The questions which engaged the great minds of Washington and 
 the men who composed his cabinets were, also, purely political. 
 " Wliisky" indeed, sir, played once an important part in the drama, 
 threatening even civil war ; but it was as the creature of the tax- 
 gatherer, not the theme of the philanthropist or the ecclesiastic. 
 Even the Alien and Sedition Laws of the succeeding administra 
 tion renascent now by a sort of Pythcigorean metempsychosis, in 
 the form of a secret, oath-bound conspiracy were defended then 
 solely on political grounds. "The principles of 98," which, at that 
 time, convulsed the country in the struggle for their predominance, 
 were, indeed, abstractions, though of infinite practical value but 
 they were constitutional and political abstractions. Equally is it 
 true that all the capital measures, in every administration, from 98 
 to 1828 were of a kindred character, except only the Missouri 
 Question, that "fire-bell in the night" which filled Jefferson with 
 alarm and despair. But this was transient in itself; though it left its 
 slumbering and treacherous ashes to kindle a flame, riot many years 
 later, which threatens to consume this Union with fire unquenchable. 
 
 But within no period of our history, gentlemen, were so many 
 and such grave political questions the subject of vehement, and 
 sometimes exasperated, discussion, as during the administrations of 
 Jackson and his successor, continuing down, many of them, to 
 1847. Among these I name Internal Improvements, the Protective 
 System, the Public Lands, Nullification, the Removal of the Indians, 
 the United States Bank, the Removal of the Deposits, Removals 
 from Office, the French Indemnity, the Expunging Resolutions, the 
 Specie Circular, Executive Patronage, the Independent Treasury, 
 Distribution, the Veto Power, and their cognate subjects. Never 
 were greater questions presented. Never was greater intellect or 
 more abundant learning and ingenuity brought into the discussion 
 of any subjects. And never, be it remembered, was the Democratic 
 party so powerful. It was the power and majesty of principle and 
 truth, working out their development through machinery obedient 
 to its constitution and nature. True, Andrew Jackson was then at 
 the head of the party, and his name and his will, moving all things 
 with a nod, were a tower of strength. But an hundred Jacksons 
 could not have upheld a party one day which had been false to its 
 mission. 
 
 "Within this period, indeed. Anti-masonry rose, flourished, and 
 died ; the first, in the United States, of a long line of third parties 
 the tertium quid of political sophisters based upon but one tenet, 
 and devoted to a single purpose. But even in this, the professed 
 principle was solely political. 
 
 Following the great questions of the Jackson era, came the Annex 
 ation of Texas, the Oregon question, and the Mexican War ; during, 
 
 *Both these provisions were carried unanimously, without debate and 
 without vote. 3 Mad. Pap., 1366, 1447, 1456, 1468. 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 11 
 
 or succeeding which, that pestilent and execrable sectional contro 
 versy, Resjjublicce portentum ac pcene funus, was developed and 
 nurtured to its present perilous magnitude. 
 
 Here, gentlemen, a new epoch begins in our political history. A 
 new order of issues, and new party mechanism are introduced. At 
 this point, therefore, let us turn back and trace briefly the origin and 
 history of those grievous departures from the ancient landmarks, 
 which, filling the whole country with confusion and perplexity, have 
 impaired, more or less seriously, the strength and discipline of the 
 Democratic party. 
 
 In the State of Massachusetts not barren of inventions in the 
 year 1811. at a meeting of an ecclesiastical council, a committee was 
 appointed, whereof a reverend doctor, of Salem, was chairman, 
 to draught a constitution for the first " Temperance Society " in the 
 United States. The committee reported in 1813, and the society was 
 established. It languished till 1826 ; and, " languishing did live." 
 Nathan Dane was among its first presidents. In that year of grace, 
 sir, at Boston, died this association, and from its ashes sprang the 
 u American Society for the promotion of Temperance " the parent 
 of a numerous offspring. This association was, in its turn, supplanted 
 by the Washingtonian Societies of 1841, and they, again, by the 
 Sons of Temperance. The eldest of these organizations taught only 
 temperance in the use of ardent spirits ; their successors forbade, 
 wholly, all spirituous, but allowed vinous and fermented liquors. 
 The Washingtonians enjoined total abstinence from every beverage 
 which, by possibility, might intoxicate, and so, also, did the Sons of 
 Temperance. But all these organizations, gentlemen in the out 
 set, at least professed reliance solely upon " moral suasion," and 
 denied all political purpose or design in their action. They were 
 voluntary associations, formed to persuade men to be temperate. This 
 was right, was reasonable ; was great, and noble ; and immense re 
 sults for good rewarded their labors. The public was interested, 
 everywhere. The cause became popular became powerful. De 
 signing men. not honest, were not slow to discover that it might be 
 turned into a potent political engine for the advancement of personal 
 or party interests. Weak men, very honest, were dazzled and 
 deluded by the bright dream of intemperance expelled, and man 
 restored to his original purity, by the power of human legislation. 
 And lo, in 1855, in this, the freest country upon the globe, fourteen 
 States, by statute bristling all over with fines, the jail, and the peni 
 tentiary have prescribed that neither strong drink nor the fruit of 
 the vine shall be the subject of contract, traffic, or use within their 
 limits. Temperance, which Paul preached, and the Bible teaches as 
 a religious duty, and leaves to the Church, or the voluntary associa 
 tion, is now become a controlling element at the polls and in legis 
 lation. Political parties are perverted into great temperance societies ; 
 and the fitness of the citizen for office gauged now by his capacity 
 to remain dry. His palm may itch ; his whole head may be weak, 
 and his whole heart corrupt ; but if his tongue be but parched, he is 
 competent. 
 
12 HISTOKY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 And now, sir, along with good, came evil ; and when the good 
 turned to evil, the plague abounded exceedingly. I pass by that 
 numerous host of lesser isms of the day, full ail of them of folly, 
 or fanaticism, and fit only to " uproar the universal peace, confound 
 all unity on earth," which, nevertheless, have excited much public 
 interest, numbered many followers, and, flowing speedily into the 
 stream of party politics, aided largely to pollute its already turbid 
 and frothy waters. I come to that most recent fungus development 
 of those departures from original and wholesome political principle, 
 KNOW-NOTHINGISM as barbarous in name, as, in my judgment, it is 
 dangerous in essence. 
 
 The extraordinary success, gentlemen, which had attended political 
 temperance and abolition, revealed a mine of wealth, richer than 
 California placer, to the office-hunting demagogue. Ordinary politi 
 cal topics were become stale certainly unprofitable. But he, it 
 now appeared, who could call in the aid of moral or religious truths, 
 touched an answering chord in the heart of this very pious and 
 upright people a people so keenly sensitive, too, each one, to the 
 moral or religious status of his neighbor. 
 
 Not ignorant, sir, of the corroding bitterness of religious strife, 
 and mindful of the desolating persecutions, for conscience sake, of 
 which governments, in times past, had been the willing instruments, 
 the founders of our Federal Constitution forbade, in clear and positive 
 language, all religious tests and establishments : and every State, in 
 terins more or less emphatic, has ordained a similar prohibition. The 
 Constitution of Ohio, declaring that all men have a natural and 
 indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates 
 of their own conscience, provides that "no preference shall be given, 
 by law, to any religious society, nor shall any interference with the 
 rights of conscience be permitted ; and no religious test shall be 
 required as a qualification, for office" 
 
 By prohibitions, positive and stringent as these are, gentlemen, 
 our fathers, in their weakness, thought to stay the flood of religious 
 intolerance. Vain hope ! The high road to honor and emolument lay 
 through the "higher law" reforms of the day. Moral and religious 
 issues alone were found available. The roll of the " drum ecclesi 
 astic " could stir a fever in the public blood, when the thunders of 
 the rostrum fell dull and droning upon the ears of the people. It 
 needed but small sagacity, therefore, to foresee that the prejudices of 
 race and sect must prove a still more powerful and wieldy engine. 
 The Pope of Pilgrims Progress grinned still at the mouth of the 
 cave full of dead men s bones ; and Fox s Book of Martyrs lay shud 
 dering yet, with its hideous engravings, under every Protestant roof. 
 How easy, then, to revive, or, rather, to fan into a flame, this secret 
 but worse than goblin dread of Papacy and the Inquisition. Add to 
 this, that a majority of Catholics are foreigners obnoxious, there 
 fore, to the bigotry of race and birth also ; add, further, that silence, 
 secrecy, and circumspection are weapons potent in any hands : add, 
 still, that to be over-curious is a controlling element in the American 
 character. Compound, now, all these with a travesty upon the signs, 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 13 
 
 grips, and machinery of already existing organizations, and you have 
 the elements and mechanism of a great and powerful, but assuredly 
 not enduring party. 
 
 In the month of January, 1854, the telegraph, on lightning wing, 
 speeds through its magic meshes the astounding intelligence that, 
 at the municipal election of the town of Salem, (not unknown in 
 history.) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, men not known to 
 be candidates were, by an invisible and unknown agency, said to be a 
 secret, oath-bound society, without even so much as a name, elected by 
 heavy majorities over candidates openly proclaimed. In March, and 
 in April, similar announcements appear from other quarters. The 
 mystery is perplexing the country is on fire and lo, in October, 
 nine months after this Salem epiphany, from Maine to California, the 
 mythic " SAM " has established his secret conclaves in every city, 
 village, county, and State in the Union. 
 
 And here, again, sir, the Protestant clergy, forgetting, many of them, 
 their divine warrant and holy mission I speak it with profoundest 
 sorrow and humiliation have run headlong into this dangerous and 
 demoralizing organization. They have even sought, in many places, 
 to control it, and through it, the political affairs of the country : and, 
 sad spectacle ! are found but too often foremost and loudest and most 
 clamorous among political brawlers and hunters of place. I rejoice, 
 sir, that there are many noble and holy exceptions ministers mindful 
 of their true province, and preaching only the pure precepts and doc 
 trines of that Sacred Volume, without which there is no religion, and 
 no stability or virtue worth the name, in either Church or State. 
 Nevertheless, covertly or openly, the Protestant clergy and Church 
 have but too much lent countenance and encouragement to the order. 
 And the truth must and shall be spoken both of Church and of Party. 
 
 In seizing upon the Temperance and other moral and religious 
 movements, party invaded the territory of the Church. The Church 
 has now avenged the aggression, and gone into party not with the 
 might and majesty of holiness not to purify and elevate but with 
 distorted feature, breath polluted, and wing dripping and droiling in 
 mire and stench and rottenness, to destroy and pollute, in the foul 
 embrace, whatever of purity remained yet to either Church or the 
 hustings. The Church has disorganized and perverted party ; and, in 
 its turn, party has become to the Church as " dead flies in the oint 
 ment of the apothecary." Church and State, each abandoning ita 
 peculiar province, and meeting upon the common ground of fanaticism 
 and proscription, have joined hands in polluting and incestuous wed 
 lock. The Constitution remains, indeed, unchanged in letter ; but 
 this unholy union has rendered nugatory one among its wisest and 
 most salutary enactments. 
 
 But, gentlemen, all these are, in their nature and from circum 
 stances, essentially ephemeral. No powerful and controlling interests 
 exist to cement and harden them into strength and durability. They 
 are among the epidemic diseases which for a season infect every body 
 politic leaving it, if sound in constitution and not distempered 
 otherwise, purified and strengthened. In all these, too, the Democ- 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 racy, as a party, has stood firm and uncontaminate ; although, indeed, 
 individual members have, in every State and county, been beguiled 
 and led astray, and thereby the aggregate power and influence of the 
 party greatly impaired. 
 
 Especially, sir, is the present order of "Know-Nothings" evanes 
 cent. Even now it totters to the earth. In the beginning, indeed, 
 it was, perhaps, the purpose of its founders to hold it aloof from the 
 great sectional controversy between the North arid the South, and 
 to mold it into a permanent national party. But circumstances are 
 stronger than men and already throughout the North it has become 
 thoroughly abolitionized. Hence, it must speedily dissolve and pass 
 away, or remain but a yet more hateful adjunct of that one stronger 
 and more durable organization, in which every element of opposition 
 to the Democratic party must, sooner or later, inevitably terminate 
 THE ABOLITION HORDE OF THE NORTH ; for, however tortuous may 
 be its channel, or remote its fountain, into this turbid and devour 
 ing flood will every brook and rivulet find its way at last. 
 
 The consideration of this great question, Mr. President, I have 
 naturally and appropriately reserved to the last. It is the gravest 
 and most momentous, full of embarrassment and of danger to the 
 country ; and, in cowering before, or tampering with it, the Demo 
 cratic party "of Ohio has given itself a disabling, though I trust not 
 yet mortal, wound. 
 
 I propose, then, sir, to trace fully the origin, development, and 
 progress of this movement, and to explore, and lay open at length, 
 its relations, present and prospective, to the Democratic party and 
 to the Union. 
 
 SLAVERY, gentlemen older in other countries also than the rec 
 ords of human society existed in America at the date of its dis 
 covery. The first slaves of the European were natives of the soil ; 
 and a Puritan governor of Massachusetts founder of the family of 
 Winthrop bequeathed his soul to God, and his Indian slaves to 
 the lawful heirs of his body. Negro slavery was introduced into 
 Hispaniola in 1501, more than a century before the colonization of 
 America by the English. Massachusetts, by express enactment, in 
 1641, punishing "man-stealing" with death and it is so punished 
 to this day under the laws of the United States legalized yet the 
 enslaving of captives taken in war, and of such " strangers," for 
 eigners, as should be acquired by purchase ; while confederate New 
 England, two years later, providing for the equitable division of 
 lands, goods, and "persons" as equally a part of the "spoils" of 
 war, enacted also the first fugitive slave law in America.* White 
 
 ^SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS. "There shall never be any bond slavery, 
 villeinage, or captivity among us, unless it be lawful captives taken in just 
 wars, and such strangers as willingly sell themselves, or are sold to us." Mas 
 sachusetts Body of Liberties, 1641: 91. 
 
 "It is, also, by these confederates agreed, that, etc and that accord 
 ing to the different charge of each jurisdiction and plantation, the whole 
 advantage of the war, (if it please God so to bless their endeavors,) whether 
 it bo in lands, goods, or persons, shall be proportionably divided among said 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 15 
 
 slaves convicts and paupers some of them ; others, at a later day, 
 prisoners taken at the battles of Dunbar, and Worcester, and of 
 Sedgemoor were, at the first, employed in Virginia and the British 
 West Indies. Bought in England by English dealers, among whom 
 was the queen of James II, with many of his nobles and courtiers 
 some of them, perhaps, of the house of Sutherland they were im 
 ported and sold at auction to the highest bidder. In 1620, a Dutch 
 man-of-war first landed a cargo of slaves upon the banks of James 
 river. But the earliest slave-ship belonging to the English colo 
 nists was fitted out, in 1645, by a member of the Puritan Church, 
 of Boston. Fostered still by English princes and nobles, confirmed 
 and cherished by British legislation and judicial decisions, even 
 against the wishes, and in spite of the remonstrances, of the Colo 
 nies, the traffic increased ; slaves multiplied, and, on the Fourth of 
 July, 1776, every Colony was now become a slave State; and the 
 sun went down that day upon four hundred and fifty thousand of 
 those who, in the cant of eighty years later, are styled "human 
 chattels./ but who were not, by the act of that day, emancipated. 
 
 Eleven years afterward, delegates, assembling at Philadelphia, from 
 every Slate except Khode "Island, ignoring the question of the sin- 
 fulness and immorality of slavery as a subject with which they, as 
 the representatives of separate and independent States, had no con 
 cern, founded a Union and framed a Constitution, which, leaving 
 with each State the exclusive control and regulation of its own 
 domestic institutions, and providing for the taxation .and represent 
 ation of slaves, gave no right to Congress to debate or to legislate 
 concerning slavery in the States or Territories, except for the inter 
 diction of the slave-trade and the extradition of fugitive slaves. 
 The Plan of Union proposed by Franklin, in 1754, had contained 
 no allusion, even, to slavery ; and the Articles of Confederation of 
 1778, but a simple recognition of its existence so wholly was it 
 regarded then a domestic and local concern. In 1787, every State, 
 except, perhaps, Massachusetts, tolerated slavery either absolutely 
 or conditionally. But the number of slaves north of Maryland, 
 never great, was even yet comparatively small not exceeding forty 
 thousand in a total slave population of six hundred thousand. In 
 the North, chief carrier of slaves to others, even as late as 1807, 
 slavery never took firm root.* Nature warred against it in that 
 
 confederates." Articles of Confederation, etc., May 19, 1643; g 4; and Ban 
 croft s United States, voCl, p. "l68. 
 
 THE NEW ENGLAND FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. "It is also agreed that if 
 any serrant run away from his master into any of these confederate juris 
 dictions, that, in such case, upon certificate of one magistrate in the jurisdic 
 tion out of which the said servant fled, or upon due proof, the said servant 
 3halL be delivered up either to his master or any other that pursues and brings 
 such certificate or proof: Ibid, fy 8. 
 
 *TiiK NORTH AND THE SLAVE TRADE. The number of African slaves 
 imported into the port of Charleston. S. C., alone, in the years 1804, 1805, 
 1806, and 1807 the last year of the slave-trade was 39,075. These were 
 consigned to ninety-one British subjects, eighty-eight citizens of New England, 
 ten French subjects, and only thirteen* citizens of Charleston. Compend. of 
 U. S. Census, p. 83. 
 
16 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 latitude ; otherwise every State in the Union would have been a 
 slaveholding State to this day. It was not profitable there, and it, 
 died out lingering, indeed, in New York, till July, 1827. It died 
 out ; but not so much by the manumission of slaves as by their 
 transportation and sale in the South. And thus New England, sir, 
 turned an honest penny with her left hand, and with her right 
 modestly wrote herself down in history as both generous and just. 
 In the South, gentlemen, all this was precisely reversed. The 
 earliest and most resolute enemies to slavery were Southern men. 
 But climate had fastened the institution. upon them ; and they found 
 no way to strike it down. From the beginning, indeed, the Southern 
 colonies especially had resisted the introduction of African slaves ; 
 and, at the very outset of the revolution, Virginia and North Caro 
 lina interdicted the slave-trade. The Continental Congress Boon 
 after, on the 6th of April, 1776, three months earlier than the Dec 
 laration of Independence, resolved that no more slaves ought to be 
 imported into the Thirteen Colonies. Jefferson, in his draught of 
 the Declaration, had denounced the king of England alike for en 
 couraging the slave-trade, and for fomenting servile insurrection in 
 the provinces. Ten years later, he bold4y attacked slavery, in his 
 "Notes on Virginia;" and in the Congress of the Confederation, 
 prior to the adoption of the Constitution, with its solemn compacts and 
 compromises upon the subject of slavery, proposed to exclude it from, 
 the territory north-west of the river Ohio. Col. Mason, of Virginia, 
 vehemently condemned it, in the Convention of 1787. Neverthe 
 less, it had already become manifest that slavery must soon die away 
 in the North, but in the South continue and harden into, perhaps, a 
 permanent, uneradicable system. Hostile interests and jealousies 
 sprang up, therefore, in bitterness, even in the Convention. But the 
 blood of the patriot brothers of Carolina and Massachusetts smoked 
 yet upon the battle-fields of the Revolution. The recollection of 
 their kindred language and common dangers and sufferings, burned 
 still fresh in their hearts. Patriotism proved more powerful than 
 jealousy, and good sense stronger than fanaticism. There were no 
 Sewards, no Hales, no Suinners, no Greeleys, no Parkers, no Chase, 
 in that Convention. There -was a Wilson y but he rejoiced not in the 
 name of Henry ; and he was a Scotchman. There was a clergy 
 man no, not in the Convention of 87, but in the Congress of 76 ; 
 but it was the devout, the learned, the pious, the patriotic Wiiher- 
 spoon ; of foreign birth, also a native of Scotland, too. The men 
 of that day and generation, sir, were content to leave the question 
 of slavery just where it belonged. It did not occur to them, that 
 each one among them was accountable for "the sin of slaveholding " 
 in his fellow; and that to ease his tender conscience of the burden, 
 all the fruits of revolutionary privation, and blood, and treasure 
 all the recollections of the past, all the hopes of the future nay, 
 the Union, and with it, domestic tranquillity and national indepen 
 dence ought to be offered up as a sacrifice. They were content to 
 deal with political questions, and to leave cases of conscience to the 
 Church and the schools, or to the individual man. And, accord- 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 17 
 
 ingly, to this Union and Constitution, bnsed upon these compro 
 mises execrated now as a covenants with death and leagues with 
 hell : every State acceded ; and upon these foundations, thus broad 
 arid deep and stable, a political superstructure has, as if by magic, 
 .irisen, which, in symmetry and proportion, and, if we would but be 
 true to our trust, in strength and durability, finds no parallel in the 
 world s history. 
 
 Patriotic sentiments, sir, such as marked the era of 89, continued 
 *o guide the statesmen and people of the country, for more than 
 Shirty years, full of prosperity; till, in a dead political calm, conse 
 quent upon temporary extinguishment of the ancient party lines and 
 issues, the MISSOURI QUESTION, resounding through the land with 
 the hollow moan of the earthquake, shook the pillars of the Republic 
 even to their deep foundations. 
 
 Within these thirty years, gentlemen, slavery, as a system, had been 
 abolished by law or disuse, quietly and without agitation, in every 
 State north of Mason and Dixon s line in many of them lingering, 
 indeed, in individual cases, so late as the census of 1840. But, ex- 
 <-ept in half a score of instances, the question had not been obtruded 
 upon Congress. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 had been passed with 
 out opposition, and without a division, in the Senate ; and by a vote 
 of forty-eight to seven in the House. The slave-trade had been 
 declared piracy, punishable with death. Respectful petitions from the 
 Quakers of Pennsylvania, and others, upon the slavery question, were 
 referred to a committee, and a report made thereon, which laid the 
 ;>nttcr at rest. Other petitions, afterward, were quietly rejected, and, 
 ia one instance, returned to the petitioner. Louisiana and Florida, 
 both slaveholding countries, had, without agitation, been added to our 
 territory. Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Ala 
 bama, slave States each one of them, had been admitted into the 
 Union, without a murmur. No Missouri Restriction, no Wilrnot 
 Proviso, had as yet reared its discordant front to terrify and con 
 found. NON-INTERVENTION was then both the practice and the 
 <loctrine of the statesmen and people of that period; though, as yet, 
 i:.o hollow platform enunciated it as an article of faith, from which, 
 nevertheless, obedience might be withheld, and the platform " spit 
 upon," provided the tender conscience of the recusant did not forbid 
 him to. support the candidate, and help to secure the "spoils." 
 
 Once only, sir, was there a deliberate purpose shown, by a formal 
 assault upon the compromises of the Constitution, to array the 
 prejudices of geographical sections upon the question of slavery. 
 But, originating within the secret counsels of the Hartford Conven 
 tion, it partook of the odium which touched every thing connected 
 with that treasonable assembly,* till, set on fire by a live coal from 
 
 *THP: HARTFORD CONVENTION. "Resolved, That it is expedient to recom 
 mend to the several State legislatures certain amendments to the Constitution, 
 viz. : 
 
 " That the power to declare or make war, by the Congress of the United 
 States, he restricted. That it is expedient to attempt to make provision for 
 restraining Congress in the exercise of an unlimited power to make new States, 
 2 
 
18 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 the altar of jealousy and fanaticism, it burst into a conflagration, six 
 years later. And now, sir, for the first time in our history under the 
 Constitution, a strenuous and most embittered straggle caMiod, on 
 the part of the North the Federalists of the North to prevent the 
 admission of a State into the Union ; really, because the North the 
 Federalists of the North strove for the mastery, and to secure the 
 balance of power in her own hands ; but ostensibly because slave- 
 holding, which the Missouri Constitution sanctioned. v, r us aifirnied to 
 be immoral and irreligious. In this first fearful strife, this earliest 
 departure from the Constitution and the ancient sound policy of the 
 country, the North for the truth of history shall be vindicated 
 THE NORTH was the aggressor; and that, too, without the slightest 
 provocation. Vermont, in New England, Ohio, Indiana, and Tliinois, 
 out of territory once the property of slaveholding Virginia, had been 
 admitted into the Union; and Michigan organized into a territorial 
 government, without one hostile vote from the South given upon the 
 ground that slavery was interdicted within their limits. Even Maine 
 had been permitted, by vote of Congress, to slough oiF from Massachu 
 setts, and become a separate State. But now Missouri knocked for 
 admission, with a constitution not introducing, but continuing slavery, 
 which had existed in her midst from the beginning; and four several 
 times, at the first, she was rejected by the North. The South re 
 sisted, and the storm raged. Jefferson, professing to hate slavery, 
 but living and dying himself a slaveholder, or, in the delicate slang 
 of to-day, a "slave-breeder," loving yet his country with all the 
 fervid patriotism of his early manhood five and forty years before, 
 heard in it "the knell of the Union," and mourned that he must 
 "die now in the belief that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the 
 generation of 1776. to acquire self-government and happiness to their 
 country, was to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions 
 of their sons ; " consoling himself the only solace of the patriot of 
 fourscore years that he should not live to weep over the blessings 
 thrown thus recklessly away for " an abstract principle ; " and the 
 folly and madness of this " act of suicide and of treason against the 
 hopea of the world."* 
 
 and admit them into the Union. That an amendment be proposed respecting 
 SLAVE REPRESENTATION AND SLAVE TAXATION. - The third resolution, of the 
 Hartford Convention, reported Dec. 24, 1814, and subsequently adopted. 
 
 It was also resolved " that the capacity of naturalized citizens to hold offices 
 of trust, honor, or profit, ought to be restricted. 
 
 *THK MISSOURI QUESTION A FEDERAL MOVEMENT THE NORTH THK 
 AGGRESSOR. "The slavery agitation took its rise during this time (1819- 20), 
 in the form of attempted restriction on the State of Missouri a. prohibition to 
 hold slaves to be placed upon her as a condition of her admission into the 
 Union, and to be binding upon her afterward. This agitation came from the 
 North, and under a Federal Lead, and soon swept both parties into its vortex. 
 .... The real struggle was political, and for the balance of power, as frankly 
 declared b} T Mr. Kufus King, who disdained dissimulation The resist 
 ance made to the admission of the State, on account of the clause in relation 
 
 to free people of color, was only a mask to the real cause of opposition 
 
 .For a while this formidable Missouri question threatened the total overthrow 
 
HISTORY OP THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 19 
 
 But the incantations of hate and fanaticism had evoked the hideous 
 specter, and it ought to have been quelled, never to re -appear. The 
 appalling question was now stirred ; and it should have been met 
 and re-settled forever, by the men of that day, on the original basis 
 of the Constitution not left, as a legacy of discord, a Pandora s box 
 full of all evil, of mischief and pestilence, to the next generation. 
 They were not true to themselves ; they were not true to us. They 
 cowered before the goblin, and laid before it peace-offerings and a 
 wave-offering, and sent us, their children, to pass through the fire in 
 the valley of Hinnom. Setting aside the compromises of the Con 
 stitution, and usurping power not granted to Congress, they under 
 took to compromise about that which had already been definitely and 
 permanently settled by that instrument. This was the beginning, 
 sir, of that line of paltry and halting compromises ; of fat-brained, 
 mole-eyed, unmanlike expedients, which put the evil day off only to 
 return laden with aggravated mischief. They hushed the terrible 
 question for a moment; and the election machinery moved on, and 
 the spoils of the Presidency were divided as before. But it was " a 
 reprieve only, not a final sentence. " The : geographical line" thus 
 once conceived for the first time, and held up to the angry passions 
 of men, was, as Jefferson had foretold, never obliterated, but rather, 
 by every irritation, marked deeper and deeper. And, after fifteen 
 years truce, it re-appeared in a new and far more dangerous form ; 
 and, enduring already for more than half the average life-time of 
 UKin, has attained a position and magnitude which neither demands 
 nor will hearken to any further compromise. Nevertheless, sir, but 
 for the insolent intermeddling of the British government and British 
 emissaries continued to this day, with the superaddition now of 
 Napoleon the Third it might have slumbered for many years 
 longer. 
 
 In England, gentlemen, the form of personal bondage disappeared 
 even to its last traces from her own soil, about the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century ; its legal existence continued till 1661 ; its 
 worst realities remain to this day ; for although, in that very humane 
 and most enlightened Island, there be no involuntary, servitude 
 except as a punishment for crime, yet in England, poverty is a crime, 
 
 of all political parties upon principle, and the substitution of geographical par 
 ties, distinguished by the slave line, and, of course, destroying the just and 
 proper action of the Federal Government, and leading eventually to a separa 
 tion of the States. It was a Federal movement, accruing to the benefit of that 
 party, and, at first, was overwhelming, sweeping all the Northern Democracy 
 into its current, and giving the supremacy to their adversaries. When this 
 effect was perceived, the Northern Democracy became alarmed, and only 
 wanted a turn or abatement in popular feeling at home, to take the first oppor 
 tunity to get rid of the question, by admitting the State, and re-establishing party 
 
 lines upon the basis of political principles It was a political movement 
 
 for the balance of power, balked by the Northern Democracy, who saw their 
 own overthrow, and the eventual separation of the States, in the establishment 
 
 of geographical parties divided by a slavery and anti-slavery line 
 
 In the Missouri controversy, the North was the undisputed aggressor." 
 Benton s Thirty Years, pp. 5, 10, and 136, of volume first. 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 punishable with the worst form of slavery, or by starvation and 
 death. Three hundred years ago, she began to traffic in negro slaves. 
 Queen Elizabeth was a sharer in its gains. A hundred arid fifty 
 years later, at the peace of Utrecht, England undertook, by compact 
 with Spain, to import into .the West Indies, within the space of 
 thirty years, one hundred and forty-four thousand negroes, demand 
 ing, and with exactest care securing, a monopoly of the traffic. 
 Queen Anne reserved one -quarter of the stock of the slave-trading 
 company to herself, and one half to her subjects ; to the king of 
 Spain, the other quarter being conceded. Even so late as 1750, 
 Parliament busied itself in devising plans to make the slave-trade 
 still more effectual, while in 1775, the very year of the Revolution, 
 a noble earl wrote to a colonial agent these memorable words : " We 
 can not allow the Colonies to check or discourage, in any degree, a 
 traffic so beneficial to the nation." Between that date, and the 
 period of first importation, England had stolen from the coast of 
 Africa, and imported into the new world, or buried in the sea on 
 the passage thither, not less than three and a quarter millions of 
 negroes more, by half a million, than the entire population of the 
 Colonies. In April, 177G, the American Congress resolved against 
 the importation of any more slaves. But England continued the 
 traffic, with all its accumulated horrors, till 1808 ; for so deeply had 
 it struck its roots into the commercial interests of that country, that 
 not all the efforts of an organized and powerful society, not the 
 influence of her ministers, not the eloquence of all her most renowned 
 orators, availed to strike it down for more than forty years after 
 this, its earliest interdiction in any country, by a rebel congress. 
 Nevertheless, sir, slavery in the English West Indies continued 
 twenty-seven years longer. But the loss of her American Colonies, 
 and the prohibition of the slave-trade, had left small interest to Great 
 Britain in negro slavery. Her philanthropy found room now to 
 develop and expand in all its wonderful proportions. And accord 
 ingly, in 1834, England England, drunk with the blood of the 
 martyrs, stoning the prophets, and rejecting the, apostles of political 
 liberty, in her own midst robbed, by act of Parliament, one hundred 
 millions of dollars from the wronged and beggared peasantry of Ire 
 land, from the enslaved and oppressed millions of India, from the 
 starving, overwrought, mendicant carcasses of the white slaves of her 
 own soil, to pay to her impoverished colonists, plundered without 
 voice and without vote in her legislature, the stipulated price of 
 human rights; a.nd with these, the wages of iniquity, in the outraged 
 name of God and humanity, mocked the handful of her black bonds 
 men in the West Indies with the false and deluding shadow of 
 liberty. Exeter Hall resounded with acclamation ; bonfires and 
 illuminations proclaimed the exultant joy of an aristocracy fat with 
 the pride and lust of domination. But in that self-same hour in 
 that self-same hour, from the furnaces of Sheffield and the manu 
 factories of Birmingham ; from the wretched hovels of Ireland, full 
 of famishing and pestilence ; from ten thousand work-houses crowded 
 with leprous and perishing paupers, the abodes of abominable cruel- 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 21 
 
 ties, which not even the pen of a Dickens has availed to portray in 
 the full measure of their enormity, and from the mouths of a thou 
 sand pits and mines, deep under earth, horrid in darkness, and reek 
 ing with noisome vapor, the stupendous charnel-houses of the living 
 dead men of England", there went up, and ascends yet up to heaven, 
 the piercing wail of desolation and despair. 
 
 But England became now the great apostle of African liberty. 
 Ignoring, sir, or putting under, at the point of the bayonet, the poli 
 tical rights of millions of her own white subjects, she yet prepared 
 to convict the world of the sinfulness of negro slavery. Exeter Hall 
 sent out its emissaries, full of zeal, and greedy for martyrdom. The 
 British government took up the crusade not from motives of reli 
 gion or philanthropy. Let no man be deceived. No, sir. Since 
 the days of Peter the Hermit and Richard the Lion-hearted, England, 
 forgetting the Holy Sepulcher, had learned many lessons: and none 
 know better now their true province and mission, than English 
 statesmen. But the American experiment of free government had not 
 failed. America had grown great had grown populous and powerful. 
 Her proud example, towering up every day higher, and illuminating 
 every land, was penetrating the hearts of the people, and threaten 
 ing to shake the thrones of every monarchy in Europe. Force 
 against such a nation would be the wildest of follies. But to be 
 odious is to be weak, and internal dissension had wasted Greece, and 
 opened even Thermopylae to the Barbarian of Macedon. The 
 Missouri Question had revealed the weak, point of the American 
 Confederacy. Achilles was found vulnerable in the heel. Li spem 
 centum crat, INTESTINA DISCORDIA dissolvi rem Roma nam posse. 
 
 The machinery which had effected emancipation in the British 
 West India Islands, of use no longer in England, was transferred to 
 America. Aided by British gold, encouraged by British sympathy, 
 the n Citation began here, in 1833 ; and so complete was it in all its 
 appointments, so thorough the organization and discipline, so perfect 
 the electric current, that, within six months, the whole Union was 
 convulsed. Affiliated societies were established in every northern 
 State, and in almost every county; lecturers were paid, and sent 
 forth into every city and village; a powerful and well supported 
 press, fed from the treasuries, and working up the cast-off rags of 
 the British societies, poured forth a multitude of incendiary prints 
 and publications, which were distributed by mail throughout the 
 Union, but chiefly in the southern States, and among the slaves. 
 Fierce excitement in the South followed. And so great became the 
 public feeling and interest, that President Jackson, so early as the 
 annual message of 1835, pressed earnestly upon Congress the duty 
 of prohibiting the use of the mail for transmitting incendiary pub 
 lications to the South. But, prior to the sitting of Congress, the 
 Abolition societies, treading again in the footsteps of the emancipa 
 tionists in England, had prepared, and now poured in a flood of 
 petitions, praying Congress to take action upon the subject of slavery. 
 The purpose was to obtain a foothold, a fulcrum, in the capital ; for 
 without this, the South could not be effectually embroiled, and little 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 could be accomplished, even in the North. But no appliances were 
 left untried. Agitators, their breath was agitation ; quiescence would 
 have been a sentence of obscurity and dissolution. And accordingly, 
 in May, 1835, the American Anti-slavery Society was established in 
 New ]$ork, its object being the immediate and unconditional aboli 
 tion of negro slavery in the United States. It was a permanent 
 organization, to be dissolved only upon the consummation of its pur 
 pose. The object of attack was the South, the seat of war the North. 
 Public sentiment was to be stirred up here against slavery, because 
 it was a moral evil, and a sin in the sight of the Most High, for the 
 continuance of which, one day, the men of the North were account 
 able before heaven. Slaveholders were to be made.odious in the eyes 
 of Northern men and foreign nations, as cruel tyrants and task -mas 
 ters, as kidnappers, murderers, and pirates, whose existence was a 
 reproach to the North, and whom it were just to hunt down and 
 exterminate, as so many beasts of prey, to whom even the laws of 
 the chase extended no indulgence. To hold fellowship and union 
 with slaveholders, was to partake of all their sins and enormities ; 
 it was to be " in league with death, and covenant with hell." The 
 Constitution and Union were themselves sinful, and, as such, they 
 ought forthwith to be abrogated and dissolved. And thus, sir, the 
 earlier Abolitionists, who were zealots, began just where their succes 
 sors of to-day, who are traitors, have ended. 
 
 A separate political organization was not, at the first, proposed, 
 and each man was left to his ancient party allegiance. The revolu 
 tion was to be a moral and religious revolution, and its principles, 
 propagated by petitions, lectures, societies, and the press, in the 
 North, were, through these instrumentalities, to penetrate Congress 
 and the legislatures of the South, and if not hearkened to there, 
 then to effect a dismemberment of the Union by secession of the 
 North, or secession, forced upon the South. 
 
 Slavery, gentlemen, had, before this, been the subject of earnest and 
 sometimes angry controversy in Congress, and elsewhere. But a 
 powerful and permanent organization, founded for such a purpose, 
 and working by such appliances, had never yet existed. Coming 
 thus in such a questionable shape, even the North started back aghast, 
 as at "a goblin damned;" and it was denounced as treason and 
 madness from the first. Its presses were destroved, its assemblies 
 broken up, its publications burned, and its lecturers mobbed every 
 where, and more than one among them murdered in the midst of 
 popular tumult and indignation. The churches, the school-houses, 
 the court-houses, and the public halls were alike closed against them. 
 Misguided men, fanatics, emissaries of England, traitors these were 
 among the mildest of epithets which, in every place, and almost f roir, 
 every tongue, saluted their ears. The very name of "Abolitionist 1 
 became a by-word and a hissing. Not an advocate, and scarce even 
 an apologist, for the men, or their course, was found in either hall of 
 Congress. Members presented their petitions with great reluct 
 ance ; and, as late as the twenty-eighth of December, 1837, Mr. Calhoun 
 rejoiced that "every senator, without exception," had confessed him- 
 
HISTORY OF TIIE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 23 
 
 eelf opposed to the agitation. A bill to punish, by severe penalties, 
 any p "st-rnaster who should knowingly put into the mail any incen 
 diary publication directed to the South, had, by the casting vote of 
 Vice -i resident Van Buren, been ordered to a third reading. The 
 Senate declined to refer, or in any way act upon, the numerous peti 
 tions presented, while the House, refusing to read, print, or refer, laid 
 them forthwith upon the table. In January, 1888, the Senate, by a 
 majority of four to one. adopted a series of resolutions denouncing 
 the .Abolition movement "on whatever ground or pretext urged for 
 ward, political, moral, or religious, as insulting to the South, and 
 dangerous to her domestic peace and tranquillity; and farther, con 
 demning all efforts toward the abolition of shivery in the District of 
 Columbia and the Territories as a breach of good faith, a just cause 
 of serious alarm to the States in which slavery exists, and of most 
 mischievous tendency. At the following session, the House of Rep 
 resentatives by a majority of more than one hundred and fifty, 
 passed resolutions, stronger, if possible, than these, and, some time 
 later, censured, and almost expelled, John Quincy Adams, for pre- 
 seuti::"- an abolition petition looking to a dissolution of the 
 Union; 
 
 Outside of Congress, also, sir, Abolition received, up to this period, 
 just as little countenance or support. By both of the great political 
 parties it was utterly and indignantly repudiated ; while from none 
 of the political, and scarce any of even the religious journals and 
 periodicals of the day, did it tind cither aid or comfort. Especially, 
 sir. was the "Democratic party then sound on this question. General 
 Jackson had already denounced, in strong language, officially, the 
 wicked and unconstitutional attempts of the misguided men, and 
 especially the emissaries from foreign parts," who had originated the 
 Abolition movement. President Van Buren, in his inaugural address, 
 had volunteered a pledge to veto any bill looking to the abolition of 
 slavery in the District of Columbia. Benton, Buchanan, Wright, 
 Allen, all concurred; and voted, also, for the resolutions which 
 passed the Senate. In Ohio, the Democratic State Convention of 
 January 8, 18-10, planted itself firmly upon the rock of the Constitu 
 tion, a iid taking high and patriotic ground, condemned the efforts 
 then being made for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
 Columbia. by organizing societies in the free States, as hostile to 
 the sjiirit of tlie Constitution^ and destructive to tlie harmony of the 
 Union:" 1 and resolving that, V> r e, as citizens of a free State, had no 
 right to interfere" with slaver} 7 elsewhere, denounced the Abolition 
 movement and Abolition societies, declaring, that while they -ought 
 to be discountenanced by every lover of peace arid concord, no sound 
 Dtvidc.i dt would have any part or lot with them." It was, also, 
 further resolved, as if in the very spirit of prophecy, that "political 
 Abolitionism was bat ancient Federalism, under a new guise, and 
 only a new device for the overthrow of Democracy." 
 
 These resolutions, -sir, were adopted with but three dissenting 
 voices, in a more numerous assemblage of delegates than had ever 
 before met i;i the State. 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 [GEORGE W. ELLS, Esq., one of the old Liberty (Abolition) Guard, herr 
 interrupting, said, that historical statements ought to be correct; that lie had 
 been a member, from Licking county, of the convention referred to, and that 
 he knew that the resolutions quoted had never passed, but were smuggled 
 into the proceedings, in order to be circulated through the South, to aid Mr. 
 Van Buren.] 
 
 MR. VALLANGDIGHAM. Sir, I have before mo the official record 
 of the proceedings of that convention, signed by the late lamented 
 Thomas L. Ilamer, president of the convention, a man too candid, too 
 brave, and too true to lend himself to so base and detestable a fraud 
 for any such purpose. You libel the gallant dead ; and it is quite 
 too late in the day, after the lapse of fifteen years, for you, sir, by 
 your own parol testimony, to seek to impeach the absolute verity of 
 the record. And I repeat now again, and desire you to hear and 
 understand it, that these resolutions did pass that convention, and 
 pass, too, with but three dissenting voices, in that, the largest State 
 convention ever before assembled in Ohio. .And if you. sir, hap 
 pened to be one of the three, who voted against these resolutions, I 
 can only say that you had the misfortune to find yourself in a verv 
 small and most inglorious minority. I assert further, that three 
 weeks after that convention, Benjamin Tappan, then a senator in 
 Congress from Ohio, quoting these same resolutions, and affirming 
 the statement which I have just made, concluded a speech of remark 
 able precision and clearness, by declining even to present a petition 
 from citizens of the State, praying for the abolition of slavery in the 
 District of Columbia.* 
 
 A few months later mark you, Mr. President, Ohio then took tho 
 lead in denouncing the treason and fanaticisms of Abolition th>- 
 Deui9cracy of the Union, assembled in general convention at Balti 
 more, passed, without a dissenting vote, that memorable resolution, 
 penned by that pure and incorruptible patriot, Silas Wright ; and 
 which penetrated then the heart also, and not the ear only, of everv 
 Democrat, to the full and utmost signih eaney of every word and 
 letter, repudiating - incipient steps." even by Congress, in relation to 
 "questions of slavery," of every sort, as calculated to lead to the 
 
 * THE OHIO RESOLUTIONS. "Resolved, That in the opinion of this conven 
 tion, Congress ought not, without the consent of the people of the District, 
 and of the States of Virginia and Maryland, to abolish slavery in the Dis 
 trict of Columbia; and that the efforts now making, for that purpose, by 
 organized societies in the free States, are hostile to the spirit of the Consti 
 tution, and destructive to the harmony of the Union. 
 
 "Resolved^ That slavery being a domestic institution, recognized by the 
 Constitution of the United States, we, as citizens of a free State, have no 
 right to interfere with it; and that the organizing of societies and associa 
 tions in free States, in opposition to the institutions of sister States, while 
 productive of no good, may be the cause of much mischief; and while such 
 associations, for political purposes, ought to be discountenanced by everv 
 lover of peace and concord, no sound Democrat will have part or lot with 
 them. 
 
 u Resolved, That political Abolitionism is but ancient Federalism, under a 
 new guise, and that the political action of anti-slavery societies Ls only a 
 device for the overthrow of Democracy." 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 25 
 
 most alarming and dangerous consequences, and such as ought not to 
 be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions. 
 
 Such, Mr. President, was Abolition in the North, fifteen } r ears ago 
 such if is not ?iow. To the philosophic historian, who, in a future 
 age, shall sit amid the ruins of my country, to write her decline and 
 fail, I leave the sad but instructive office of tracing its progress, and 
 exploring the causes, which, step by step, have lead to its present 
 portentous development. I propose but a brief and hasty summary. 
 
 Slowly emerging from obscurity and odium, abolition began to fix 
 attention, not as hitherto, by its sound and fury, but, losing none of 
 these, rather now by its increasing numbers and influences. Design 
 ing men soon foresaw that, of all the movements of the day, none 
 promised so abundant and perhaps durable a harvest to him who 
 should organize and discipline its wild crusading forces into a regular 
 political party. Fanaticism, and a false, religious zeal, conjoined with 
 that pestilent, but eyer-potent, spirit, which is so sorely offended at 
 the mote that is in our brother s eye. and which makes each man 
 jealou.3 over his neighbor s conscience, could easily be arrayed under 
 the banner of sectional hate and bigotry, and thus a distinct political 
 faction be compounded out of these elements. Such a party, sir, 
 united by these, the strongest, though not most durable ties, was 
 soon shuffled together, and not long after, supplanted the system of 
 affiliated societies. It formed separate tickets, and, in 1844, supported 
 a candidate for the Presidency. But. prior to 1848, it attained, as a 
 party, comparatively small weight in elections. The vehement con 
 tests and grave political questions which convulsed the two great 
 parties of the country, overshadowed all interest in the feeble, but 
 still earnest and active abolition band ; but that band, meantime, was 
 steadily increasing, by accessions, now and then from the Democrats, 
 but chiefly from the Whigs ; some honest men, and the discontented 
 and rejected spirits of each, naturally dropping oif, and falling into 
 its ranks. Abolitionists many of them styling themselves, at this 
 period in their history, the "Liberty Party," gained now, in some 
 counties, the balance of power; and hence became there an object 
 of courtship to the other parties ; in New England yet earlier, but 
 all over the North, in 1844, the Whig party began to trim and falter 
 upon the question. The defeat of Clay, and the annexation of Texas, 
 gave i\ new impetus to abolition, and many more, upon these pretexts, 
 i ell into its ranks. Meantime, the steady, persistent, never-wearying 
 labors of its orators and press, full of grossly false and exaggerated 
 portraitures of slavery, and libels upon Southern society, working by 
 day and by night, in the Church, the schools, and the lecture-room, 
 at the public meeting, the fireside, and the sick bed, fomenting thus 
 hate and jealousy of the South everywhere, and that, too, for the 
 most part, without counteracting influence from any quarter, had 
 poured the leprous distilhnent deep into every vein and artery of 
 the Northern body politic. 
 
 Just at this point, sir. in the history of the Abolition movement, 
 came the Oregon controversy, and after that the Mexican war, em 
 broiled by the now terrible question of the acquisition of a very large 
 
26 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 tract of Mexican territory. Pride or vanity, wounded by the settle 
 ment of the Oregon boundary at forty-nine, ambition, disappointed 
 of office, the nomination of Generals Cass and Taylor in 1848, and 
 the manifestly approaching dissolution of the "Whig party, all con 
 tributed to throw a large portion of that party in the North, and not 
 a few from the Democratic host, into the ranks of the Abolitionists ; 
 who, swelled now by such great accessions, threw oft wholly the 
 odious name of Abolition, and, organizing into one body, under a new 
 title, at Buffalo, announced Martin Van Buren as their candidate for 
 the Presidency. In the midst of all this chaos in the political ele 
 ments, arose that pernicious bubble, the " Wilmot Proviso," which, 
 convulsing the country for more than four years, in its various forms, 
 had well nigh precipitated us headlong into the bottomless gulf of 
 disunion. 
 
 Assuming now the specious name of " Free Soil," and disguising its 
 odious principles and its true purposes, under tl^e false pretence of No 
 Extension of Slavery, the Abolition party addressed itself to minds 
 full now of hate toward the South and her institutions, and ready alike 
 to forget the true mission of a political party, and the limitations of 
 the Constitution. But the united patriotism, talent, and worth of the 
 North and South rallied to the rescue of this the last grand experi 
 ment of free government, from the thick darkness of failure and of 
 ruin by the parricidal hands of its own children. The Compromise 
 of 1850 followed : intended and believed to be a final adjustment of 
 this appalling controversy. It was designed to be a covenant of peace 
 forever sealed and attested by the self-sacrifice of Webster, Clay, 
 and Calhoun, the most illustrious triumvirate of great men and pa 
 triots, in any age or any country. But to no purpose : the yawning 
 gulf did not close over them. The origin of the evil lay deeper, and 
 it was not reached. No great question of a like nature and magnitude 
 was ever adjusted by a legislative compromise, in a popular govern 
 ment. The evil lay in that great and most pernicious error which 
 pervaded and penetrated so large a portion of the Northern mind, that 
 the men of the North, if not under the Constitution, yet, by some 
 "higher law" of conscience, had a right, and, as they would escape 
 that fire which is not quenched, were bound to intermeddle, and, in 
 some way, to legislate for the abolition of the "accursed system." No 
 act of Congress, no number of acts, could heal a malady like this, rooted 
 in presumptuous self-righteousness, and aggravated by the corroding 
 poison of sectional jealousy and hate. For such, sir, there is no sweet 
 oblivious antidote in legislation. Set on lire by these passions, applied 
 now to that case which, coining nighest home, appealed most plausibly 
 and most strongly to their impulses and their prejudices, a large part 
 of the North resolved to render nugatory the chief slavery compro 
 mise of the Constitution, by trampling under foot and resisting or 
 obstructing the execution of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. And 
 three years later, re-enforced now by many recruits from the Demo 
 cratic ranks, and by almost the entire Whig force of the North, 
 disbanded finally by the overthrow of 1852, but re-organized in part 
 under the banner of Know-Nothingism, the Abolition handful of 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 27 
 
 1835, swelled now to a mighty host, rallied in defense of the Missouri 
 Restriction, and shook the whole land with a rocking tempest of 
 popular commotion, more dangerous than even the storm of 1850. 
 
 Here, then, gentlemen, let me pause to survey the true nature and 
 full extent of the perils which thus encompass us, and to inquire: 
 What remains to be done, that they may be averted? 
 
 In January, 1838, Mr. Calhoun spoke, with alarm then derided as 
 visionary of the danger which, to him, seemed already as certain as it 
 would be disastrous, from the* continued, persevering, uricounteracted 
 efforts of the Abolitionists, imbuing the rising generation at the North 
 with the belief that the institutions of the South were sinful and 
 immoral, and that it would be doing God service to abolish them, 
 even should it involve the destruction of half her inhabitants, as 
 murderers and pirates at best. Sir, what was then prophecy, is now 
 history. More than half the present generation in the North have 
 ceased to look upon Southern men as brethren. Taught to hate, first, 
 the institutions of the South, they have, very many of them, by easy 
 gradations, transferred that hatred to her citizens. Learning to abhor 
 what they are told is murder, they have found no principle either 
 in nature or in morals, which impels them to love the murderer with 
 fraternal affection. Organized bands exist in every northern State, 
 with branches in Canada, which make slave-stealing a business and a 
 boast : and that outrage which, if any foreign state, or any State of 
 this Union even, in any thing else, were to encourage or permit in 
 any of her citizens, would, by the whole country, with one voice, be 
 regarded as a just cause of instant war or reprisals, is every day 
 consummated without rebuke, or by connivance, or the direct sanc 
 tion of many of the members of this Confederacy ; by school-books, 
 and in school-houses ; in the academies, colleges, and universities ; in 
 the schools of divinity, medicine, and law these same sad lessons 
 of hale and jealousy are every day inculcated. Even the name and 
 the fame of a slaveholding Washington have ceased to cause a throb 
 in many a Northern heart. The entire press of the North, in jour 
 nals, newspapers, periodicals, prints, and books, with not many manly 
 and patriotic exceptions, has either been silent or lent countenance 
 and support, knowingly or carelessly, to the systematic and treasonable 
 efforts of those who are resolved to pull down the fabric of this Union. 
 Literature and the arts are put under conscription, for the same 
 wicked purpose. Not a Northern poet, from Longfellow and Bryant, 
 down to Lowell, but has sought inspiration from the black Helicon of 
 Abolition : and the poison from a hundred thousand copies of false 
 and canting libels, in the form of works of fiction, is licked up from 
 every hearthstone, while the " Tribune " of Greeley one among ten 
 thousand " sold to do evil," at once the tool arid the compeer of 
 Seward in his traitorous purpose to make himself a name in history 
 the antithesis of Washington by the subversion of this liepublic 
 gathering up, with persevering and most devilish diligence, every 
 murder, every crime, every outrage, every act of cruelty, rapine, or 
 lust, upon white or upon black, real or forged, throughout the South, 
 sends it forth winged with venom and malice, as a faithful witness of 
 
28 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 the true and general state of Southern society, and the legitimate 
 fruit of slaveholding. In the public lecture, and anniversary address ; 
 at the concert hall, and upon the boards of the theater ; nay, even at 
 the festivals of our ancient charitable orders, this same dark spirit of 
 mischief is ever present, dropping pestilence from his wings. Even 
 history is corrupted, and figures marshalled into a huge lie, to 
 compass the same treacherous end. 
 
 Here, again, too, the clergy, and the Church, gentlemen, mindful 
 less than ever of their true province and vocation, have, one by one, 
 joined in the crusade, till nineteen-twentieths of Northern pulpits 
 resound every Sabbath, in sermon or prayer, with imprecation upon 
 slaveholders. Already has disunion and consequent strife ensued in 
 all the chief religious sects, three only exccpted. Outside of these 
 and sometimes within them, too the religion of the Bible is but 
 too often superseded by the gospel of Abolition, arid the way of 
 salvation taught to lie through sympathy with that distant portion 
 of the African race which is held in bondage south of Mason and 
 Dixon s line. Thus the spirit of persecution is superadded to the 
 jealousies of sectional position, and the furnace of hate heated seven 
 times hotter than is wont. 
 
 They who would not turn a deaf ear to the express requirements 
 of the Constitution, are beguiled and drawn astray by the hollow 
 pretense of Opposition to the Extension of Slavery a pretense alike 
 false and unmanly, and opposed to the spirit of the Constitutional 
 compact, and the principle which forbids to intermeddle with slavery 
 in the States. 
 
 Others, sir, who may care nothing for the sinfulness or immorality 
 of slaveholding, are wrought to jealousy by the false and impudent 
 outcry against the "aggressions of the slave-power," "the grasping 
 spirit of the South," -Southern bluster and bravado j" and many an 
 arrant coward hires himself to be written down a hero, for his 
 wondrous courage in lending the eye a terrible aspect on his own 
 hustings, at the mention of a " fire-eater " from the Carolinas, or 
 repelling, indignantly, six weeks after the offense, on the lioor of 
 Congress, the insolence of some "slave-dealing" member from Vir 
 ginia, who is, perhaps, at the moment, a hundred miles from the 
 capitol. Thus the claim of the South to participation in the common 
 territory purchased by the common blood and treasure of the Union 
 nay, even her demand that the solemn compact of the Constitution 
 be fulfilled and her fugitives restored to her, are denounced alike as 
 arrogant tk slave-driving " assaults and aggressions upon the rights of 
 the North. 
 
 Others, again, are persuaded that the South is weak, is unwilling, 
 and dare not resist is afraid of insurrection, and dependent for safety 
 and bread and existence upon the proverbial fertility and magna 
 nimity of New England. As if no Henry, no Lee, no Jefferson, no 
 Pirickney, no Sumpter, no Hayne, no Laureris, no Carroll, no George 
 Washington had ever lived as if the spirit of Marion s men lingered 
 not yet upon the banks of Santee, and the fierce courage of the Butler 
 who robe pale and corpse-like from the bed of death, to lead the 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 29 
 
 .Palmetto regiment to battle at Cherubusco, foremost in the ranks and 
 " nearest the flashing of the guns," was already become extinct. 
 
 The political parties, also, at the North, gentlemen, have faltered, 
 and some of them fallen, before Abolition. The Whig party, bar 
 gaining with, courting, and seeking to absorb it into its own ranks, 
 has, itself, at last, been swallowed up and lost. Political Temperance 
 and Know-Nothingism are rapidly drifting into the same vortex. The 
 spirit of Anti-Masonry transmigrated, some years ago, into the opaque 
 body of Abolitionism. Fourierism, Anti-Ilentism, the party devoted 
 to Women s Plights, and all the other isms of the day, born of the 
 same generating principle, are already fully assimilated to their com 
 mon parent: for all these isms, sir, like the nerves of sense, run in 
 pairs. Even the Democratic party, never losing its identity, never 
 ceasing to be national, and even now the sole hope of the country, 
 if it will but return to its ancient mission and discipline the only 
 organized body round which all true conservatives and friends of the 
 Constitution and Union may rally has, nevertheless, in whole or in 
 part, at some period or another, in every State, cowered before or 
 tampered with this dark specter. 
 
 Just such, too, as public feeling in the North is, so is its legisla 
 tion. Vermont has passed a law repealing, in effect, within her limits, 
 the. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and abrogating so much of the Con- 
 ptitution as requires the rendition of fugitives from service. Connec 
 ticut, enacting a similar statute, has gone a step farther, and outraged 
 every dictate of justice, in the effort to make it effectual. Massa 
 chusetts, the model Commonwealth" of the times, improving yet 
 upon the work of her sister States, provides, also, that whatsoever 
 member of her bar shall dare appear in behalf of the claimant of a 
 fugitive slave, shall ignominiously be stricken from her court rolls, 
 and forbidden to practice within her limits. Legislation of a kindred 
 character exists, sir, in other States also; and New England will, 
 doubtless, yet find humble imitators even in the West. Already, 
 indeed, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin has deliberately released 
 from her penitentiary, upon habeas corpus, a prisoner convicted, on 
 indictment before a United States court, of resisting the laws and 
 officers of the United States in a slave case. Judges, elsewhere, 
 have held that no citizen of the United States living South may 
 dare set his foot, with a slave, upon the north-west shore of the 
 Ohio, at low-water mark even, without by that act, though but for a 
 moment, and from necessity, working instant emancipation of the 
 slave. Not many months ago, a mingled rnob of negroes, white and 
 black, at Salem, in Ohio, entered a railroad train, and by violence 
 tore from the family of a slaveholder, passing through the State from 
 necessity, and at forty miles an hour, the nurse of his infant child. 
 A Massachusetts legislature has demanded of her Executive the 
 removal of an able, meritorious, and upright judge, for the conscien 
 tious discharge, within her limits, of the duties of an office which 
 he held under authority of the United States; and a Massachusetts 
 ecclesiastical conclave, three hundred in number, rose as oue man on 
 the announcement of the outrage, and shouted till the house rang 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 again with their plaudits. And a Massachusetts university rejected, 
 also, the same judge, for the same cause, when proposed for a pro 
 fessorship in the institution. 
 
 Thus, sir, within little more than two years from the death of her 
 noblest son whose whole life, and whose dying labors were ex 
 hausted in defending the Union and holding the Commonwealth of 
 his adoption up to the full measure of her Revolutionary patriotism 
 and greatness has the star of Massachusetts been seen to fall from 
 heaven and begin to plunge into the utter blackness of disunion. In 
 vain now, sir, from the grave of the Statesman of Marshfield there 
 comes up the warning cry, " Let her shrink back ; let her hold others 
 back, if she can; at any rate, let her keep herself back from this 
 gulf, full at once of fire and blackness full, as far as human fore- 
 Bight can scan, or human imagination fathom, of the fire and the 
 blood of civil war, and of the thick darkness of general political 
 disgrace, ignominy, and ruin." No; she is fallen. Sumner has sup 
 planted Winthrop ; and a Wilson crawled up into the seat which 
 Webster once adorned. 
 
 And add, now, to- all this, gentlemen, that, already, that portentous 
 and most perilous evil, against which the Father of his Country so 
 solemnly and earnestly warned his countrymen, a party bounded by 
 geographical lines a Northern party, standing upon a Northern 
 platform, doing battle for Northern issues, and relying solely for 
 success upon appeals to Northern prejudices and Northern jealousies, 
 is now, for the first time in our history, fully organized and consoli 
 dated in our midst. Add farther, that, to the Thirty-Fourth Con 
 gress, fourteen Senators and a majority of Representatives have been 
 chosen who, in name or in fact, are Abolitionists; Ohio contributing 
 to this dark host her entire delegation in House and Senate, one 
 only excepted ; and thus, for the first time, also, since the organiza 
 tion of our Government, has the House of Representatives been 
 converted into a vast Abolition conventicle, full of men picked out 
 for their hatred of the South, and who can not be true to the Con 
 stitution and the Union without treachery to the expectations and 
 the purposes of those who elected them. And then reflect yet fur 
 ther, that this vast and terrible magazine of explosive elements is 
 gathered together just upon the eve of a Presidential election, with 
 all its multiplied and convulsing interests ; and that soon Kansas 
 will knock for admission into the Union, thus surely precipitating 
 the crisis ; and who, tell me, I pray you, may foresee what shall be 
 the history of this Republic at the end of two years from to-day? 
 
 All this, gentlemen, the spirit of Abolition has accomplished in 
 twenty years of continued and exhausting labors of every sort. But, 
 in ail that time, not one convert has it made in the South ; not one 
 slave emancipated, except by larceny and in fraud of the solemn 
 compacts of the Constitution. Meantime, public opinion has wholly, 
 radically changed in the South. The South has ceased to denounce, 
 ceased to condemn slavery ceased even to palliate and begun now, 
 almost as one man, to defend it as a great moral, social, and political 
 blessing. The bitter and prescriptive warfare of twenty years has 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 31 
 
 brought forth its natural and legitimate fruit in the South. Exas 
 peration, hate, and revenue are every day ripening into fullest matur 
 ity and strength ; and, throughout her entire extent, she awaits now 
 but tho action of the North to unite in solemn league and covenant 
 to resist aggression even unto blood. 
 
 But the South, sir, has forborne a little. I say, she has forborne 
 a little. She has not yet associated and formed political parties to 
 put down Masonry and Odd Fellowship in the free States and in the 
 Territories, upon the pretext that these institutions are sinful and 
 immoral. She has not yet organized societies, and fostered and pro 
 tected them by her legislation, to steal that which our law recognizes 
 as property, and refused restitution on the pretext that by the 
 i( higher law " of conscience, no right of property exists in the thing 
 stolen. Neither sir, has any southern States, no, not even " fire- 
 eating" South Carolina, Fought as yet to compensate herself for the 
 fugitives which we have abducted, by enacting laws to encourage the 
 slave-trade, by punishing with fine and imprisonment in her peni 
 tentiary for years any one of her citizens who should aid in enforc 
 ing the laws of the United States against the traffic, striking from 
 her court rolls any attorney within her limits, who should appear in 
 behfilf of the prosecution, and excluding all who hold the office of 
 United States Commissioner or Judge, from any office or appoint 
 ment under her authority. How long before all this shall have been 
 done, is known to Him only whose omniscient eye penetrates and 
 illumines the clouds and thick darkness of the future. 
 
 Thus, then, Mr. President, by little and little at first, but now, as 
 with a flood, fraternal affection is wasted away ; hate and jealousy 
 arid discord, nourished and educated into maturest developments; 
 and, one by one, the real and strong cords which bind us together 
 as a confederacy snapped asunder, or stretched to their utmost ten 
 sion. It needs no spirit of prophecy, not even a human sagacity 
 above the ordinary level, to foretell just how long the habits, forms, 
 and paper parchments of a union can last when its life-giving prin 
 ciple and nourishing and sustaining virtue are wasted and gone. 
 Sir. he is yet but in the swaddling bands of infancy, who does not 
 already see that there is wanting but some strong convulsion, or 
 even but some sudden jar in the system, to hurl us headlong down 
 into the abyss of disunion. 
 
 1 know, gentlemen, that to many all this is as " a twice-told tale, 
 vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man." They hearkened not to the 
 voire of Webster, Clay and Calhoun, while yet among the living ; 
 neither would they believe, though these three men rose from the 
 dead. Being dead, they yet speak. The dead of all ages speak. 
 All history lifts up its warning voice. Livy and Tacitus are full of 
 saddest and most instructive teachings. But let us not deceive our 
 selves. It is not in their pages that we are to read the lessons of 
 that danger which threatens us with destruction. There has been to 
 us no slow and gradual progression of five hundred years to the full 
 growth and stature of a great nation ; neither is it in reserve for us 
 to pass through the mellowing and softening gradations of luxury, 
 
32 HISTORY OF TUB ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 vice, corruption, and enervation for five hundred years more, to our 
 final fail as an empire. No. The history of Greece is the true study 
 for the American statesman. There he will find the chiefest lessons 
 of political wisdom, adapted to our peculiar exigencies. He will learn 
 there how internal dissension and discord may prostrate a state in the 
 full vigor of its manhood ; and, indeed, that it is only in the man 
 hood of a confederacy that there is strength enough, and energy 
 enough, in the members, to rend each other in pieces, and that in the 
 decadence of a state, in decay and atony, it is a Csesar within, or a 
 Macedonian phalanx, or Roman legions from without, which over 
 whelm the state. In Thucydides, he may learn how a thirty years 
 civil war exhausted Greece, and prepared her first for the haughty 
 domination of the conquering member of the confederacy; and finally, 
 for that yoke of foreign despots which galls and burns into her neck 
 to this day. 
 
 Let us improve these lessons. It is not yet too late to be saved. 
 The current may still be turned back, and the Union restored to its 
 former sound and healthy condition, though many a gaping scar shall 
 attest the wounds she has received from the hands of her own 
 children. 
 
 WHAT THEN REMAINS TO BE DONE? I answer this momentous 
 question, Mr. President, by declaring first, what will not heal the 
 sick man of America. 
 
 First, then, closing our eyes and our ears to the truth, and laugh 
 ing all danger to scorn, will not do it. The scoffs and derision of 
 the diluvian world did not stay the fountains of the great deep, nor 
 seal up the windows of heaven. 
 
 Professions and resolutions of love for the Union and Constitution, 
 whether hypocritical or sincere, will not do it, while, at the same 
 moment, we strike the blow which destroys both. Nor will legislative 
 compromises and finalities, nor yet national conventions and presi 
 dential elections. None of these. 
 
 Least of all, sir, will platforms, of themselves, avail any thing. 
 Time was when they had a meaning, and when the partisan who re 
 pudiated or doubted even an abstract principle, was stricken down by 
 a surer and heavier blow of popular wrath than he who " bolted " a 
 nomination. But that day is past. The best of platforms is now too 
 often but a spider s snare ; the weak and unsuspecting house-fly is 
 caught and devoured, the stout, blue-bottle, carrion insect breaks 
 through its meshes. A sound system of faith is, indeed, still pro 
 claimed, but mental reservation is now tolerated. The thirty-nine 
 Articles are subscribed, but a wide margin and much space between 
 the lines allowed for liberal interpretation. Obedience is no longer 
 expected or required to the platform, if the professor will but sup 
 port the candidate. And thus, sir, the aged worshiper who lingers 
 yet around the altar, and the simple-minded convert of yesterday, 
 whose burning faith receives the creed as an enunciation of eternal 
 principles, the sacred canon of political scripture, are alike amazed 
 to iearn from the organ of the ecumenical council, interpreting by 
 authority, that it is only the gospel according to Judas, whereby a 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 33 
 
 general amnesty is proclaimed to all rebels and deserters; a cum 
 brous but convenient piece of machinery, whereby apostates may be 
 restored, if not to favor, at least to position and office in the party. 
 Witness the bold and impudent fraud of the platform promulgated 
 by the Grand Council of Know-Nothings at Philadelphia, which yet 
 a subordinate State Council of the same Order, assembled at Cleve 
 land, and bound by the most stringent oaths to obedience, had assumed, 
 in advance, to repudiate. And need I but allude to that State De 
 mocratic Convention of Ohio, which, resolving to adhere to and support 
 the Baltimore platform, rugged all over as it is, with denunciations 
 of all and every attempt, of whatsoever shape, or color, or pretense, 
 in Congress or out of it, to keep up the slavery agitation, did yet, 
 with amiable and most refreshing consistency, resolve that the Democ 
 racy of Ohio would use all power, under the Constitution, " to prevent 
 the increase, to mitigate, and finally to eradicate tear up by the 
 roots the evil of slavery." 
 
 Either away then with platforms, at least, as a sanative process, and 
 until a sounder public virtue be restored, or require a strict and 
 ready and honest obedience to the principles which they proclaim. 
 
 What ilien remains to be done? I answer, first, that whatever it 
 may be, it is to be done by and through the DEMOCRATIC PARTY, and 
 the national Whigs and others who may act with it in this crisis ; 
 for "when bad men combine, good men must associate." There is 
 no hope, none, in any other organization. To that party, therefore, 
 and through it, to all true patriots and conservatives, I address myself, 
 and answer further : We must return to the principles, follow the 
 practice, imitate the good faith and fraternal affection, and restore the 
 distinctions with which our ancestors set out at the commencement 
 of this government. We must learn a wise and wholesome conserva 
 tism ; learn that all progress is not reform, and that the wildest and 
 most pernicious and most dangerous of all follies is to attempt to 
 square our political institutions arid our legislation by mere abstract, 
 theoretical, and mathematically exact, but impracticable truths. We 
 must remember, also, our true mission as a political party, and re 
 trace our steps from outside the territories of the lyceum and the 
 Church, and drive back the clergy and the Church to their own 
 domain. We must build up again the partitions which separate sacred 
 things from profane, and begin once more to "Render unto Cvesar 
 fhe things that are Cesar s, and unto God the things that are God s 
 We must set out again to pronounce upon political questions, with 
 out essaying to try them by the touchstone of our own peculiar 
 notions of moral or divine truth, and thus relegate temperance to the 
 voluntary association, religion to the Church, and slavery to the 
 judgment and conscience of those in whose midst it exists, or is 
 sought to be established, casting aside that false and dangerous and 
 most presumptuous self-delusion, that we are to give account, each 
 one as citizens, for the sins or immoralities of our fellow-men. Slav 
 ery, indeed, sir, where it exists, or to the people among whom it is 
 proposed to introduce it, may be, and it is to them, a political subject 
 in part. To us of the North, it is and can be none other than an 
 3 
 
34 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 ethical or religious question. For, disjrui.se and falsify it as you 
 will ; marshal and array your figures and your facts to lie never so 
 grossly, it is the sinfulness and immorality of slaveholding as viewed 
 by the Northern mind, and this alone, which has stirred the people 
 of the North to such a hight of folly and madness. And yet, if 
 immoral, it concerns oirly the people of the States and Territories 
 where it exists ; if sinful, they only are the offenders, and even if a 
 political evil, it is they alone who feel the curse. It is, therefore, 
 and can be of no possible concern to us, except, indeed, upon the 
 principle of that self-sufficient, self-righteous and most pernicious 
 egoism which it is time now to purge out of the system. 
 
 But a high and imperative constitutional obligation, also, Mr. 
 President, devolves here upon the Democratic party. 
 
 The accidents and the necessities of its settlement determined the 
 political character of this continent, and divided it into separate 
 colonies, as perfectly independent, one of the other, as any foreign 
 states. A common subjection to the crov, r n of Great Britain gave the 
 first notion of a common Federal Government ; and the aggressions 
 of that crown, and of Parliament, compelling civil war. forced our 
 fathers into a union and articles of confederation. The Constitution 
 of 89 extended the powers and the efficiency, but did not alter the 
 nature of the General Government. That instrument, sir, was framed 
 by delegates appointed not by the old Congress, but by the State.-;, 
 as sovereign and independent communities. State conventions rati 
 fied it; and it was binding only as between those States which ac 
 ceded to it. They consented to yield up to a common government., 
 certain delegated powers, for the good of. the whole: reserving all 
 others, each to itself. We are a confederacy, sir, of sovereign, dis 
 tinct, independent States ; in all things not brought into the common 
 fund of power, just as thoroughly foreign to each other (except only 
 in a common language and fraternal affection), and as subject to 
 the obligations and comities of the law of nations, as France and 
 England. With the domestic police and institutions of Kentucky, or 
 any other State, the people of Ohio have no more right to inter 
 meddle, than with the laws or form of government in Russia. Slavery 
 in the South is to them as polygamy in the Turkish Empire ; and 
 for the political evils, or the sinfulness and immorality of the one, 
 they are in no wise more responsible than for the other. Or to 
 select the same subject-matter they have no more right to inter 
 fere with, nor are they in any degree more accountable for, the con 
 tinuance of slavery in Virginia, than for its existence in Persia. 
 Neither, sir, have the people of the northern States any greater right, 
 under the Constitution, to deny admission into the Union to a State, 
 because its laws sanction involuntary servitude, or to prescribe that 
 slavery shall not be tolerated in a territory, than to abolish it in a 
 State already in the Union. The converse of this proposition is 
 sheer, rank, unmixed, unanointed Federalism just the Federalism 
 of Alexander Hamilton, who, in the convention of 87, would have 
 made the States wholly subordinate to the General Government 
 mere adjuncts " corporations for local purposes." The reasons, sir, 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 35 
 
 are obvious, and they are conclusive. It is a fundamental principle 
 of the Democratic theory, and of our institutions, that to the people 
 of each particular State, county, township, city, and village, shall be 
 committed, as far as possible, the exclusive regulation of their more 
 immediate and local affairs. In other words, that power, whenever 
 it is practicable, shall be diffused to the utmost, and never centralized 
 beyond urgent necessity. Again, the only limitation prescribed in 
 the Constitution, for the fitness of a State for fellowship with us, is 
 that such State shall establish a "republican" or representative form 
 of government. Now, it is too late to allege, at this day, and quite 
 too absurd, that the existence of the domestic institution of slavery 
 in a State makes its form of government anti-republican, and, there 
 fore, unconstitutional. Such an argument is not worth a serious 
 refutation. Again : The territories are the common property of the 
 States, in their Federal capacity, purchased by the common blood and 
 treasure of all, and as much the property of South Carolina as of 
 Massachusetts. They are tenants in common of this property ; and 
 for one State to demand the exclusion of another from participation 
 ; n their use in common, in every respect, is arrogant and unfounded 
 assumption of superiority; and fifty-fold more offensive, when the 
 pharisaic pretense is set up that they are more holy than that other 
 State, whose inhabitants are sinners before God exceedingly, and who 
 would pollute the territory, by the introduction of their wickedness 
 upon its soil ; assuming thus to be keeper of the conscience and 
 custodian of the morals of the people of the territory, putting on 
 uho robes, and ascending into the judgment-seat of the Almighty. 
 Sir, if the inhabitants of Cape Cod are not satisfied with the copar 
 cenary, let them seek, by partition, to hold in severally ; and, obtaining 
 thus the very small and almost infinitessimal portion which is their 
 share, exert over it such acts of ownership as to them may seem 
 meet ; but not attempt insolently to take possession and control of 
 the whole. 
 
 Manifestly, then, sir, the agitation of the slavery question finds no 
 warrant or countenance, but direct and emphatic condemnation, in the 
 Constitution. That part of the instrument which apportions the rep 
 resentation and taxation of slaves, for the most part executes itself, 
 and admits only of direct attack by amendment or nullification. The 
 clause which empowers Congress to prohibit the slave-trade, has long 
 since been quietly carried into effect ; and the South has never sought 
 to disturb it. The sole remaining instance in which Congress may 
 legislate in reference to slavery, is for the extradition of fugitives. 
 From its very nature, sir, this presents a capital point for assault by 
 Abolitionists. Long before the act of 1850, they had, by state leg 
 islation, or public odium, rendered nugatory the act of 1793, and 
 were laboring for its direct repeal by Congress. They openly repu 
 diated that part of the Constitution upon which it was founded ; and, 
 as early as 1843, a general convention of Abolitionists, assembled at 
 Buffalo, and composed of the ablest and most distinguished members 
 of the party, resolved that whenever called upon to swear to support 
 the Constitution, they would, by mental reservation, regard that clause 
 
DO HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 in it as utterly null and void, and forming no part of the instrument.* 
 Nevertheless, sir, in the adjustment of 1850, provision was made to 
 enforce this solemn compact. And hence, the popular tumults, the 
 mobs, the forcible rescues, and the nullifying acts of the New En 
 gland States, and other parts of the North, which yet find countenance 
 and applause even from a thousand presses and tens of thousands of 
 citizens, upon the pretext that the rendition of fugitives is distasteful 
 and revolting to the North. Yes, Abolitionist, it is the Constitution 
 which you attack, not the act of 1850. It is the extradition of 
 "panting fugitives," under any circumstances, or by virtue of any 
 law, at which you rebel. Be manly, then, and outspoken, and honest. 
 Act the part of cowards and slave-stealers no longer. Assail the 
 Constitution itself, and do it openly it is the Constitution which 
 demands the restoration and cover not up your assaults any longer, 
 under the false and beggarly pretense that it is the act of Congress 
 which you condemn and abhor. 
 
 I know, sir, that it is easy, very easy, to denounce all this as a 
 defense of slavery itself. Be it so ; be it so. But I have not dis 
 cussed the institution in any respect moral, religious, or political. 
 Hear me ; I express no opinion in regard to it ; and, as a citizen of 
 the North, I have ever refused, and will steadily refuse, to discuss 
 the system in any of these particulars. It is precisely this continued 
 and persistent discussion and denunciation in the North, which has 
 brought upon us this present most perilous crisis ; since to teach men 
 to hate, is to prepare them to destroy, at every hazard, the object of 
 their hatred. Sir, I am resolved only to look upon slavery outside 
 of Ohio, just as the founders of the Constitution and Union regarded it. 
 It is no concern of mine none, none nor of yours, Abolitionist, 
 Neither of us will attain heaven by denunciations of slavery ; nor 
 shall we, I trow, be cast into hell for the sin of others who may hold 
 slaves. I have not so learned the moral government of the universe ; 
 nor do I presumptuously and impiously aspire to the attributes of 
 Godhead, and seek to bear upon my poor body the iniquities of the 
 world. 
 
 I know well, indeed, Mr. President, that in the evil day which has 
 befallen us, all this, and he who utters it, shall be denounced as 
 " pro-slavery ; " and already, from ribald throats, there comes up the 
 slavering, driveling, idiot epithet of " doughface." Again ; be it so. 
 These, Abolitionist, are your only weapons of warfare ; and I hurl 
 
 * THE BUFFALO RESOLUTION, 1843, offered by a committee of which SALMON 
 P. CHASE, of Ohio, was a member. " Resolved, That we hereby give it to be 
 distinctly understood, by this nation and the world, that, as Abolitionists, con 
 sidering that the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hopes 
 for it in our conformity to the laws of God, and our support for the rights of 
 man, we owe to the sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our alle 
 giance to him, in all our civil relations and offices, whether as friends, citizens, 
 or as public functionaries, sworn to support the Constitution of the United 
 States, to regard and treat the third clause of that instrument, whenever 
 applied in the case of a fugitive slave, AS UTTERLY NULL AND VOID, and, 
 consequently, as forming no part of the Constitution of the United States, 
 
 WHENEVER WE ARE CALLED UPON AS SWORN TO SUFPORT IT." 
 
HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 37 
 
 them back defiantly into your teeth. I speak thus boldly, because I 
 speak in and to and for the North. It is time that the truth should 
 be known and heard, in this the age of trimming and subterfuge. 
 I speak this day, not as a Northern man, nor a Southern man ; but, 
 God be thanked, still as a United States man, with United States 
 principles; and though the worst happen which can happen 
 though all be lost, if that shall be our fate, and I walk through the 
 valley of the shadow of political death, I will live by them, and die 
 by them. If to love my country ; to cherish the Union ; to revere 
 the Constitution ; if to abhor the madness and hate the treason 
 which would lift up a sacrilegious hand against either ; if to read 
 that in the past, to behold it in the present, to foresee it in the future 
 of this land, which is of more value to us and the world for ages to 
 come, than all the multiplied millions who have inhabited Africa 
 from the creation to this day if this it is to be pro-slavery, then, in 
 every nerve, fiber, vein, bone, tendon, joint, and ligament, from the 
 top-most hair of the head to the last extremity of the foot, I am all 
 over and altogether a PRO-SLAVERY MAN. 
 
 To that part now. Mr. President, of the Germans who have been 
 betrayed upon this question, I address a word of caution. Little 
 more than a year ago, availing themselves of the Nebraska question 
 as the pretext, mischievous and designing demagogues, just at the 
 moment they prepared to deny you the full enjoyment of your own 
 political rights here in Ohio, persuaded some of you to trail in the 
 dust at the heels of the Abolition rout. They told you, and you 
 believed it, some of you, that, failing to establish civil liberty 
 against the crowned oppressors of your fatherland, and seeking for 
 it as exiles in America, you had the right, nevertheless, to inter 
 meddle with personal liberty among the inhabitants of other States 
 and Territories, to form political associations exclusively German, 
 to adopt platforms of your own as such, to instruct us in the science 
 of government, the nature of free institutions, and the value of free 
 dom, to require of us to give away our public lands to all alike, 
 naturalized or alien, white or Hack, to denounce the people of the 
 South, because of the "curse of slavery," to repeal the Fugitive Slave 
 Law, to abolish slaveholding throughout the States, in conformity loith, 
 as you alleged, and perhaps by virtue of power derived from, the 
 Declaration of Independence, and finally to propose to convert your 
 good old German May festival into an Abolition mass meeting, in 
 our very midst. These things, they persuaded some of you to 
 believe and to do. But at this very moment, and by the self- same 
 demagogues, was the knife put to your own throats, and you were 
 quietly guillotined, and your heads thrust into the basket, upon just 
 the principles they had persuaded you that you had the right to 
 intermeddle with the domestic, moral, and religious concerns of other 
 States and Territories. Opening now your eyes to the fraud thus 
 practiced upon you, learning the true character of the men who 
 beguiled you. and remembering that the first State which breasted 
 and turned back the torrent which was sweeping you, and your 
 hopes, and your rights before it, was the slaveholding State of 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 Virginia, through the Democratic party of Virginia, followed up by 
 every southern State, Kentucky alone excepted, retrace your steps 
 now into the ranks of that party, stand fast to your true interests 
 and t#ue position, concern yourselves no longer with the business of 
 others, but quietly enjoy, and calmly defend, your own rights, 
 remembering always those who have ever sustained you in whatso 
 ever truth and liberty and justice demand for you. 
 
 Addressing myself now, finally, Mr. President, to the Democratic 
 party of Ohio, I say : You are a political party ; hence, all your 
 principles must as well take shape and color, as reflect them, from 
 the fundamental institutions of the country ; and those principles 
 which belong to Democracy, universal and theoretical, are to be 
 modified and adjudged by the Constitution. It has always been 
 your boast, that you are peculiarly the party of the Constitution 
 and of that Union .which results from, and exists only, by the 
 Constitution. And just in proportion as you value these, will you 
 mold and modify your doctrine, and your practice, to sustain and 
 preserve them in every essential element. Sure I am, at least, that 
 you will not, for the sake of an abstract principle, purely, or mainly 
 moral, or religious, and to us not political, and urged now in the 
 very spirit of treason and madness, and far removed from every per 
 sonal concern of yours, sacrifice or even imperil these priceless 
 legacies of a generation at least as good and as wise as we. Trust 
 not to past success. Times have changed. For four years you 
 filched inglorious triumphs by fomenting dissensions among your 
 enemies, and by exhausting all the little arts of partisan diplomacy, 
 to keep the Whig and Abolition parties asunder. You wasted your 
 time striving to pluck out of the crucible of politics the fluxes which 
 they threw in, seeking thus vainly to prevent or impede a fusion 
 which was inevitable, and which, when it came, overwhelmed you as 
 with a flood of lava, in disastrous, if not ignominious defeat. Was 
 this conduct befitting a great and enduring party conduct worthy 
 the prestige of your name? Learn wisdom from Virginia, your 
 mother State ; she is ever invincible, because she is always candid 
 and manly and true to principle. Look no longer now to avail 
 ability; above all, be not deceived by the false and senseless out 
 cry against that most just, most Constitutional, and most necessary 
 measure the Kansas -Nebraska Act, The true and only question 
 now before you is: Whether you will have a Union, with all its 
 numberless blessings in the past, present, and future, or Disunion 
 and civil war, with all the multiplied crimes, miseries, and atrocities 
 which human imagination never conceived, and human pen never 
 can portray? 
 
 I speak it boldly I avow it publicly it is time to speak thus, 
 for political cowardice is the bane of this, as of all other republics. 
 To be true to your great mission, and to succeed in it, you must 
 take open, manly, one-sided ground upon the Abolition question. 
 In no other way can you now conquer. Let us have, then, no hollow 
 compromise, no idle and mistimed homilies upon the sin and evil of 
 slavery in a crisis like this, no double-tongued, Janus-faced, delphic 
 
THERE IS A WEST. 39 
 
 responses at your State conventions. No ; fling your banner to the 
 bree/e. and boldly meet the issue. PATRIOTISM ABOVE MOCK 
 
 PHILANTHROPY ; THE CONSTITUTION BEFORE ANY MISCALLED 
 IIIGUEII LAW OF MORALS OR RELIGION; AND THE UNION OF MORS 
 YALCK THAN MANY NEGROES. 
 
 If thus, sir, we are true to the country, true to the Union and 
 the Constitution, true to our principles, true to our cause and to the 
 grand mission which lies before us, we shall turn back yet the fiery 
 torrent which is bearing us headlong down to the abyss of disunion 
 and infamy, deeper than plummet ever sounded; but if in this, the 
 day of our trial, we are found false to all these, false to our ances 
 tors, false to ourselves, false to those who shall come after us, traitors 
 to our country and to the hopes of free government throughout the 
 globe. .Bancroft will yet write the last sad chapter in the history of 
 the American Republic. 
 
 NUMBER TWO. 
 
 THERE IS A WEST: FOR, THE UNION FOREVER; OUT- 
 SIDE OF TLIE UNION, FOR HERSELF. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED IX THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 15, 1859. 
 
 MORE than four years had intervened between the delivery of the 
 preceding speech and the one that here follows. Meantime the evil 
 agencies, there so clearly depicted, and against which those earnest 
 warnings were given, had been steadily maturing their work of mis 
 chief. Like some vile insects, which consume arid destroy the 
 
 foundations of houses, working 
 
 silently and unseen, and permitting 
 
 the occupants to receive the frsfc intimations of danger when they 
 feel their dwellings crumbliri^ and falling around them, so were 
 those industrious fanatics consuming and destroying the founda 
 tions of the Union. 
 
 The JOHN BROWN raid into Virginia gave the first public and 
 distinct intimation of the coining trouble. Moved by the same 
 spirit, and aiming at the same end as that whole great army of fan 
 atics to which he belonged, only having less than an average share 
 of prudence and sagacity, he broke from the ranks, and rushed 
 
40 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 forward in advance of the lines. It has been said that " coming 
 events cast their shadows before," and it might have been added, 
 that those coming events sometimes send forward miniature repre 
 sentations, from which may be seen, by substituting great things for 
 small, what will be the character of those events when they come. 
 
 To all who hated that dear old Union which God gave to our 
 fathers, JOHN BROWN S raid was a signal for rejoicing, while it sent 
 a thrill of horror to the heart of every true patriot. The whole 
 country was startled, and, for a brief period, deeply aroused. Men 
 took sides, and showed, by their words and deeds, either that they 
 were leagued in sympathy with those who had resolved on the 
 destruction of the Union, or else that the Union was held in the 
 firm grasp of their strongest and deepest affections. 
 
 Among those who took a prominent place in this latter class was 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM, of Ohio. On many occasions he had predicted 
 the very dangers whose first loud note of alarm was now sounding. 
 Especially had he predicted and portrayed those dangers in that 
 speech on the 29th of October, 1855. He had described the char 
 acter and form of the coining trouble, as if seen with the keen eye 
 of prophecy. And now, as the danger draws nearer, we find him 
 still at his post. Congress had assembled at its first meeting after 
 that notable and ominous event; a Speaker was to be elected, arid 
 the question was, should he be one who had lent the sanction and 
 influence of his name to principles involved and illustrated in the 
 late raid of JOHN BROWN. 
 
 It was under these circumstances the general question before the 
 House being the election of a Speaker that Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM ob 
 tained the floor, but yielded it for the purpose of a ballot. No choice 
 having been made, he resumed the floor, but proposed again to yield 
 for another ballot. Objection being made, he proceeded to address 
 the House, as follows : 
 
 MR. CLERK : Desiring to speak at some length, and with some 
 regard to method, upon the more important subjects which have 
 been introduced into this debate, I can not consent to yield the floor 
 except upon a point of order, or for a strictly personal explanation. 
 I claim no right myself to interrupt others for the purpose of inter 
 rogatory or catechising, and in return acknowledge no right in them 
 to subject me to cross-examination as a witness upon this floor. I 
 trust, along with other reforms, to see the ancient decorum and pro 
 priety of legitimate debate restored within these walls. In nothing, 
 therefore, which I propose to say, do I mean to offend, by personal 
 reflection upon any member of this House. 
 
 And now, in the first place, Mr. Clerk, allow me to say that I do 
 
THERE IS A WEST. 41 
 
 not regret this discussion. I lament, indeed, that it has not, at all 
 tiiri3s, been conducted in a better temper. Had it been possible to 
 avoid it altogether, certainly it would have been preferable that it 
 had never been commenced; but no one familiar with the temper of 
 the whole country, reflected back in the Representatives of the coun 
 try, and concentrated here into one intense focus, could have expected 
 a week to pass after organization without an explosion more formid 
 able, perhaps, and in a more questionable shape. This, in my judg 
 ment, is a better time and mode in which to meet it than any other. 
 But, gentlemen of the House of Representatives, let us conduct it at 
 all times with, the temper and courtesy which become a legislative 
 assembly. And yet the admonition is almost needless here. Although 
 within these walls are assembled the two hundred and forty-two Rep 
 resentatives and Delegates from the thirty-eight States and Territories 
 of the Union, bringing with them every variety of personal and 
 sectional temper and peculiarity; assembled, too, in the midst of a 
 popular feeling more pervading and more deeply stirred up than at 
 any former period, in one-half at least of these States, and upon the 
 eve of startling, and, it may be, disastrous events, yet without organ 
 ization, without rules, without a Speaker to command, or a Sergeant- 
 at-Arms to execute without gavel or mace the instinct of self-govern 
 ment peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race, and the habit of self-cominand 
 and of obedience to but the shadow even of law and authority, have, 
 for now these ten days past, secured us not only from collision and 
 violence, but, for the most part, from breach even of the strictest 
 decorum observed by our predecessors in this Hall at any period of 
 our history. How sublime the spectacle ! how grand this illustration 
 of the spirit of free government ! There is but one other country 
 upon the globe where a similar spectacle could be exhibited. 
 
 I do not, then, regret this debate; it is fit and proper in itself; it is 
 strictly parliamentary. You have a right by English precedent ; you 
 have a right by American precedent; by the usages of this House, to 
 discuss the qualifications of your candidates for Speaker. If any 
 member of this House has indorsed and recommended a book full of 
 sentiments insurrectionary and hostile to the domestic peace and tran 
 quillity of this country a book intended or tending to stir up discord 
 or strife between the different sections of this Union, or servile or other 
 insurrection in any one or more States of this Union, and refuses still 
 to disavow sympathy with the sentiments and purposes of such book, 
 he is not fit to be Speaker or member of this House. Whether any 
 one who has recommended such a book for wholesale circulation, not 
 knowing, or caring to inquire into its character and contents who 
 has indorsed insurrection and violence in blank, and given a cordial 
 letter of credit to whatsoever the Abolition authors of the " Helper 
 book " might choose to say and to circulate throughout the South, is 
 competent for Speaker, or fit to be trusted in the Speakership, this 
 House must determine ; and the country, gentlemen, must sit in 
 judgment upon the decision. 
 
 But, Mr. Clerk, this whole subject and controversy has assumed a 
 character and magnitude which impel ine to break the silence which I 
 
42 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 thus far have observed. Sentiments have been avowed and statement;-} 
 made upon this floor which demand notice and reply. 
 
 [A.t this point Mr. VALLANDIGHAM gave way to a motion to adjourn, which 
 was negatived. He then said that he should decline to pursue any farther that 
 night the line of remark which he had proposed to himself; and, the House 
 having again refused to adjourn, he proceeded to read and refer to matters 
 which, forming no part of what he designed to say in the first place, are 
 omitted here. (See Congressional Globe, page 159.) The House, after sev 
 eral other motions, having finally adjourned, the next morning he resumed 
 as follows :] 
 
 Though a young man still, I have seen some legislative service. 
 One of the earliest lessons which I taught myself as a legislator, and 
 which I have sought to exemplify in every department of life, was so 
 to be a politician as not to forget that I was a gentleman. There is a 
 member of this House, now present, with whom, some years ago, I 
 served in the legislature of my State, and to him I might with perfect 
 confidence appeal to verify the assertion that no man ever was more 
 exact in the observance of every rule of courtesy and decorum, not 
 only in debate, but in private intercourse with his fellows. 1 might 
 appeal, also, to the members here present of the last Congress, and to 
 every member of this House of Representatives, and demand of them 
 whether I have offended in any thing, in public or private, in word or 
 by deed. 
 
 Now, Mr. Clerk, that courtesy which I thus readily extend to others 
 I am resolved to exact for myself, at all times and at every hazard. I 
 had a right, yesterday, especially after yielding for a ballot, at a time 
 when the Republican party with confidence anticipated the election 
 of their candidate for Speaker, to expect the usual courtesy, scarce 
 ever refused, of an adjournment. If any gentleman, this morning, 
 after a night s calm reflection, sees, in any thing that 1 have ever said 
 or done, here or elsewhere, any justification for the extraordinary yet 
 very discreditable scenes of yesterday, enacted by grown-up men and 
 Representatives, I do not envy him the mental or moral obliquity 
 of his vision. 
 
 Mr. Clerk, I heard it said, many years ago, and my reading and 
 observations of the proceedings of this House and of the Senate have 
 taught me the truth of the declaration, that there was a marked 
 difference between the deportment of the anti-slavery men in Congress 
 toward slaveholders and their own Democratic colleagues from the free 
 States. Sir, I want no better evidence of that fact than the occur 
 rences of yesterday. 
 
 I said then, that if any member of this House had indorsed a book 
 full of sentiments which were insurrectionary and hostile to the domes 
 tic peace and tranquillity of this country a book intended or tending 
 to incite servile insurrection in one or more of the States of this Union, 
 and refused still, either by himself or through another, to disavow all 
 sympathy with such sentiments, he was not fit to be Speaker or 
 member of this House. That judgment I, this morning, deliberately 
 leimrrn in all its length and breadth and significance. The other day 
 the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Millson,) a slaveholder, distinctly 
 
THERE IS A WEST. 43 
 
 declared upon this floor, with all the emphasis he could command, that 
 any one who would incite a servile insurrection, or knowingly distribute 
 books or papers with that design, was not only not fit to be Speaker, 
 but not fit to live. There was then upon that side of this Chamber no 
 sign, not even a whisper, of indignation or resentment. No, gentle 
 men, you sat in your seats, under that just but scathing denunciation, 
 as mute as fishes and as gentle as lambs. Even your candidate for 
 Speaker started to his feet, and, with manifest trepidation, disavowed 
 every purpose and sentiment of the kind. Now, gentlemen of the 
 Republican party, once for all and most respectfully, not in the lan 
 guage of menace, but as sober truth, receive this message from me, 
 greeting : I am your peer ; I represent a constituency as brave, as 
 intelligent, as noble, and as free as the best among you upon this floor 
 and in their name and in my own name, I tell you that just whatso 
 ever rights, privileges, courtesies, liberties, or any thing else, you - 
 whether from apprehension of personal danger or from any other cause 
 you, brave men at home vaunting arrantly there your rebukes here 
 of Southern insolence and bravado you, who return to your constitu 
 ents r,t the end of every session bearing with you the scalps of half a 
 score of fire-eaters from Alabama, Mississippi, or the Carolinas you 
 are accustomed to extend to slaveholders and Southern men upon this 
 floor, I, as your peer, demand and will have at your hands. If you 
 think otherwise, you have much yet to learn of the character of the 
 man with whom you have to deal. I am as good a Western fire-eater 
 as the hottest salamander in this House. (Laughter arid applause.) 
 
 I have been served with a notice this morning that the Republican 
 party here do not intend to listen to any further discussion. Very 
 respectfully, I care not whether they listen or not. Let me tell them 
 that the country holds its breath in suspense at the lightest word 
 uttered in this Hall. The people of the United States are listening, 
 at this moment, to catch every syllable which falls from the lips of the 
 humblest member here. 
 
 I propose, now, sir, to address myself to those subjects only which 
 I designed, from the beginning, to discuss. 
 
 I have said, and repeat, that the sentiments which have been avowed 
 and the statements made upon this floor, demanding notice and reply, 
 impel me to break the silence which I have thus far observed. The 
 North and the South stand here arrayed against each other. Upon 
 the one side, I behold numerical power ; upon the other, the violent, 
 even fierce, spirit of resistance. Disunion has been threatened. Sir, 
 in all this controversy, so far as it is sectional, I occupy the position of 
 ARMED NEUTRALITY. I am not a Northern man. I have little sym 
 pathy with the North, no very good feeling for, and am bound to her 
 by no tie whatsoever, other than what once were and ought always to 
 be among the strongest of all ties a common language and common 
 country. Least of all, am I that most unseemly and abject of all 
 political spectacles " a Northern man with Southern principles ;" but, 
 God be thanked, still a United States man with United States princi 
 ples. When I emigrate to the South, take up my abode there, identify 
 myself with her interests, holding slaves or holding none ; then, and 
 
44 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 not till then, will I have a right, and will it be my duty, and no doubt 
 my pleasure, to maintain and support Southern principles and Southern 
 institutions. Then, sir, I am not a Southern man, either although, 
 in this unholy and most unconstitutional crusade against the South, 
 in the midst of the invasion, arson, insurrection, and murder, to which 
 she has been subject, and with which she is still threatened with the 
 torch of the incendiary and the dagger of the assassin suspended over 
 her my most cordial sympathies are wholly with her. 
 
 Mr. Clerk, I have heard a good deal said, here and elsewhere, about 
 " Southern rights." Sir, I have no respect none none for Southern 
 rights merely because they are Southern rights. They are yours, 
 gentlemen not mine. Maintain them here, within the Union, firmly, 
 fearlessly, boldly, quietly do it like men. Defend them here and 
 everywhere, and with all the means in your power, as I know you will 
 and as I know you can. Yorktown and New Orleans the end of the 
 Revolution arid the end of the War of 1812 are both yours, and 
 there is no power on earth that can subdue or conquer you. 
 
 But, while I have no respect for Southern rights simply because 
 they are Southern rights, I have a very tender and most profound and 
 penetrating regard for my own obligations. Your rights impose upon 
 rne corresponding obligations, which shall be fulfilled in their spirit 
 and to the very letter three -fifths rule, fugitive slave law, equal 
 rights in the Territories, and whatsoever else the Constitution gives 
 you. (Applause.) Our fathers made that compact, and I will yield a 
 cordial, ready, and not grudging, obedience to every part of it. 
 
 I have heard it sometimes said it was said here two years ago, not 
 on this floor, certainly, but elsewhere that there is no man from the free 
 States, North or West, who is " true to the South." Well, gentlemen, 
 that depends upon what you mean by being true to the South. If you 
 mean that we, the Representatives of the free States of this Union, 
 North and West, shall sit here within this Chamber, uttering Southern 
 sentiments, consulting Southern interests, sustaining Southern institu 
 tions, and giving Southern votes, reckless of our own identity and our 
 own self-respect, then I never was, am not now, and never will, while 
 the Representative of a free State, be "true to the South;" and I 
 thank Uod for it. If that be what is meant by "rottenness," in the 
 other end of the capitol, commend me to rottenness all the days of 
 my life. 
 
 But if you mean and I know that a large majority of you do mean 
 true to the Constitution, without which there can not be, and ought 
 not to be, any Union true to our own obligations ready and sedu 
 lous to fulfill every article of the compact which our fathers made, to 
 the extremest inch of possibility, and yielding, gracefully and willingly, 
 as in the earlier and better days of the Republic, every thing which 
 comity and good fellowship, riot only as between foreign states, but 
 among brethren, demands at our hands, then, I tell you, and I tell the 
 gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. Nelson,) that the great mass of the 
 Democratic party in the free States, and especially in the West, and 
 thousands and tens of thousands of others, not members of that party, 
 are now, and, I trust, ever will be, true to the South. 
 
TIIERE IS A WEST. 45 
 
 Allow me to illustrate my proposition. There are in this Hall, as 
 elsewhere, three classes of men. The Republican or anti-slavery 
 man and you, gentlemen, have, or have had, not a few of that num 
 ber in the South asks, whenever a measure is proposed here, Will 
 it tend to injure and hem in the institution of slavery, or rather 
 will it weaken or offend the South, because it is the South ? and he 
 subordinates every other- consideration to the great object of suppress- 
 in 2: shivery, and of warring on the South. Upon the other hand, the 
 merely Southern man, and especially the Southern extremist, asks, How 
 will this measure advance the interests of slavery, or. rather, how will 
 it aggrandize the South as South? arid his vote is determined or in 
 sensibly influenced by this consideration. There is yet another, a 
 third class, who ask none of these questions, and are moved by none 
 of these considerations ; political Gallios, perhaps, the gentlemen from 
 Ohio (Mr. Corwin) would call them, who care for none of these things. 
 To that class, Mr. Clerk, I am glad to belong. Outside of my own 
 State, and of her constitution, I am neither pro-slavery nor anti-slav 
 ery; but maintain, as was said upon a memorable occasion, "a serene 
 indifference " on this subject between these two sections. And here 
 I stand upon the ancient, safe, constitutional, peaceable ground of our 
 fathers. For many years after the foundation of this Republic were 
 laid by wiser and better men pardon me. gentlemen than I see 
 around me, no man ever thought of testing any measure here by its 
 effects upon the institution of slavery. Never till the fell " Missouri 
 question " reared its horrid front, begotten in New England, and 
 brought forth in New York, was slavery made the subject of partizan 
 and sectional controversy within this capitol. And we had peace in 
 the land in those days, and patriotism and humanity and religion 
 and benevolence ; faith and good works. We neither had, nor 
 demanded then, an anti-slavery Constitution, an anti-slavery Bible, nor 
 an anti-slavery God ; but the Constitution of the land, the Bible of 
 our fathers, and that great and tremendous Being, who, from eternity, 
 lias ruled in the armies of heaven, and among the children of men. 
 
 Then, sir, I am not a Northern man, nor yet a Southern man ; but I 
 am a WESTERN MAN, by birth, in habit, by education ; and although 
 still a United States man with United States principles, yet within, 
 and subordinate to the Constitution, am wholly devoted to Western 
 interests. Sir, this is no new enunciation of mine here. I proclaimed 
 it upon this floor one year ago, and now congratulate myself and the 
 West in having found so able and eloquent a coadjutor in the person 
 of the distinguished gentleman from the seventh district of Ohio 
 (Mr. Corwin). Sir, I am of and from the West; the great valley of 
 the Mississippi ; of the free States of that valley, seated in queenly 
 majesty at the head of the basin of that mighty river; yet one in 
 interest, and one by the bonds of nature, stronger than hooks of steel, 
 with every other State in that valley, full as it is, of population and 
 riches, and exultant now in the hour of her approaching dominion. 
 Seat yourself, denizen of the sterile and narrow, but beautiful hills 
 and valleys of New England, and you, too, of the great cities of the 
 North, whose geography and travel are circumscribed by the limits of 
 
46 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 a street railroad ; seat yourselves upon the summit of the AllegLanies, 
 and behold spread out before you a country stretching from the 
 Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
 Canada frontier with limitless plains, boundless forests, fifteen States, 
 a hundred rivers, ten thousand cities, towns, and villages, and twelve 
 millions of people. Such a vision no man ever saw ; EO, not even 
 Adam, when, in the newness and grandeur of God-made manhood, he 
 stood upon the topmost hill of Paradise, and looked down upon a 
 whole hemisphere of the yet unpeopled world. That, sir, is my 
 country ; if I may speak it without profanity, God s own country ; 
 yet, in this war of sections, I am of the free States of that valley. 
 
 Mr. Clerk, when I came to this city, two years ago, I brought with 
 me an intense nationality ; but I had been here only a little while 
 till I learned that a man without a section to cling to, was reckoned 
 but as a mere cipher in the account; and from that hour, subordinate 
 always to the Constitution, I became and am a WESTERN SECTIONALIST, 
 and so shall continue to the day of my death. I, too, propose, with 
 the Leather Stocking of the "Prairie," to fight fire with fire. I 
 learned here, Mr. Clerk, that while there was a North and a South, 
 there was no West. I found her individuality sunk in the North. 
 I saw that you of New York and New England entertained a profound 
 respect for the citizen of South Carolina or Georgia, slaveholder 
 though he might be, because he was east of the Alleghanies; and 
 that you of Georgia and South Carolina reciprocated the good opinion, 
 abolition aside, because the New Yorker arid the Yankee lived very 
 near to the rising of the sun ; while the Western man was held to be 
 d sort of outside barbarian, very useful to count in a trial of numer 
 ical strength, but of no value for aoy other purpose. We of the great 
 valley of the Mississippi are perpetually ignored. Sir, if nil this 
 were done of studied purpose, it would at least be tolerable ; but not 
 so ; there is no design in it. It is a cool, silent, persistent, unob 
 trusive, but most ofiensive disparagement. Gentlemen, you do not 
 know us. It is but a few months ago that a great paper in the city 
 of New York spoke of Judge Douglas as attempting and it was in 
 the very capital of the State " to impose his absurd theories upon 
 the honest foresters of Ohio." And about the same time another 
 great paper in the North referred to Governor Chase as a public man 
 of merely " provincial reputation." 
 
 Let not the gentleman from the Mansfield district (Mr. Sherman) 
 flatter himself that he is to be an exception. No, sir ; he sees the 
 parting rays of the setting sun too late in the day. A distinguished 
 predecessor of his attained once the same point of greatness, but only 
 to be let down gently in favor of Cape Cod. Do not deceive your 
 self. You were only put forward to be killed off ; you were merely 
 detailed as a forlorn hope, to be shot down in front of that Malakoif 
 which you never will capture. Oh no ! though two thousand miles 
 east of the llocky Mountains, you are quite too for West. Your 
 distinguished colleague from the seventh district (Mr. Corwin) is gazing 
 now wistfully through a spy-glass in the direction whither your eyes 
 are turned ; but he, alas, any more than you, will never wake up 
 
THERE rS A WEST. 47 
 
 from that delicious reverie in which he now sits buried, to realize 
 
 that 
 
 Tis distance lends enchantment to the views, 
 And robes the Speaker s tribune in its radiant hue. 
 
 We did, indeed, gentlemen, once elect a Western President; but 
 him you killed in a month and a South-western President, too, and 
 he survived you but fifteen months. 
 
 But, gentlemen of the West, the day-spring of our deliverance 
 begins to dawn. Let us rejoice. The long period of our minority is 
 about to terminate. Within the Union, after the next census, we of 
 the Mississippi Valley will hold in our own hands the political power 
 and the destinies of this country, and we will administer them for the 
 benefit of the whole country. Jjhe day of our political independence 
 is right now, while I speak/If you of the North and South-east 
 will conspire, as for the last seventy years, to control the power arid 
 patronage of this Government for your own benefit, we of the Missis 
 sippi Valley will combine to rescue them from your hands. If you 
 of the whole North will continue your sectional warfare upon the 
 whole South, know ye that we of the North-west hold the political 
 balance of power between you, and that we will use it to crush out 
 and annihilate forever the fanaticism and treason which are threaten 
 ing now to overspread the wbole North, and very speedily to destroy 
 this Republic. We will be ignored no longer. And here let me warn 
 the Republican representatives from the West, that they have loaned 
 themselves too long already to this proud and domineering Norths 
 \ r ou permit yourselves to be identified with the North, and to m&fe 
 common cause with her against slavery. Citi bonof Not yours; ah. 
 no! You help to win the fight; you make good soldiers excellent 
 food for powder but your Northern officers and Northern masters 
 will divide the spoils. When William II. Seward threatens the South 
 with the power and domination of the North, he means you ; but 
 when he would distribute office and patronage, he will know no West. 
 Some of you dream that your Governor Chase will be the candidate 
 of the Republican party for the next Presidency. Miserable infatua 
 tion ! Cease, then, I beseech you, this unmanly vassalage to the 
 North. If you will not hearken to the voice of patriotism, listen, at 
 least, to the demands of independence and self-respect. If you will 
 be sectionalists, lay aside this pestilent fanaticism on the subject of 
 slavery, which you borrow servilely from the clergy, lecturers, and 
 other demagogues of the North, and which they use for the purpose 
 of their own aggrandizement lay it aside, and be Western sectional 
 ists. Talk not to me about humanity and benevolence. I have as 
 profound and delicate an appreciation of them as you can have, but I 
 will not be insulted with the miserable pretense. Are there no 
 objects of charity in your own midst no poor, no sick, no lame, no 
 halt, no blind, no widows and orphans to whose necessities you may 
 administer, and thus find vent for that abounding river of humanity 
 which wells up and flows out from the fountain of your hearts ? Par 
 don me, but I despise and contemn your vassalage to the North a 
 much as you can contemn $nd despise any man s servility to the South. 
 
43 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 And now, one word to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Hick- 
 man,) who took refuge, the other day, in the "engine-room" of the 
 left side of this Chamber, whence, through new and rudely-constructed 
 port-holes, to send his missiles whistling into the camp which he so 
 lately deserted. I admire his discretion the better part of valor. 
 Sir, he spoke about precipitating eighteen millions of people upon 
 eight millions. Whence does he propose to get his eighteen millions? 
 Did lie mean to include us of the North-west? Does he imagine 
 that we are militiamen to be drafted, or conscripts to be enrolled, and 
 inarch forth at the sound of his drum, or to the notes of his bugle? 
 I tell him that, if he means to raise the black standard of internecine 
 war upon the South, he must find his recruits nearer home. 
 
 JMr. FLORENCE (in his seat.) He will not find them there. (Applause in 
 the galleries.) 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I rejoice to hear it. But I tell the gentle 
 man further, that, if the Territories of this Union are to become the 
 subject of controversy after dissolution, we of the Mississippi Valley 
 propose to keep them ourselves, and then to make fair and honest 
 partition with each other. 
 
 1 approach now, Mr. Clerk, a painful and most difficult subject 
 periculoscz plenum opus ate. A word which, for very many years 
 after the organization of this Government, no man ever dared to 
 breathe within this capitol, has now become as familiar as the most 
 ordinary words of salutation. Not a day nor an hour passes, but the 
 hoarse croaking of this raven is heard, piercing the fearful hollow of 
 our ears with moaning and dirge-like wail, the " NEVER MORE " of the 
 Union of these States. Sir, in this war of sections, standing here 
 between the living and the dead, we, the Democratic representatives 
 of the West, and I, as one of that number, have a duty to perform, 
 which, in all humbleness, but in all faithfulness, shall be fulfilled, 
 But too many of you of the North are striving with might and main 
 to force the South out of this Union ; and too many of you of the 
 South are most anxious to be forced out. Do not deny it, either of 
 you. I know it. Sir, if any member should rise here and tell me 
 that there are no disunionists in the South, could I believe it ? And 
 when the gentleman from New York, (Mr. Clark,) or any one else, 
 would persuade the South that there are no Abolitionists, or disunionists, 
 in the North or the West, he only insults the intelligence of the men 
 upon whom he would impose. Sir, if any colleague of mine, or any 
 other gentleman from the free States, upon this floor, will so far 
 forget the solemn responsibilities of his office, in the midst of the 
 great and most alarming dangers wherewith we are at this moment 
 encompassed, and unintentionally, of course, misrepresent the true 
 state of public sentiment and public action in the North and the 
 northern portions of the West, I, at least, will not consent to be 
 a party to the deception. I tell gentlemen of the South that the 
 doctrines of Hale, Banks, Seward, Giddings, Chase, Lincoln, and, 
 above all, of the New York Tribune, are the doctrines of a large 
 majority of the people of the North, and of a powerful and, for all 
 
THERE IS A WEST. 49 
 
 purposes of political action, a controlling minority, just now, 
 in the West. One column of editorial in the recognized organs of 
 the Republican party of Ohio, circulating every day among the 
 masses of the people, penetrating into the homes and hearts of every 
 family, acting and reacted upon by the public opinion which they 
 help to create, and by which the public men of this country are set 
 up, or pulled down, at the ballot-box, is better evidence of the true 
 Republican sentiment of Ohio than a thousand speeches from the 
 distinguished member for the seventh District of that State (Mr. 
 Corwin). Sir, I listened the other day, as I always listen, with very 
 great pleasure, to the genial and gushing eloquence from the lips of 
 that gentleman, touched, as they are, as with a live coal from the 
 altar of oratory. In the sentiments which he uttered here, there is 
 much, very much, which meets my hearty concurrence ; but I regret 
 that truth and candor compel me to say that he does not represent 
 the opinions and sentiments of the party to which he belongs. He 
 Claims, indeed, the leadership of that party. Pardon me he is not 
 only not a leader, but not even a respectful follower of the Republican 
 party in that State. (Applause in the galleries.) Kentuckian as he 
 is by birth, nobleman by nature patriot as he is, and Whig as he 
 once was, I know that he never will consent to "guard the baggage " 
 of that vandal host. Yet am I sorry to say that, to him, more than 
 r.o any other man in the State, the Republican party to-day are 
 indebted for their political supremacy in Ohio. He it was, who, 
 without power in his own party, yet controlled, at the late election, 
 rhe fifty thousand conservative voters of that State who are not of 
 die Democratic party, and misled them into the support of an organ 
 ization and of principles with which he has no real sympathy at alP. 
 He went into the Republican party to control it for good but he 
 was only as a straw before the whirlwind. He finds now a barren 
 scepter in his gripe; and let me, with great respect, remind him 
 that it is not conservative speeches which are needed here to save 
 us, but conservative votes at home. Certainly, the vast majority of 
 the people of Ohio, of all parties, are at heart opposed to insurrec 
 tion and disunion ; but I tell the gentleman that, if he would con 
 quer abolition and sectionalism, he must fight them at the ballot- 
 box. 
 
 Mr. Clerk, I do not propose to follow the gentleman into a discussion 
 of the local politics of Ohio. I resolved, a good many years ago, 
 to make no speech within a legislative assembly fit only to be spoken 
 upon the u stump;" and to that resolution I propose steadily to 
 adhere. But, inasmuch as the mere partisan politics of my State 
 have already been drawn into debate here, a passing remark may not 
 be inappropriate from me as a Representative, in part, from that 
 State though, in truth, I can add little to what has- been fitly, 
 strongly, eloquently spoken by the gentleman from the twelfth Dis 
 trict (Mr. Cox). 
 
 Something has been said more, I understand, is to follow in 
 regard to the soundness of the Democratic party in Ohio, and in 
 other States of the Union. Sir. I will spare gentlemen all trouble 
 4 
 
50 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 upon that point. The Democratic party in Ohio, some years pgo, 
 was not sound, as men count soundness now. You need not go 
 back to the records, and reproduce them here. Open confession i;-. 
 good for the soul, and I make it. I speak the more freely, boc.-iu.so i 
 think and there are hostile witnesses here present to attest it tli-.t. 
 my own record, from the very beginning of this whole controvert v 
 concerning slavery as a political question, is as unimpeachable as the 
 record of any man in the North or the West, and. I may add, the 
 South, too ; for let me admonish gentlemen from that section thar, 
 many of the people of the free States were for a good while misled by 
 the precepts, if not the practice, of some of the earlier, and the ht^r 
 fathers, too, of the southern political church. A little charity, I pray 
 you, upon this subject. The Democratic party of Ohio, very much. 
 after the fashion described by the gentleman from the seventh distru t, 
 (Mr. Corwin,) adopted, in 1848, a certain resolution, in which thev 
 denounced slavery in the abstract, and, with valorous earnestness.-:, 
 declared that the people of Ohio would use all power clearly give a 
 in the constitutional compact to "eradicate/ tear up slavery by the 
 roots; but there is much virtue in "but," as well as "if" they 
 further resolved, with refreshing consistency, protesting the highest 
 regard for the Union, the Constitution, and the rights of all the States, 
 that the Democracy of Ohio were of opinion that no power w;v-< 
 conferred by the constitutional compact to institute any process of 
 eradication at all. Sir, [ am not here to commend the superior 
 honesty of such a platform. The gentleman, (Mr. Corwin,) who is 
 well posted and of mature years, has explained luminously how the-e 
 things are done, even in Republican conventions ; but I will not 
 aisingenuously pretend of course. I have no allusion to my eo - 
 league that these resolutions did not at that time express the sen 
 timents of the Democracy of my State. I think that, so far as they 
 were supposed to be anti-slavery in their character, they did express 
 both the opinions and the feelings of a very large majority of the peo 
 ple of the State. Sir, I was a member of that convention, and of 
 the committee on resolutions, and voted many times in committee, 
 during a protracted session of two days, against any and every expres 
 sion of opinion upon the question of slavery in any form. Like mv 
 colleague, I was overpowered; like him, I endeavored to make the 
 best of it, seeking consolation in the second and sound part of t ir 
 resolution, and whiling away my idle hours in the delicate task of 
 reconciling the two branches with each other. My success in this 
 somewhat difficult work was just about equal to the success of the 
 gentleman (Mr. Corwin) who undertook a similar contract here, the 
 other day. But. Mr. Clerk, at every subsequent convention I exerted 
 myself to the utmost to procure a recision of these resolutions ; 
 and, finally, in January, 1856, they were rescinded, and a sound 
 platform adopted in their stead. From that hour the Democratic 
 party has steadily gained strength. I pass by the election of Mr. 
 Chase to the Senate, in 1848, the refusal by a State Convention to 
 indorse the Baltimore platform, in 1853, and other unsound things, 
 in faith or in practice, whereof the Democracy of my State were 
 
THERE IS A WEST. 51 
 
 guilty in times past. " Let the dead past bury its dead." Ernst ist 
 das Lclen. Our business is to grapple manfully with the living 
 realities of the present moment. Sir, in my judgment, the wisest 
 man that ever lived was the author of the statute of limitations ; 
 all things adjust themselves equitably in periods of just about six 
 years. Politicians, indeed, in later times, require, and. perhaps, are 
 entitled to a shorter limitation. No man s record ought to be revived 
 or called in question after the lapse of six months. 
 
 Allusion has been made to "the present state of parties and of 
 public sentiment in the North and West. Sir, I do not propose to 
 speak at any length upon this subject. The events are recent, and 
 no public man anywhere can have failed to observe them. It is 
 folly to deny that, all through the North, and in many portions of 
 the West, distinct and very earnest sympathy has been exhibited for 
 John Brown in his recent insurrectionary and murderous invasion 
 of Virginia ; and that, too, not by the vulgar and low, but by men 
 very high in political, social, and religious positions. Funeral pro 
 cessions, halls draped in mourning, tolling of bells, sermons, eulogies, 
 orations, public meetings, adjournment of courts of justice, attempted 
 adjournment of Senates and Houses of Representatives, and all the 
 other usual insignia of public sorrow, bestowed only hitherto upon 
 the great and the good, the patriots, the heroes, and martyrs of the 
 world all these tributes, and more, have been paid to the memory 
 of a murderer and felon. Even in my own native State, and in a 
 part of my own district, I lament to say that these sad evidences of 
 a corrupted public sentiment have been exhibited. In Cleveland, 
 fertile in revolutionary conventions, in Akron, in Cincinnati, and 
 elsewhere, in public assemblages, and by other means equally public 
 and significant, the sympathy of thousands has been expressed. 
 Sir, it is vain to attempt to conceal what all this means. There is 
 a public sentiment behind it all, or it never would be tolerated. 
 Thirty years ago, John Brown, hung like a felon, would have been 
 buried like a dog. 
 
 Allusion has been made also to the Union meetings held, or to be 
 held, in the great cities of the North. Sir. I would not abate one 
 jot or tittle from the true value, least of all, from the patriotism of 
 these assemblages. When public meetings run along with public 
 sentiment, they are powerful to mold and to give it efficiency; but 
 when they do not beat responsive to the popular heart, they are of 
 no value. No ; one single page of election returns is worth more, 
 as an index of real public sentiment, than all the Union resolves 
 which shall be passed between this and the 4th of March, 1861. 
 Let no man be deceived. If the distinguished gentleman from 
 Tennessee (Mr. Nelson) be sincere and I know that he is in 
 believing that the great mass of the people of the free States are 
 opposed to the agitation of the slavery question in any form, and 
 are ready to strike hands with any party which will put it down 
 forever ; if he really thinks that but a very small part of the peo 
 ple of the North sympathize with John Brown, or yield assent a 
 cordial and workiig assent to the doctrines of William II. Seward, 
 
52 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 the "irrepressible conflict" included, full as it is of insurrection, 
 treason, and murder ; if lie believes that, without the strong arm of 
 the Federal Government, powerfully and in good faith stretched 
 forth, fugitive slaves could be recaptured in one half the free States 
 of this Union, under any law of Congress, I can only say, that he 
 has the mild virtue of an honest heart most marvelous credulity. 
 Sir, I entertain for that gentleman the very highest respect, but he 
 must allow me to say that, aside from that portion of his remarks 
 the other day, which breathed so much of earnest, sincere, and 
 eloquent eulogy upon the Union one such speech, blinding the 
 eyes of the people of the free States to the real public sentiment at 
 the South, does more thus to keep alive the flames of civil discord 
 between the South and the North and West, than a hundred speeches, 
 vehement and impassioned though they may be, of the gentleman 
 from South Carolina (Mr. Keitt). Sir, when a member of this House, 
 of fine personal appearance, of sonorous voice, of classic education, 
 and approved rhetorical excellence, tells us, with a magnificence of 
 rhythm which regurgitates through these aisles, peals along these 
 galleries, pierces the ceiling, and loses itself amid the columns and 
 scaffolding of the unfinished dome of the capitol, that he will shatter 
 this Republic " from turret to foundation stone." we are apt to 
 understand that he is executing a grand rhetorical fugue, and that 
 he is not half so much in earnest as he would have us imagine. 
 But when a gentleman, mature in years, with a cold logic, a calm 
 demeanor, but a sincere heart and earnest purpose, tells us, in the 
 midst of invasion and murder the legitimate and inevitable fruits 
 of the "irrepressible conflict," which has been proclaimed against 
 his own section that he is not alarmed, arid believes that no mis 
 chief is intended, we only understand that he invites aggression. 
 
 Sir, I am this moment reminded, by the appearance of the gentle 
 man before me, (Mr. Briggs,) that I need no better illustration of 
 the melancholy change in public sentiment, at the North, within the 
 past few years. Here he sits, upon the only national side of this 
 chamber, sole exempler of the "lost politics" of the Whig party, 
 faithful among the faithless, only he ; sole representative of the flag 
 of our country, solitary and alone, E Pluribus Ifnum. (Laughter.) 
 Sir, does not all this mean something ? 
 
 But I will pursue this subject no further. I find no pleasure in 
 it. I have said, and I think the dullest among us can not fail to 
 discern it now, that there is danger, great and most imminent danger, 
 of a speedy disruption of the Union of these States. Too many of 
 you of the South desire it, and but too many of you of the North 
 are either striving for, or reckless whether it comes or not. 
 
 Sir, I will not consent that an honest and conscientious opposition 
 to slavery forms any part of the motives of the leaders of the 
 .Republican party. In the earlier stages of the Abolition agitation, 
 it may have been otherwise, but not so now. This whole contro 
 versy has now become but one of mere sectionalism a war for 
 political domination, in which slavery performs but the part of the 
 letter x in an algebraic equation, and is used now, in the political 
 
THEBE IS A WEST. . 53 
 
 algebra of the day, only to work out the problem of disunion. It 
 was admitted, in 1820, in the beginning, by Rums King, who hurled 
 the first thunderbolt in the Missouri controversy, to be but a question 
 of sectional power and control. To-day it exists, and is fostered and 
 maintained, because the North has, or believes that she has, the 
 power and numbers and strength and wealth, and every other ele 
 ment which constitutes a State, superior to you of the South. 
 Power has always been arrogant, domineering, wrathful, inexorable, 
 lierce, denying that constitutions and laws were made for it. Power 
 now, and here, is just what power has been everywhere, and in every 
 age. But, gentleman of the North, you who ignorantly or wittingly 
 are hurrying this Republic to its destruction, you who tell the South 
 to go out of the Union if she dare, and you will bring her back by 
 force, or leave her to languish and to perish under your overshadowing 
 greatness, did it never occur to you that when this most momentous 
 but most disastrous of all the events which history shall ever to the 
 end of time record, shall have been" brought about, the West, the great 
 West, which you now coolly reckon yours as a province, yours as a 
 lief of your vast empire, may choose, of her own sovereign good 
 will and pleasure, in the exercise of a popular sovereignty, which 
 will demand, and will have non-intervention, to set up for herself? 
 Did you never dream of a WESTERN CONFEDERACY? Did that 
 horrid phantom never flit across you in visions of the night, when 
 deep sleep falls upon men? Sir, we have fed you. we have clothed 
 you, we have paid tribute to, and enriched you, for now these sixty 
 years ; we it is who have built up your marts of commerce ; we it 
 is who have caused your manufacturing establishments to flourish. 
 Who made Boston? What built up New York, till now, like Tyre 
 of old, she sits queen of the seas, and her merchant-princes and 
 traffickers are among the honorable of the earth? THE COTTON OP 
 THE SOUTH, AND THE PRODUCE OF THE AVEST. Maintain this 
 Union, and you will have them still. Dissolve this Union, if you 
 dare ; send California and Oregon to the Pacific, compel the South 
 into a southern confederacy, force us of the West into a western 
 confederacy, and then tell me what position would you assume 
 among the powers of the earth ? Where then would be your pride 
 and arrogance, your trade and business, your commerce and your 
 dominion? Look at the map spread out before you. Behold your 
 selves, as Mr. Webster said of Austria, " a mere patch upon the 
 earth s surface." And, gentlemen of New England, let me ask you, 
 What if New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York should refuse to 
 go with you? They may refuse. You are a peculiar people. 
 (Laughter.) I can not say God s peculiar people ; for you have 
 dethroned Jehovah, and set up a new and anti-slavery god of your 
 own; and before one year, you will inaugurate the* statue of John 
 Brown in the place where the bronzed image of Webster now stands. 
 (Applause and hisses.) But, suppose these three States refuse your 
 fellowship. Then would be fulfilled the prophecy, uttered many 
 years ago, of the re-annexation of New England to the British crown. 
 I know well, Mr. Clerk, that within the Union, we of the West 
 
54 . THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 are now, and so far as business and trade are concerned, must ever 
 remain, tributaries to the North. You have made us so by that 
 magnificent net-work of railroads which stretches now from, the 
 Atlantic to and beyond the Mississippi. But be not deceived. That 
 "vast inland sea" is mare nostrum it is our Atlantic ocean. Once 
 cut off from the powerful and controlling ties of a united Govern 
 ment, aliens and foreigners to each other, with police and espionage 
 and armed force at every depot upon the frontiers, nature, stronger 
 than man, would reassume her rights and her supremacy. You made 
 the railroad and the telegraph, but God Almighty made the Missis 
 sippi and her hundred tributaries. 
 
 Is it not, I appeal to you, better then for you of the North, better 
 for you of the South, better for us of the West, better for all of us, 
 that this Union shall endure forever? Sir, I am for the Union as 
 it is, and the Constitution as it is. I am against disunion now, and 
 forever ; against disunion, whether for its own sake or for the sake of 
 any thing else, equal, independent, constitutional liberty alone excepted. 
 Do you ask me when the hour for disunion will come ? I tell you never, 
 never, while it is possible to avert it; never, while we can have, within 
 the Union, the just constitutional rights which the Union was first made 
 to secure ; never certainly, till the hour shall come wherein to 
 vindicate the glorious right of revolution. I speak not of the abstract 
 right of secession. Do you ask me when that hour will come ? I 
 can not tell you. Of that every State and every people must judge 
 for themselves, before God and the .great tribunal of history. Our 
 fathers, in their day and generation, judged of it for themselves in 
 our great Revolution. There, gentlemen, is one precedent, at least, 
 hallowed by success, and canonized in the world s history. American 
 citizens dare not call it in question. I commend it to you. Study 
 it; ponder over it; profit by it. I know, indeed, that it has been 
 sometimes said that our fathers went to war about a preamble, and 
 fought seven long years to vindicate a principle. But, gentlemen, I 
 am not sure that there is not, in all this, somewhat of the nourish 
 of rhetoric and the flash of history ; a little of the "glittering gener 
 alities " of the Declaration of Independence. I fear it may not be 
 safe for you to follow that precedent too closely. 
 
 Do you ask me whether the election of an anti-slavery, sectional, 
 Republican president, upon a sectional platform, pledged to administer 
 the Government for sectional purposes, would, per se, be a justifiable 
 cause of disunion ? I can not tell you. But I do tell you, as 
 a Western man, and I tell the gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. 
 Nelson,) that, when you of the South shall have attained the 
 numerical power and strength in this Union, and shall then organize 
 a Southern party, on a Southern basis, and, under the forms of the 
 Constitution, shall elect a Southern President, for the purpose of 
 controlling all the vast power and patronage and influence of the 
 Government, By action or non-action, for the advancement of Southern 
 interest, and above all, for the purpose of extending slavery into 
 States now free, with the design of making them all slave States, I 
 will meet you as the Irish patriot would have met the invaders of 
 
THERE IS A WEST. 55 
 
 irobnd with the sword in one hand, and a torch in the other; 
 dispute ever}- inch of ground, burn every blade of grass, till the last 
 intrenchment of independence shall be my grave. (Applause.) I 
 will not wait for any overt act. AY hat ! Do I not know that fire will 
 burn, that frost will congeal, that steel and poison will do their work 
 of destruction to the human system, that I shall await the slow 
 process of experiment to ascertain their natural and inevitable effects? 
 Xover -never! Experimentum in vili corpore. 
 
 These, Mr. Clerk, are no new doctrines in the country whence I 
 come. Stronger sentiments, if possible, were uttered here upon this 
 floor, ten years ago, by a distinguished predecessor of mine, the Hon. 
 liobcrtC. Schenck, of Dayton, my fellow-citizen still, and the familiar 
 friend of the eloquent gentleman before me, (Mr. Corwin.) an old- 
 line Whig now. with a slight, very slight varnish of Republicanism. 
 
 Allow me, sir, to read what he said in a similar, though not so 
 fanning, crisis in public affairs, on the 27th of December, 1849: 
 
 " If we of the northern States " 
 
 We had no West then, sir ; her existence and geography have 
 bee i) ascertained, and settled since 
 
 [f we of the northern States would not vote for a Southern man, merely 
 heciiu-oheis a Southern man, and men of the South will not vote for a Northern 
 man, merely because he is a Northern man; and if that principle is to bo 
 carried out from here into all our national politics and elections, what must 
 he the result? Disunion. THAT ITSELF is DISUNION. You may disguise and 
 cover up as you please, but that it will he. It may, perhaps, be regarded as 
 hut the Jirst step in disunion; but its consequence follows as inevitable as fate. 
 One section the North or the South must always have the majority. Dis- 
 Sranciii.se all upon the other side, and the Union could not hold together a 
 lay; it ought not to hold together upon SKC/I conditions a day. On this iloor wo 
 ;;o\v have from the free States one hundred and forty Representatives, and 
 ninety from the slave States. Suppose the relative numbers were reversed; 
 would we submit to be denied all participation in privileges here? NOT FOR 
 ^x IKJUK. And should we ask for such submission from others? NEVER! 
 The Whig party say never. The true people of the North say never." 
 
 That, sir, was good Whig doctrine ten years ago. It was good 
 American doctrine in 185G ; and I aver here, upon my responsibility 
 as a Representative, that it is good sound Democratic doctrine every- 
 \vhere, and all the time. 
 
 Then, sir, I am against disunion. I find no more pleasure in a 
 Southern disunionist than in a Northern or Western disunionist. Do 
 not tell me that you of the South have an apology in the event and 
 developments of the last few months. I know you have. War 
 irrepressible war. has been proclaimed against your institution of 
 slavery ; it has been carried into your own States ; arson and murder 
 have been committed upon your own soil ; peaceful citizens have 
 been ruthlessly shot down at the threshold of their own doors. You 
 avenged the wrong ; you executed the murderer and the felon ; but 
 he has risen from the dead a hero and a martyr ; and now the 
 apostles of this new Messiah of Abolition, with scrip and purse, armed 
 with the sword, insolent from augmenting numbers, apostles rather 
 
56 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 of Mahomet, disciples of Peter the Hermit, are but gathering 
 strength, and awaiting the hour for a new invasion. Certainly 
 certainly, in all this you have ample justification for whatsoever of 
 excitement and alarm and indignation pervade now the whole South., 
 from Mason and Dixon s line down to the Gulf of Mexico. But will 
 you secede now ? Will you break up the union of these States ? 
 Will you bring down for ever, in one promiscuous ruin, the columns 
 and pillars of this magnificent temple of liberty, which our fathers 
 reared at so great cost of blood and of treasure ? Wait a little ! 
 Wait a little ! Let us try again the peaceful, the ordinary, the con 
 stitutional means for the redress of grievances. Let us resort oiu c 
 more to the ballot-box. Let us try once again that v:capon, surer s>.L 
 and better than the bayonet. 
 
 Mr. Clerk, I am not, perhaps, so hopeful of the final result a- 
 some other men ; but I was taught in my boyhood that noblest of 
 all Roman maxims never to despair of the Republic. I was taught, 
 too, by pious lips, a yet higher and holier doctrine still a firm 
 belief in a superintending Providence, which governs in the affair.- 1 
 of .men. I do believe that God, in his infinite goodness, has fore 
 ordained for this land a higher, mightier, nobler destiny than for an\ 
 other country since the world began ; Times nollcst empire is tJte /<* . 
 From the Arctic ocean to the Isthmus of Paricn ; from the Atlantic 
 to the Alleghanies ; stretching far and wide over the vast basin of 
 the Mississippi, scaling the Rocky Mountains, and lost at last in the 
 blue waters of the Pacific, I behold, in holy and patriotic vision, ONI: 
 UNION, ONE CONSTITUTION, ONE DESTINY. (Applause.) But this 
 grand and magnificent destiny can not be fulfilled by us, except, as 
 a united people. Clouds and darkness, indeed, rest now over us; w? 
 are in the midst of perils; rocks and quicksands are before us ; strife 
 and discord are all around us. How then, sir mighty and momentum 
 question, pregnant with the fate of an empire shall we bring peace 
 to this divided and distracted country? Sir, in my deliberate av a 
 most solemn judgment, there is but one way of escape ; and that thc.- 
 iminediate, absolute, unconditional disbandment of this section!, anti- 
 slavery, Republican party of yours. (Applause in the galleries.) If 
 not, then upon your heads, and upon the heads of your children, be 
 the blood of this Republic. You have organized a political party, 
 based upon geographical discriminations, and for the purpose of 
 administering this Government for the benefit of a part. You have 
 neither strength, nor organization, nor existence even, in one half, 
 nearly, of the States of this Union. Look around you. Behold 
 upon this side of the House every section represented. Here are 
 THE UNITED STATES. What do we see upon the left side of this 
 Chamber ? Not one solitary Representative of your faith or part} 
 from fifteen States of this Union. What does nil this mean? It 
 never was so before in the history of this Republic. What does it 
 all tend to ? Sir, there died, not many years ago, in New England, 
 a man whom you all once idolized as approaching a little nearer in 
 intellect to our notions of divinity than most men in any age. Died, 
 did I say? No, he "still lives;" lives m history, lives in the public 
 
THERE IS A WEST. 57 
 
 records, lives in liis published works, lives in his public services, 
 lives upon canvas, and in marble, and in bronze. Seven years ago. 
 he wrote to a citizen of his native State : 
 
 < There are, in New Hampshire, many persons who call themselves Wh(gs, who 
 are no Whigs at ail; and no better than disunionists. Any man who HESITATED 
 in granting and securing to every part of the country its just and Constitutional 
 rights, is AX I:XEMY TO THE WHOLE COUKTBY." 
 
 I know, gentlemen of the Republican party, that you profess, many 
 of you, that you would not deny any Constitutional right to the 
 States of the South. Admit it. But let me ask you by what rule 
 of interpretation do you propose to ascertain these rights? I appeal 
 to your platforms, to your speeches, to your acts. Like the learned 
 doctor of Padua, you confess the bond ; the Venetian law can not 
 impugn it ; but you would give the exact pound of flesh, shedding no 
 blood, cutting nor more nor less, under penalty of death and confisca 
 tion, than the just pound, not to be made light or heavy in the 
 balance or the division of the twentieth part of ono poor scruple, nor 
 in the estimation of a hair. You well know that rights thus yielded 
 are rights withheld ; and withheld, too, with every aggravation of 
 insult and wrong. Is that the spirit of the Constitutional compact? 
 Is that the spirit which animated the great man and patriot whose 
 ashes repose upon the banks of the Potomac, or of that other laero 
 and patriot who finds a resting-place, in his long sleep, amid the 
 shades of the Hermitage ? How long, think you, can such a Union 
 hist? and what, above all, is it worth while it does last? 
 
 I have now finished what I desired to say upon the momentous 
 subjects which have been introduced into this discussion. I have 
 spoken freely of DISUNION. The time, most unhappily, has gone by 
 when that melancholy theme can any longer be ignored or evaded. 
 It must be met met promptly, and met not with affected contempt, 
 nor with real indifference. I have not spoken of it with any unmanly 
 terror, but only with that sad and solemn alarm and apprehension 
 which every patriot ought to feel in contemplating the overthrow of a 
 Union so grand, a Constitution so admirable, a Government so vast., 
 and institutions so noble, as these under and in the midst of which we 
 are still permitted to live. 
 
 Sir, a Southern paper, not many miles from this capitol, has been 
 pleased to say that there is no southern State contemplating secession, 
 in any possible contingency. No; they are only "coolly calculating 
 the effect of disunion threats upon the nerves of the northern and 
 western States." I do not believe it. Whoever utters it, libels the 
 South and the North and the West. Idle threats and menaces will 
 no longer frighten any one. Mutual interests and mutual fears do, 
 indeed, bind us together still ; but fraternal affection and good-will 
 are the only bauds which can keep us a united people. They are the 
 silver cord and the golden bowl which are now so well-nigh broken 
 at the fountain. If they be, indeed, snapped asunder, then nor 
 threats, nor fears, nor interests, nor any thing else can keep us 
 together. My nerves, at least, are of the hardest and the toughest. 
 
58 THERE IS A WEST. 
 
 I am no more to be moved from my propriety by clamor and menace 
 from the South, than by denunciation and fanaticism from the North 
 or the West. Standing here I repeat it an armed neutral in the 
 midst of this conflict of sections, I propose, in all humility, but in 
 all justice, to hold even and impartial the scales between them. I 
 have spoken freely and plainly, but have spoken justly and truly. 
 I have not sought to conceal the evil which afflicts us still less to 
 exaggerate it, but only to exhibit it just as it is : for be assured be 
 assured there is no medicine nor surgery which can heal it without 
 the utmost disclosure and knowledge of the true cause and character 
 and extent of the disease. I have spoken briefly of the present evil 
 state of public sentiment in the J^orth and the West ; in Ohio, my 
 own native State. Yet, mother as she is, I *have sought rather to 
 imitate, riot the rude and obscene behavior of Ham, but the filial 
 piety and modesty of the elder sons of the Patriarch when mellowed 
 with wine, and quietly, with averted eve, to cover her nakedness with 
 the mantle of silence. Yet, as a representative here in this Chamber, 
 1 have a duty to perform for the w r hole country, for the sake of the 
 Constitution, for the perpetuity of the Union, and as its last hope. 
 
 I know well, indeed, that much that I have said to-day, will here, 
 as elsew r here, be denounced as pro-slavery. Be it so. I have heard 
 that too often, already, to feel the slightest apprehension or alarm ; 
 but I tell you, gentlemen, as a thousand times I have told those w T ho 
 sent me here, that : If to love my country, to revere the Constitution, 
 to cherish the Union ; if to abhor the madness and hate the treason 
 which would lift up a sacrilegious hand against either ; if to read that 
 in the past, to behold it in the present, to foresee it in the future of 
 this land, which is of more value to us and to the world, for ages to 
 come, than all the multiplied millions who have inhabited Africa from 
 the creation to this day if this it is to be pro-slavery, then in every 
 nerve, fiber, vein, bone, tendon, joint, and ligament, from the topmost 
 hair of the head to the last extremity of the foot, I am all over and 
 altogether a PRO-SLAVERY MAN. (Applause from the Democratic 
 benches and the galleries.) 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION EE PRESERVED? 59 
 
 NUMBER THREE. 
 
 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 20, 1861. 
 
 Tins is that famous speech in -which MR. VALLANDIGHAM is said 
 to have proposed to divide the Union into four distinct nationalities." 
 Such, is the assertion repeatedly and persistently made by the Aboli 
 tion press. The whole speech is here given : also, the proposed 
 amendments to the Constitution. It is not easy to imagine a greater 
 perversion of the plain and obvious meaning of language than has 
 been exhibited in this case. A cause that requires the use of such 
 means must be a bad one. The attention of the public has been 
 repeatedly called to those misrepresentations ; but thus far it has 
 been found impossible to obtain a correction in the Abolition journals. 
 80 far from this, the leading papers of that class have continued to 
 repeat the false statement, thus compelling the belief, that in making 
 and circulating this declaration, those papers have been manufacturing 
 and using a deliberate and intentional falsehood. 
 
 But the people are pretty generally learning that the reports 
 furnished by Abolition papers, pretending to give the sentiments of 
 leading Democratic statesmen, are, almost invariably, caricatures or 
 gross misrepresentations. They will not, therefore, be surprised to 
 find that this speech, made in the hour of most imminent peril, when 
 the greatest calamity any nation has ever endured was impending, so 
 far from being, as has been so often and so falsely asserted, a propo 
 sition to divide the Union into "four distinct nationalities," was, in 
 fact, a most wise and prudent suggestion, evincing the deepest political 
 sagacity and foresight. If adopted, the country would have been 
 saved that great waste and slaughter which have already wearied and 
 sickened the heart of humanity, and of which the end is not yet. 
 Even now, it may not be too late to make good use of some features 
 of the plan here proposed. 
 
60 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED ? 
 
 The special order namely, the Report of the Committee of 
 Thirty-Three being under consideration MR. VALLANDIGIIAM 
 addressed the House as follows : 
 
 MR. SPEAKER: It was my purpose, some three months ago, to 
 speak solely upon the question of peace and war between the two 
 great sections of the Union, and to defend, at length, the position 
 which, in the very beginning of this crisis, and almost alone. 1 
 assumed against the employment of military force by the Federal 
 Government to execute its laws and restore its authority within the 
 States which might secede. Subsequent events have rendered this 
 unnecessary. Within the three months, or more, since the Presi 
 dential election, so rapid has been the progress of events, and such 
 the magnitude which the movement in the South has attained, that 
 the country has been forced as this House and the incoming Ad 
 ministration will at last be forced, in spite of their warlike purposes 
 now to regard it as no longer a mere casual and temporary rebel 
 lion of discontented individuals, but a great and terrible REVOLUTION, 
 which threatens now to result in permanent dissolution of the Union, 
 and division into two or more rival, if not hostile, confederacies. 
 Before this dread reality, the atrocious and fruitless policy of a war 
 of coercion to preserve or to restore the Union has, outside, at least, 
 of these walls and of this capital, rapidly dissolved. The people 
 have taken the subject up, and have reflected upon it, till, to-dny, in 
 the South, almost as one man, and by a very large majority, as I be 
 lieve, in the North, and especially in the West, they are resolved, 
 that, whatever else of calamity may befall us, that horrible scourge 
 of CIVIL WAR shall be averted. Sir, I rejoice that the hard Anglo- 
 Saxon sense and pious and humane impulses of the American people 
 have rejected the specious disguise of words without wisdom, which 
 appealed to them to enforce the laws, collect the revenue, maintain 
 the Union, arid restore the Federal authority by the perilous edge 
 of battle, and that thus early in the revolution they are resolved tu 
 compel us, their Representatives, belligerent as you of the He-pub 
 lican party here may now be, to the choice of peaceable disunion 
 upon the one hand, or Union through adjustment and conciliation 
 upon the other. Born, sir, upon the soil of the United States 
 attached to my country from earliest boyhood, loving and revering 
 her with some part, at least, of the spirit of Greek and Roman 
 patriotism between these two alternatives, with all my mind, with 
 all my heart, with all my strength of body and of soul, living or 
 dying, at home or in exile, I am for the Union which made it what 
 it is; and, therefore, I am also for such terms of peace and adjust 
 ment as will maintain that Union now and forever. This, then, is 
 the question which to-day I propose to discuss : 
 
 HOW SHALL THE U.NION OF THESE STATES BE RESTORED AND 
 PRESERVED? 
 
 Sir, it is with becoming modesty, and with something of awe, that 
 I approach the discussion of a question which the ablest statesmen 
 of the country have failed to solve. But the country expects even 
 
61 
 
 the humblest of her children to serve her in this, the hour of her 
 sore trial. This is my apology. 
 
 Devoted as I am to the Union, I have yet no eulogies to pronounce 
 upon it to-day. It needs none. Its highest eulogy is the history of 
 this country for the last seventy years. The triumphs of war, and 
 the arts of peace science, civilization, wealth, population, commerce, 
 trade, manufactures, literature, education, justice, tranquillity, secur 
 ity to life, to person, to property material happiness, common de 
 fense, national renown, all that is implied in the "blessings of lib 
 erty " these, and more, have been its fruits from the beginning to 
 this hour. These have enshrined it in the hearts of the people ; 
 and, before God, I believe they will restore and preserve it. And, 
 to-day, they demand of us. their embassadors and Representatives, 
 to tell them how this great work is to be accomplished. 
 
 Sir, it has well been said that it is not to be done by eulogies. 
 Eulogy is for times of peace. Neither is it to be done by lamen 
 tations over its decline and fall. These are for the poet and the 
 historian, or for the exiled statesman who may chance to sit amid 
 the ruins of desolated cities. Ours is a practical work, and it is 
 rhe business of the wise and practical statesman to inquire first 
 what the causes are of the evils for which he is required to devise 
 a remedy. 
 
 Sir, the subjects of mere partisan controversy which have been chiefly 
 discussed here and in the country, so far, are not the causes, but only 
 the symptoms or developments of the malady which is to be healed. 
 These causes are to be found in the nature of man, and in the pecul 
 iar nature of our system of governments. Thirst for power and 
 j-lace, or preeminence in a word, ambition is one of the strongest 
 and earliest developed passions of man. It is as discernible in the 
 .v. hool-boy as in the statesman. It belongs alike to the individual and 
 to the masses of men, and is exhibited in every gradation of society, 
 from the family up to the highest development of the State. In all 
 voluntary associations of any kind, and in every ecclesiastical organ 
 ization, also, it is equally manifested. It is the sin by which the 
 angels fell. No form of government is exempt from it; for even 
 tl*e absolute monarch is obliged to execute his power through the 
 instrumentality of agents ; and ambition here courts one master 
 instead of many masters. As between foreign States, it manifests 
 itself in schemes of conquest and territorial aggrandizement. In 
 despotisms it is shown, in intrigues, assassinations, and revolts. In 
 constitutional monarchies, and in aristocracies, it exhibits itself in 
 contests among the different orders of society, and the several inter 
 ests of agriculture, trade, commerce, and the professions. In democ 
 racies it is seen everywhere, and in its highest development ; for here 
 all the avenues to political place and preferment, and emolument, 
 too, are open to every citizen ; and all movements, and all interests 
 of society, and every great question moral, social, religious, scien 
 tific, no matter what assumes, at some time or other, a political 
 complexion, and forms a part of the election issues and legislation 
 of the day. Here, when combined with interest, and where the 
 
62 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 action of the Government may be made a source of wealth, then 
 honor, virtue, patriotism, religion, all perish before it. No restraints 
 and no compacts can bind it. 
 
 In a federal, republic all these evils are found in their amplest 
 proportions, and take the form also of rivalries between the States ; 
 or more commonly, or finally, at least, especially where geographical 
 and climatic divisions exist, or where several contiguous Slates arc 
 in the same interest, and sometimes where they are similar in im-ti- 
 tutions or m odes of thought, or in habits and customs, of sectional 
 jealousies and controversies, which end always, sooner or later, in 
 either a dissolution of the union between them, or the destruction of 
 the federal character of the government. But, however exhibited 
 whether in federative or in consolidated governments, or whatever 
 the development may be the great primary cause is always the 
 same: the feeling that might makes right; that the strong ought to 
 govern the weak: that the will of the mere arid absolute majority of 
 numbers ought always to control; that fifty men may do what they 
 please with forty-nine ; and that minorities have no rights, or at least 
 that they shall have no means of enforcing their rights, and no rem 
 edy for the violation of them. And thus it is that the strong man 
 oppresses the weak, and strong communities, states, and sections ag 
 gress upon the rights of weaker states, communities, and sections. 
 This is the principle ; but I propose to speak of it, to-day, only in 
 its development in the political, and not in the personal or domestic 
 relations. 
 
 Sir, it is to repress this principle that governments, with their 
 complex machinery, are instituted among men; though in their abuse, 
 indeed, governments may themselves become the worst engines of 
 oppression. For this purpose treaties are entered into, and the law 
 of nations acknowledged between foreign States. Constitutions and 
 municipal laws and compacts are ordained, or enacted, or concluded 
 to secure the same great end. No men understood this, the philos 
 ophy and aim of all just government, better than the framers of our 
 Federal Constitution. No men tried more faithfully to secure the Gov 
 ernment which they were instituting from this mischief; and, had the 
 country over which it was established been circumscribed by nature 
 to the limits which it then had, their work would have, perhaps, 
 been perfect, enduring for ages. But the wisest among them did 
 not foresee who, indeed, that was less than omniscient, could have 
 foreseen? the amazing rapidity with which new settlements and new 
 States have sprung up, as if by enchantment, in the wilderness ; or 
 that political necessity, or lust for territorial aggrandizement would, 
 in sixty years, have given us new territories and States equal in 
 extent to the entire area of the country for which they were then 
 framing a Government? They were not priests or prophets to that 
 God of MANIFEST DESTINY whom we now worship, and will continue 
 to worship, whether united into one Confederacy still, or divided 
 into many. And yet it is this very acquisition of territory which 
 has given strength, though not birth, to that sectionalism which 
 already has broken in pieces this, the noblest Government ever 
 
HOW SHALL THE UXIOX BE PRESERVED . 
 
 devised by the wit of man. Not foreseeing the evil, or the neces 
 sity, tliev did not guard against its results. Believing that the great, 
 danger to the system which they were about to inaugurate lay rather 
 in the jealousy of the State Governments toward the power and 
 nuthority delegated to the Federal Government, they defended dili 
 gently against that danger. Apprehending that the larger States 
 might aggress upon the rights of the smaller States, they provided 
 that no State should, without its consent, be deprived of its equal suf 
 frage in the Seriate. Lest the legislative department might encroach 
 upon the executive, they gave to the President the self-protecting power 
 of a qualified veto ; and, in turn, made the President impeachable by 
 the two Houses of Congress. Satisfied that the several State Gov 
 ernments were strong enough to protect themselves from Federal 
 aggress: uns, if. indeed, not too strong for the efficiency of the General 
 Government, they thus devised a system of internal checks and bal 
 ances looking chiefly to the security of the several departments from 
 aggression upon each other, and to prevent the system from being 
 used to the oppression of individuals. I think, sir, that the debates 
 in the Federal Convention, and in the conventions of the several 
 States called to ratify the Constitution, as well as the cotcmporaneous 
 letters and publications of the time, will support me in the statement 
 that the friends of the Constitution wholly under-estimated the power 
 and influence of the Government which they were establishing. Cer 
 tainly, sir, many of the ablest statesmen of that day earnestly desired 
 a stronger Government; and it was the policy of Mr. Hamilton, and 
 of the Federal party, which he created, to strengthen the General 
 Government; and hence the funding and protective systems, the 
 national bank, and other similar schemes of finance, along with the 
 u general-welfare doctrine," and a liberal construction of the Con 
 stitution. 
 
 Sir. the framers of the Constitution and I speak it reverently, but 
 with the freedom of history failed to foresee the strength and cen 
 tralizing tendencies of the Federal Government. They mistook 
 wholly the real danger to the system. They looked for it in the 
 aggressions of the large States upon the small States, without regard 
 to geographical position, and accordingly guarded jealously in that 
 direction, giving, for this purpose, as I have said, the power of a self- 
 protecting veto in the Senate to the small States, by means of their 
 equal suffrage in that Chamber, and forbidding even amendment, 
 of the Constitution, in this particular, without the consent of every 
 State. But, they seem wholly to have overlooked the danger of SEC 
 TIONAL COMBINATIONS as against other sections, and to the injury and 
 oppression of other sections, to secure possession of the several depart 
 ments of the Federal Government, and of the vast powers and influ 
 ence which belong to them. In like manner, too, they seem to have 
 utterly under-estimated SLAVERY as a disturbing element in the 
 system, possibly because it existed still in almost every State, but 
 chiefly because the growth and manufacture of cotton had scarce yet 
 been commenced in the United States because cotton was not yet 
 crowned king. The vast extent of the patronage of the Executive, 
 
64- HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 and the immense power and influence which it exert?, seem also to 
 have been altogether under-estimated. And independent of all these, 
 or rather, perhaps, in connection with them, there were inherent 
 defects, incident to the nature of all governments ; some of them 
 peculiar to our system, and to the circumstances of the country, and 
 the character of the people over which it was instituted, which no 
 human sagacity could have foreseen, but which have led to evils, mis 
 chiefs, and abuses, which time and experience alone have disclosed. 
 The men who made our Government were human; they were men, and 
 they made it for men of like passions and infirmities with themselves. 
 
 i propose now, sir, to inquire into the practical workings of the 
 .system ; the experiment as the fathers themselves called it after 
 seventy years of trial. 
 
 No man will deny no American, at least, and I speak to-day to, 
 and for Americans that in its results it has been the most successful 
 of any similar Government ever established ; and yet, in the very midst 
 of its highest development and its perfect success, in the very hour 
 of its might, while "towering in its pride of place," it lias suddenly 
 been stricken down by a revolution which it is powerless to control. 
 Sir, if I could believe, as the gentlemen from Tennessee, (Mr. Ether- 
 idge,) would seem to have me believe, that for more than half a cen 
 tury the South has had all that she ever asked, and more than she 
 over deserved, and that now, at last, a few discontented spirits have 
 been able to precipitate already seven States into insurrection and 
 rebellion, because they are displeased with the results of a presidential 
 election ; or, if I could persuade myself, with the gentleman from 
 Massachusetts, (Mr. Adams,) that thirteen States, or fifteen States, 
 and eleven or twelve millions people have been already drawn, or may 
 soon be drawn, into a revolt against the grandest and most beneficent 
 Government, in form and in practice, that ever existed, from no other 
 than the trivial and most frivolous causes which he has assigned, then 
 I should, indeed, regard this revolution, in the midst of which we are, 
 as the most extraordinary phenomenon ever recorded in history. 
 But the muse of history will, I venture to say, not so write it down 
 upon the scroll which she still holds in her hand, in that grand old 
 Hall of Representatives, where, linked to time, solemnly and sadly 
 she numbers out yet the fleeting hours of this perishing Republic. 
 Ko; believe me, Representatives, the causes for these movements lie 
 deeper, and are of longer duration, than all this. If not, then the 
 malady needs no extreme medicine, no healing remedies, nothing, 
 nothing. Time, patience, forbearance, quiet these, these alone will 
 restore the Union in a few months. But, sir, I have not so read the 
 history of this country, especially for the last fourteen years. The 
 causes, I repeat, are to be found in the practical workings of the 
 system, and are to be removed only by remedies which go down to 
 the very root of the evil; not, indeed, by eradicating the passions 
 which give it birth and strength for even religion fails to accom 
 plish that impossible mission but by checking or taking away the 
 power with which these passions are armed for their work of evil 
 and mischief. 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 65 
 
 I find, then, sir, the first or remote cause which has led to the 
 incipient dismemberment of the Union, in the infinite honors and 
 emoluments, the immense, and continually increa,sing, power and 
 patronage of the Federal Government. /Every admission of new 
 States, every acquisition of new territory, every increase of wealth, 
 population, or resources of any kind; all moral, social intellectual, 
 or inventive development; the press, the telegraph, the railroad, 
 and the application of steam in every form whatsoever there is of 
 greatness at home, or of national honor and glory abroad all, 
 all has inured to the aggrandizement of this central Government. 
 Part of this, certainly, is the result of causes which no constitu 
 tional restriction, no party policy, and no statesmanship can control; 
 but much of it, nevertheless, from infringements of the Constitution, 
 and from usurpations, abuses, corruptions, and mal -administration 
 of the Government. In the very beginning, as I have said, a fixed 
 policy of strengthening the General Government, in every depart 
 ment, was inaugurated by the Federal party; and this led to the 
 bitter and vehement struggle, in the very first decade of the system, 
 between the Democratic-llepublicans and the Federalists ; between 
 the advocates of power, and the friends of liberty; those who leaned 
 strongly toward the General Government, and those who were for 
 State rights and State sovereignty the followers of Hamilton and 
 the disciples of Jefferson which ended, in 1801, in the overthrow 
 of the Federal party, and the inauguration of the Democratic policy, 
 which demanded a simple Government, a strict construction of the 
 Constitution, no public debt, no protective tariff, no system of inter 
 nal improvements, no national bank, hard money for the public 
 dues, and economical expenditures; and this policy, after a long and 
 violent contest for more than forty years a contest marked with, 
 various fortune, and occasional defeat, and sometimes temporary 
 departure by its own friends at last became the established policy, 
 of the Government, and so continued until this pestilent sectional 
 question of slavery obliterated old party divisions, and obscured and 
 hid over and covered up for a time if, indeed, it has not removed 
 utterly some, at least, of the ancient landmarks of the Democratic 
 party. And yet, in spite of the overthrow of the Federal party, in 
 spite of the final defeat of its policy, looking especially and pur 
 posely to the strengthening of the General Government, partly from 
 natural causes, as I have said, and partly because the Democratic 
 party has sometimes been false to its professed principles above 
 all, to its great doctrine of State rights, and its true and wise policy 
 of economy in expenditures, and decrease in executive patronage 
 and influence the Federal Government has gone on, steadily 
 increasing in power and strength and honor and consideration and 
 corruption, too, from the hour of its inauguration to this day; and 
 when I speak of corruption," I use the word in the sense in which 
 British statesmen use it men who understand the word, and wh 
 have, for a century and a half, reduced the thing itself to a science 
 and a system, and have made it an element of very great strength 
 in the British Government. 
 5 
 
66 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED ? 
 
 Nor, sir, is this mischief, if mischief indeed it be, confined whollj 
 to any one department of the General Government? The Federal 
 judiciary to begin with it here and in the States, dazzles the imagin 
 ation and invites the ambition of the lawyers, that not most numerous 
 but yet most powerful class of citizens, by its superior honors, its 
 great emoluments, its life-tenure, its faith in precedents, and its 
 settled forms and ancient practice, untouched by codes and unshaken 
 by crude and reckless and hasty legislation. Here, in this venerable 
 forum, where States at home and States and empires from abroad, and 
 the Federal Government itself, are accustomed to contend for the 
 judgment of the court, whatever there yet remains of ancient and 
 black-letter law ; whatever of veneration and regard for the names 
 and memories, and the volumes of Littleton arid Coke, and Croke, and 
 Plowden, and the year books ; or for silk gowns, and for all else, too, 
 that is valuable in legal archaeology, has taken refuge, and stands 
 intrenched. All that there was of form and ceremony and dignity 
 and decorum, in the beginning of the Government, is still to be found 
 here, and only here ; all but the bench and bar of forty years ago 
 the Marshalls, and the Storys, the Harpers, the Pinckneys, the Wirts, 
 and the Websters of an age gone by. 
 
 Still, the circle of honor through the judiciary is a narrow one, and 
 it lies open to but few; and yet, in times past, the judiciary has done 
 much to enlarge the powers and increase the consideration and import 
 ance of the central Government. 
 
 But it is the Senate and the House of Representatives which are the 
 great objects of ambition, and the seats of power. All the legislative 
 powers of this great and mighty llepublic, whose name and authority 
 and majesty are known and felt and feared, too, throughout the earth, 
 are vested in the Congress of the United States. War, revenues, 
 credit, disbursement, commerce, coinage, the postal system, the pun 
 ishment of crimes upon the high seas, and against the law of nations, 
 the admission of new States, the disposition of the public lands, 
 armies, navies, the militia all belong to it to control, together with 
 an unnumbered, innumerable, and most indefinable host of implied or 
 derivative powers : whence funding systems, banks, protective tariffs, 
 internal improvements, distributions, surveys, explorations, railroads, 
 land grants, submarine telegraphs, postal steam navigation and post 
 roads upon the high seas, plunder schemes, speculations, and pecula 
 tions, pensions, claims, the acquisition and government of Territories, 
 and a long train of usurpations and abuses, all tending legitimate 
 powers and illegitimate assumptions of power alike to aggrandize 
 the central Government, and to make its possession and control the 
 highest object of a corrupt, wicked, perverted, and peculating ambi 
 tion, in any party or any section. 
 
 But great and imposing as the powers, honors, and consideration 
 of Congress are, the executive department is scarce inferior in any 
 thing, and, in some things, is far superior to it. Your President stands 
 in the place of a king. There is a divinity that doth hedge him in ; 
 it is the divinity of PATRONAGE. He is the god whose priests are a 
 hundred and fifty thousand, and whose worshipers a host whom no 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 67 
 
 man can number ; and the sacrifices of these priests and worshipers 
 are literally "a broken spirit." Sir, your President is commander-in- 
 chief of your armies, your navies, and of the militia four millions 
 of men. He carries on war, concludes peace, and makes treaties of 
 every sort Through his qualified veto, he is a participant in the 
 entire legislation of the Government, and it behooves the whole army 
 of speculators, jobbers, contractors, and claimants, to propitiate him 
 as well as Senators and Representatives. He calls the Congress 
 together on extraordinary occasions, and adjourns them in case of 
 disagreement. He appoints and receives embassadors and all other 
 diplomatic agents; appoints judges of the Supreme Court, and of 
 other judicial tribunals; cabinet ministers; collectors of customs, 
 and povst-masters, and controls the appointment of a hundred and 
 fifty thousand other officers, of every grade, from Secretary of State 
 down to the humblest tide-waiter. All that is implied in the word 
 "patronage," and all that is meant by that other word, the "spoils" 
 res dctcstalilis et caduca a word and a thing unknown to the 
 fathers of the Republic, all belong to him to control. His power of 
 appointment and removal at discretion makes him the master of every 
 man who would look to the Executive for honor or emolument ; and 
 its tremendous influence is reflected back upon the Senate and this 
 House, on every Senator or Representative who would reward his 
 friends for their support at home, or secure new friends for a re-elec 
 tion. The Constitution forbids titles of nobility ; yet your President 
 is the fountain of honor. Sir, to pass by the utter and extraordinary 
 perversion of the original purpose of the Constitution in the choice 
 of electors for the President a perversion the result of caucuses, 
 national conventions, and other party machinery, and which has led 
 to those violent and debauching presidential struggles, every four 
 years, for possession of the immense spoils of the executive office no 
 department has, in other respects also, so utterly outstripped the 
 estimate of the founders of the Government, except, indeed, of the 
 few who, like Patrick Henry, were derided as ghost-seers and hypo 
 chondriacs. 
 
 When the elder Adams was President, the great east-room of the 
 White House where now, or lately, on gala days, are gathered the 
 embassadors and ministers of a hundred courts, from Mexico to 
 Japan, and the assembled wit and fashion and beauty and distinc 
 tion of the thirty-three States of the Union was then used by the 
 excellent and patriotic wife of the President as a drying-room for 
 not the maids of honor but the washerwoman of the palace. 
 
 Sir, there is an incident connected with the early settlement of this 
 city still the capital of the Republic, selected as the seat of Govern 
 ment, by Washington, the Father of the Republic, and bearing his 
 honored name an incident which shows how much he and the other 
 great men who made the Constitution under-estimated the power and 
 importance of the Executive. This capitol, within which we now 
 deliberate, fronts to the east.. There all your Presidents are inaugu 
 rated : and it was the design and the expectation of the founders of 
 the city that it should extend to the eastward. There, sir there, in 
 
68 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 that direction was to be the future Rome of the American continent. 
 The Executive mansion was meant to be in the rear, and to be kept in 
 the rear of the Chambers of the Legislature. A long vista through 
 the original forest trees a sort of American mall was to connect 
 them together ; and the President was expected to enter below stairs, 
 and at the back door, into this capitol. But he was to be kept for 
 the most part trans Tlberem on the other side of the Tiber. The 
 low, marshy ground to the westward, it was supposed, would forever 
 forbid the building up of a city between the seats of legislative and 
 executive magistracy; and the whole if, indeed, ever laid out at all 
 might have become a great national park. But behold the strange 
 perversity of man ! The city has all gone to the westward. The 
 rear of the capitol has now become its front. Pennsylvania Avenue, 
 instead of a suburban drive, is now a grand thoroughfare, the chief 
 artery which conveys the blood from that which is now the center or 
 heart of the system the President. The Executive mansion that 
 old castle, with bad fires- and without bells, to the sore discomfort of 
 Mistress Abigail Adams is now, and has been for years, the great 
 object of attraction ; and whereas, in the beginning, the " taverns " 
 for that was the name given them sixty years ago all clustered 
 around this capitol, I observe that now the greatest, most flourishing, 
 and best patronised " hotel " has established itself within bow-shot of 
 the White House. Sir, the power of executive gravitation has proved 
 too strong for the framers of the Government and the founders of the 
 city. Westward the course of architecture has taken its way ; and 
 certainly, sir certainly it is not because of any especial attraction 
 about that most venerable of ancient marts old Georgetown. 
 
 But to resume, sir. Nothing adds so muck to the power and 
 influence of the Executive as a large revenue and heavy expenditures ; 
 and if a public debt be added, so much the worse. Every dollar more 
 borrowed or collected, and every dollar more spent, is just so much 
 added to the power and value of the executive office. Nothing in the 
 political history of the country has been so marked as the steady, but 
 enormous, increase in the taxation and disbursement of the Federal 
 Government. Fifteen years ago to go back no further just previous 
 to the Mexican War, the receipts of the Treasury were 29,000,000, 
 and the expenditures $27,000,000; while four years ago only ten 
 years later the receipts had run up to $69,000,000, and the expendi 
 tures to $71,000,000 the latter being always, or nearly always, a 
 little in advance of the former. Nature, it is said, sir, abhors a vacuum j 
 but government our government, at least would seem to abhor a 
 plethoric treasury. There are always surgeons, volunteers too, at 
 that, if need be, of a very famous school of surgery, who are ready 
 to resort, upon all occasions, to financial phlebotomy. Verily, sir 
 verily these surgeons of the executive household have great faith 
 in a low fiscal regimen. 
 
 The collection and disbursement of $80,000,000 a year, for four 
 years, is a prize worth every sacrifice. The power of the sword, the 
 command of armies and navies and the militia, is itself a tremendous 
 power j and, from the signs around us, from all that everywhere ineeta 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 69 
 
 the eye or falls upon the ear, at every step throughout this capital, I 
 am afraid that now at length, and before the close of the last quarter 
 of the first century of the liepublic, it is about to assume a terrible 
 eignificancy, and that the reign of military despotism is henceforth to 
 be dated from this year. But, great as this power is, it is nothing 
 nothing as yet in this country compared with the power of the 
 purse. He who commands that unnumbered host of eager and hun 
 gry expectants whose eyes are fixed upon the Treasury, to say nothing 
 of that other host of s-eekers of office, is mightier far than the 
 commander of military legions. The gentleman from Tennessee 
 (Mr. Etheridge) entertained us the other day with a glowing picture 
 of the exodus of the present incumbents about the executive offices 
 and elsewhere. Sir, I should be pleased, when he next addresses the 
 House, to have his fine powers of wit and eloquence tested by a 
 description of the flight of the incoming locusts about the fourth of 
 March. Certainly, sir certainly the departure of the army of fat, 
 sleek, contented, well-fed and well-clad officeholders, whose natural 
 habitat is the Treasury building, or some other of the same sort, is 
 a picture melancholy enough to excite commiseration in even the 
 hardest and the stoniest heart. But the ingress of that other mighty 
 host of office-seekers, fifty to one lean, lank, cadaverous, hungry, 
 hollow-eyed, with bones bursting through their garments, and long, 
 skinny fingers, eager to clutch the spoils ; and stung, too, with the 
 aistus of that practical sort of patriotism which loves the country for 
 its material benefits, would require some part, at least, of the powers 
 of those diabolical old painters of the Spanish or Italian school. The 
 gentleman will pardon me, but I am sure that even he is not equal 
 to it. 
 
 Such, Mr. Speaker, is the central Government of the United States, 
 and such its powers and honors and emoluments ; and every year adds 
 strength to them. Against the centralizing tendencies and influences 
 of such a Government, the States, separately, can not contend. Neither 
 ambition nor avarice, the love of honor or the love of gain, find any 
 thing to satisfy their large desires in the State governments. Sir, the 
 State executives have no cabinets, no veto for the most part, no army, 
 no navy, no militia, except upon the peace establishment, and that 
 commonly despised ; no foreign appointments, and no diplomatic inter 
 course ; no treaties, no post-office, no land-office, no great revenues 
 to disburse ; small salaries, and no patronage in short, sir, nothing 
 to arouse ambition, or to excite avarice. The Legislature of the 
 State have a most valuable, but not the most dignified, field of labor. 
 They declare no war, levy no imports, regulate no external commerce, 
 coin no money, establish no post-routes, oceanic or overland; make 
 no land grants, emit no bills of credit of their own, publish no Globe, 
 have no franking privilege, and their Senators and Representatives 
 serve the State for a few hundred dollars a years. The State judi 
 ciaries, however important the litigation before them may be to the 
 parties, attract commonly but small interest from the public; and, of 
 late years, no great or splendid legal reputation is to be acquired, 
 outside of a few of the larger cities at least, either upon the bench 
 
70 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED ? 
 
 or at the bar of the State courts. "Whatever, sir, the dignity or power 
 or consideration of the United States may be, that of each State is 
 but the one thirty -fourth part of it ; and, indeed, for some years past, 
 the control of the State governments has, to a great extent, been 
 sought after chiefly as an -instrumentality for securing control of 
 legislative, executive, or judicial position in the Federal Government. 
 And all this mischief for mischief certainly I must regard it has 
 been steadily aggravated by the policy pursued in nearly all the 
 States, of diminishing, in every way, in their constitutions, and by 
 their laws, the dignity, power, and consideration of the several 
 departments of their State governments. Short tenures, low salaries-, 
 biennial sessions, crude, hasty, and continually changing legislation,. 
 new constitutions every ten years, and whatever else may be classed 
 under the head of reform, falsely so called, have been the bane of 
 State sovereignty and importance. Indeed, for years past. State 
 constitutions, laws, and institutions of every sort, seem to have been 
 regarded as but so many subjects for rude and wanton experiments at 
 the hands of reckless ideologists or demagogues. But, besides all 
 this, the infinite subdivision of political power in the States, from. 
 the chief departments of State down through counties, townships, 
 school-districts, cities, towns, and villages, all which certainly is very 
 necessary and proper in a democratic Government, tends very much 
 of itself to decrease the dignity and importance of the States. In 
 short, sir, in nearly all the States, and especially in the new States, 
 the great purpose of the politicians would seem to have been, to 
 ascertain just how feeble and simple and insignificant their governments 
 could be made just how near to a pure and perfect democracy our 
 representative form of republicanism can be carried. All this, sir, 
 would have been well, and consistent enough, no doubt, if the States- 
 were totally disconnected, or if the Federal Government could have 
 been kept down equally low, simple, and democratic. Certainly, this 
 is the true idea of a strictly democratic form and administration of 
 government ; arid the nearer it is approached, the purer and better 
 the system in theory, at least. But the experiment having been 
 fairly tried, and the fact settled, that in a country so large, wealthy, 
 populous, and enterprising as ours is, it is impossible to reduce 
 down, or to keep down, the central Government to one of economy 
 and simplicity, it is the true wisdom and policy of tkc States to see 
 to it that their own separate governments are not rendered any more 
 insignificant, at least, than they are already. 
 
 Such, sir, I repeat, then, is the central Government of the United 
 States, and such its great and tremendous powers and honors and 
 emoluments. With such powers, such honors, such patronage, and 
 such revenues, is it any wonder, I a^k, that evevy thing, yes, even 
 virtue, truth, justice, patriotism, and the Constitution itself, should 
 be sacrified to obtain possession of it ? There is no such glittering 
 prize to be contended for every four or two years anywhere through 
 out the whole earth; and accordingly, from the beginning, and every 
 year more and more, it has been the object of the highest and low 
 est, the purest, and the most corrupt ambition known among mea. 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED ? 71 
 
 Parties and combinations have existed from the first, and have been 
 changed, and reorganized, and built up, and cast down, from the 
 earliest period of our history to this day, all for the purpose of 
 controlling the powers and honors and the moneys of the central 
 Government. For a good many years parties were organized upon 
 questions of finance or of political economy. Upon the subjects of 
 a permanent public debt, a national bank, the public deposits, a 
 protective tariff, internal improvements, the disposition of the public 
 lands, and other questions of a similar character, all of them looking 
 to the special interests of the moneyed classes, parties were, for a 
 long while, divided. The different kinds of capitalists sometimes also 
 disagreed among themselves the manufacturer with the commercial 
 men of the country ; and, in this manner, party issues were occasionally 
 made up. But the great dividing line, at last, was always between 
 capital and labor between the few who had money, and who wanted 
 to use the Government to increase and "protect" it, as the phrase 
 goes, and the many who had little, but wanted to keep it, and who 
 only asked Government to let them alone. Money, money, sir, was 
 at the bottom of the political contests of the times ; and nothing so 
 curiously demonstrates the immense power of money, as the fact, that 
 in a country where there is no entailment of estates, no law of primo 
 geniture, no means of keeping up vast accumulations of wealth in 
 particular families, no exclusive privileges, and where universal 
 suffrage prevails, these contests should have continued, with various 
 fortune, for full half a century. But, at the last, the opponents of 
 Democracy, known at different periods of the struggle by many dif 
 ferent names, but around whom the moneyed interests always rallied, 
 were overborne, and utterly dispersed. The Whig party, their last 
 refuge, the last and ablest of the economic parties, died out; and the 
 politicians who were not of the Democratic party, with a good many 
 more, also, who had been of it, but who had deserted it, or whom it 
 had deserted, were obliged to report to some other and new element for 
 an organization which might be made strong enough to conquer and to 
 destroy the Democracy, and thus obtain control of the Federal Govern 
 ment. And most unfortunately for the peace of the country, and for 
 the perpetuity, I fear, of the Union itself, they found the nucleus of 
 such an organization ready formed to their hands an organization 
 odious, indeed, in name, but founded upon two of the most powerful 
 passions of the human heart: SECTIONALISM, which is only a narrow 
 ami localized patriotism, aad ANTI-SLAVERY, or love of freedom, which 
 commonly is powerful just in proportion as it is very near coming 
 home to o^e .s own self, or very far off, so that either self-interest, or 
 tke imagination can have full power to act. 
 
 And hore let me remark, that it had so happened that almost, if 
 not quite, from the beginning of tke Government, the South, or slave- 
 holding section of the Union partly because the people of the 
 South arc chiefly an agricultural and producing, a non-commercial 
 and non- manufacturing people, and partly because there is no con 
 flict, or little conflict, among them between labor and capital, inasmuch 
 as to a considerable extent, capital owns a large class of their laborers 
 
72 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 not of the white race ; and it may be also, because, as Mr. Burko 
 said, many years ago, the holders of slaves are " by far the most 
 proud and jealous of their freedom," and because the aristocracy 
 of birth and family, and of talent, is more highly esteemed among 
 them than the aristroeracy of wealth but no matter from what 
 cause, the fact was that the South, for fifty years, was nearly always 
 on the side of the Democratic party. It was the natural ally of the 
 Democracy of the North, and especially of the West. Geographical 
 position and identity of interests bound us together; and till this 
 sectional question of slavery arose, the South and the new States of 
 the West were always together ; and the latter, in the beginning, at 
 least, always Democratic. Sir, there was riot a triumph of the Dem 
 ocratic party in half a century, which was not won by the aid of 
 the statesmen and the people of the South. I would not be under 
 stood, however, as intimating that the South was ever slow to ap 
 propriate her full share of the spoils the opima spolia of victory, 
 or especially that the politicians of that great and noble old Com 
 monwealth of Virginia God bless her were ever remarkable for the 
 grace of self-denial in this regard not at all. But it was natural, 
 sir, that they who had been so many times, and for so many years, 
 baffled and defeated by the aid of the South, should entertain no 
 very kindly feelings towards her. And here I must not omit to say, 
 that all this time there was a powerful minority in the whole South, 
 sometimes a majority in the whole South, and always in some of the 
 States of the South, who belonged to the several parties which, at 
 different times, contended with the Democracy for the possession and 
 control of the Federal Government. Parties, in those days, were not 
 sectional, but extended into every State, and every part of the Union. 
 And, indeed, in the Convention of 1787^ the possibility, or > at least, 
 the probability, of sectional combinations, seems, as I have already 
 said, to have been almost wholly overlooked. Washington, it is 
 true, in his Farewell Address, warned us against them, but it was 
 rather as a distant vision than as a near reality ; and a few years 
 later, Mr. Jefferson speaks of a possibility of the people of the 
 Mississippi Valley seceding from the East ; for even then a division 
 of the Union, North and South, or by slave lines in the Union, or out 
 of it, seems scarcely to have been contemplated. The letter of Mr. 
 Jefferson upon this subject, dated in 1803, is a curious one : and I com 
 mend it to the attention of gentlemen upon both sides of the House, 
 So long, sir, as the South maintained its equality in the Senate, 
 and something like equality in population, strength, and material 
 resources in the country, there was little to invite aggression, while 
 there were the means, also, to repel it. But, in the course of time, 
 the South lost its equality in the other wing of the capitol, and 
 every year the disparity between the two sections became greater and 
 greater. Meantime, too, the anti-slavery sentiment, which had lain 
 dormant at the North for many years after the inauguration of the 
 Federal Government, began, just about the time of the emancipation 
 in the British West Indies, to develop itself in great strength, and 
 with wonderful rapidity. It had appeared, indeed, with much via- 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 73 
 
 lence at the period of the admission of Missouri, and even then shook 
 the Union to its foundation. And yet, how little a sectional contro 
 versy, bused upon such a question, had been foreseen by the founders 
 of the Government, may be learned from Mr. Jefferson s letter to Mr. 
 Holmes, in 1820, where he speaks of it falling upon his ear like "a 
 fire-bell in the niirht." Said he : 
 
 
 "I considered it. at once, as the death-knell of the Union. It is hushed, 
 indeed, for the moment; but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. 
 A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and politi 
 cal} 
 
 Sir, it is this very coincidence of geographical line with the 
 marked principle, moral and political, of slavery, which I propose to 
 reach and to obliterate in the only way possible ; by running other 
 lines, coinciding with other and less dangerous principles, none of 
 them moral, and, above all, with other and conflicting interests 
 
 " A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and 
 political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never 
 be obliterated, and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. 1 . . . 
 ... "I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of 
 themselves, bv the generations of 1776, to acquire self-government and hap 
 piness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy 
 passions of their sons; and that rny only consolation is to be that I shall 
 not live to weep over it." 
 
 Fortunate man ! He did not live to weep over it. To-day he 
 sleeps quietly beneath the soil of his own Monticello, unconscious 
 that the mighty fabric of government which he helped to rear a 
 government whose foundations were laid by the hands of so many 
 patriots and sages, and cemented by the blood of so many martyrs 
 and heroes hastens now, day by day, to its fall. What recks he, 
 or that other great man, his compeer, fortunate in life and opportune 
 alike in death, whose dust they keep at Quincy, of those dreadful 
 notes of preparation in every State for civil strife and fraternal car 
 nage ; or of that martial array which already has changed this once 
 peaceful capital into a beleaguered city ? Fortunate men ! They 
 died while the Constitution yet survived, while the Union survived, 
 while the spirit of fraternal affection still lived, and the love of true 
 American liberty lingered yet in the hearts of their descendants. 
 
 Sir, the antagonism of parties founded on money or questions of 
 political economy having died out, and the balance of power between 
 the North and the South being now lost, and the strength and dig 
 nity, and the revenues and disbursements the patronage and spoils 
 of the Federal Government having grown to an enormous size, was 
 any thing more natural than the organization, upon any basis peculiar 
 to the stronger section, of a sectional party, to secure so splendid and 
 tempting a prize? Or was any thing more inevitable than that the 
 "marked principle, moral and political," of slavery, coinciding with 
 the very geographical line which divided the two sections, and 
 appealing so strongly to Northern sentiments and prejudices, and 
 against which it was impossible for any man or any party long to 
 contend, should be revived? Unhappily, too, just about this time, 
 
74 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 the acquisition of a very large territory from Mexico, not foreseen 
 or provided for by the Missouri compromise, opened wide the door 
 for this very question of slavery, in a form every way the most 
 favorable to the agitators. The Wilmot Proviso, or Congressional 
 prohibition now, indeed, exploded, but which, nevertheless, received, 
 in some form or other, the indorsement of every free State then in 
 the Union it was proposed to establish over the whole territory 
 thus acquired, as well south of 36 30 as north of that latitude. 
 The proposition, upon the other hand, to extend the Missouri com 
 promise line to the Pacific, was rejected by the votes of almost the 
 entire Whig party, and of a large majority, I believe, of the Demo 
 cratic party of the free States. That, sir, was the fatal mistake of 
 the North; and in tribulation and anguish will she and the other 
 sections of the Union, and our posterity, too, for ages, it may be, 
 weep tears of bloody repentance and regret over it. 
 
 This controversy, however, sir, after having again shaken the 
 Union to its center, was at last, though with great difficulty, adjusted 
 through the compromise measures of 1850, by the last of the great 
 statesmen of the second period of the Republic. But four years 
 afterward, upon the bill to organize the territories of Kansas and 
 Nebraska, upon the principles of the legislation of 1850, the impris 
 oned winds Eurus, Notusque, creberque proccllis Africus were all 
 again let loose with more than the rage of a tropical hurricane. 
 The Missouri restriction, which for years had been denounced as a 
 wicked and atrocious concession to slavery, and which, some thirty 
 years before, had consigned almost every free State Senator or Hep- 
 resentative who supported it, to political oblivion, became now a 
 most sacred compact, which it was sacrilege to touch. A distin 
 guished Senator, late the Governor of Ohio, who had entitled his 
 great speech against the adjustment measures of 1850, " Union and 
 Freedom without Compromise" now put forth his elaborate defense, 
 four years later, of the Missouri restriction, with the rubric or text, 
 in ambitious characters, Maintain Plighted Faith" But, right or 
 wrong, wise or unwise, at the time, as the repeal of that restriction 
 may have seemed, subsequent acts and events have made it both a 
 delusion and a snare. Yes, sir, I confess it. I, who, as a private 
 citizen, was one of its earliest defenders, make open confession of it 
 here to-day. It was this which gave a new and terrible vitality to 
 the languishing element of abolitionism, and which precipitated, at 
 least, a crisis which. I fear, was, nevertheless, sooner or later, inevit 
 able. It is the crisis of which the President elect spoke three 
 years ago. It is, indeed, reached. Would to God it were passed, 
 also, in peace. 
 
 But, sir, whether the leaders of the movement against the repeal 
 of the Missouri restriction were consistent or inconsistent, honest or 
 dishonest, the great mass of the people of the free States were roused, 
 for a time, to the highest indignation by it ; and, inasmuch as the 
 Whig party was just then falling to pieces, wicked, or reckless, or 
 short-sighted men eagerly seized upon this unsettled condition of 
 the public mind, to reorganize the Free Soil party of 1848, under a 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PKESERVED? 75 
 
 new and captivating name, but very nearly upon the principles of the 
 Buffalo platform of that year, thus abandoning the extreme abolition 
 sentiments of the Liberty party, and bringing up the great majority 
 of the Whig party, and not a few of the Democratic party, also, to 
 the Free Soil and non-slavery extension principle ; and by this com 
 promise, forming and consolidating that powerful party, which, for 
 the first time in our history, by a mere sectional plurality in a 
 minority, in fact, by a million of votes has obtained possession of 
 the power and patronage of the central government. Sir, if all this 
 had happened solely by accident, and were likely never to be repeated, 
 portentous as it might be of present evil, it would have caused, and 
 ought to have caused, none of the disasters which have already fol 
 lowed. But the DREAD SECRET once disclosed, that the immense 
 powers and revenues and honors and spoils of this great and mighty 
 Kepublic may be easily won, by a mere sectional majority, upon a 
 popular sectional issue, will never die; and new aggressions and new 
 issues must continually spring from it. This is the philosophy and 
 the justification of the alarm and consternation which have shaken 
 the South from the Potomac to the Gulf. It is the philosophy, and 
 the justification, too, of the amendment of the gentleman from Mas 
 sachusetts, (Mr. Adams,) and of all the other propositions for new 
 adjustments and new guarantees. Sir, the gentleman from New 
 York (Mr. Sedgwick) was right when he said that there never was 
 any great event which did not spring from some adequate cause. 
 The South is afraid of your sectional majority, organized and con 
 solidated upon the abstract principle of hostility to slavery generally, 
 and the practical application of that principle to the exclusion of 
 slavery from all the Territories, and its restriction, by the power of 
 that sectional majority, to where it now exists. And if this be not 
 the fundamental doctrine of the Republican party, I shall be greatly 
 obliged to some gentleman of that party to tell me what its funda 
 mental doctrine is. 
 
 But unjust and oppressive as the South feel their exclusion from 
 the common territories of the State to be, they know well, also, that 
 the propelling power of a great moral and religious principle, as it 
 is regarded in the North, added to the still more enduring, persist 
 ent, and prudent passion of ambition, of thirst for power and place, 
 for the honors and emoluments of such a Government as ours, with 
 its half a million of dependents and expectants, and its eighty mil 
 lions of revenues and disbursements, all, all to be secured by the 
 Aladdin s lamp of a sectional majority, can not be arrested or 
 extinguished by any thing short of the suppression of the power 
 which makes it potent for mischief. And nothing less than this, be 
 assured, will satisfy any considerable number of even the more mod 
 erate of the people of the border slave States, and certainly without 
 it there is not the slightest hope of the return of the States upon 
 the Gulf, and thus of a restoration of the Union as it existed but 
 three months ago. The statesmen and the people of all the.^e States 
 well know, also, that, by the civil law of every country, among 
 individuals, and by the law of nations, as between sovereign and 
 
76 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED ? 
 
 foreign States, the power to aggress, along with the threat and the 
 preparation to aggress, is a good cause why an individual or a State 
 should be required to give some adequate assurance that the power 
 shall not be used to execute the threat; or, otherwise, that the 
 power shall itself be taken away. Apply now, sir, these principles 
 to the case in hand. The North has the power ; that power is in 
 the hands of the Republican party, and already they have resolved 
 to use it for the exclusion of the South from all the Territories. 
 There shall be no more extension of slavery. More than this : the 
 leaders of the party many of them leaders and founders of the old 
 Liberty Guard, the original Abolition party of the North the very 
 men who brought the masses of the Whig party, and many of the 
 Democratic party, from utter indifference and non-intervention years 
 ago upon the question of slavery, up to the point of no more slavery 
 extension, and persuaded them, in spite of the warning voice of 
 Washington, in the very face of the appalling danger of disunion, to 
 unite, for this purpose, in a powerful sectional party, for the first 
 time in the history of the Government these self-same leaders pro 
 claim now, not indeed as present doctrines or purposes of the 
 Republican party, but as solemn abstract truths, as fixed, existing 
 facts, that there is a "higher law" than the Constitution, and an 
 "irrepressible conflict" of principle and interest, between the domi 
 nant and the minority sections of the Union, and that one or the other 
 must conquer in the conflict. Sir, in this contest with ballots, who 
 is it that must conquer the section of the minority, or the section 
 of the majority? 
 
 And now, sir, when sentiments like these are held and proclaimed 
 deliberately, solemnly, repeatedly proclaimed by men, one of 
 whom is now the President elect, and the other the Secretary of State 
 of the incoming Administration, is it at all surprising that the States 
 of the South should be filled with excitement and alarm, or that they 
 should demand, as almost with one voice they have demanded, ade 
 quate and complete guarantees for their rights, and security against 
 aggression? Right or wrong, justifiably or without cause, they have 
 done it ; and I lament to say, that some of these States have even 
 gone so far as to throw off wholly the authority of the Federal 
 Government, and withdraw themselves from the Union. Sir, I will 
 not discuss the right of secession. It is of no possible avail now, 
 either to maintain or to condemn it; yet it is vain to tell me that 
 States can not secede. Seven States have seceded ; they now refuse 
 any longer to recognize the authority of this Government, and already 
 have entered into a new confederacy, and set up a provisional gov 
 ernment of their own. In three months their agents and commis 
 sioners will return from Europe with the recognition of Great Britain 
 and France, and of the other great powers of the continent. Other 
 States at home are preparing to unite with this new confederacy, if 
 you do not grant to them their just and equitable demands. The 
 question is no longer one of mere preservation of the Union. That 
 was the question when we met in this Chamber some two months 
 ago. Unhappily, that day has passed by; and while your "perilous 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 77 
 
 Cominmittee of Thirty-three " debated and deliberated to gain time 
 yes, to gain time for that was the insane and most unstatesmanlike 
 cry in the beginning of the session, star after star shot madly from 
 our political firmament. The question to-day is : How shall we now 
 keep the States we have, and restore those which are lost? Ay, sir, 
 restore, till every wanderer shall have returned, and not one be mis 
 sing from the "starry flock." 
 
 If, then, Mr. Speaker, I have justly and truly stated the causes 
 which have led to those most disastrous results, if, indeed, the con 
 trol of the immense powers, honors, and revenues the spoils of 
 the Federal Government, in a word, if the possession of power, and 
 the temptation to abuse it, be the primary cause of the present dis 
 memberment of the United States, ought not every remedy proposed 
 to reach at once the very seat of the disease? And why, sir, may not 
 the malady be healed? Why can not this controversy be adjusted? 
 Has, indeed, the union of these States received the immedicable 
 wound? I do not believe it. Never was there a political crisis for 
 which wise, courageous, and disinterested statesmen could more 
 speedily devise a remedy. British statesmen would have adjusted it 
 in a few weeks. Twice, certainly, if not three times, in this century, 
 they have healed troubles threatening a dissolution of the monarchy 
 and civil war, and each time healed them by yielding promptly to 
 the necessities which pressed upon them, giving up principles and 
 measures to which they had every way for years been committed. 
 They have learned wisdom from the obstinacy of the king who lost 
 to Great Britain her thirteen colonies; and have been taught, by that 
 memorable lesson, to concede and to compromise in time, and to do 
 it radically; and history has pronounced it statesmanship, not weak 
 ness. In each case, too, they yielded up, not doctrines and a policy 
 which they were seeking for the first time to establish, but the 
 ancient and settled principles, usages, and institutions of the realm ; 
 and they yielded up these to save others yet more essential, and to 
 maintain the integrity of the empire. They did save it, and did 
 maintain it; and, to-day, Great Britain is stronger and more pros 
 perous and more secure than any government on the globe. 
 
 Sir, no man had, for a longer time, or with a more inexorable firm 
 ness, opposed Catholic emanciption than the Duke of Wellington ; 
 yet, when the issue came, at last, between emancipation or civil war, 
 the hero of a hundred battle-fields, the conquerer at Waterloo, the 
 greatest military commander, except Napoleon, of modern times, yes, 
 the IRON DUKE lost not a moment, but yielded to the storm, and him 
 self led the party which carried the great measure of peace and com 
 promise through the very citadel of conservatism the House of Lords. 
 Sir, he sought no middle ground, no half-way measure, confessing 
 weakness, promising something, doing nothing. And in that memor 
 able debate he spoke words of wisdom, moderation, and true courage, 
 which I commend to gentlemen in this House to our Wellington 
 outside of it, and to all others, anywhere, whose parched jaws seem 
 ravenous for blood. He said: 
 
78 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED ? 
 
 " It has been my fortune to have seen much of war more than most men. 
 I have been constantly engaged in the active duties of the military profession 
 from boyhood until I have grown gray. My life has been passed in famil 
 iarity with scenes of death and human suffering. Circumstances have placed 
 me in countries where the war was internal between opposite parties in the 
 same nation ; and, rather than a country I loved should be visited with the 
 calamities which I have seen, with the unutterable horrors of civil war, I 
 would run any risk I would make any sacrifice / would freely lay down my 
 life. There is nothing which destroys property and prosperity, and demoral 
 izes character, to the extent which civil war does. By it, the hand of man 
 is raised against his neighbor, against his brother, and against his father; the 
 servant betrays his master, and the master ruins his servant. Yet this is the 
 resource to which we must have looked these are the means which we must have 
 applied, in order to have put an end to this state of things, if we had not 
 embraced the option of bringing forward the measure for which I hold myself 
 responsible. 1 
 
 Two years later, sir, in a yet more dangerous crisis upon the Reform 
 Bill, which the Commons had rejected, and when civil commotion and 
 discord, if not revolution, were again threatened, and it became neces 
 sary to dissolve the Parliament, and, for that purpose, to secure the 
 consent of a king adverse to the dissolution, the Lord Chancellor of 
 England, one of the most extraordinary men of the age by, perhaps, 
 the boldest and most hazardous experiment ever tried upon royalty 
 surprised the King into consent, assuring him that the further exist 
 ence of the Parliament was incompatible with the peace and safety 
 of the kingdom ; and having, without the royal command, summoned 
 the great officers of State, prepared the crown, the robes, the King s 
 speech, and whatever else was needed, and, at the risk of the penalties 
 of high treason, ordered, also, the attendance of the troops required 
 by the usages of the ceremony, he hurried the King to the Chamber 
 of the House of Lords, where, in the presence of the Commons, the 
 Parliament was dissolved, while each House was still in high debate, 
 and without other notice in advance than the sound of the cannon 
 which announced his majesty s approach. Yet all this was done in 
 the midst of threatened insurrection and rebellion ; when the Duke 
 of Wellington, the Duke of Cumberland, and other noblemen were 
 assaulted in the streets, and their houses broken into and mobbed; 
 when London, itself was threatened with capture, and the dying Sir 
 Walter Scott was hooted and reviled by ruffians at the polls. It was 
 done while the kingdom was one vast mob; while the cry rang through 
 all England, Ireland, and Scotland, that the Bill must be carried 
 through Parliament or over Parliament if possible, by peaceable 
 means if not possible, then by force ; and when the Prime Minister 
 declared, in the House of Commons that, by reason of its defeat, 
 "much blood would be shed in the struggle between the contending 
 parties, and that he was perfectly convinced that the British Consti 
 tution would perish in the conflict." And, sir, when all else failed, 
 the King himself at last gave permission, in writing, to Earl Grey 
 and the Lord Chancellor, to create as many new peers as might be 
 necessary to secure a majority for the Reform Bill in the House of 
 Lords. 
 
 Such, sir, is British statesmanship. They remember, but we have 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 79 
 
 forgotten, the lessons which our fathers taught them. Sir, it will 
 be the opprobrium of American statesmanship forever, that this 
 controversy of ours shall be permitted to end in final and perpetual 
 dismemberment of the Union. 
 
 I propose, now, sir, to consider, briefly, the several propositions 
 before the House looking to .the adjustment of our difficulties by 
 Constitutional amendment, in connection, also, with those which I 
 have myself had the honor to submit. 
 
 Philosophically or logically considered, there are two ways in 
 which the work before us may be effected : the first, by removing the 
 temptation to aggress ; the second, by taking the power away. Now, 
 sir, I am free to confess that I do not see how any amendment of the 
 Constitution can diminish the powers, dignity, or patronage of the 
 Federal Government, consistently with the just distribution of power 
 between the several departments ; or between the States and the 
 General Government, consistently with its necessary strength and 
 efficiency. The evil here, lies rather in the administration than in 
 the organization of the system ; and a large part of it is inherent in 
 the administration of every government. The virtue and intelligence 
 of the people, and the capacity and honesty of their representatives, 
 in every department, must be intrusted with the mitigation and 
 correction of the mischief. The less the legislation of every kind, 
 the smaller the revenues and fewer the disbursements ; the less the 
 Government shall have to do, every way, with debt, credit, moneyed 
 influences, arid jobs, and schemes of every sort, the longer peace can 
 be maintained; and the more the number of the employees and 
 dependents on Government can be reduced, the less will be the 
 patronage arid the%corruption of the system, and the less, therefore, 
 the motive to sacrifice truth and justice, and to overleap the Consti 
 tution to secure the control of it. In other words, the more you 
 diminish temptation, the more you will deliver us from the evil. 
 
 But I pass this point by without further remark, inasmuch as none 
 of the plans of adjustment proposed either here or in the Seriate 
 look to any change of the Constitution in this respect. They all 
 aim every one of them at checking the POWER to aggress ; and, 
 except the amendment of the gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. 
 Adams,) which goes much further than mine in giving a negative 
 upon one subject to every slave State in the Union, they propose to 
 effect their purpose by mere constitutional prohibitions. It is not 
 my purpose, sir, to demand a vote upon the propositions which I 
 have myself submitted. I have not the party position, nor the power 
 behind me, nor with me, nor the age, nor the experience which 
 would justify me in assuming the lead in any great measure of 
 peace and conciliation ; but I believe, and very respectfully I suggest 
 it, that something similar, at least, to these propositions will form a 
 part of any adequate and final adjustment which may restore all the 
 States to the Federal Union. No, sir; I am able now only to fol 
 low where others may lead. 
 
 I shall vote for the amendment of the gentleman from Massachu 
 setts (Mr. Adams) though it does not go far enough because it 
 
80 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 ignores and denies the moral or religious element of the anti-slavery 
 agitation, and thus removes, so far, at least, its most dangerous sting 
 fanaticism and, dealing with the question as one of mere policy 
 and economy, of pure politics alone, proposes a new and most com 
 prehensive guarantee for the peculiar institution of the States of the 
 South. I shall vote, also, for the Crittenden propositions as an 
 experiment, and only as an experiment because they proceed upon 
 the same general idea which marks the Adams amendment ; and 
 whereas, for the sake of peace and the Union, the latter would give 
 a new security to slavery in the States, the former, for the self-same 
 great and paramount object of Union and peace, proposes to give a 
 new security also to slavery in the Territories south of the latitude 
 36 30 . If the Union is worth the price which the gentleman from 
 Massachusetts volunteers to pay to maintain it, is it not richly worth 
 the very small additional price which the Senator from Kentucky 
 demands as the possible condition of preserving it? Sir, it is the 
 old parable of the Roman Sibyl; and to-morrow she will return with 
 fewer volumes, and, it may be, at a higher price. 
 
 I shall vote to try the Crittenden propositions, because, also, I 
 believe that they are perhaps the least which even the more moderate 
 of the slave States would, under any circumstances, be willing to 
 accept ; and because, North, South, and West, the people seem to have 
 taken hold of them, and to demand them of us, as an experiment, at 
 least. I am ready to try, also, if need be, the propositions of the 
 Border State Committee, or of the Peace Congress ; or any other 
 fair, honorable, and reasonable terms of adjustment, which may so 
 much as promise, even, to heal our present troubles, and to restore 
 the Union of these States. Sir, I am ready and willing and anxious 
 to try all things and to do all things "which may become a man," 
 to secure that great object which is nearest to my heart. 
 
 But, judging all of these propositions, nevertheless, by the lights 
 of philosophy and statesmanship, and as I believe they will be 
 regarded by the historian who shall come after us, I find in them 
 all two capital defects, which will, in the end, prove them to be both 
 unsatisfactory to large numbers alike of the people of the free and 
 the slave States, and wholly inadequate to the great purpose of the 
 reconstruction and future preservation of the Union. None of 
 them except that of the gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. 
 Adams,) and his in one particular only proposes to give to the 
 minority section any veto or self-protecting power against those 
 aggressions, the temptation to which, and the danger from which, 
 are the very cause or reason for the demand for any new guarantees 
 at all. They who complain of violated faith in the past, are met 
 only with new promises of good faith for the future ; they who tell 
 you that you have broken the Constitution heretofore, are answered 
 with proposed additions to the Constitution, so that there may be 
 more room for breaches hereafter. The only protection here offered 
 against the aggressive spirit of the majority, is the simple pledge of 
 power that it will not abuse itself, nor aggress, nor usurp, nor 
 amplify itself to attain its ends. You place, in the distance, the 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 81 
 
 highest honors, the largest emoluments, the most glittering of all 
 prizes, and then you propose, as it were, to exact a promise from 
 the race-horse that he will accommodate his speed to the slow-moving 
 pace of the tortoise. Sir, if I meant terms of equality, I would 
 give the tortoise a good ways the start in the race. 
 
 My point of objection, therefore, is that you do not allow to that 
 very minority which, because it is a minority, and because it is afraid 
 of your aggressions, is now about to secede and withdraw itself from 
 your Government, and set up a separate confederacy of its own, you 
 do not allow to it the power of self-protection within the Union. 
 If, Representatives, you are sincere in your protestations that you do 
 not mean to aggress upon the rights of this minority, you deny your 
 selves nothing by these new guarantees. If you do mean to aggress, 
 then this minority has a right to demand self-protection and security. 
 
 But, sir. there remains yet another, and a still stronger objection to 
 these several propositions. Every one of them proposes to recognize, 
 and to embody in the Constitution, that very sort of sectionalism which 
 is the immediate instrumentality of the present dismemberment of 
 these States, and the existence of which is. in my judgment, utterly 
 inconsistent with the peace and stability of the Union. Every one of 
 them recognizes and perpetuates the division line between slave labor 
 and free labor, that self-same geographical line, coinciding with the. 
 marked principle, moral and political" of slavery, which so startled 
 the prophetic ear of Jefferson, and which he foretold, forty years ago, 
 every irritation would mark deeper and deeper, till, at last, it would 
 destroy the Union itself. They, one and all, recognize slavery as an 
 existing and paramount element in the politics of the country, and 
 yet only promise that the non-slaveholding majority section, immensely 
 in the majority, will not aggress upon the rights or trespass upon the 
 interests of the slaveholding minority section, immensely in the 
 minority. Adco senuerunt Jupiter et Mars? 
 
 Sir, just so long as slavery is recognized as an element in politics 
 at all just so long as the dividing line between the slave labor and 
 the free labor States is kept up as the only line, with the disparity 
 between them growing every day greater and greater just so long it 
 will be impossible to keep the peace, and maintain a Federal Union 
 between them. However sufficient any of these plans of adjustment 
 might have been one year ago, or even in December last, when pro 
 posed, and prior to the secession of any of the States, I fear that 
 they will be found utterly inadequate to restore the Union now. I 
 do not believe that, alone, they will avail to bring back the States 
 which have seceded, and, therefore, to withhold the other slave States 
 from ultimate secession ; for, surely, no man fit to be a statesman can 
 fail to foresee that unless the cotton States can be returned to the 
 Union, the border States must and will, sooner or later, follow them 
 out of it.... As between two confederacies the one non-slaveholding, 
 and the other slaveholding all the States of the South must belong 
 to the latter, except, possibly, Maryland and Delaware, and they, of 
 course, could remain with the former only upon the understanding 
 that, just as soon as practicable, slavery should be abolished withia 
 6 
 
82 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 their limits. If fifteen slave States can not protect themselves, and 
 feel secure in a Union with eighteen anti-slavery States, how can eight 
 slave States maintain their position and their rights in a Union with 
 nineteen, or with thirty anti-slavery States? The question, therefore, 
 is not merely, What will keep Virginia in the Union, but also, what 
 will bring Georgia back ? And here let rae say, that I do not doubt 
 that there is a large and powerful Union sentiment still surviving in 
 all the States which have seceded, South Carolina alone, perhaps, 
 excepted ; and that if the people of those States can be assured that 
 that they shall have the power to protect themselves by their own 
 action within the Union, they will gladly return to it, very greatly 
 preferring protection within to security outside of it. Just now, 
 indeed, the fear of danger, and your persistent and obstinate refusal 
 to enable them to guard against it, have delivered the people of those 
 States over into the hands, and under the control, of the real secession 
 ists and disunionists among them ; but give them security, and the 
 means of enforcing it ; above all, dry up this pestilent fountain of 
 slavery agitation, as a political element, in both sections, and, my 
 word for it, the ties of a common ancestry, a common kindred, and 
 common language ; the bonds of a common interest, common danger, 
 and common safety ; the recollections of the past, and of associations 
 not yet dissolved, and the bright hopes of a future to all of us, more 
 glorious and resplendent than any other country ever saw ; ay. sir, 
 and visions, too, of that old flag of the Union, and of the music of 
 the Union, and precious memories of the statesmen and heroes of the 
 dark days of the Revolution, will fill their souls yet again with desires 
 and yearnings intense for the glories, the honors, arid the material 
 benefits, too, of that Union which their fathers and our fathers made ; 
 and they will return to it, not as the prodigal, but with songs and 
 rejoicing, as the Hebrews returned from the captivity to the ancient 
 city of their kings. 
 
 Proceeding, sir, upon the principles which I have already considered, 
 and applying them to the causes which, step by step, have led to our 
 present troubles, I have ventured, with great deference, to submit the 
 propositions which are upon the table of the House. While not 
 inconsistent with any of the other pending plans of adjustment, they 
 are, in my judgment, and again I speak it with becoming, deference, 
 fully adequate to secure that protection from aggression, without which 
 there can be no confidence, and, therefore, no peace and no restoration 
 for the Union. 
 
 There are two maxims, sir, applicable to all constitutional reform, 
 both of which it has been my purpose to follow. In the first place, 
 not to amend more, or further, than is necessary for the mischief to be 
 remedied ; and next, to follow strictly the principles of the Constitution 
 which is to be amended ; and corollary to these, I might add, that in 
 framing amendments, the words and phrases of the Constitution ought, 
 so far as practicable, to be adopted. 
 
 I propose, then, sir, to do as all others in the Senate and the House 
 have done, so far to recognize the existence of sections as a fixed 
 fact, which, lamentable as it is, can no longer be denied or suppressed ; 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 83 
 
 but, for the reasons I have already stated, I propose to established 
 four instead of two grand sections of the Union, all of them well 
 known, or easily designated by marked, natural, or geographical lines 
 and boundaries. I propose four sections instead of two ; because, if 
 two only are recognized, the natural and inevitable division will be 
 into slaveholding and non-slaveholding sections; and it is this very 
 division, either by constitutional enactment, or by common consent, 
 as hitherto, which, in my deliberate judgment and deepest convic 
 tion, it concerns the peace and stability of the Union, should be 
 forever hereafter ignored. Till then, there can not be, and will not 
 be, perfect union and peace between these United States ; because, 
 in the first place, the nature of the question is such that it stirs up, 
 necessarily, as forty years of strife conclusively proves, the strongest 
 and the bitterest passions and antagonism possible among men ; and, 
 in the next place, because the non-slaveholding section has now, and 
 will have to the end, a steadily increasing majority, and enormously 
 disproportioned weight and influence in the Government ; thus com 
 bining that which never can be very long resisted in any Government 
 the temptation and the power to aggress. 
 
 Sir, it was not the mere geographical line which so startled Mr. 
 Jefferson, in 1820 ; but the coincidence of that line with the marked 
 principle, moral and political, of slavery. And now, sir, to remove 
 this very mischief which he predicted, and which has already happened, 
 it is essential that this coincidence should be obliterated ; and the 
 repeated failure, for years past, of all other compromises, based upon 
 a recognition of this coincidence, has proved, beyond doubt, that it can 
 cot be obliterated unless it be by other and conflicting lines of prin 
 ciple and interests. I propose, therefore, to multiply the sections, and 
 thus efface the slave-labor and free-labor division, and, at the same 
 time, and in this manner, to diminish the relative power of each 
 section. And to prevent combinations among these different sections, 
 I propose, also, to allow a vote in the Senate by sections, upon demand 
 of one-third of the Senators of any section, and to require the con 
 currence of a majority of the Senators of each section in the passage 
 of any measure, in which, by the Constitution, it is necessary that the 
 House, and therefore, also, the President, should concur. All this, 
 sir, is perfectly consistent with the principles of the Constitution, as 
 shown in the division of the legislative department into the two 
 Houses of Congress ; the veto power ; the two-thirds vote of both 
 Houses necessary to pass a bill over the veto ; the provisions in 
 regard to the ratification of treaties, and amendments of the Con 
 stitution ; but especially in the equal representation and suffrage of 
 each State in the Senate, whereby the vote of Delaware, with a 
 hundred thousand inhabitants, vetoes the vote of New York, with her 
 population of nearly four millions. If the protection of the smaller 
 States against the possible aggressions of the larger States required, 
 in the judgment of the framers of the Constitution, this peculiar, and 
 apparently inequitable provision, why shall not the protection, by a 
 giniilar power of veto, of the smaller and weaker sections against the 
 aggressions of the larger and stronger sections, not be now allowed, 
 
(H HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 when time and experience have proved the necessity of just such a 
 check upon the majority? Does any one doubt that, if the men who 
 made the Constitution had foreseen that the real danger to the system 
 lay not in aggression by the large upon the small States, but in 
 geographical combinations of the strong sections against the weak, 
 they would have guarded jealously against that mischief, just as they 
 did against the danger to which they mistakenly believed the Gov 
 ernment to be exposed ? And if this protection, sir, be now demanded 
 by the minority as the price of the Union, so just and reasonable a 
 provision ought not for a moment to be denied. Far better this than 
 secession and disruption. This would, indeed, enable the minority to 
 fight for their lights in the Union, instead of breaking it to pieces to 
 secure them outside of it. 
 
 Certainly, sir, it is in the nature of a veto power to each section 
 in the Senate ; but necessity requires it, secession demands it, just as 
 twice in the history of the Roman Commonwealth secession demanded 
 and received the power of the tribunitian veto as the price of a res 
 toration of the Republic. The secession to the Sacred Mount secured, 
 just as a second secession, half a century later, restored, the veto of 
 tribunes of the people, and reinvigorated and preserved the Roman 
 constitution for three hundred years. Vetoes, checks, balances, con 
 current majorities these, sir, are the true conservators of free Gov 
 ernment. 
 
 But it is not in legislation alone that the danger or the temptation 
 to aggress is to be found. Of the tremendous power and influence 
 of the Executive I have already spoken. And, indeed, the present 
 revolutionary movements are the result of the apprehension of exec 
 utive usurpation and encroachments, to the injury of the rights of 
 the South. But for secession because of this apprehended danger, 
 the legislative department would have remained, for the present at 
 least, in other and safer hands. Hence the necessity for equal pro 
 tection and guarantee against sectional combinations and majorities 
 to secure the election of the President, and to control him when 
 elected. I propose, therefore, that a concurrent majority of the 
 electors, or States, or Senators, as the case may require, of each 
 section, shall be necessary to the choice of President and Vice-Pres- 
 ident; and lest, by reason of this increased complexity, there may 
 be a failure of choice oftener than heretofore, I propose also a special 
 election in such case, and an extension of the term, in all cases, to 
 six years. This is the outline of the plan; the details may be learned 
 in full from the joint resolution itself; and I will not detain the 
 House by any further explanation now. 
 
 Sir, the natural and inevitable result of these amendments will be 
 to preclude the possibility of sectional parties and combinations to 
 obtain possession of either the legislative or the executive power and 
 patronage of the Federal Government; and, if not to suppress totally, 
 at least very greatly to diminish the evil results of national caucuses, 
 conventions, and other similar party appliances. It will no longer 
 be possible to elect a President by the votes of a mere dominant and 
 majority section. Sectional issues must cease, as the basis, at least, 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 85 
 
 of large party organizations. Ambition, or lust for power and place, 
 must look no longer to its own section, but to the whole country ; 
 and he who would be President, or in any way the foremost among 
 his countrymen, must consult, henceforth, the combined good, and the 
 good-will, too, of all the sections, and in this way, consistently with 
 the Constitution, can the "general welfare" be best attained. Thus, 
 indeed, will the result be, instead of a narrow, illiberal, and sectional 
 policy, an enlarged patriotism and extended public spirit. 
 
 If it be urged that the plan is too complex, and, therefore, imprac 
 ticable, I answer that that was the objection, in the beginning, to the 
 whole Federal system, and to almost every part of it. It is the 
 argument of the French Republicans against the division of the legis 
 lative department into two Chambers; and it was the argument 
 especially urged at first against the entire plan or idea of the electoral 
 colleges for the choice of a President. But, if complex, I answer 
 again, it will prevent more evil than good. If it suspend some legis 
 lation for a time, I answer, the world is governed too much. If it 
 cause delay, sometimes, in both legislation and the choice of Pres 
 ident, I answer yet again, better, far better this, than disunion and 
 the ten thousand complexities, peaceful and belligerent, which must 
 attend it. Better, infinitely better this, in the Union, than separate 
 confederacies outside of it, with either perpetual war or entangling 
 and complicated alliances, offensive and defensive, from henceforth 
 forever. To the South I say : If you are afraid of free State ag- 
 cresbions by Congress or the Executive, here is abundant protection 
 for even the most timid. To the Republican party of the North 
 tnd West I say : If you really tremble, as, for years past, you would 
 iave had us believe, over that terrible, but somewhat mythical mon 
 ger the SLAVE POWER here, too, is the utmost security for you 
 tgainst the possibility of its aggressions. And, from first to last, 
 allow me to say that, being wholly negative in its provisions, this 
 plan can only prevent evil, and not work any positive evil itself. It 
 is a shield for defense, not a sword for aggression. In one word, 
 let me add that the whole purpose and idea of this plan of adjust 
 ment which I propose, i to give to the several sections inside of the 
 Union that power of self-protection which they are resolved, or will 
 some day or other be resolved, to secure for themselves outside of 
 the Union. 
 
 I propose further, sir, that neither Congress nor a Territorial 
 Legislature shall have power to interfere with the equal right of 
 migration, from all sections, into the Territories of the United States; 
 and that neither shall have power to destroy or impair any rights of 
 either person or property in these Territories ; and, finally, that new 
 States, either when annexed, or when formed out of any of the Ter 
 ritories, with the consent of Congress, shall be admitted into the 
 Union with any constitution, republican in form, which the people 
 of such States may ordain. 
 
 And now, gentlemen of the South, why can not you accept it? 
 The Federal Government has never yet, in any way, aggressed upon 
 your rights. Hitherto, indeed, it has been iu your own, or at least 
 
86 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 in friendly hands. You only fear, being in the minority, that it will 
 aggress, because it has now fallen under the control of those who, 
 you believe, have the temptation, the will, and the power to aggress. 
 But this plan of adjustment proposes to take away the power; and 
 of what avail will the temptation or the will then be, without the 
 power to execute? Both must soon perish. 
 
 And why can not you of the Republican party accept it? There 
 is not a word about slavery in it, from beginning to end I mean in 
 the amendments. It is silent upon the question. South of 36 3(X, 
 and east of the Rio Grande, there is scarce any territory which is 
 not now within the limits of some existing State ; and west of that 
 river and of the Rocky Mountains, as well as north of 36 30 and 
 east of those mountains, though any new State should establish 
 slavery, still her vote would be counted in the Senate and in the 
 electoral colleges with the non-slaveholding section to which she 
 would belong; just as if, within the limits of the South, any State 
 should abolish slavery, or any new State not tolerating slavery should 
 be admitted, the vote of such State would also be cast with the sec 
 tion of the South. However slavery might be extended, as a mere 
 form of civilization or of labor, there could be no extension of it as 
 a mere aggressive political element in the Government. If the South 
 only demand that the Federal Government shall not be used aggres- 
 ively to prohibit the extension of slavery ; if she does not desire 
 to use it herself, upon the other hand, positively to extend the insti 
 tution, then she may well be satisfied; and if you of the Republican 
 party do not really mean to aggress upon slavery where it now exists ; 
 if you are not, in fact, opposed to the admission of any more slave 
 States ; if, indeed, you do not any longer propose to use the powers 
 of the Federal Government positively and aggressively to prohibit 
 slavery in the Territories, but are satisfied to allow it to take its 
 natural course, according to the laws of interest or of climate, then 
 you, too, may well be content with this plan of adjustment, since it 
 does not demand of you, openly and publicly, to deny, abjure, and 
 renounce, in so many words, the more moderate principles and doc 
 trines which you have this session professed. And yet candor obliges 
 me to declare that this plan of settlement, and every other plan, 
 whatsoever, which is of the slightest value even the amendment of 
 the gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. Adams,) is a virtual disso 
 lution of the Republican party as a mere sectional and anti-slavery 
 organization ; and this, too, will, in my judgment, be equally the 
 result, whether we compromise at all, and the Union be thus restored, 
 or whether it be finally and forever dissolved. The people of the 
 North and the West will never trust the destroyers for destroyers, 
 indeed, you will be, if you reject all fair terms of adjustment the 
 destroyers of our Government, and such a Government as this, with 
 the administration and control of any other. You have now the 
 executive department, as the result of the late election. Better, far 
 better, reorganize and nationalize your party, and keep the Govern 
 ment for four years in peace, and with a Union of thirty -four States, 
 than with the shadow and mockery of a broken and disjointed Union 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 87 
 
 of sixteen or nineteen States, ending, at last, in total and hopeless 
 dissolution. 
 
 Having thus, sir. guarded diligently the rights of the several 
 States and sections, and given to each section also the power to pro- 
 tcT t itself, inside of the Union, from aggression, I propose next to 
 limit and to regulate the alleged right of SECESSION, since this, from 
 a dormant abstraction, has now become a practical question of tre 
 mendous import. As long, sir, as secession remained an untried and 
 only menaced experiment, that confidence, without which no Govern 
 ment can be stable or efficient, was not shaken, because it was believed 
 that actual secession would never be tried; or, if tried, that it must 
 .speedily and ingloriously fail. The popular faith, cherished for 
 years, has been that the Union could not be dissolved. To that faith 
 the liepablican party was indebted for its success in the late election; 
 and we who predicted its dissolution were smitten upon the cheek, 
 and condemned to feed upon bread of affliction and water of afflic 
 tion, like the prophet whom Ahab hated. But partial dissolution 
 has already occurred. Secession has been tried, and has proved a 
 .speedy and a terrible success. The practicability of doing it, and 
 the way to do it. have both been established. Sir, the experiment 
 may readily be repeated it will be repeated. And is it not madness 
 and folly, then, to call back, by adjustment, the States which have 
 seceded, or to hold back the States which are threatening to secede, 
 without providing some safeguard against the renewal of this most 
 simple and disastrous experiment? Can foreign nations have any 
 conihlcnce, hereafter, in the stability of a government which may so 
 readily, speedily, and quietly be dissolved? Can we have any confi 
 dence among ourselves? 
 
 If it be said that it would hav6 availed nothing to check secession 
 in the gulf States, even had there been a Constitutional prohibition 
 of it, I answer, perhaps not, if it had been total and absolute for 
 there would have been no alternative but submission or revolution; 
 and, hence, I propose only to define and restrain and to regulate 
 this alleged right. But 1 deny that, if a particular mode of seces 
 sion had been prescribed by the Constitution, and thus every other 
 mode prohibited, it would have been possible to have secured, in any 
 of the seceding States no, not even in South Carolina a majority 
 in favor of separate State secession, or secession in any other way 
 than that provided in the Constitution. No, sir; it was the almost 
 universal belief in the cotton States in the unlimited right of seces 
 siona doctrine recognized by few in the free States, but held to by 
 a great many, if not very generally, all over the slave States which 
 made sO .-.isiijn so easy. It is hard to bring any considerable num 
 ber of the people of the United States suddenly, at least up to 
 the point of a palpable violation of the Constitution; but it is easy, 
 very easy, to draw them into any act which seems to be only the 
 exercise of one right for the purpose of securing and preserving 
 the higher rights of life, liberty, person, and property for a whole 
 Scate or a whole section. Sir, it is because of this very idea or 
 notion among the people of the gulf States, that they were exer- 
 
88 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 cising a right reserved under the Constitution, that secession there, 
 and the establishment of a new confederacy and provisional govern 
 ment, have been marked by so much rapidity, order, arid method 
 all through the ballot-box, and not with the halter, or at the point 
 of the bayonet, over oppressed minorities and, for the most part, 
 with so few of the excesses and irregularities which have character 
 ized the progress of other revolutions. I would not prohibit totally 
 the right of secession, lest violent revolutions should follow ; for 
 where laws and constitutions are to be overleaped, and they who make 
 the revolution avow it to be a revolution, and claim no right except 
 the universal rights of man, such revolutions are commonly violent 
 and bloody within themselves; and, even if not, they can not be 
 resisted by the established authorities except at the cost of civil war ; 
 while, if submitted to in silence, they tend to demoralize all govern 
 ment. It is of vital importance, therefore, every way, in my judg 
 ment, that the exercise of this certainly quasi revolutionary right 
 should be defined, limited, and restrained ; and, accordingly, I pro 
 pose that no State shall secede without the consent of the legislatures 
 of all the States of the section to which the State proposing to secede 
 may belong. This is. obviously, a most reasonable restraint; and 
 yet, of its sufficiency no man can doubt, when he remembers that, in 
 the present crisis of the country, had this provision existed, no State 
 could have obtained the absolute consent, at least, of even one-half 
 of the States of the South. 
 
 Such, Mr. Speaker, is the plan which, with great deference, and 
 yet with great confidence, too, in its efficiency, I would propose for 
 the adjustment of our controversies, and for the restoration and 
 preservation of the Union which our fathers made. Like all human 
 contrivances, certainly, it is imperfect, and subject to objection. But 
 something searching, radical, extreme, going to the very foundations 
 of government, and reaching the scat of the malady, must be done, 
 and that right speedily, while the fracture is yet fresh and reunion 
 is possible. Two months ago, when I last addressed the House, 
 imploring you for immediate action, less, much less, would have 
 sufficed; but we learned no wisdom from the lessons of the past 
 and now, indeed, not poppy, nor mandragora, nor other drowsy syrup 
 is of any value to arrest that revolution, in the midst of which we 
 are to-day a revolution the grandest and the saddest of modern 
 times. 
 
 THE following arc the amendments to the Constitution, proposed 
 by MR. VALLANDIGIIAM, on the 7th of February, 1861, to the sup 
 port of which the foregoing speech is devoted : 
 
 JOINT RESOLUTION. 
 
 WHEREAS the Constitution of the United Stntes is a grant of specific powers 
 delegated to the Federal Government by the people of the several States, nil 
 powers not delegated to it nor prohibited to the States being reserved to the 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 89 
 
 States, respectively, or to the people; and whereas it is the tendency of 
 stronger governments to enlarge tlieir powers and jurisdiction at the expense 
 of weaker governments, and of majorities to usurp and abuse power and 
 oppress minorities, to arrest and hold in check which tendency, compacts and 
 constitutions are made; and whereas the only effectual constitutional security 
 for the rights of minorities whether as people or as states is the power 
 expressly reserved in constitutions, of protecting those rights by their own 
 action; and whereas this mode of protection, by checks -and guarantees , is 
 recognized in the Federal Constitution, as well in the case of the equality 
 of the States in representation and in suffrage in the Senate, as in the provision 
 for overruling the veto of the President and for amending the Constitution, 
 not to enumerate other examples; and whereas, unhappily, because of the vast 
 extent and diversified interests and institutions of the several States of the 
 Union, sectional divisions can no longer be suppressed; and whereas it concerns 
 the peace and stability of the Federal Union and Government, that a division 
 of the Slates into mere slaveholding and non-slavehclding sections, causing, 
 hitherto and from the nature and necessity of the case inflammatory and 
 disastrous controversies, upon the subject of slavery, ending, already, in present 
 disruption of the Union should be forever hereafter ignored; and whereas 
 this important end is best to be obtained by the recognition of other sections 
 without regard to slavery, neither of which sections shall alone be strong 
 enough to oppress or comrol the others, and each be vested with the power to 
 protect itself from aggressions: Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, by the Senate and Iloune of Representatives of the United States of 
 America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses concurring,) That 
 the following articles be, and arc hereby, proposed as amendments to the 
 Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid, to all intents and 
 purposes, as part of said Constitution, when ratified by conventions in three- 
 fourths of the several States: 
 
 ARTICLE XIII. 
 
 SEC. 1. The United States are divided into four sections, as follows: 
 
 The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and all new 
 States annexed and admitted into the Union, or formed or erected within the 
 jurisdiction of any of said States, or by the junction of two or more of tho 
 tame, or of parts thereof, or out of territory acquired north of said States, 
 shall constitute one section, to be known as the NOKTII. 
 
 The States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 
 Iowa, and Kansas, and all new Stales annexed or admitted into the Union, 
 or erected wiihin the jurisdiction of any of said States, or by the junction of 
 two or more of the same, or of parts thereof, or out of territory now held or 
 hereafter acquired north of latitude 30 30 , and east of tho crest of the 
 Rocky Mountains, shall constitute another section, to be known as the WEST. 
 
 Tho Slates of Oregon, and California, and all new States annexed and 
 admitted into the Union, or formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any 
 of said States,, or by the junction of two or more of the same, or of parts 
 thereof, or out of territory now held or hereafter acquired west of the crest 
 of the Rocky Mountains and of the Rio Grande, shall constitute another 
 Eec.tion. to be known as the PACIFIC. 
 
 The States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
 Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, 
 Kentucky, and Missouri, and all new States annexed arid admitted into the 
 Union, or formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any cf said State-, or by 
 the. junction of two or more of the same, or of parts thereof, or out of territory 
 acquired ea>t of the Rio Grande, and south of latitude 30 30 X , shall constitute 
 another section, to be known as the SOUTH. 
 
 SKC. -. On demand of one-third of the Senators of any one of the sections 
 on any bill, order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the House 
 of Representatives may be necessaiy, except on a question of adjournment, a 
 
90 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 vote shall be had by sections, and a majority of the Senators from each 
 section voting, shall be necessary to the passage of such bill, order, or resolu 
 tion, and to the validity of every such vote. 
 
 SEC. 3. Two of the electors for President and Vice-President shall be 
 appointed by each State in such manner as the Legislature thereof may 
 direct, for the State at large. The other electors to which each State may 
 be entitled, shall be chosen in the respective congressional districts into which 
 the State may, at the regular decennial period, have been divided, by the 
 electors of each district, having tbe qualifications requisite for electors of the 
 most numerous branch of the State Legislature. A majority of all the 
 electors in each of the four sections in this article established, shall be 
 necessary to the choice of President and Vice President; and the concurrence 
 of a majority of .the States of each section shall be necessary to the choice of 
 President by the House of Representatives, and of the Senators from each 
 section to the choice of Vice-President by the Senate, whenever the right of 
 choice shall devolve upon them respectively. 
 
 SEC. 4. The President and Vice-President shall hold their office each during 
 the term of six years; and neither shall be eligible to more than one term, 
 except by the votes of two-thirds of all the electors of each section, or of the 
 States of each section, whenever the right of choice of President shall devolve 
 upon the House of Representatives, or of Senators from each section whenever 
 the right of choice of Vice-President shall devolve upon the Senate. 
 
 SEC. 5. The Congress shall, by law, provide for the case of failure by the 
 House of Representatives to choose a President, and of the Senate to choose 
 a Vice-President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them 
 respectively, declaring what officer shall then act as President; and such 
 officer shall act accordingly until a President shall be elected. The Congress 
 shall also provide by law for a special election for President and Vice-Presi 
 dent in such case to be held and completed within six months from the 
 expiration of the term of office of the last preceding President, and to be 
 conducted in all respects as provided for in the Constitution for regular elec 
 tions of the same officer, except that if the House of Representatives shall 
 not choose a President, should the right of choice devolve upon them, within 
 twenty days from the opening of the certificates and counting of the electoral 
 votes, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the 
 death or other constitutional disability of the President. The term of office 
 of the President chosen under such special election shall continue six years 
 from the fourth day of March preceding such election. 
 
 ARTICLE XIV. 
 
 No State shall secede without the consent of the Legislatures of the States 
 of the section to which the State proposing to secede belongs. The President 
 shall have power to adjust with seceding States all questions arising by reason 
 of their secession; but the terms of adjustment shall be submitted to the 
 Congress for their approval before the same shall be valid. 
 
 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 Neither the Congress nor a Territorial Legislature shall have power to 
 interfere with the right of the citizens of any of the States within either of 
 the sections to migrate upon equal terms with the citizens of tbe States within 
 either of the other sections to the Territories of the United States: nor shall 
 either the Congress or a Territorial Legislature have power to destroy or 
 impair any rights of either person or property in the Territories. 
 
 New States annexed for admission into the Union, or formed or erected 
 within the jurisdiction of other States, or by the junction of two or more States, 
 or parts of States; and States formed, with the consent of the Congress, out 
 of anv territory of the United States, shall be entitled to admission upon 
 an equal footing with the original States, under any constitution establishing a 
 government republican in iorin which the people thereof may ordain, when- 
 
HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 91 
 
 ever such States, if formed out of any territory of the United States, shall 
 contain, within an area of not less than sixty thousand square miles, a popu 
 lation equal to the then existing ratio of representation for one member of 
 the House of Representatives. 
 
 A card, from which the following is extracted, was published by 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, in the Cincinnati Enquirer, on the 10th of 
 November, 1860, a few days after the presidential election : 
 
 And, now, let me add that I did say not in Washington, not at 
 a dinner-table, not in the presence of " fire-eaters," but in the city 
 of New York, in a public assembly of Northern men, and in a public- 
 speech at the Cooper Institute, on the 2d of November, 1860 that, 
 " if any one or more of the States of this Union should, at any time, 
 secede for reasons of the sufficiency and justice of which, before 
 God and the great tribunal of history, they alone may judge much 
 as I should deplore it, I never would, as a Representative in the Con 
 gress of the United States, vote one dollar of money whereby one drop 
 of American blood should be shed in a civil war." That sentiment, 
 thus uttered in the presence of thousands of the merchants and solid 
 men of the free and patriotic city of New York, was received with 
 vehement and long-continued applause, the entire vast assemblage rising 
 as one man, and cheering for some minutes. And I now deliberately 
 repeat and reaffirm it, resolved, though I stand alone, though all 
 others yield and fall away, to make it good to the last moment of 
 my public life. No menace, no public clamor, no taunts, nor sneers, 
 nor foul detraction, from any quarter, shall drive me from my firm 
 purpose. Ours is a government of opinion, not of force a Union of 
 free will, not of arms ; and coercion is civil war a war of sections, 
 a war of States, waged by a race compounded and made up of all other 
 races, full of intellect, of courage, of will unconquerable, and, when 
 set on fire by passion, the most belligerent and most ferocious on the 
 globe a civil war, full of horrors, which no imagination qan conceive 
 and no pen portray. If Abraham Lincoln is wise, looking truth and 
 danger full in the face, he will take counsel of the " old men," the 
 moderates of his party, and advise peace, negotiation, concession ; 
 but if, like the foolish son of the wise king, he reject these whole 
 some counsels, and hearken only to the madmen who threaten chas 
 tisement with scorpions, let him see to it, lest it be recorded at last 
 that none remained to serve him "save the house of Ju Iah only/ 
 At least, if he will forget the secession of the Ten Tribes, will he not 
 remember and learn a lesson of wisdom, from the secession of the 
 Thirteen Colonies ? 
 
 In answer to a gross telegraphic misrepresentation of this propo 
 sition, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM explained and defended it, in a card to the 
 Cincinnati Enquirer, dated February 14, 1861, as follows: 
 
92 HOW SHALL THE UNION BE PRESERVED? 
 
 My proposition looks solely to the restoration and maintenance of 
 the Union forever, by suggesting a mode of voting in the United 
 States Senate s\rA the electoral colleges, by which the causes which 
 have led to our present troubles may, in the future, be guarded 
 against without secession and disunion ; and, also, the agitation of the 
 slavery question, as an element in our national politics, be forever here- 
 after arrested. My object the sole motive by which 1 have been 
 guided from the beginning of this most fatal revolution is to MAIN- 
 TAIN THE UNION, and not destroy it. When all possible hope is gone, 
 and the Union irretrievably broken, tlien, but not till then. I will be 
 for a Western confederacy. 
 
 One needs some familiarity with the persevering perversity of the 
 Abolition press, not to feel a little surprised at finding the false 
 statement, contradicted above, continually repeated and reaffirmed, as 
 if made out of some grains of truth, at the first, and never denied. 
 And yet a leading Abolition paper, in Cincinnati, so late as Decem 
 ber 16, 1862, says: 
 
 Mr. Vallandigham, by his propositions for a division of the Republic 
 into four distinct nationalities propositions as infamous in their 
 design as ruinous in their consequences did as much to rouse the 
 people to a sense of their real danger, as the first shots of the insur 
 rectionists at Charleston. 
 
 Referring to this statement, in a communication to the Cincinnati 
 Enquirer, under date of Washington, D. C., December 18, 1862, Mr. 
 VALLANDIGHAM says : 
 
 Now, it is somewhat remarkable, certainly, that after the introduc 
 tion, in February, 1861, of the propositions falsely thus described by 
 that newspaper, it riot only complimented the speech in which Mr. 
 Vallandigham defended them, but actually so far failed to become 
 aroused to a sense of danger, as to repeatedly and earnestly advocate 
 the policy of letting the South go a something that Mr. Vallandig 
 ham has never done, to this day. But let that pass. 
 
 The deliberate and circumstantial repetition, at this time, and in its 
 fullest form, of the misrepresentation of the nature of the propositions 
 which I did introduce, is but another proof of the desperate fortunes 
 of the Abolition party, and particularly of the press which has sup 
 ported it. To the personal assaults of that press, and especially of 
 the paper quoted from, I reply not. Pope and Pagan may now very 
 calmly be allowed to sit at the mouth of the Abolition cave, and 
 gnash their toothless gums at Democratic pilgrims as they pass by. 
 " The effectual check and waning proportions " of this Administra 
 tion, and its despotic and bloody policy, enable us to practice the 
 more cheerfully now. a philosophy which hitherto muy have been 
 somewhat compulsory. But false statements of recorded or historic 
 facts da not come within the rule. 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 93 
 
 Now, Mr. Vallandijjham never proposed to divide " the Republic 
 into four distinct nationalities." So far as any such proposition has 
 been suggested at all, it was by General Scott, who even went BO far 
 as to name the probable capitals of three of those " nationalities." 
 My proposition, on the contrary, was to maintain the existing Union, 
 or u nationality " forever, by dividing or arranging the States into 
 sections within the Union, under the Constitution, for the purpose of 
 voting in the Senate and electoral colleges. 
 
 NUMBER FOUR. 
 
 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 10, 1SG1. 
 
 "After some time be past." 
 
 IF the sober and unerring review of history should demonstrate that 
 the present Administration has, from the first, lent itself to the devel 
 opment and execution of a cunningly devised plot, whose object was 
 to destroy the old Union, constituted by the suffrages of the States, 
 and establish in its place a government under which civil rights would 
 be held and enjoyed only at the pleasure of an absolute, centralized, 
 and irresponsible despotism should history, when it resumes the 
 startling events of these times, and traces those events to their now hid 
 den causes, convict the President, and those with whom and through 
 whom he has been acting, of this great crime against God and their 
 country, it will then be seen with what clear penetration that eminent 
 statesman, to whose counsels we have been listening, described the most 
 secret moving, the first and most cautious unfoldings of that infamous 
 plot. Then, " after some time be past," the stem verdict of history will 
 justify and vindicate the solemn warnings he gave, and it will be 
 recorded that all who heeded those warnings, and rallied to the pro 
 tection and defence of the Temple of Liberty, obeyed the dictates of 
 prudence and wisdom. It has been said, a nation may lose its liberties 
 in a day, and not discover the loss in a hundred years. Should this be 
 the sad doom of our country, which once gloried in calling itself the 
 
94 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 land where civil freedom was most dearly cherished and widely enjoyed, 
 there would still be a few whose names the historian would gather, 
 and of whom record that they knew and noted the hour when liberty 
 withdrew, heard the muffled death-knell, and sounded the alarm 
 through the land. High on that scroll will be written the name of 
 VALLANDIGHAM. 
 
 The speech that follows was delivered soon after the opening of the 
 extra session of Congress, convened on the 4th of July, 1861. No 
 speech was ever delivered in the midst of greater personal danger 
 not even Cicero s defense of Milo. The galleries were filled with an 
 excited soldiery and infuriated partisans threatening assassination. A 
 leading Abolition paper in New York had, two days before, declared 
 that, if an attempt was made to speak for peace, "the aisles of the 
 Hall would run with blood." Arbitrary arrests, for opinion and 
 speech, had already been commenced. Almost without sympathy 
 upon his own side of the House, and with a fierce, insolent, and over 
 whelming majority upon the other side, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, calm 
 and unawed, met every peril, and spoke as firmly, solemnly, and 
 earnestly as under ordinary circumstances. The " motto " prefixed to 
 the speech is from Lord BACON S will, and is significant, interpreted, 
 as it has now been > by the light of two years experience. Some three 
 hundred thousand copies of the speech, in various forms, were pub 
 lished and circulated in the United States. It was published, also, 
 in England and on the Continent. 
 
 The House was in Committee of the Whole, the subject under con 
 sideration, The State of the Union, when Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, obtain 
 ing the floor, said : 
 
 Mr. CHAIRMAN: In the Constitution of the United States, which 
 the other day we swore to support, and by the authority of which we 
 are here assembled now, it is written : 
 
 "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of 
 
 the United States." 
 
 It is further written, also, that the Congress to which all legislative 
 powers granted, are thus committed 
 
 "Shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." 
 
 And, it is yet further written, in protection of Senators and Repre 
 sentatives, in that freedom of debate here, without which there can 
 be no liberty, that 
 
 " For any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in 
 any other place." 
 
 Holding up the shield of the Constitution, and standing here in the 
 place, and with the manhood of a Representative of the people, I 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 95 
 
 propose to myself, to-day, the ancient freedom of speech used "within 
 these walls, though with somewhat more, I trust, of decency and dis 
 cretion than have sometimes been exhibited here. Sir, I do not 
 propose to discuss the direct question of this civil war in which we 
 are engaged. Its present prosecution is a foregone conclusion ; and a 
 wise man never wastes his strength on a fruitless enterprise. My 
 position shall, at present, for the most part, be indicated by my votes, 
 and by the resolutions and motions which I may submit. ?But there 
 are many questions incident to the war and to its prosecution, about 
 which I have somewhat to sny now. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, the President, in the message before us, demands 
 the extraordinary loan of $400.000,000 an amount nearly ten times 
 greater than the entire public debt, State and Federal, at the close of 
 the Revolution, in 1783, and four times as much as the total expendi 
 tures during the three years war with Great Britain, in 1812. 
 
 Sir, that same Constitution which I again hold up, and to which I 
 give my whole heart, and my utmost loyalty, commits to Congress 
 alone the power to borrow money, and to fix the purposes to which it 
 shall be applied, and expressly limits army appropriations to the 
 term of two years. Each Senator and Representative, therefore, must 
 judge for himself, upon his conscience and his oath, and before God 
 and the country, of the justice and wisdom and policy of the Presi 
 dent s demand ; and whenever this House shall have become but a 
 mere office wherein to register the decrees of the Executive, it will 
 be high time to abolish it. But I have a right, I believe, sir, to say 
 that, however, gentlemen upon this side of the Chamber may differ 
 finally as to the war, we are yet firmly and inexorably united in one 
 thing, at least, and that is in the determination that our own rights 
 and dignities and privileges, as the Representatives of the people, 
 shall be maintained in their spirit, and to the very letter. And, be 
 this as it may, I do know that there are some here present who are 
 resolved to assert, and to exercise these rights with becoming decency 
 and moderation, certainly, but, at the same time, fully, freely, and at 
 every hazard. 
 
 Sir, it is an ancient and wise practice of the English Commons, to 
 precede all votes of supplies by an inquiry into abuses and grievances, 
 and especially into any infractions of the Constitution and the laws by 
 the Executive. Let us follow this safe practice. We are now in Com 
 mittee of the Whole on the State of the Union ; and in the exercise 
 of my right and my duty as a Representative, and availing myself of 
 the latitude of debate allowed here, I propose to consider THE PRESENT 
 STATE OF THE UNION, and supply, also, some few of the many omis 
 sions of the President in the message before us. Sir, he has under 
 taken to give us information of die state of the Union, as the 
 Constitution requires him to do ; and it was his duty, as an honest 
 Executive, to make that information full, impartial, and complete, 
 instead of spreading before us a labored and lawyerly vindication of his 
 own course of policy a policy which has precipitated us into a 
 terrible and bloody revolution. He admits the fact; he admits tha, 
 to-day, we are in the midst of a general CIVIL WAII, not now a mere 
 
96 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 petty insurrection, to be suppressed in twenty days by a proclamation 
 and a. posse comitatus of three months militia. 
 
 Sir. it has been the misfortune of the President, from the beginning, 
 that he has totally and wholly under-estimated the magnitude and 
 character of the Revolution with which he had to deal, or surely he 
 aever would have ventured upon the wicked and hazardous experiment 
 of calling thirty millions of people to arms among themselves, with 
 out the counsel and authority of Congress. But when, at last, he 
 found himself hemmed in by the revolution, and this city in danger, 
 as he declares, and waked up thus, as the proclamation of the 15th 
 of April proves him to have waked up, to the reality and significance 
 of the movement, why did he not forthwith assemble Congress, and 
 throw himself upon the wisdom and patriotism of the Representatives 
 of the States and of the people, instead of usurping powers which the 
 Constitution has expressly conferred upon us? Ay, sir, and powers 
 which Congress had but a little while before, repeatedly and emphat 
 ically refused to exercise, or to permit him to exercise? But I shall 
 recur to this point again. 
 
 Sir, the President, in this message, has undertaken also to give us 
 a summary of the causes which have led to the present revolution. 
 lie has made out a case he might, in my judgment, have made out a 
 much stronger case against the secessionists and disunionists of the 
 South. All this, sir, is very well, as far as it goes. But the President 
 does not go back far enough, nor in the right direction. He forgets 
 the still stronger case against the abolitionists and disunionists of the 
 North and West. He omits to tell us that secession and disunion had 
 a New England origin, and began in Massachusetts, in 1804. at the 
 time of the Louisiana purchase ; were revived by the Hartford con 
 vention, in 1814, and culminated, during the war with Great Britain, 
 in sending commissioners to Washington to settle the terms for a 
 peaceable separation of New England from the other States of the 
 Union. He forgets to remind us and the country, that this present 
 revolution began forty years ago, in the vehement, persistent, offensive, 
 most irritating and unprovoked agitation of the SLAVERY QUESTION 
 in the North and West, from the time of the Missouri controversy, 
 with some short intervals, down to the present hour. Sir, if his state 
 ment of the case be the whole truth, and wholly correct, then the 
 Democratic party, and every member of it, and the Whig party, too, 
 and its predecessors, have been guilty, for sixty years, of an unjust, 
 unconstitutional, and most wicked policy in administering the affairs 
 of the Government. 
 
 But, sir, the President ignores totally the violent and long-continued 
 denunciation of slavery and slaveholders, and especially since 1835 
 I appeal to Jackson s message for the date and proof until at last a 
 political anti-slavery organization was formed in the North and West, 
 which continued to gain strength year after year, till, at length, it 
 had destroyed and usurped the place of the Whig party, and finally 
 obtained control of every free State in the Union, and elected himself, 
 througlj free-State votes alone, to the Presidency of the United States. 
 He chooses to pass over the fact that the party to which he thus owes his 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 97 
 
 place and his present power of mischief, is wholly and totally a sec 
 tional organization ; and, as such, condemned by Washington, by Jef 
 ferson, by Jackson, Webster, and Clay, and by all the founders and 
 preservers of the Republic, and utterly inconsistent with the principles, 
 or with the peace, the stability, or the existence even, of our Federal 
 system. Sir, there never was an hour, from the organization of this 
 sectional party, when it was not predicted by the wisest men and truest 
 patriots, and when it ought not to have been known by every intel 
 ligent man in the country, that it must, sooner or later, precipitate a 
 revolution, and the dissolution of the Union. The President forgets 
 already that, on the 4th of March, he declared that the platform of 
 that party was " a law unto him," by which he meant to be governed 
 in his administration; and yet that platform announced that whereas 
 there were two separate and distinct kinds of labor and forms of 
 civilization in the two different sections of the Union, yet that the 
 entire national domain, belonging in common to all the States, should 
 be taken, possessed, and held by one section alone, and consecrated to 
 that kind of labor and form of civilization alone which prevailed in 
 that section which, by mere numerical superiority, had chosen the 
 President, and now has, and for some years past has had, a majority 
 in the Senate* as from the beginning of the Government it had also 
 in the House. He omits, too, to tell the country and the world 
 for he speaks, and we all speak now, to the world, and to posterity 
 that he himself, and his prime minister, the Secretary of State, 
 declared, three years ago, and have maintained ever since, that there 
 was an " irrepressible conflict " between the two sections of this 
 Union ; that the Union could not endure part slave and part free ; 
 and that the whole power and influence of the Federal Government 
 must henceforth be exerted to circumscribe and hem in slavery within 
 ius existing limits. 
 
 And now, sir, how comes it that the President has forgotten to 
 remind us. also, that when the party thus committed to the principle 
 of deadly hate and hostility to the slave institutions of the South, 
 and the men who had proclaimed the doctrine of the irrepressible 
 conflict, and who. in the dilemma or alternative of this conflict, were 
 resolved that Ci the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina, and the 
 sugar plantations of Louisiana, should ultimately be tilled by free 
 labor," had obtained power and place in the common Government of 
 the States, the South, except one State, chose first to demand solemn 
 constitutional guarantees for protection against the abuse of the tre 
 mendous power and patronage and influence of the Federal Govern 
 ment, for the purpose of securing the great end of the sectional 
 conflict, before resorting to secession or revolution at all? Did he 
 not know how could he be ignorant that, at the last session of 
 Congress, every substantive proposition for adjustment and compro 
 mise, except that offered by the gentleman from Illinois, (Mr. Kel 
 logg) and we all know, how it was received came from the South? 
 Stop a moment, and let us see. 
 
 The Committee of Thirty-three was moved for in this House by a 
 gentleman from Virginia, the second day of the session, and received 
 
 7 
 
( J8 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 the vote of every Southern Representative present, except only the 
 members from South Carolina, who declined to vote. In the Senate. 
 the committee of thirteen was proposed by a Senator from Kentucky, 
 (Mr. Powell,) and received the silent acquiescence of every Southern 
 Senator present. The Crittenden propositions, too, were submitted 
 also by another Senator from Kentucky, (Mr. Crittenden.) nov, T a 
 member of this House ; a man, venerable for his years, loved for his 
 virtues, distinguished for his services, honored for his patriotism; for 
 four and forty years a Senator, or in other public office ; devoted from 
 the first hour of his manhood to the Union of these States : and \vho, 
 though he himself proved his courage fifty years ago, upon the battle 
 field against the foreign enemies of his country, is now, thank God, 
 still for compromise at home, to-day. Fortunate in a long and well- 
 spent life of public service and private worth, he is unfortunate only 
 that he has survived a Union, and, I fear, a Constitution, younger 
 than himself. 
 
 The border State propositions, also, were projected by a gentleman 
 from Maryland, not now a member of this House, and presented by 
 a gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. Etheridge,) now the Clerk of this 
 House. And yet all these propositions, coining thus from the South, 
 were severally and repeatedly rejected by the almost united vote 
 of the Republican party in the Senate and the House. The Critten 
 den propositions, with which Mr. Davis, now President of the Con 
 federate States, and Mr. Toombs, his Secretary of State, both declared, 
 in the Senate, that they would be satisfied, and for which every 
 Southern Senator and Representative voted never, on any occasion, 
 received one solitary vote from the Republican party in either House. 
 
 The Adams or Corwin amendment, so-called reported from the 
 Committee of Thirty-three, and the only substantive amendment 
 proposed from the Republican side was but a bare promise that 
 Congress should never be authorized to do what no sane man ever 
 believed Congress would attempt to do abolish slavery in the States 
 where it exists ; and yet, even this proposition, moderate as it was, and 
 for which every Southern member present voted except one was 
 carried through this House by but one majority, after long and 
 tedious delay, and with the utmost difficulty sixty-five Republican 
 members, with the resolute and determined gentleman from Pennsyl 
 vania (Mr. Hickman) at their head, having voted against it and 
 fought against it to the very last. 
 
 And not this, only, but, as a part of the history of the last session, 
 let me remind you that bills were introduced into this House, pro 
 posing to abolish and close up certain Southern ports of entry ; 
 to authorize the President to blockade the Southern coast, and to 
 call out the militia, and accept the services of volunteers not for 
 three years merely but without any limit as to either numbers or 
 time, for the very purpose of enforcing the laws, collecting the revenue, 
 and protecting the public property and were pressed, vehemently and 
 earnestly, in this House, prior to the arrival of the President in this 
 city, and were then though seven States had seceded, and set up a 
 government of their own voted down, postponed, thrust aside, or in 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 99 
 
 <?ome other way disposed of, sometimes by large majorities in this 
 House, till, at last, Congress adjourned without any action at all. 
 Peace, then, seemed to be the policy of all parties. 
 
 Thus, sir, the case stood, at twelve o clock on the 4th of March 
 last, when, from the eastern portico of this capitol, and in the presence 
 of twenty thousand of his countrymen, but enveloped in a cloud of 
 soldiery, which no other American President ever saw, Abraham 
 Lincoln took the oath of office to support the Constitution, and 
 delivered his inaugural a message, I regret to say, not written in 
 the direct and straightforward language which becomes an American 
 President and an American statesman, and which was expected from 
 the plain, blunt, honest man of the North-west but with the forked 
 tongue and crooked counsel of the New York politician, leaving 
 thirty millions of people in doubt whether it meant peace or war. 
 But, whatever may have been the secret purpose and meaning of the 
 inaugural, practically, for six weeks, the policy of peace prevailed; 
 and they were weeks of happiness to the patriot, and prosperity to 
 the country. Business revived ; trade returned ; commerce flourished. 
 Never was there a fairer prospect before any people. Secession in 
 the past, languished, and was spiritless, and harmless; secession in 
 the future, was arrested, and perished. By overwhelming majorities, 
 Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri all 
 declared fur the old Union, and every heart beat high with hope 
 that, in due course of time, and through faith and patience and peace, 
 and by ultimate and adequate compromise, every State would be 
 restored to it. It is true, indeed, sir, that the Republican party, 
 with great unanimity, and great earnestness and determination, had 
 resolved against all conciliation and compromise. But, on the other 
 hand, the whole Democratic party, arid the whole Constitutional- 
 Union party, were equally resolved that there should be no civil war, 
 upon any pretext : and both sides prepared for an appeal to that 
 great and final arbiter of all disputes in a free country the people. 
 
 Sir, I do not propose to inquire, now, whether the President and 
 his Cabinet were sincere and in earnest, and meant, really, to perse 
 vere to the end in the policy of peace ; or whether, from the first, 
 they meant civil war, and only waited to gain time till they were fairly 
 seated in power, and had disposed, too, of that prodigious horde of 
 spoilsmen and office-seekers which came down, at the first, like an 
 avalanche upon them. But I do know that the people believed 
 them sincere, and cordially ratified and approved of the policy of 
 peace not as they subsequently responded to the policy of war, in 
 a whirlwind of passion and madness but calmly and soberly, and as 
 the result of their deliberate and most solemn judgment; and believ 
 ing that civil war was absolute and eternal disunion, while secession 
 was but partial and temporary, they cordially indorsed, also, the pro 
 posed evacuation of Surnter, and the other forts and public property 
 within the seceded States. Nor, sir, will I stop, now, to explore the 
 several causes which either led to a change in the apparent policy, 
 or an early development of the original and real purposes of the 
 Administration. But there are two which I can not pass by. And 
 
100 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 the first of these was PARTY NECESSITY, or the clamor of politician*, 
 and especially of certain wicked, reckless, and unprincipled conductors 
 of a partisan press. The peace policy was crushing out the Repub 
 lican party. Under that policy, sir, it was melting away like snow 
 before the sun. The general elections in Rhode Island and Connect 
 icut, and municipal elections in New York and in the western States, 
 gave abundant evidence that the people were resolved upon the most 
 ample and satisfactory Constitutional guarantees to the South, as the 
 price of a restoration of the Union. And then it was, sir, that the long 
 and agonizing howl of defeated and disappointed politicians came up 
 before the Administration. The newspaper press teemed with appeals 
 and threats to the President. The mails groaned under the weight 
 of letters demanding a change of policy ; while a secret co.ncl.ive of 
 the Governors of Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and other States, 
 assembled here, promised men and money to support the President 
 in the irrepressible conflict which they now invoked. Arid thus it 
 was, sir, that/the necessities of a party in the pangs of dissolution, 
 in the very nour and article of death, demanding vigorous measures, 
 which could result in nothing but civil war, renewed secession, and 
 absolute and eternal disunion were preferred and hearkened to before 
 the peace and harmony and prosperity of the whole country .j 
 
 But there was another and yet stronger impelling cause, "without 
 which this horrid calamity of civil war might have been postponed, 
 and, perhaps, finally averted. One of the last and worst acts of a, 
 Congress which, born in bitterness and nurtured in convulsion, 
 literally did those things which it ought not to have done, and left 
 undone those things which it ought to have done, was the passage of 
 an obscure, ill-considered, ill-digested, and unstatesmanlike high 
 protective tariff act, commonly known as " THE MORRILL TARIFF. 
 Just about the same time, too, the Confederate Congress, at Mont 
 gomery, adopted our old tariff of 1857, which we had rejected to 
 make way for the Morrill act, fixing their rate of duties at five, 
 fifteen, and twenty per cent, lower than ours. The result was as 
 inevitable as the laws of trade are inexorable. Trade and commerce 
 and especially the trade arid commerce of the West began to look 
 to the South. Turned out of their natural course, years ago, by the 
 canals and railroads of Pennsylvania and New York, and diverted 
 eastward at a heavy cost to the West, they threatened now to resume 
 their ancient and accustomed channels the water-courses the Ohio 
 and the Mississippi. And political association and union, it was well 
 known, must soon follow the direction of trade and interest. The 
 city of New York, the great commercial emporium of the Union, 
 and the North-west, the chief granary of the Union began to clamor 
 now, loudly, for a repeal of the pernicious and ruinous tariff. Threat 
 ened thus with the loss of both political power and wealth, or the 
 repeal of the tariff, and, at last, of both, New England and Penn 
 sylvania, too, the land of-Penn, cradled in peace demanded, now, 
 coercion and civil war, with all its horrors, as the price of preserving 
 either from destruction. Ay, sir, Pennsylvania, the great key-stone 
 of the arch of the Union, was willing to lay the whole weight of her 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 101 
 
 iron upon that sacred arch, and crush it beneath the load. The sub 
 jugation of the South ay, sir, the subjugation of the Sou -M I TTB 
 not talking to children or fools ; for there is not a man in this House 
 tit to be a Representative here, who does not know that the South 
 can not be forced to yield obedience to your laws and authority 
 again, until you have conquered and subjugated her the subjugation 
 of the South, and the closing up of her ports first, by force, in war, 
 and afterward, by tariff laws, in peace was deliberately resolved 
 upon by the East. And, sir, when once this policy was begun, these 
 feelf-same motives of waning commerce, and threatened loss of trade, 
 impelled the great city of New York, and her merchants and her 
 politicians and her press with here and there an honorable exception 
 to place herself in the very front rank among the worshipers of 
 Moloch. Much, indeed, of that outburst and uprising in the North, 
 which followed the proclamation of the 15th of April, as well, 
 perhaps, as the proclamation itself, was called forth, not so much by 
 the fall of Sumter an event long anticipated as by the notion 
 that the insurrection," as it was called, might be crushed out in a 
 ; ew weeks, if not by the display, certainly, at least, by the presence 
 of an overwhelming force. 
 
 These, sir, were the chief causes which, along with others, led to 
 a change in the policy of the Administration, and, instead of peace, 
 forced us, headlong, into civil war, with all its accumulated horrors. 
 
 But, whatever may have been the causes or the motives of the 
 act, it is certain that there was a change in the policy which the 
 Administration meant to adopt, or which, at least, they led the 
 country to believe they intended to pursue. I will not venture, now, 
 to assert, what may yet, some day, be made to appear, that the 
 subsequent acts of the Administration, and its enormous and persist 
 ent infractions of the Constitution, its high-handed usurpations of 
 power, formed any part of a deliberate conspiracy to overthrow the 
 present form of Federal-republican government, and to establish a 
 strong centralized Government in its stead. No, sir ; whatever their 
 purposes now, I rather think that, in the beginning, they rushed, 
 heedlessly and headlong into the gulf, believing that, as the seat of 
 war was then far distant and difficult of access, the display of vigor in 
 re-enforcing Sumter and Pickens, and in calling out seventy-five 
 thousand militia, upon the firing of the first gun, arid above all, in that 
 exceedingly happy and original conceit of commanding the insurgent 
 States to u disperse in twenty days," would not, on the one hand, 
 precipitate a crisis, while, upon the other, it would satisfy its own 
 violent partisans, and thus revive and restore the falling fortunes of 
 the Republican party. 
 
 I can hardly conceive, sir, that the President and his advisers 
 could be guilty of the exceeding folly of expecting to carry on a 
 general civil war by a mere posse comitatus of three-months militia. 
 It may be, indeed, that, with wicked and most desperate cunning, the 
 President meant all this as a mere entermg-wedge to that which was 
 to rive the oak asunder ; or, possiblv, as a test, to learn the public 
 sentiment of the North and West. But however that may be, the 
 
.102 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 rapid secession an.d movements of Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, 
 and Tennessee, taking with them, as I have said, elsewhere, four 
 millions and a half of people, immense wealth, inexhaustible resources. 
 five hundred thousand fighting men, and the graves of Washington and 
 Jackson, and bringing up, too, in one single day, the frontier from 
 the Gulf to the Ohio and the Potomac, together with the abandon 
 ment, by the one side, and the occupation, by the other, of Harper s 
 Ferry and the Norfolk navy -yard ; and the fierce gust and whirlwind 
 of passion in the North, compelled either a sudden waking-up of the 
 President and his advisers to the frightful significancy of the act 
 which they had committed, in heedlessly breaking the vase which 
 imprisoned the slumbering demon of civil war, or else a premature 
 but most rapid development of the daring plot to foster and promote 
 secession, and then to set up a new and strong form of government 
 in the States which might remain in the Union. 
 
 But, whatever may have been the purpose, I assert here, to-day, as 
 a Ptepresentative, that every principal act of the Administration since 
 has been a glaring usurpation of power, and a palpable arid dangerous 
 violation of that very Constitution which this civil war is professedly 
 waged to support. Sir, I pass by the proclamation of the 15th of 
 April, summoning the militia not to defend this capital there is 
 not a word about the capital in the proclamation, and there was then 
 no possible danger to it from any quarter, but to retake and occupy 
 forts and property a thousand miles off summoning, I say, the 
 militia to suppress the so-called insurrection. I do not believe, 
 indeed, and no man believed in February last, when Mr. Stanton, of 
 Ohio, introduced his bill to enlarge the act of 1785, that that act 
 ever contemplated the case of a general revolution, and of resistance 
 by an organized government. But no matter. The militia thus 
 called out, with a shadow, at least, of authority, and for a period 
 extending one month beyond the assembling of Congress, were amply 
 sufficient to protect the capital against any force which was then 
 likely to be sent against it and the event has proved it and 
 ample enough, also, to suppress the outbreak in Maryland. Every 
 other principal act of the Adminstration might well have been post 
 poned, and ought to have been postponed, until the meeting of Con 
 gress ; or, if the exigencies of the occasion demanded it, Congress 
 should forthwith have been assembled. What if two or three States 
 should not have been represented, although even this need not have 
 happened ; but better this, a thousand times, than that the Constitu 
 tion should be repeatedly and flagrantly violated, and public liberty 
 and private right trampled under foot. As for Harper s F^ry and 
 the Norfolk navy-yard, they rather needed protection against the 
 Administration, by whose orders millions of property were wantonly 
 destroyed, which was not in the slightest danger from any quarter, at 
 , - ;,~\the date of the proclamation. 
 
 But, sir, Congress was not assembled at once, as Congress should 
 
 have been, and the great question of civil war submitted to their 
 
 ^deliberations. The Representatives of the States and of the people 
 
 , K.f were not allowed the slightest voice in this, the most momentous 
 
 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 103 
 
 question ever presented to any government. The entire responsibility 
 of the whole work was boldly assumed by the Executive, and all the 
 powers required for the purposes in hand were boldly usurped from 
 either the States or the people, or from the legislative department; 
 while the voice of the judiciary, that last refuge and hope of liberty, 
 was turned away from with contempt. 
 
 Sir, the right of blockade and I begin with it is a belligerent \ 
 right, incident to a state of war, and it can not be exercised until war 
 lias been declared or recognized ; and Congress alone can declare or 
 recognize war. But Congress had not declared or recognized war. 
 ()\\ the contrary, they had, but a little while before, expressly refused 
 to de-lure it, or to arm the President with the power to make it. 
 And thi!;-, tk3 President, in declaring a blockade of certain ports in 
 the States of the South, and in applying to it the rules governing 
 blockades as between independent powers, violated the Constitution. 
 
 But if, on the other hand, he meant to deal with these States as still 
 in the Union, and subject to Federal authority, then he usurped a 
 power which belongs to Congress alone the power to abolish and 
 close up ports of entry; a power, too, which Congress had, also, but a 
 few weeks before, refused to exercise. And yet, without the repeal 
 or abolition of ports of entry, any attempt, by either Congress or the 
 President, to blockade these ports, is a violation of the spirit, if not 
 of the letter, of that clause of the Constitution which declares that 
 no prei orence shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or 
 revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another." 
 
 Si/, upon this point I do not speak without the highest authority. 
 In the very midst of the South Carolina nullification controversy, it 
 was suggested, that in the recess of Congress, and without a law to 
 govern him, the President. Andrew Jackson, meant to send down a 
 iieet to Charleston and blockade the port. But the bare suggestion 
 called forth the indignant protest of Daniel Webster, himself the arcli 
 enemy of nullification, and" whose brightest laurels were won in the 
 three years conflict in the Senate Chamber, with its ablest champions. 
 In an address, in October, 1832, at Worcester, Massachusetts, to a 
 National Republican convention it was before the birth, or christen 
 ing, at least, of the Whig party the great expounder of the Consti 
 tution, said : 
 
 "We are told, sir. that the President will immediately employ the military 
 force, and at once blockade Charleston. A military remedy a remedy by 
 direct belligerent operation, has thus been suggested, and nothing else has been 
 suggested, as the intended means of preserving the Union. Sir, there is no 
 little reason to think that this suggestion is true. Yv e can not be altogether 
 unmindful of the past, and, therefore, we can not be altogether unapprehen 
 sive for the future. For une. sir, 1 raise my voice, beforehand, against the 
 unauthorized employment of military power, and against superseding the 
 authority of the laws, by an armed force, under pretense of putting down nul 
 lification. The President has no authority to blockade Charleston? 
 
 Jackson ! Jackson, sir ! the great Jackson ! did not dare to do it 
 without authority of Congress; but our Jackson of to-day, the little 
 Jackson at tho other end of the avenue, and the mimic Jaeksons 
 around him, do blockade, not only Charleston habor, but the whole 
 
104 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 Southern coast, three thousand miles in extent, by a single stroke of 
 the pen. 
 
 "The President has no authority to employ military force till he shall be 
 duly required" 
 
 Mark the word : 
 
 "required so to do by law and the civil authorities. His duty is to cause the 
 laws to be executed. His duty is to support the civil authority" 
 
 As in the Merry man case, forsooth ; but I shall recur to that here 
 after: 
 
 "His duty is, if the laws be resisted, to employ the military force of tho 
 country, if necessary, for their support and execution ; bid t<> do all this in com 
 pliance only with law and with decisions of the tribunal*. If, by any ingenious 
 devices, those who resist the laws escape from the reach of judicial authority, 
 as it is now provided to be exercised, it is entirely competent to Congress to 
 make such new provisions as the exigency of the case may demand/ 
 
 Treason, sir, rank treason, all this to-day. Arid, yet, thirty years 
 ago, it was true Union patriotism and sound constitutional law ! Sir, 
 I prefer the wisdom and stern fidelity to principle of" he fathers. 
 
 Such was the voice of Webster, and such too, let me add, the voice, 
 in his last great speech in the Senate, of the Douglas whose death 
 the land now mourns, 
 
 Next after the blockade, sir, in the catalogue of daring executive 
 usurpations, comes the proclamation of the 3d of May, and the orders 
 of the War and Navy Departments in pursuance of it a proclamation 
 and usurpation which would have cost any English sovereign his head 
 at any time within the last two hundred years. Sir. the Constitution 
 not only confines to Congress the right to declare war, but expressly 
 provides that " Congress (not the President) shall have power to 
 raise and support armies;" and to "provide and maintain a navy/ 
 In pursuance of this authority, Congress, years ago, had fixed the 
 number of officers, and of the regiments, of the different kinds of serv 
 ice; and also, the number of ships, oliiccrs, marines, and seamen which 
 tihould compose the navy. Not only that, but Congress has repeat 
 edly, within the last five years, refused to increase the regular army. 
 More than that still : in February and March last, the House, upon 
 several test votes, repeatedly and expressly refused to authorize the 
 President to accept the service of volunteers for the very purpose of 
 protecting the public property, enforcing the laws, and collecting the 
 / revenue. And, yet, the President, of his own mere will and author 
 ity, and without the shadow of right, has proceeded to increase, and 
 has increased, the standing army by twenty-five thousand men ; the 
 navy by eighteen thousand; and has called for, and accepted the serv 
 ices of, forty regiments of volunteers for three years, numbering 
 forty-two thousand men, and making thus a grand army, or military 
 force, raised by executive proclamation alone, without the sanction of 
 Congress, without warrant of law, and in direct violation of the Con 
 stitution, and of his oath of oifice, of eighty-five thousand soldiers 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 105 
 
 enlisted for three and five years, and already in the field. And, yet, 
 the President now asks us to support the army which he has thus 
 raised, to ratify his usurpations by a law ex post facto, and thus to 
 make ourselves parties to our own degradation, and to his infractions 
 of the Constitution. Meanwhile, however, he has taken good care 
 not only to enlist the men, organize the regiments, and muster them 
 into service, but to provide, in advance, for a horde of forlorn, worn-out, 
 and broken-down politicians of his own party, by appointing, either 
 by himself, or through the Governois of the States, major-generals, 
 brigadier-generals, colonels, lieutenant-colonels, majors, captains, 
 lieutenants, adjutants, quarter-masters, and surgeons, without any 
 limit as to numbers, and without so much as once saying to Congress, 
 " By your leave, gentlemen." 
 
 Beginning with this wide breach of the Constitution, this enormous 
 usurpation of the most dangerous of all powers the power of the 
 sword other infractions and assumptions were easy; and after public 
 liberty, private right soon fell. The privacy of the telegraph was^" 
 invaded in the search after treason and traitors ; although it turns^^ -v, 
 out, significantly enough, that the only victim, so far, is one of the ; *v % 
 appointees and especial pets of the Administration. The telegraphic , 
 dispatches, preserved under every pledge of secrecy for the protec 
 tion and safety of the telegraph companies, were seized and carried 
 away without search-warrant, without probable cause, without oath, 
 and without description of the places to be searched, or of the 
 things to be seized, and in plain violation of the right of the people 
 to be secure in their houses, persons, papers, and effects, against 
 unreasonable searches arid seizures. One step more, sir, will bring 
 upon us search and seizure of the public mails ; and, finally, as in 
 the worst days of English oppression as in the times of the Russells 
 and the Sydrieys of English martyrdom of the drawers and secre 
 taries of the private citizen ; though even then tyrants had the grace 
 to look to the forms of the law, and the execution was judicial mur 
 der, not military slaughter. But who shall say that the future Ti 
 berius of America shall have the modesty of his Roman predecessor, 
 in extenuation of whose character it is written by the great historian, 
 avertit occulos, jussitque scelcra non spec.Lavlt. 
 
 Sir, the rights of property having been thus wantonly violated, it 
 needed but a little stretch of usurpation to invade the sanctity of the ; 
 person ; and a victim was not long wanting. A private citizen of 
 Maryland, not subject to the rules and articles of war not in a case 
 arising in the land or naval forces, nor in the militia, when in actual 
 service is seized in his own house, in the dead hour of night, not 
 by any civil officer, nor upon any civil process, but by a band of 
 armed soldiers, under the verbal orders of a military chief, and is 
 ruthlessly torn from his wife and his children, and hurried off to a 
 fortress of the United States and that fortress, as if in mockery, the 
 very one over whose ramparts had floated that star-spangled banner 
 immortalized in song by the patriot prisoner, who, 
 
 t; By the dawn s early light, 1 
 
106 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 saw its folds gleaming amid the wreck of battle, and invoked the 
 blessings of heaven upon it, and prayed that it might long wave 
 
 "O er the land of the free, and the home :>f the brave." 
 
 And, sir, when the highest judicial officer of the land, the Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court, upon whose shoulders, " when the judi 
 cial ermine fell, it touched nothing not as spotless as itself/ the aged, 
 the venerable, the gentle, and pure-minded Taney, who, but a little 
 while before, had administered to the President the oath to support 
 the Constitution, and to execute the laws, issued, as by law it was 
 his sworn duty to issue, the high prerogative writ of habeas corpus 
 that great writ of right, that main bulwark of personal liberty, com 
 manding the body of the accused to be brought before him, that 
 justice and right might be done by due course of law, and without 
 denial or delay, the gates of the fortress, its cannon turned towards, 
 and in plain sight of the city, where the court sat, and frowning 
 from the ramparts, were closed against the officer of the law, and the 
 answer returned that the officer in command has, by the authority of 
 the President, suspended the writ of habeas corpus. And thus it is, 
 sir, that the accused has ever since been held a prisoner without due 
 process of law; without bail; without presentment by a grand jury; 
 without speedjr, or public trial by a petit jury, of his own State or 
 district, or any trial at all ; without information of the nature and 
 cause of the accusation; without being confronted with the witnesses 
 against him ; without compulsory process to obtain "witnesses in his 
 favor; and without the assistance of counsel for his defense. And 
 this is our boasted American liberty ? And thus it is, too, sir, that 
 here, here, in America, in the seventy-third year of the Republic, 
 that great writ and security of personal freedom, which it cost the 
 patriots and freemen of Englar^l six hundred years of labor arid toil 
 and blood to extort and to hold fast from venal judges and tyrant 
 kings; written in the great charter at llunnymede by the iron barons, 
 who made the simple Latin and uncouth words of the times, nullus 
 liber homo, in the language of Chatham, worth all the classics; 
 recovered and confirmed a hundred times afterward, as often as 
 violated and stolen away, and finally, and firmly secured at last by 
 the great act of Charles IT, and transferred thence to our own Con 
 stitution and laws, has been wantonly and ruthlessly trampled in the 
 dust. Ay, sir, that great writ, bearing, by a special command of 
 Parliament, those other uncouth, but magic words, per statutum tri- 
 cessimo primo Caroli secundi regis, which no English judge, no 
 English minister, no king or queen of England, dare disobey; that 
 writ, brought over by our fathers, and cherished by them, as a price 
 less inheritance of liberty, an American President has contemptuously 
 set at defiance. Nay, more, he has ordered his subordinate military 
 chiefs to suspend it at their discretion ! And, yet, after all this, he 
 coolly comes before this House and the Senate and the country, and 
 pleads that he is only preserving and protecting the Constitution ; 
 and demands and expects of this House and of the Senate and the 
 country their thanks for his usurpations ; while, outside of this 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 107 
 
 eapitol, his myrmidons are clamoring for impeachment of the Chief 
 Justice, as engaged in a conspiracy to break down the Federal Gov 
 ernment. 
 
 Sir, however much necessity the tyrant s plea may be urged in 
 extenuation of the usurpations and infractions of the President in 
 regard to public liberty, there can be no such apology or defense 
 for his invasions of private right. What overruling necessity required 
 the violation of the sanctity of private property and private confi 
 dence ? What great public danger demanded the arrest and impris 
 onment, without trial by common law, of one single private citizen, 
 for an act done weeks before, openly, and by authority of his State? 
 If guilty of treason, was not the judicial power ample enough and 
 strong enough for his conviction and punishment? What, then, was 
 needed in his case, but the precedent under which other men, in other 
 places, might become the victims of executive suspicion and dis 
 pleasure ? 
 
 As to the pretense, sir, that the President has the Constitutional 
 right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, I will not waste time in 
 arguing it. The case is as plain as words can make it. It is a legis 
 lative power; it is found only in the legislative article; it belongs 
 to Congress only to do it. Subordinate officers have disobeyed it; 
 General Wilkinson disobeyed it, but he sent his prisoners on for 
 judicial trial ; General Jackson disobeyed it, and was reprimanded 
 by James Madison ; but no President, nobody but Congress, ever 
 before assumed the right to suspend it. And, sir, that other pre 
 tense of necessity. I repeat, can riot be allowed. It had no existence 
 in fact. The Constitution can not be preserved by violating it. It 
 is an offense to the intelligence of this House, and of the country, 
 to pretend that all this, and the other gross and multiplied infrac 
 tions of the Constitution and usurpations of power were done by the 
 President and his advisers out of pure love and devotion to the Con 
 stitution. But if so. sir, then they have but one step further to take, 
 and declare, in the language of Sir Boyle Roche, in the Irish House 
 of Commons, that such is the depth of their attachment to it, that 
 they are prepared to give up, not merely a part, but the whole of the 
 Constitution, to preserve the remainder. And yet, if indeed this pre 
 text of necessity be well founded, then let me say, that a cause which 
 demands the sacrifice of the Constitution and of the dearest securi 
 ties of property, liberty, and life, can not be just; at least, it is not 
 worth the sacrifice. 
 
 Sir, I am obliged to pass by, for want of time, other grave and 
 dangerous infractions and usurpations of the President since the 4th 
 of March. I only allude casually to the quartering of soldiers in 
 private houses without the consent of the owners, and without any 
 manner having been prescribed by law; to the subversion in a part, at 
 least, of Maryland of her own State Government and of the authorities 
 under it ; to the censorship over the telegraph, and the infringement, 
 repeatedly, in one or more of the States, of the right of the people 
 to keep and to bear arms for their defense. But if all these things, 
 I ask, have been done in the first two months after the commence- 
 
108 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 
 
 ment of this war, and by men not military chieftains, and unused to 
 arbitrary power, what may we not expect to see in three years, and 
 by the successful heroes of the fight? Sir, the power arid rights of 
 the States and the people, and of their Representatives, have been 
 usurped ; the sanctity of the private house arid of private property 
 has been invaded; and the liberty of the person wantonly and wick 
 edly stricken down ; free speech, too, has been repeatedly denied ; 
 and all this under the plea of necessity. Sir, the right of petition 
 will follow next-r nay, it has already been shaken ; the freedom of 
 the press will soon fall after it ; and let me whisper in your ear, that 
 there will be few to mourn over its loss, unless, indeed, its ancient 
 high and honorable character shall be rescued and redeemed from its 
 present reckless mendacity and degradation. Freedom of religion 
 will yield too, at last, amid the exultant shouts of millions, who have 
 seen its holy temples defiled, and its white robes of a former inno- 
 cency trampled now under the polluting hoofs of an ambitious and 
 faithless or fanatical clergy. Meantime national banks, bankrupt 
 laws, a vast and permanent public debt, high tariffs, heavy direct 
 taxation, enormous expenditure, gigantic and stupendous peculation, 
 anarchy first, and a strong government afterward no more State 
 lines, no more State governments, and a consolidated monarchy or 
 vast centralized military despotism must all follow in the history of 
 the future, as in the history of the past they have, centuries ago, 
 been written. Sir, I have said nothing, and have time to say noth 
 ing now, of the immense indebtedness and the vast expenditures 
 which have already accrued, nor of the folly and mismanagement of 
 the war so far, nor of the atrocious and shameless peculations and 
 frauds which have disgraced it in the State governments and the 
 Federal Government from the beginning. The avenging hoar for all 
 these will come hereafter, and I pass them by now. 
 
 I have finished now, Mr. Chairman, what I proposed to say at this 
 time upon the message of the President. As to my own position 
 in regard to this most unhappy civil war, I have only to say that I 
 stand to-day just where I stood upon the 4th of March last; whero 
 the whole Democratic party, and the whole Constitutional Union 
 party, and a vast majority, as I believe, of the people of the United 
 States stood too. /I am for peace, speedy, immediate, honorable 
 PEACE, with all its blessings^/ Others may have changed I hav^ 
 not. I question not their motives nor quarrel with their course. It 
 is vain and futile for them to question or to quarrel with mine. My 
 duty shall be discharged calmly, firmly, quietly, and regardless of 
 consequences. The approving voice of a conscience void of offense, 
 and the approving judgment which shall follow "after some time be 
 past," these, God help me, are my trust and my support. 
 
 Sir, I have spoken freely and fearlessly to-day, as became an 
 American Representative and an American citizen; one firmly 
 resolved, come what may, not to lose his own Constitutional liber 
 ties, nor to surrender his own Constitutional rights in the vain effort 
 to impose these rights arid liberties upon ten millions of unwilling 
 people. I have spoken earnestly, too, but yet riot as one unmindful 
 
EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 109 
 
 of the solemnity of the scenes which surround us upon every side 
 to-day. Sir, when the Congress of the United States assembled here 
 on the 3d of December, 1860, just seven months ago, the Senate was 
 composed of sixty-six Senators, representing the thirty-three States 
 of the Union, and this House of two hundred and thirty-seven mem 
 bers every State being present. It was a grand and solemn spec 
 tacle the embassadors of three and thirty sovereignties and thirty - 
 one millions of people, the mightiest republic on earth, in general 
 Congress assembled. In the Senate, too, and this House, were some 
 of the ablest and most distinguished statesmen of the country ; men 
 whose names were familiar to the whole country some of them des 
 tined to pass into history. The new wings of the capitol had then 
 but just recently been finished, in all their gorgeous magnificence, 
 and, except a hundred marines at the navy-yard, not a soldier was 
 within forty miles of Washington. 
 
 Sir, the Congress of the United States meets here again to-day ; 
 but how changed the scene ! Instead of thirty-four States, twenty- 
 three only, one less than the number forty years ago, are here, or 
 in the other wing of the capitol. Forty-six Senators and a hund 
 red and seventy-three Representatives constitute the Congress of 
 the now United States. And of these, eight Senators and twenty - 
 four Representatives, from four States only, linger here yet as 
 deputies from that great South which, from the beginning of the 
 Government, contributed so much to mold its policy, to build up its 
 greatness, and to control its destinies. All the other States of that 
 South are gone. Twenty-two Senators and sixty-five Representatives 
 no longer answer to their names. The vacant seats are, indeed, still 
 here; and the escutcheons of their respective States look down now 
 solemnly and sadly from these vaulted ceilings. But the Virginia 
 of Washington and Henry and Madison, of Marshall and Jefferson, 
 of Randolph and Monroe, the birthplace of Clay, the mother of 
 States and of Presidents; the Carolinas of Pinckney and Sumter and 
 Marion, of Calhoun and Macon ; and Tennessee, the home and burial- 
 place of Jackson; and other States, too, once most loyal and true, 
 are no longer here. The voices and the footsteps of the great dead 
 of the past two ages of the Republic linger still it may be in echo 
 along the stately corridors of this capitol; but their descendants, 
 from nearly one-half of the States of the Republic, will meet with 
 us no more within these marble halls. But in the parks and lawns, 
 and upon the broad avenues of this spacious city, seventy thousand 
 soldiers have supplied their places ; and the morning drum-beat from a 
 score of encampments, within sight of this beleaguered capitol, give 
 melancholy warning to the Representatives of the States and of the 
 people, that AMID ARMS LAWS ARK SILENT. 
 
 Sir, some years hence I would fain hope some months hence, if 
 1 dare the present generation will demand to know the cause of all 
 this ; and, some ages hereafter, the grand arid impartial tribunal of 
 history will make solemn and diligent inquest of the authors of thia 
 terrible revolution. 
 
110 CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 
 
 ADDENDUM. 
 
 IN reply to a question by Mr. HOLM AN, of Indiana, in regard to 
 supporting the Government, Mr. YALLANDIGHAM said lie would 
 answer in the words of the following resolution, which he had pre 
 pared, and proposed to offer at a future time : 
 
 Resolved, That the Federal Government is the agent of the people 
 of the several States composing the Union ; that it consists of three 
 distinct departments the legislative, the executive, and the judicial 
 each equally a part of the Government, and equally entitled to the 
 confidence and support of the States and the people; and that it is 
 the duty of every patriot to sustain the several departments of the 
 Government in the exercise of all the Constitutional powers of each 
 which may be necessary and proper for the preservation of the Gov 
 ernment in its principles and in its vigor and integrity, and to stand 
 by and defend to the utmost the flag which represents the Govern 
 ment, the Union, and the country. 
 
 NUMBER FIVE. 
 
 CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 
 
 IT would not be easy to find a fair and honest Democrat who has 
 not been denounced as a secessionist by the Abolition press. These 
 denunciations have been more bitter and malignant, and involved a 
 larger use of destructive epithets, in proportion to the power, influ 
 ence, and consistency of the men against whom they have been 
 directed. In Mr. VALLANDIGHAM S case, the whole vocabulary of 
 Abolition Billingsgate has been brought into requisition. Of this 
 arch-traitor," "Southern sympathizer," "secessionist," the worst 
 things that could be said by preachers, lecturers, and presses, gave 
 but feeble expression to the intense and malignant hatred cherished 
 against him. Those men who have been screeching for the Union, 
 while plotting its destruction, have found Mr. YALLANDIGHAM always 
 in their way. The piteous howlings of the Abolition demon have not 
 been without provocation ; for, in whatever direction that old devil 
 would lay his course, he would be sure to find Mr. YALLANDIGHAM 
 
CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. Ill 
 
 across his path. And no one has oftener dealt the old monster a 
 square blow in the eye. But the demon has a wide circle pf friends, 
 among vrhom his sufferings have excited the deepest sympathy and 
 C onnniseration. 
 
 Upon. Congress there has been a strong outside pressure against 
 Mr. YALLAXDIGHAM, and, on the part of many members of that 
 body, a great willingness to yield to that pressure. There has even 
 been an intense arid watchful anxiety to find something that would 
 serve as a plausible excuse for making a hostile descent upon the 
 special object of Abolition hatred. And yet here is a most import 
 ant and significant fact no successful attempt to impeach, or even 
 cast reproach upon, his loyalty, has ever been made. The efforts in 
 that direction, made seven times in Congress, have not even attained 
 to the dignity of decent failures, and have only been a mortifying 
 and disgraceful reproach to the parties through whom they have been 
 made. 
 
 When, on the 7th of January, 1862, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM de 
 nounced, in strong terms, the surrender of Mason and Slidell, under 
 a threat, he was assailed, personally, as to his war record, by JOHN 
 IlrToniNS, of Ohio, the successor of JOSHUA II. GIDDINGS. In 
 rr-ply, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM said: 
 
 I do neither retract one sentiment that I have uttered, nor would 
 I obliterate a single vote which I have given. I speak of the record 
 as it will appear hereafter, and, indeed, stands now upon the Journals 
 of this House and in the Congressional Globe. And there is nt) 
 other record, thank God. and no act or word or thought of mine, 
 and never has been from the beginning, in public or in private, of 
 which any patriot ought to be ashamed. Sir, it is the record as I 
 made it. and as it exists here to-day and not as a mendacious and 
 shameless press have attempted to make it up for me. Let us see 
 who will PTOW tired of his record first. Consistency, firmness, and 
 sanity, in the midst of general madness these made up my offense. 
 But k Time, the avenger," sets all things even : and I abide his 
 leisure. 
 
 To-day the magnitude and true character of the war stand con 
 fessed, and its real purposes begin to be revealed ; and I am justified, 
 or soon will be justified, by thousands, who, a little while ago, con 
 demned me. But I appealed, in the beginning, as I appeal now, 
 alike to the near and the distant future ; and by the judgment of 
 that impartial tribunal, even in the present generation, I will abide ; 
 or, if my name and memory shall fade away out of the record of 
 these times, then will these calumnies perish with them. 
 
 But, of those attacks, the most important and serious was that 
 made in the House of Representatives on the 19th of February, 
 
112 CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 
 
 1362, by Mr. HICKMAN, of Pennsylvania, who offered a resolution 
 Instructing the Committee on the Judiciary to inquire into the 
 truth of certain charges of disloyalty made in the local columns of 
 a Baltimore newspaper against C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, of Ohio." 
 
 The debate that ensued was racy and rare ; contains some capital 
 strokes. We give the full report, that all may see the extent and 
 magnitude of the charges of disloyalty, as presented by one of the 
 shrewdest and most cunning of the Abolition members. 
 
 The resolution above referred to having been offered, Mr. VAL 
 LANDIGHAM said: 
 
 MR. SPEAKER: I was just waiting for an opportunity to call the 
 attention of the House to that statement myself, having received it 
 from some unknown source a moment ago. I do not know, of 
 course, what the motive just now of the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
 may be, nor do I care. My purpose then was just what it is now, 
 to give a plain, direct, emphatic contradiction a flat denial to the 
 infamous statement and insinuation contained in the newspaper 
 paragraph just read. I never wrote a letter or a line upon political 
 subjects, least of all, on the question of secession, to the Baltimore 
 South, or to any other paper, or to any man south of Mason and 
 Dixon s line, since this revolt began never; and I defy the produc 
 tion of it. It is false, infamous, scandalous ; arid, it is beyond 
 endurance, too, that a man s reputation shall be at the mercy of 
 every scavenger employed to visit the haunts of vice in a great city, 
 a. mere local editor of an irresponsible newspaper, who may choose 
 to parade before the country false and malicious libels like this. I 
 avail myself of this opportunity, to say that I enter into no defense, 
 and shall enter into none, until some letter shall be produced here 
 which I have written, or authorized to be written, referring to "bleed 
 ing Dixie," or making any suggestion u how the Yankees might be 
 defeated." If any such are in existence, I pronounce them, here and 
 now, utter and impudent forgeries. I have said that I enter upon 
 no defense. I deny that it is the duty or the right of any member 
 to rise here and call for investigation founded upon statements like 
 this; and I only regret that I did not have the opportunity to 
 denounce this report before the chairman of the Committee on the 
 Judiciary rose, and. in this formal manner, called the attention of the 
 House to it himself the accuser and the judge. Sir, I have been 
 for five years a member of this House, and I never rose to a per 
 sonal explanation but once, and that to correct a report of the pro 
 ceedings of the House. I have always considered such mere per 
 sonal explanations and controversies with the press as unbecoming 
 the dignity of the House. 
 
 Nevertheless, I did intend to make this the first exception in my 
 congressional career, and to say and I wish my words reported, not 
 only at the desk here officially, but in the gallery that I denounce, 
 in advance, this foul and infamous statement, that I have been in 
 
CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 113 
 
 treasonable, or even suspicious correspondence with any one in that 
 State loyal though it is to the Union or in any other State, or 
 have ever uttered one sentiment inconsistent with my duty, not only 
 as a member of this House, but as a citizen of the United States 
 one who has taken a solemn oath to support the Constitution, and 
 who, thank God, has never tainted that oath in thought, or word, or 
 deed. I have had the right, and have exercised it, and as God liveth 
 and my soul liveth, and as He is my judge, I will exercise it still 
 in this House, and out of it, of vindicating the rights of the Ameri 
 can citizen; and beyond that I have never gone. My sentiments 
 will be found in the records of the House, except as I have made 
 them public otherwise, and they will be found nowhere else. There, 
 sir, is their sole repository. And foreseeing, more than a year ago, 
 but especially in the early part of December, 1860, the magnitude 
 and true character of the revolution or rebellion into which this 
 country was about to be plunged, I then resolved not to write, 
 although your own mails still carried the letters, nor have I written, 
 one solitary syllable or line as to the gulf States months even. 
 before secession began to any one residing in a seceded State. 
 And yet, the gentleman avails himself now of this paragraph, to give 
 dignity and importance to charges of the falsest and most infamous 
 character. Had the letter been produced ; had the charge come in 
 any tangible or authentic shape ; had any editor of any respectable 
 newspaper, even, indorsed the accusation, and made it specific, there 
 might have been some apology; but the gentleman knows well that 
 this base insinuation was placed in the local columns of a vile news 
 paper, put there by some person who had never seen any such letter. 
 Sir, I meet this first specific charge of disloyalty, made responsibly 
 here I meet it at the very threshold, as becomes a man and a 
 Representative by an emphatic but contemptuous denial. This is 
 due to the House; it is due to myself. 
 
 Mr. RICHARDSON. I hope the gentleman from Pennsylvania will 
 allow me to make a single remark. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. Certainly. 
 
 Mr. RICHARDSON, Mr. Speaker: I want to hear nothing about 
 disloyalty on this side of the House while there is a class of mem 
 bers here upon the other side of the House who have declared that 
 they will vote for no proposition to carry on the war, unless it is 
 prosecuted in a particular line, and for the abolition of slavery. 
 They would subvert the Constitution and the Government, and I 
 denounce them as traitors, and they ought to be brought to trial, 
 condemnation, and execution. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. Mr. Speaker : The motives which actuated me in 
 introducing the resolution in question ought not to be doubted. 
 The severe charge contained in the article in question is made 
 against the gentleman from Ohio, a member of this House. Even 
 a suspicion, a mere suspicion, would justify such an investigation as 
 this resolution contemplates. But the gentleman from Ohio, as well 
 as other members upon this floor, knows that the suspicions which 
 have existed against him. I do not say whether justly or unjustly 
 8 
 
114 CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 
 
 have been numerous, and in circulation for a long time past. It is 
 the duty of this House to purge itself of unworthy members. I do 
 not assert whether the gentleman from Ohio occupies, properly or im 
 properly, his seat upon this floor. By offering this resolution I do not 
 prejudge him. If he were the most intimate friend I had on earth, 
 accused as the gentleman from Ohio is in the paragraph in question, I 
 should deem it my solemn duty to urge the investigation which is 
 here suggested. But, sir, this charge does not come in a very ques 
 tionable shape. It appears as an original article in the Baltimore 
 Clipper, and is, therefore, presumed to be editorial, or at least under 
 the supervision of the editor. It, to all appearances, emanates from a 
 responsible source. 
 
 But, sir, I suggest further, that the suppression of the newspaper 
 in question, the Baltimore South, and the seizure of its office of pub 
 lication, was made under the direct authority of the Government, and 
 it is to be presumed that the effects of the office are, at this time, in 
 the custody of the Government, or of the agents of the Government, 
 and, therefore, the information communicated in this paper must have 
 come through the Government, or the agents of the Government. It 
 is responsible in its origin, as far as we can judge. Now, sir, I refer 
 the gentleman from Ohio, as my answer to the suggestion that I was 
 not justified in offering this resolution under the circumstances, to 
 page 69 of the last edition of the Manual. The first paragraph 
 of section thirteen, headed "Examination of Witnesses," reads as 
 follows : 
 
 "Common fame is a good ground for the House to proceed to inquiry, and 
 even to accusation." 
 
 This, sir, is more than common fame. I repeat, that it is, so far as 
 it appears, a direct charge by the editor of a responsible newspaper. 
 The information conies, we must believe, through the Government, or 
 the agents of the Government, and it is, therefore, more than common 
 fame. It is good ground, at least, for instituting an inquiry. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I desire to ask the gentleman from Penn 
 sylvania whether he does not know that this is a mere local item, and 
 that the author of it does not even pretend to have seen the letters. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I do not understand what the gentleman means 
 by saying that the author of the paragraph has not seen them. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I say he does not profess to have seen 
 them, and I know that he never did, for they never were written, do 
 not now exist, and never did exist. , 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. Who never saw them? 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. The author of that paragraph in the local 
 columns of this newspaper. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. He never saw the letters! 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. He does not profess even to have seen 
 them. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. Whether it is a local item or not, it is an original 
 article in a responsible newspaper, and is, therefore, presumed to have 
 been inserted under the direct supervision of the editor, if not written 
 .by him. 
 
CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 115 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has 
 alluded to suspicions existing heretofore. Now, I desire to know of 
 him, whether he ever heard of any specific item on which any such 
 suspicions ever rested any thing other than words spoken in this 
 House or made public over my own name ? 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. Well, let us have it. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I have heard a thousand. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Name a single one. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I do not desire to do any injustice to the gentle 
 man from Ohio. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. I have asked the gentleman, and I demand a 
 direct answer to my question, whether he can specify one single item? 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I will reply to it directly. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. Or does the gentleman mean merely the 
 newspapers slanders that have been published against me, and which 
 I have denounced as false, over and over again, in cards, and on the 
 floor of this House ? 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I know nothing about that, sir. I know that 
 suspicions may well exist, and I know they do exist, where denials 
 accompany them. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. Yes ; I know that fact in the gentleman s 
 own case. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I have no controversy with the gentleman from 
 Ohio, nor am I here to defend myself in the course which I have 
 taken. Let him defend himself, and allow me to take care of myself, 
 as I expect to be able to do. 
 
 Mr. KICHARDSON. Will the gentleman from Pennsylvania allow 
 me 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I will not suffer any interruption except by the 
 gentleman from Ohio. He has a right to interrupt me, and I am 
 glad he does so, because I do not want to put the gentleman from 
 Ohio in any false position any more than I would desire to be my 
 self placed in one ; and t will not do it. I do say, most distinctly, 
 that suspicions have existed against the loyalty of the gentleman 
 from Ohio ; and I would not have referred to them at all if I had 
 not been satisfied that he himself knew of the existence of those 
 suspicions as well as I did. Indeed, the remarks which preceded my 
 rising on this floor indicated the fact, more clearly than I myself 
 could indicate it by any thing that I could say, that he was in pos 
 session of a knowledge of the existence of those suspicions, for he 
 got up to repel them, not merely such as are contained in this article 
 in question, but in general terms general suspicions and imputations 
 against his character. That was deemed right by him, sir. I have 
 nothing to say against it. 
 
 Now, the gentleman asks for specifications. I am called upon by 
 him to refresh my memory, and to give an instance. I will give 
 him one or two. I may not be able to give more at this time. Per 
 haps, if he were to give me time, I would be able to refer him to 
 many more instances. 
 
116 CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Mr. Speaker 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. The gentleman must allow me to answer his ques 
 tion, and then he may interrupt me. I must reply to one inquiry at 
 a time. I am now on the witness-stand brought to it by the gentle 
 man from Ohio. I am on cross-examination, and he must allow me 
 to answer one question before he propounds to me another. Now, 
 sir. I refer to the fact of the Breckenridge meeting in the city of 
 Baltimore, where the gentleman from Ohio attended, and which gave 
 rise to very many suspicions, allow me to say ; at least I have heard 
 a great many expressed. Allow me again to refer to the fact of his 
 attending a certain dinner in Kentucky, which was given, I believe, 
 in his honor, or which was, at least, published as such in the papers. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Allow me, right there 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. Allow me first 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. That is a specific charge, which I wish to 
 answer. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. Not this moment. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I appeal to the gentleman s honor. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I will treat the gentleman from Ohio fairly. He 
 must receive all my answer before he asks me another question. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Let him oblige me by replying to me spe 
 cifically. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. I am not done with my answer, and I refuse to 
 yield the floor until I finish my answer. I am entitled to be treated 
 here properly, as well as the gentleman from Ohio. I will extend 
 to him all the courtesy that can possibly be demanded by any gentle 
 man. That is my habit, I trust. There are many other items. There 
 was the speech which the gentleman made at the July session in this 
 House a speech which was understood to be one of general accusa 
 tion and crimination against the Government and against the party 
 having the conduct of this war. It gave rise to a great many sus 
 picions; and the gentleman from Ohio, with his intelligence, ought 
 not to be ignorant of all these facts. Well, sir, will not conversation 
 naturally arise in consequence of these facts? And I appeal to every 
 member of this House whether they have not heard suspicion upon 
 suspicion against the loyalty of the gentleman from Ohio. Is it not 
 a common rumor, sir, that he is suspected ? I allege that it is a 
 common rumor in the northern States, and among the loyal people 
 of the loyal States, that the gentleman from Ohio is, at least, open 
 to grave suspicion, if not to direct imputation. That is my answer. 
 Now I will hear the gentleman. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. In reply to the specification, and the only 
 one, which the gentleman has been able to point out, relating to a 
 public dinner in Kentucky, allow me to tell him that my foot has 
 not pressed the soil of Kentucky since the 10th day of July, 1852, 
 when, as a member of a committee appointed by the common council 
 of the city where I reside, I followed the remains of that great and 
 noble man, true patriot and Union man, Henry Clay, to their last 
 resting-place. I have partaken of no dinners there, or elsewhere, of 
 a political character, nor did I ever attend any Breckenridge meet- 
 
CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 117 
 
 ing at Baltimore, or elsewhere, at any time. This is my answer to 
 that, the only specification. And yet, the gentleman dares attempt 
 to support that falsehood, which I here denounce as such, by alluding 
 to suspicions which have been created and set afloat throughout the 
 whole country, not merely against me, but against hundreds and 
 thousands of others, in whose veins runs blood as patriotic and loyal 
 as ever flowed since the world began. I tell the gentleman that, in 
 years past, I have heard his loyalty to the Union questioned. I have 
 known of things which would have justified me had I relied on 
 authority similar to that to which he has attempted to give dignity 
 in introducing similar resolutions to make inquiry into his purpose 
 to disrupt this Union by the doctrines which he has held, and the 
 opinions which he has expressed. And yet, opinions and sentiments, 
 uttered here, are " the head and the front of my offending." It has 
 " this extent, no more." 
 
 And, sir, I replied, some time ago, to two others, which, I doubt 
 not, the gentleman would have dragged now out of the mire and slough 
 into which they have fallen, but that they were answered, when thrust 
 into debate by the gentleman before me (Mr. Hutchins). I refer to 
 the charge that I had once uttered the absurd declaration that the 
 soldiery of the North and West should pass over my dead body 
 before they should invade the southern States. I denied it then, and 
 will not repeat the denial now. 
 
 Nor need I refer again to that other charge, that I had uttered, in 
 debate, here or elsewhere, the sentiment that I preferred peace to the 
 Union ; I have heretofore met that charge with a prompt and em 
 phatic contradiction, and no evidence has been found to sustain it. 
 Keferring to that and other charges and insinuations, on the 7th of 
 January last, I said to my colleague : 
 
 " As to my record here at the extra session, or during the present session, 
 it remains, and will remain." 
 
 And just here, sir, in reference to the speech to which the gentle 
 man alluded, delivered on this floor, in the exercise of my constitu 
 tional right as a member of this House, on the 10th of July last, I 
 defy him I hurl the defiance into his teeth to point to one single 
 disloyal sentiment or sentence m it. I proceeded to say, further, on 
 the 7th of last month : 
 
 " I do neither retract one sentiment that I have uttered, nor would I 
 obliterate a single vote which I have given. I speak of the record, as it will 
 appear hereafter, and, indeed, stands now upon the Journals of this House and 
 in the Congressional Globe. And there is no other record, thank God, and 
 no act or word or thought of mine, and never has been from the beginning, 
 in public or in private, of which any patriot ought to be ashamed. Sir, it is 
 the record, as I made it, and as it exists here to-day; and not as a mendacious 
 and shameless press have attempted to make it up for me. Let us see who 
 will grow tired of his record first. Consistency, firmness, and sanity, in the 
 midst of general madness these made up my offense. But Time, the 
 avenger, sets all things even ; and I abide his leisure." 
 
 And am I now to be told, that because of a speech made upon 
 this floor, under the protection of the Constitution, in the exercise 
 
118 CHARGES OP DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 
 
 and discharge of my solemn right and duty, under the oath which I 
 have taken, that I am to-day to be arraigned here, and the accusation 
 supported by the addition of mere vague rumors and suspicions, which 
 have been bruited over and over again, as I have said, against not 
 myself only, but against hundreds and thousands, also, of other most 
 patriotic and loyal men ? 
 
 The gentleman from Pennsylvania makes the charge that I attended 
 a certain dinner in the State of Kentucky. Sir, I was invited to that 
 State, and have been frequently, by as true and loyal men as there 
 are in that State to-day. I accepted no invitation, and never went 
 at all. I have already named the last and only time when I stood 
 upon the soil of Kentucky. But I know of nothing now whatbver 
 there may have been in the past certainly nothing to-day about 
 Kentucky that should prevent a loyal and patriotic man from visiting 
 a State which has given birth or residence to so many patriots, to so 
 many statesman, and to orators of such renown. 
 
 Yet that is all, the grand aggregate of the charges, except this mis 
 erable falsehood which some wretched scavenger, prowling about the 
 streets and alleys and gutters of the city of Baltimore, has seen fit to put 
 forth in the local columns of a contemptible newspaper; so that the 
 member from Pennsylvania may rise in his place and prefer charges 
 against the loyalty and patriotism of a man who has never faltered 
 in his devotion to the flag of his country to that flag which hangs 
 now upon the wall over against him ; one who has bowed down and 
 worshiped this holy emblem of the Constitution and of the old Union 
 of these States, in his heart s core, ay, in his very heart of hearts, 
 from the time he first knew aught to this hour ; and who now would 
 give life, and all that he is or hopes to be in the present or the future, 
 to see that glorious banner of the Union known and honored once 
 over the whole earth and the whole sea with no stripe erased, and 
 not one star blotted out, floating forever over the free, united, har 
 monious old Union of every State once a part of it, and a hundred 
 more yet unborn. I AM THAT MAN ; and yet he dares to demand 
 that I shall be brought up before the secret tribunal of the Judiciary 
 Committee that committee of which he is chairman, and thus both 
 judge and accuser to answer to the charge of disloyalty to the 
 Union ! 
 
 Sir, I hurl back the insinuation. Bring forward the specific 
 charge; wait till you have found something and you will wait 
 long something which I have written, or something I have said, 
 that would indicate any thing in my bosom which he who loves his 
 country ought not to read or hear. In every sentiment that I have 
 expressed, in every vote that I have given, in my whole public life, 
 outside this House, before I was a member of it, and since it has 
 been my fortune to sit here, I have had but one motive, and that 
 was the real, substantial, permanent good of my country. I have 
 differed with the majority of the House, differed with the party in 
 power, differed with the Administration, as, thank God, I do and 
 have the right to differ, as to the best means of preserving the 
 Union, and of maintaining the Constitution and securing the true 
 
CHARGES OP DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED/ 119 
 
 interests of my country ; and that is my offense, that the crime, and 
 the only crime, of which I have been guilty. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, if, in the Thirty-fifth Congress, I or some other 
 member had seen fit to seize upon the denunciations, long-continued, 
 bitter, and persistent against that member, (Mr. Hickman) for he, 
 too, has suffered, and he ought to have had the manhood to remember, 
 in this, the hour of sore persecution, that he himself has been the victim 
 of slanders and detraction, peradventure for, sir, I would do him 
 the justice which he denies to me what, I say, if I had risen and 
 made a vile paragraph in some paper published in his own town, or 
 elsewhere, the subject of inquiry and investigation, and had attempted 
 to cast yet further suspicion upon him, by reference to language 
 uttered here in debate, which he had the right to utter, or by charges 
 vague and false, and without the shadow of a foundation except the 
 malignant breath of partisan suspicion and slander, what would have 
 been his record, in the volumes of your reports, and the Congressional 
 Globe, going down to his children after him? But, sir, it is not in 
 the power of the gentleman to tarnish the honor of my name, or to 
 blast the fair fame and character for loyalty which I have earned 
 dearly earned, with labor and patience and faith, from the beginning 
 of my public career. From my boyhood, at all times and in every 
 place, I have never looked to any thing but the permanent, solid, and 
 real interests of my country. 
 
 Beyond this, Mr. Speaker, I deem it unnecessary to extend what 
 I have to say. I would have said not a word, but that I know this 
 Committee will find nothing, and that they will be obliged, therefore, 
 to report a majority of them cheerfully, I doubt not that nothing 
 exists to justify any charge or suspicion such as the member from 
 Pennsylvania has suggested here to-day. I avail myself of the 
 occasion thus forced on me, to repel this foul and slanderous assault 
 upon my loyalty, promptly, earnestly, indignantly, yea, scornfully, 
 and upon the very threshold. Sir, I do not choose to delay week 
 after week, until your partisan press shall have sounded the alarm ; 
 and till an organization shall have been effected for the purpose of 
 dragooning two-thirds of this House into an outrage upon the rights 
 of one of the llepresentatives of the people, which is without example 
 except in the worst of times. I meet it and hurl it back defiantly 
 here and now. 
 
 Why, sir, suppose that the course which the member from Penn 
 sylvania now proposes, had been pursued in many cases which I 
 could came in years past ; suppose that his had been the standard of 
 accusation, and irresponsible newspaper paragraphs had been regarded 
 as evidence of disloyalty or want of attachment to the Constitution 
 and the Union; nay, more, if a yet severer test had been applied, 
 what would have been the fate of some members of this House, or 
 of certain Senators at the other end of the capitol, some years ago? 
 What punishment might not have been meted out to the predecessor 
 (Mr. Giddings) of my colleague on the other side of the House? 
 How long would he have occupied a seat here ? Where would the 
 Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Sumner) have been? Where the 
 
120 CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 
 
 other Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Wilson)? Where the Sen 
 ator from New Hampshire (Mr. Hale)? Where the three Sen 
 ators Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Hale, two of them now 
 in the Cabinet, and the other in the Senate still who, in 1850 7 
 twelve years ago, on the llth of February, voted to receive, refer, 
 print, and consider a petition praying for the dissolution of the 
 Union of these States? Yet I am to be singled out now by these 
 very men, or their minions, for attack ; and they who have waited 
 and watched and prayed, by day and by night, with the vigilance 
 of the hawk and the ferocity of the hyena, from the beginning of 
 this great revolt, that they might catch some unguarded remark, 
 some idle word spoken, something written carelessly or rashly, some 
 secret thought graven yet upon the lineaments of my face, which 
 they might torture into evidence of disloyalty, seize now upon the 
 foul and infectious gleanings of an anonymous wretch who earns a 
 precarious subsistence by feeding the local columns of a pestilent 
 newspaper, and, while it is yet wet from the press, hurry it. reeking 
 with falsehood, into this House, and seek to dignify it with an, 
 importance demanding the consideration of the House and of the 
 country. 
 
 Sir, let the member from Pennsylvania go on. I challenge the 
 inquiry, unworthy of notice as the charge is, but I scorn the spirit 
 which has provoked it. Let it go on. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN then replied briefly ; and, in the course of his 
 remarks, said : As the gentleman has called upon me, I will answer 
 further. Does he not Jtnow of a camp in Kentucky having been called 
 by his name that disloyal men there called their camp Camp Vallan- 
 digham? That would not indicate that in Kentucky they regarded 
 him as a man loyal to the Federal Union. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Is there not a town and it may be a 
 camp, too in Kentucky by the name of Hickman? (Laughter.) 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN. Thank God ! disloyal men have never culled one 
 of their camps by my name. There are a great many Hickmans in 
 Kentucky, but I have not the pleasure of their acquaintance. I 
 have heard of but one Vallandigham. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. And there are a great many Vallandighams 
 there, too. 
 
 Mr. HICKMAN, after a few words further, withdrew his resolutions 
 and there the matter ended. 
 
 A few other less formidable attempts have been made to extinguish 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. On the 21st of April, 1862, BENJAMIN F. 
 WADE, of Ohio whom JOHN A. GURLEY declared to be " a good 
 combination of OLD HICKORY and ZACH TAYLOR" attacked Mr. 
 VALLANDIGHAM in the Senate, in the following language : 
 
 I accuse them (the Democratic party) of deliberate purpose to 
 assail, through the judicial tribunals and through the Senate and 
 House of Representatives of the United States, and everywhere 
 
CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY TRIUMPHANTLY REPELLED. 121 
 
 else, and to overawe, intimidate, and trample under foot, if they can, 
 the men who boldly stand forth in defense of their country, now 
 imperiled by this gigantic rebellion. I have watched it long. I 
 have seen it in secret. I have seen its movements ever since that 
 party got together, with a colleague of mine in the other House as 
 chairman of the Committee on Resolutions a man who never had any 
 sympathy with the Republic, but ivhose every breath is devoted to its 
 destruction, just as far as his heart dare permit him to go. Con 
 gressional Globe, page 1735. 
 
 Quoting the foregoing extract, in the House, on the 24th of April, 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM said : 
 
 Now, sir, here in my place in the House, and as a Representative, ^ 
 
 I denounce and I speak it advisedly the author of that speech as 
 a liar, a scoundrel, and a coward. His name is Benjamin F. Wade. 
 
 This had the effect to silence WADE S battery, and the " combina 
 tion of OLD HICKORY and ZACH TAYLOR," has not seen fit to renew 
 hostile demonstrations. 
 
 The only other attack of this sort, worthy of notice if, indeed, 
 these we are mentioning are was made in June 1862, by SHELLA- 
 BARGER and GURLEY, of Ohio, who presented printed petitions from 
 citizens of their own Districts none from Mr. Vallandighams asking 
 for his expulsion from the House as u a traitor and a disgrace to the 
 State of Ohio." The petitions were referred to the Committee on 
 the Judiciary, consisting of the following members : JOHN HICKMAN, 
 chairman, JOHN A. BINGHAM, WILLIAM KELLOGG, ALBERT G. 
 PORTER, BENJAMIN F. THOMAS, ALEXANDER S. DIVEN, JAMES F. 
 WILSON, GEORGE H. PENDLETON, and HENRY MAY all of them 
 Republicans except MAY and PENDLETON. This Committee, on the 
 very same day on which the petitions were presented, by a unanimous 
 vote, ordered them to be reported back and laid upon the table ; and, 
 accordingly, on the first day that the Committee was called July 3, 
 1862 MR. BINGHAM reported them back, and, on his motion, they 
 were laid on the table, no evidence whatever of either "treason" or 
 
 II disgrace " having been produced to the Committee. And there 
 they " lie " now. 
 
122 COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 
 
 NUMBER SIX. 
 
 COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 
 
 SPEECH BEFORE THE DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION, JULY 4, 18G2. 
 
 THE Convention that met in Columbus, on the 4th of July, 1862, 
 was one of the largest, most enthusiastic and harmonious ever con 
 vened in Ohio. The delegation from Mr. VALLANDIGHAM S district 
 alone numbered Jive hundred and fifty. The largest hall in the 
 city, crowded to its utmost capacity, failed to accommodate more than 
 one-fourth part of those in attendance. It was, therefore, determ 
 ined, after a partial and temporary organization, to adjourn to the 
 State-House grounds, in order that the thousands of Democrats 
 present might be enabled to participate in, and witness the proceed 
 ings of the Convention. This order having been made known, the 
 vast assemblage promptly reported themselves on the east side of the 
 State-House, ready for business. Gov. MEDARY was elected Presi 
 dent, and conducted to the chair amidst shouts of triumphant re 
 joicings. 
 
 The immediate object of the convention was to nominate candi 
 dates for the offices of Supreme Judge, Secretary of State, Attorney 
 General, School Commissioner, and Board of Public Works. Candi 
 dates were soon agreed upon ; those in the minority gracefully retired, 
 or were withdrawn by their friends; and, in every case, the nomi 
 nations were made unanimous. A platform and series of resolutions 
 were then read and adopted, the latter quoting from the Constitution 
 that important provision, " The trial of all crimes, except in cases 
 of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the 
 State where the said crimes shall have been committed." Also, 
 from the Amendments, the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 10th articles, so 
 clear, comprehensive, and specific, and designed as an absolute and 
 perpetual guarantee to the people of this country against those very 
 outrages and violations of their rights which they have been com 
 pelled to suffer under this Administration. The resolutions then say : 
 
COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 123 
 
 We utterly condemn and denounce the repeated and gross viola 
 tion, by the Executive of the United States, of the said rights, thus 
 secured by the Constitution ; and we also utterly repudiate and con 
 demn the monstrous dogma that in time of war the Constitution is 
 suspended, or its powers in any respect enlarged beyond the letter 
 and true meaning of that instrument. 
 
 And close with the bold and solemn declaration 
 
 That we view, with indignation and alarm, the illegal and unconsti 
 tutional seizure and imprisonment, for alleged political offenses, of our 
 citizens, without judicial process, in States where such process is 
 unobstructed, but by Executive order, by telegraph or otherwise, and 
 call upon all who uphold the Union, the Constitution, and the laws, 
 to unite with us in denouncing and repelling such flagrant violation 
 of the State and Federal Constitutions, and tyrannical infraction of 
 the rights and liberties of American citizens ; and that the people 
 of this State CAN NOT SAFELY, AND WILL NOT submit to have the 
 freedom of speech and freedom of the press the two great and 
 essential bulwarks of civil liberty put down by unwarranted and 
 despotic exertion of power. 
 
 At this point of the proceedings, loud and continued calls were 
 made for VALLANDIGHAM, who, when he ascended the platform, was 
 greeted with rapturous applause. He spoke as follows : 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW DEMOCRATS OF THE STATE OF OHIO : 
 I am obliged again to regret that the lateness of the hour precludes 
 me from addressing you either in the manner or upon the particular 
 subjects which otherwise I should prefer. This is my misfortune 
 again to-day, as last night; but speaking thus, without premeditation, 
 and upon such matters chiefly as may occur to me at the moment, 
 if I should happen to get fairly under headway, it may turn out to be 
 your misfortune. (Laughter.) I congratulate the Democracy of 
 Ohio, that, in the midst of great public trial and calamity, of perse 
 cution for devotion to the doctrines of the fathers who laid deep 
 arid strong the foundations of the Constitution and the Union under 
 which this country has grown great and been prosperous the fathers, 
 by whose principles, one and all, the party to which we are proud to 
 belong has always been guided to-day we have assembled in num 
 bers greater than at any former convention in Ohio. I congratulate 
 you that, despite the threats which have been uttered, and the de 
 nunciations which have been poured out upon that time-honored and 
 most patriotic organization, peaceably and in quiet, with enthusiasm 
 and earnestness of purpose, we are here met; and, in harmony, which 
 is the secret of strength and the harbinger of success, have dis 
 charged the duties for which we were called together. There was a 
 time when it was questionable if, in freo America in the United 
 States, boasting of their liberties for more than eighty years a party 
 to which this country is indebted for all that is great and good and 
 
124 COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 
 
 grand and glorious would have been permitted peaceably to assem 
 ble to exercise its political rights, and perform its appropriate func 
 tions. Threats have even been made, in times more recent, that this 
 most essential of all political rights, secured to us by the precious 
 blood of our fathers, in a seven years revolutionary war, should no 
 longer be enjoyed. The Democrats of our noble sister State of 
 Indiana, second-born daughter of the North-west, have been menaced, 
 within the last ten days, with a military organization and the bayonet, 
 to put down their party. I hold in my hand a telegraphic dispatch 
 from the capital of that State, boasting of this infamous purpose. 
 I will read it, gentlemen, because I know that the same dastardly 
 menaces have been proclaimed against the Democrats of Ohio, and 
 because I am here to-day to rebuke them, as becomes a freeborn man 
 
 who is resolved to perish (Great applause, in the midst of which 
 
 the rest of the sentence was lost.) 
 
 Some months ago, a Democratic State Convention was held in 
 Indiana. It was a Convention of the party founded by Thomas 
 Jefferson, built up by a Madison and Monroe, and consolidated by 
 an Andrew Jackson (applause) a party under whose principles and 
 policy, from thirteen States, we have grown to thirty-four, for thirty- 
 four there were, true and loyal to this Union, before the Presidential 
 election of 1860 a party under whose wise and liberal policy the 
 course of empire westward did take its way, until the symbol of 
 American power the stars and stripes waved proudly from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific, over the breadth of a whole continent a 
 party which, by peace and compromise, and through harmony, wis 
 dom, and sound policy, brought us up from feeble and impoverished 
 colonies, struggling in the midst of defeat and disaster in the war of 
 the Revolution, to a mighty empire, foremost among the powers of 
 the earth, the foundations of whose greatness were laid, broad and 
 firm, in that noble Constitution, and that grand old Union which the 
 Democratic party has ever maintained and defended. The Demo 
 cratic party, with such principles, and such a history and record to 
 point to, held a State Convention, in pursuance of its usages for more 
 than thirty years, and under the rights secured by a State and Federal 
 Constitution, older still, in the capital of the State of Indiana. And 
 yet, referring to this party and its Convention, the correspondent of 
 a disloyal and pestilent, but influential newspaper, in the chief city 
 of Ohio, dared to send over the telegraphic wires, wires wholly under 
 the military control of the Administration, which permits nothing to be 
 transmitted not acceptable to its censors, a dispatch in these words : 
 
 " The fellows are frightened, evidently not without cause." 
 
 Well, gentlemen, I know not how far Democrats of Indiana may 
 be frightened and a nobler and more fearless body of men never 
 lived but I see thousands of Democrats before me, to whom fear 
 and reproach are alike unknown. Frightened at what ? Frightened 
 by whom ? We are made of sterner stuff. 
 
 " The militia of the State, 1 lie adds, will, probably, be put upon a war 
 footing very shortly." 
 
COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 125 
 
 And who, I pray, are the militia of the State? They are not 
 made up of the leaders of the Republican party in Indiana or Ohio, 
 I know. I never knew that sort of politicians to go into any such 
 organization, in peace or in war. No men have ever been more bitter 
 and unrelenting in their opposition to, and ridicule of, the militia, 
 and none know it better than I, as my friend before me, by his 
 smile, reminds me, that one of my own offenses is that I am a militia 
 brigadier, in favor of the next foreign war. 
 
 /But who are the militia? They are the freeborn, strong-armed, 
 stout-hearted Democrats of Indiana, as they are of Ohio. Let them 
 be put on a war footing. Good ! We have hosts of them in the 
 army already, and on a war footing, but who are as sound Democrats 
 and as much devoted to the principles of the party, as they were the 
 hour they enlisted. They have been in the South, and I have the 
 authority of hundreds of officers and privates in that gallant army 
 for saying, that not only are the original Democrats in it more devoted 
 to the party to-day than ever before, but that hundreds, also, who 
 went hence Republicans, have returned, or will return, cured of the 
 disease. (Laughter and applause.) Sir, the army is, fortunately, 
 most fortunately for the country, turning out to be a sort of political 
 hospital or sanitary institution, and I only regret that there are not 
 many more Republican patients in it. (Laughter.VX 
 
 Well, put the militia upon a war footing. Put afms in their hands. 
 They never can be made the butchers or jailers of their fellow-citizens, 
 but the guardians rather of free speech and a free press, and of the 
 ballot-box. Standing armies of mercenaries, not the militia of a 
 country, are the customary instruments of tyranny and usurpation. 
 
 But this correspondent proceeds : 
 
 " If the sympathizers with treason and traitors " 
 
 We sympathize with treason and traitors ! We, who have stood by 
 the Constitution and the Union from the organization of the party, 
 in our fathers day, and in our own day, in every hour of trial, in 
 peace and in war, in victory and in defeat, amid disaster, and when 
 prosperity beamed upon us we to be branded as enemies to our 
 country, by those whose traitor fathers burned blue lights as signals 
 for a foreign foe, or met in Hartford Convention to plot treason and 
 disunion fifty years ago ! We false to the Constitution and to our 
 Government, the bones of whose fathers lie buried on every battle 
 field of the war of 1812, from the massacre at the River Raisin to 
 the splendid victory at New Orleans ; we, who bore aloft the proud 
 banner of the Republic, and planted it in triumph upon the palace 
 of the Montezumas ; we, by whose wisdom in council, and courage in 
 the field, for seventy years, the Constitution and the Union, and the 
 country which has grown great under them, have been preserved and 
 defended ; we to be denounced as sympathizing with treason and 
 traitors, by the men who, for twenty years, have labored day and nighfc 
 for the success of those principles and of .that policy and that party 
 which are now destroying the grandest Union, the noblest Constitution 
 and fche fairest Country on the globe ! Talk to me about sympathiz- 
 
126 COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 
 
 ing with disunion, with treason and with traitors! I tell you, men 
 of Ohio, that in six months, in three months, in six weeks it may 
 be, these very men, and their masters in Washington, whose bidding 
 they do, will be the advocates of the eternal dissolution of this Union, 
 and denounce all who oppose it, as enemies to the peace of the 
 country./ Foreign intervention and the repeated and most serious 
 disasters which have lately befallen our arms, will speedily force the 
 issue of separation and Southern independence disunion or of 
 Union by negotiation and compromise. Between these two I am 
 and I here publicly proclaim it for the Union, the whole Union, and 
 nothing less, if, by any possibility, I can have it ; if not, then for so 
 much of it as can yet be rescued and preserved.^ and in any event, 
 and under all circumstances, for the Union whicli God ordained, of 
 the Mississippi Valley, and all which may cling to it, under the old 
 name, the old Constitution, and the old fiag, with all their precious 
 memories, with the battle-fields of the past, and the songs and the 
 proud history of the past with the birthplace and the burialplace of 
 \Vashington, the founder, and Jackson, the preserver of, the Constitu 
 tion as it is, and of the Union as it was. (Great applause.) 
 But this correspondent again proceeds : 
 
 " If the sympathizers with treason and traitors meditate to carry out their 
 plans in this quarter :I 
 
 What plans ? Just such as to-day have been the business of this 
 Convention ; the plans of that old Union party, laying down a plat 
 form, and nominating Democrats to fill the offices and control the 
 policy of the Government, to the end that, the Constitution may be 
 again maintained, the Union restored, and peace, prosperity, and hap 
 piness once more drop healing from their wings. 
 
 "plans," the fellow proceeds, "in this quarter, they will doubtless find the 
 work quite as hot as they bargained for." 
 
 And I tell the cowardly miscreant who telegraphed the threat that, 
 he, and those behind him., will find the work fifty-fold hotter when 
 they begin it, than they had reckoned on, both here and in Indiana. 
 
 " Ten thousand stand of arms," he adds, " have been ordered for the State 
 troops." 
 
 For what? To put down the Democratic party? Sir, that is a 
 work which can not be done by ten, or twenty, or fifty thousand stand 
 of arms in the hands of any such dastards, in office or out of it. If 
 so full of valor, and so thirsty for blood, let them enlist under the 
 call just issued for troops in Ohio and Indiana. Let them go 
 down and fight the armies of the " rebels " in the South, and let 
 Democrats fight the unarmed, but more insidious and dangerous, 
 Abolition rebels of the North and West, through the ballot-box. 
 
 Forty thousand additional troops, I estimate it, are called for, in the 
 proclamation of yesterday, from the State of Ohio. Where are the 
 forty thousand Wide Awakes of 1860, armed with their portable lamp 
 posts, and drilled to the music of the Chicago platform? Sir, I 
 
COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 127 
 
 propose that thirty-five thousand of them be conscripted forthwith. 
 They will never enlist ; they never do. They are " Home Guards." 
 They "don t go," but stay vigorously at home to slander and abuse 
 and threaten Democrats whose fathers or brothers or sons are in the 
 Union armies, or have fallen in battle. I speak generally certainly 
 there are exceptions. But I will engage that if the records of the 
 old Wide Awake clubs in the several cities and towns of Ohio shall 
 be produced, and the Republicans will detail or draft thirty-five 
 thousand from the lists, I will find five thousand strong-armed, stout 
 hearted, brave and loyal Democrats to go down and see that they 
 do n t run away at the first fire. (Great laughter.) 
 
 Sympathizers with treason and traitors ! Secessionists ! Sir, it is 
 about time that we have heard the last of this. The Democracy of 
 Ohio, and of the United States, are resolved that an end shall be put 
 to this sort of slander and abuse. But I do not propose to discuss 
 this particular subject further now. (Go on, go on.) 
 
 "Well, then, from that which concerns the Democratic party, to a 
 word, a single word, about what relates to myself; and I beg pardon 
 for the digression. I am rejoiced that it has been permitted to me to 
 be here present, to-day, in person before you. Had you believed the 
 reports of the Republican press, you would, no doubt, have expected 
 to see, probably, the most extraordinary compound of leprous and 
 unsightly flesh and blood ever exhibited. (Laughter.) Well, my 
 friends, you see that I am not quite "monstrous," at least, and bear 
 no especial resemblance to the beast of the Apocalypse, either in 
 heads or horns, but am a man of like fashion with yourselves. To 
 the Republican party alone, and its press and its orators, I am 
 indebted, no doubt, for a large part of the "curiosity" which, I am 
 sorry to say, I seem to have excited, and which has brought out 
 even some of them, as if to "see the elephant." They have never 
 meant to be friendly toward me, I know; but as I see some of 
 them now within my vision, let me whisper in their ears, that I never 
 had better friends, and no man had, since the world began. They 
 have advertised me free of cost, absolutely free of cost, for the last 
 fifteen months; yes, I may say, for some five years past, all over 
 the United States. Why, sir, a Republican editor, without "the un 
 dersigned" for a text, would be the most unhappy mortal in the 
 world. Every little "printer s devil" in the office would be hallooing 
 for copy, and no copy to be had. I know that they are friends, by 
 the usual sign, "the remarks they make." Gentlemen, I have had my 
 share of what Jefferson called the unction, the holy oil with which 
 the Democratic priesthood has always been anointed slander, detrac 
 tion, and calumny without stint. Really, I am not sure that with 
 me it has not reached "extreme unction," though I am by no means 
 ready, and do not mean to depart yet. Well, I will not complain. 
 It has cost me not a single night s loss of sleep from the beginning. 
 My appetite, if you will pardon the reference if you will allow me, 
 as Lincoln would say, to "blab" upon so delicate a subject has 
 been in no degree impaired by it. Others before me, and with me, 
 have endured the same. Here is my excellent friend near me (Mr. 
 
128 COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 
 
 Medary). 0, blessed martyr! (Great applause.) For one and 
 sixty years the storms of partisan persecution, and malignity in 
 every form, have beaten upon his head ; but, though time and toil 
 have made it gray, the heart beneath beats still, to-day, as sound and 
 true to its instincts of Democracy and patriotism, and of humanity 
 too, as when he laid his first offerings upon the altar of his country, 
 just forty years ago. What others have heroically suffered in ages 
 past, we, too, can endure. 
 
 We are all, indeed, still in the midst of trials. Here, before me, 
 is the gentleman of whom I have just spoken, whom you have hon 
 ored with the Presidency of this noble Convention, for forty years a 
 Democratic editor for forty years devoted to the Constitution and 
 the Union of these States a man who, through evil and through good 
 report, has adhered, with the faith of a devotee and the firmness of 
 a martyr, to the principles and policy of that grand old party of the 
 Union ; and now that the frosts of three-score years have descended 
 and whitened his head he, I say, has lived to see the paper to 
 which he gives the labor and the wisdom of his declining years, 
 prohibited from circulation through a part of the mails as " disloyal " 
 to the Government ! (Cries of no, no, shame !) Samuel Medary 
 disloyal ! and Wendell Phillips a patriot ! Sir, it is not many months 
 since, that in the city of Washington, in that magnificent building 
 erected by the charity of an Englishman who loved America I 
 would there were more like him that art and science might the 
 more widely flourish in this country the Smithsonian Institute 
 Wendell Phillips addressed an assemblage of men as false to the 
 Union and the Constitution as himself. Upon the platform was the 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives, the third officer in the 
 Government; by his side the Vice-President of the United States, 
 and between these two, in proportions long drawn out, the form of 
 "Honest Old Abraham Lincoln." Am I mistaken, and was it at 
 another and earlier abolition lecture by that other disunionist, Horace 
 Greeley, in the same place there have been many of them that 
 Lincoln attended? The Speaker and Yice-President, I know, were 
 there ; and with these two or three witnesses before him, and in 
 presence of the priesthood of Abolitionism, the Sumners and Wilsons, 
 the Lovejoys and the Wades of the House and Senate, (great laugh 
 ter,) surrounded by these, the very architects of disunion, he pro 
 claimed that "for nineteen years he had labored to take nineteen 
 States out of the Union." And yet this most spotted traitor was 
 pleading for disunion in the City of Washington, where women are 
 arrested for the wearing of red, white, and red upon their bonnets, 
 and babes of eighteen months are dragged from the little willow 
 wagons drawn by their nurses, because certain colors, called seditious, 
 are found upon their swaddling clothes! The next day, or soon 
 after, this same Wendell Phillips did dine with, or was otherwise 
 entertained, by his Excellency, the President of the United States, 
 who related to him one of his choicest anecdotes. Yet Democratic 
 editors, Democratic Senators and Representatives, and those holding 
 other official positiens by the grace of the States or of the people, 
 
COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 129 
 
 are " traitors " forsooth, because they would adhere to the principles 
 and organization of their noble and patriotic old party ! Such are 
 some of the exhibitions which Washington has witnessed during the 
 past Winter. 
 
 Congress, too, has been in session. Sir, I saw it announced in one 
 of the disloyal papers of this city yesterday, that Jeff. Davis and 
 Toombs and Yancey and flhett and other secessionists of the South, 
 would derive much comfort from this day s meeting. Well, sir, I 
 have just come from a body of men which I would not, for a moment, 
 pretend to compare for statesmanship, respectability, or patriotism 
 with this Convention. That body has devoted its time and attention 
 to doing more, in six months, for the cause of secessionism, than 
 Beauregard and Lee and Johnson and all the southern Generals 
 combined have been able to accomplish in one year. Said a Senator 
 from the South, the other day, a Union man : " Jeff. Davis is run 
 ning two Congresses now, and is making a d d sight more out of 
 the Washington Congress than the one at Richmond." (Laughter, 
 and many remarks of approval.) 
 
 Sir, the legislation of that body has been almost wholly for the 
 "Almighty African." From the prayer in the morning for, gentle 
 man, we are a pious body, we are making long faces, and somtimes 
 wry faces, too, (laughter,) we open with prayer, but there is not 
 much of the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth in it from the 
 prayer to the motion to adjourn, it is negro in every shape and form 
 in which he can, by any possibility, be served up. But it is not 
 only the negro inside of the House and Senate, but, outside, also. 
 The city of Washington has, within the past three weeks, been con 
 verted into one universal hospital ; every church, except one for each 
 denomination, has been seized for hospital purposes. But while the 
 sanctuaries of the Ever-living God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob not the new god of the Burlingames and Sumners and other 
 Abolitionists, not that god whose gospel is written in the new bible 
 of Abolition but the Ever-living Jehovah God have been confiscated 
 for hospitals, every theater, every concert, saloon, every other place 
 of amusement, from the highest to the lowest, from the spacious 
 theater in which a Forrest exhibits to an enraptured audience his 
 graphic renderings of the immortal creations of Shakespeare, down 
 to the basest den of revelry and drunkenness, is open still. As in the 
 Inferno of the great Italian poet 
 
 "The gates of hell stand open night and day." 
 
 Sir, if these places of amusement innocent some of them, but 
 not holy, certainly had first been seized as hospitals for the comfort 
 and cure of the thousands of brave and honest men who went forth 
 believing in their hearts that they were to battle for the Constitution 
 and the Union, but who now lie wasting away upon their lonely- 
 pallets, with no wife, or sister, or mother there to soothe, groaning 
 in agony, with every description of wound which the devilish ingen 
 uity of man can inflict by weapons whose invention would seem to 
 have been inspired by the very spirit of the author of all human 
 9 
 
130 COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 
 
 woe and suffering wounds, too, rankling and festering for the want 
 of surgical aid if those places, I say, had first been seized, and 
 then it had become necessary, for the comfort or life of the thousands 
 of other sick and wounded who are borne in the city every day, to 
 occupy the churches of Washington, I know of no better or holier 
 purpose to which they could have been devoted. And now, sir, not 
 far from that stately capitol, within whose marble walls Abolition 
 treason now runs riot, is a building, " Green s Row " by name, rented 
 by the Government, in which one thousand one hundred fugitive 
 slaves "contrabands," in the precious slang of the infamous Butler 
 daily receive the rations of the soldier, which are paid for out of 
 the taxes levied upon the people. One hundred thousand dollars a 
 day are taken from the public treasury for the support of fugitive 
 slaves there and elsewhere ; while the army of Shields, and other 
 Umon armies in the field, even so late as six weeks ago, marched 
 barefooted, bareheaded, and in their drawers, for many weary miles, 
 without so much as a cracker or a crust of bread with which to allay 
 their hunger. Ay, sir, while many a gallant young soldier of 
 Ohio, just blooming into manhood, who heard the cry that went up 
 fifteen months ago : " Ptally to defend the flag, and for the rescue of 
 fche capital," and went forth to battle, with honesty in his heart, his 
 life in his hand, with courage in every fiber, and patriotism in every 
 vein, lies wan and sad on his pallet in the hospital, your surgeons 
 are forced to divide their time and care between the wounded soldiers 
 and these vagabond fugitive slaves, who have been seduced or forced 
 from the service of their masters. These things, and much more 
 I have told you not a tithe of all are done in Washington. We 
 know it there, though it is withheld from the people ; and while every 
 falsehood that the ingenuity of man can invent to delude and deceive, 
 is transmitted or allowed by the telegraphic censors of the Admin 
 istration themselves usurpers unknown to the Constitution and laws 
 these facts are not permitted to reach the people of the United 
 States. 
 
 Your newspapers, the natural watch-dogs of liberty, are threatened 
 with suppression, if but the half or the hundredth part of the truth 
 be told. And now, too, when but one other means remains for the 
 redress of this and the hundred other political grievances under 
 which the land groans party organization and public assemblages 
 of the people even these, too, are threatened with suppression by 
 armed force. Ay, sir, that very party, which, not many years ago, 
 bore upon every banner the motto, "Free Speech and a Free Press," 
 now, day by day, forbids the transmission through your mails of the 
 papers from which you derive your knowledge of public events, and 
 which advocate the principles you cherish. And Democratic editors, 
 too, are seized, "kidnapped" in the midnight hour torn from their 
 families gagged their wives with officers over them menacing vio 
 lence if they but ask one farewell grasp of the hand, one parting 
 kiss thrust into a close carriage, in the felon hour of midnight, and 
 with violence dragged to this capital, and here forced upon an express 
 train and hurried off to a military fortress of the United States- 
 
COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 131 
 
 Yes, men of Ohio, to a fortress that bears the honored name of that 
 nrst martyr to American liberty the Warren of Bunker Hill ; or, 
 it may be, to that other bastile, desecrating that other name sacred 
 in American history, and honored throughout the earth the name 
 of that man who forsook home and gave up rank and title, and, in 
 the first flush of youth and manhood, came to our shores and linked 
 his fortunes with the American cause the prisoner of Olmutz, the 
 brave and gallant Lafayette. /^Vy, freemen of the West, fortresses 
 bearing these honored names, and meant for the defense of the coun 
 try against foreign foes, and out of whose casemates bristle cannon 
 planted to hurl death and destruction at armed invaders, echo now 
 with the groans and are watered by the tears not of men only from 
 States seceded and in rebellion, or captured in war, but from the 
 loyal States of the North and the West, and from that party which 
 has contributed nearly three-fourths of the soldiers in the field 
 to-day. Are these things to be borne ? (Never ; no, never.) If 
 you have the spirit of freemen in you, bear them not ! / (Great 
 applause, and cries of that s it, that s the talk.) What is life 
 worth ? What are property and personal liberty and political liberty 
 worth ; of what value are all these things, if we, born of an ancestry 
 of freemen, boasting, in the very first hours of our boyhood, of a 
 more extended liberty than was ever vouchsafed to any other people, 
 are to fail now in this the hour of sore trial, to demand and to defend 
 them at every hazard ? Freedom of the press ! Is the man who sits 
 in the White House at Washington, and who owes all his power to 
 the press and the ballot, is he now to play the tyrant over us? (No; 
 never, never !) Shall the man who sits at one end of a telegraphic 
 wire in the War Department, or the Department of State a mere 
 clerk, it may be, a servant of servants sit down, and by one single 
 click of the instrument, order some minion of his, a thousad miles 
 off, to arrest Samuel Medary, or Judge Ilanney, or Judge Thurman, 
 and hurry them to a bastile ? (No ; it can t be done ; we will never 
 allow it.) The Constitution says : "No man shall be held to answer for 
 crime except on due process of law." Our fathers, six hundred years 
 ago, assembled upon the plains of Runnymede, in old England, and 
 rescued from tyrant hands, by arms and firm resolve, the God-given 
 right to be free. Our fathers, in the time of James I, and of Charles 
 I, and James II, endured trial and persecution and loss of life and of 
 liberty, rather than submit to oppression and wrong. John Hamp- 
 den glorious John Hampden ! the first gentleman of England 
 arrested upon an illegal executive warrant went calmly and hero 
 ically to the cells of a prison rather than pay twenty shillings of an 
 illegally-assessed tax, laid in defiance of the Constitution and laws 
 of England, and of the rights and privileges of Englishmen. And all 
 history is full of like examples. William Tell brooked the tyrant s 
 frown in his day and generation, in defense of these same rights, 
 in the noble Republic of the Swiss ; and that gallant little people, 
 hemmed in among the Alps, though surrounded on every side by 
 despots whose legions numbered more than the whole population of 
 Switzerland, have, by that same indomitable spirit of freedom, main- 
 
132 COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 
 
 tainted their rights, their liberties, and their independence to this 
 hour. And are Americans now to offer themselves up a servile sac 
 rifice upon the altar of arbitrary power? Sir, I have misread the 
 signs of the times, and the temper of the people, if there is net 
 already a spirit in the land which is about to speak in thunder-tones 
 to those who stretch forth still the strong arm of despotic power 
 "Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther. We made you; you are 
 our servants." That, sir, was the language which 1 was taught to 
 apply to men in office when I was a youth, or in first manhood and 
 a private citizen, and afterward, when holding office as the gift of the 
 people, to hear applied to me ; and I bore the title proudly. And I 
 asked then, as I ask now, no other or better reward than, " Well 
 done, good and faithful servant." (Cries of "You shall have it; you 
 deserve it/ ) But to-day, they who are our servants, creatures made 
 out of nothing by the power of the people, whose little brief author 
 ity was breathed into their nostrils by the people, would now, for 
 sooth, become the masters of the people; while the organs and 
 instruments of the people the press and public assemblages are 
 to be suppressed ; and the Constitution, with its right of petition, 
 and of due process of law, and trial by jury, and the laws, and all else 
 which makes life worth possessing, are to be sacrificed now upon the 
 tyrant s plea that it is necessary to save the Government, the Union. 
 Sir, we did save the Union for years yes, we did. We were the 
 " Union savers,"" not eighteen months ago. Then there was not an 
 epithet in the whole vocabulary of political Billingsgate so oppro 
 brious in the eyes of a Republican, when applied to the Democratic 
 party, as " Union shriekers," or " Union savers." I remember, in 
 my own city, on the day of the Presidential election, in 1860 I 
 remember it well, for I had that day traveled several hundred miles 
 to vote Cor Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidency that, in a ward 
 where the judges of election were all Democrats, your patriotic Wide- 
 Awakes, strutting in unctuous uniform, came up, hour after hour, 
 thrusting their Lincoln tickets twixt thumb and finger at the judges, 
 with the taunt and sneer, "Save the Union! Save tlie Union T And 
 yet now, forsooth, we are "traitors" and "secessionists!" And old 
 gray-bearded and gray-headed men, who lived and voted in the times 
 of Jefferson and Madison and Monroe and Jackson men who have 
 fought and bled upon the battle-field, and who fondly indulged the 
 delusion, for forty years, that they were patriots, wake up suddenly 
 to-day to find themselves "traitors!" sneered at, reviled and insulted 
 by striplings " whose fathers they would have disdained to have set 
 with the dogs of their flocks." Of all these things an inquisition, 
 searching and terrible, will yet be made, as sure and as sudden, too, 
 it may be, as the day of judgment. We of the loyal States we of the 
 loyal party of the country, the Democratic party we, the loyal citi 
 zens of the United States, the editors of loyal newspapers we, who 
 gather together in loyal assemblages, like this, and are addressed by 
 truly loyal and Union men, as I know you are to-day and at this mo 
 ment (that s so ; that s the truth) we, forsooth, are to be now denied 
 our privileges and our rights as Americans and as freemen ; we a r e 
 
COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 133 
 
 to be threatened with bayonets at the ballot-box, and bayonets to 
 disperse Democratic meetings ! Again I ask, why do they not take 
 up their muskets and march to the South, and, like brave men; meet 
 the embattled hosts of the confederates in open arms, instead of 
 threatening, craven like, to fight unarmed Democrats at home pos 
 sibly unarmed, and possibly riot. (Laughter and applause, and a 
 remark. " That was well put in.") If so belligerent, so eager to shed 
 that last drop of blood, let them volunteer to re-enforce the broken 
 arid shattered columns of McClellan in front of Richmond, sacrificed 
 as he has been by the devilish machinations of Abolition, and there 
 mingle their blood with the blood of the thousands who have already 
 perished on those fatal battle-fields. But no; the whistle of the bul 
 let and the song of the shell are not the sort of music to fall pleas 
 antly upon the ears of this Home Guard Republican soldiery. 
 
 \Vitli reason, therefore, fellow-citizens, I congratulate you to-day 
 upon the victory which you have achieved. A great poet has said : 
 
 "Peace hath her victories as well as War." 
 
 To-day the cause of free government has triumphed. A victory of 
 the Constitution, a victory of the Union has been won, but is yet to 
 be made complete by the men who go forth from this, the first polit 
 ical battle-field of the campaign, bearing upon their banners that 
 noble legend, that grand inscription, THE CONSTITUTION AS IT IS, 
 AND THE UNION AS IT WAS. (Great cheering.) In that sign shall 
 you conquer. Let it be inscribed upon every ballot, emblazoned 
 upon every banner, flung abroad to every breeze, whispered in the 
 zephyr, and thundered in the tempest, till its echoes shall rouse the 
 fainting spirit of every patriot and freeman in the land. It is the 
 creed of the truly loyal Democracy of the United States. In behalf 
 of this great cause it is that we are now, if need be, to do and to 
 suffer in political warfare whatever may be demanded of freemen who 
 know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain them. Is there any 
 one man, in all this vast assemblage, afraid to meet all the respon 
 sibilities which an earnest and inexorable discharge of duty ma 
 require at his hands in the canvass before us? (No, no, not one. 
 If but one, let him go home and hide his head for very shame : 
 
 "Who would be a traitor knave? 
 Who could fill a coward s grave? 
 Who so base as be a slave ? 
 
 Let him turn and flee: 
 
 It is no contest of arms to which you are invited. Your fathers, 
 your brothers, your sons are already, by thousands and hundreds of 
 thousands, on the battle-field. To-day their bones lie bleaching 
 upon the soil of every southern State, from South Carolina to Mis 
 souri. It is to another conflict, men of Ohio, that you are summoned, 
 but a conflict, nevertheless, which will demand of you some portion, 
 at least, of that same determined courage, that same unconquerable 
 will, that same inexorable spirit of endurance, which make the hero 
 upon the military battle-field. I have mistaken the temper of the 
 men who arc here to-day, I have misread the firm purpose that speaks 
 
134 COLUMBUS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 
 
 in every eye and beams from every countenance, which stiffens every 
 sinew and throbs in every breast; I have misread it all, if you are 
 not resolved to go home and there maintain, at all hazards and by 
 every sacrifice, the principles, the policy, and the organization of that 
 party to which again, and yet again, I declare unto you, this Govern 
 ment and country are indebted for all that have made them grand, 
 glorious, and great, (Cheers and great applause.) 
 
 The foregoing speech was received with shouts of applause, some 
 times obliging the speaker to wait. In fact, the whole reception of 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, at Columbus, was one of the proudest and most 
 gratifying that could have been given. He arrived from Washing 
 ton on the 3d, and about midnight, on that evening, a crowd sur 
 rounded his hotel, and made it unmistakably evident that a speech 
 must be forthcoming, or there would be no sleep for him or them 
 that night. And, again, on the evening of the 4th, another speech 
 was demanded, and given from the balcony of the hotel three 
 speeches within twenty hours. 
 
 Those exhibitions of deep interest and profound admiration, thus 
 given in behalf of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, were that spontaneous 
 reaction which, sooner or later, was sure to return to the man who, 
 in the hour of his country s most imminent peril, and when sur 
 rounded and pressed upon, from every direction, by the most malig 
 nant obloquy and reproach, still adhered, with unflinching integrity 
 and firmness, to those great principles of political justice and truth 
 wherein is involved the only hope for our country. This speech 
 was made the subject of a long and complimentary review in the 
 London Times. 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 135 
 
 NUMBER SEVEN. 
 
 STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED AT DAYTON, AUGUST 2, 1862. 
 
 THE reign of terror was at its hight, and the most serious appre 
 hensions were entertained for the personal safety of Mr. YALLAN- 
 DIQHAM, when he announced his determination to address the public 
 in Dayton. A bolder stroke was never made, nor a more fearless exhi 
 bition given, of high moral as well as physical courage. At the first 
 intimation of the proposed meeting, a low, ugly growl, like the fretting 
 of hungry but chained tigers, might have been heard in the purlieus 
 of Abolition fanaticism, and those were the places where the edicts 
 of the Abrahamic dynasty were kept, and whence they were issued. 
 It has been said that fanaticism is one of the hounds who, when 
 once they have tasted blood, never bolt their track. But this hound 
 does sometimes bolt his track ; at least, he cowers and hides himself, 
 when he sees his prey is too large for his grapple. An exhibition 
 of that sort was given in Dayton, on the 2d of August, 1862. Mr. 
 VALLANDIGHAM had been selected as their next victim by the base 
 minions of a corrupt and desperate Administration. As some 
 blood-thirsty, but cowardly beast of prey watches for his victim, so 
 had they been watching for him, and a good time to pounce upon 
 him had come, if only the pounce could be made without danger to 
 themselves. But as the hour for the meeting approached, the brave 
 and true men of Montgomery and adjacent counties were seen coming 
 in, until fully seven thousand were there. The men who had sworn 
 that VALLANDIGHAM should never again speak in Dayton, very 
 wisely concluded that discretion was better than valor ; so gracefully 
 retired behind each other, and kept that position till the speech was 
 over. A few hours before the speaking commenced, the Empire of 
 that day was distributed through the city, and contained a few words 
 of prudent advice, which may have been of some service in bringing 
 
136 STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 those men to the conclusion they came to. After stating the object 
 of the meeting, and alluding to threats of disturbance, the Empire 
 said : 
 
 Political meetings, like churches, are open alike to saint and to 
 sinner all who conduct themselves in an orderly manner are invited, 
 and all such are made welcome. We have no apprehension that 
 the threats of a few shoulder-hitters, urged on by those who lack 
 but the courage to do that which they urge others to do, will be 
 carried out. The Democrats present will preserve the peace and 
 the credit of our city, and will tolerate no disturbance of any kind. 
 No affray, no disturbance, will be commenced by them, but they will 
 promptly end all such summarily, and with as little disorder as the 
 nature of the case will admit. 
 
 This advice was taken, and, without interruption, the speech was 
 delivered to a vast assembly, on the south side of the Court-House. 
 Of this speech, Gov. Medary, republishing it in the Crisis, sjiid : 
 
 It should be read by every voter in the United States. Nothing 
 equal to it has been made during the past few years. Seldom has 
 it ever been equaled for power, pathos, purity of diction, and truth 
 fulness in point of facts. Elevated in tone, statesmanlike in concep 
 tion, it thrills the reader as though fresh from a Roman Senate in 
 the hour of Rome s most terrible trials for freedom and existence. 
 It should be read in every school-house, to the assembled people, 
 before the elections, on the second Tuesday of next October. 
 
 The following report is full in some parts, in others condensed : 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM began by an allusion to the fact that he had 
 arranged to be absent from the city, on a visit to an aged and very 
 near relative, but that, meantime, false charges, and rumors also as to 
 intended arrests, were started. My rule, said he, is to always meet 
 such things a little more than half way. Conscious of rectitude, I 
 mean, face to face with every foe and every danger, to do all, and to 
 bear all that may become a man ; and, therefore, at much incon 
 venience, I have postponed my visit, and am here to-night, surrounded 
 by thousands of such constituents and friends as no man ever had. 
 
 He then referred to the spring election and its result in this city, 
 upon a direct issue against himself, presented to and accepted by his 
 friends the triumphant election of the whole Democratic city ticket; 
 and observed that the lesson to our enemies was a severe one, and 
 that they ought to learn from it that there was such a thing as abus 
 ing a man so persistently, wantonly, and wickedly, as to make him 
 immensely popular.* 
 
 Mr. V. next gave a full and minute narrative of the infamous con 
 spiracy just exploded, to procure his arrest as "implicated " with two 
 clergymen from the " Border States," who had been guests at his 
 
 * u The City of Dayton repudiates Clement L. Vallandigham," Dayton 
 Republican Platform. 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 137 
 
 house. Nothing had been found ; both of them were promptly 
 released, and the whole plot had failed. But those concerned in it, 
 some of them " Christians," were known, and would be remembered. 
 A telegraphic dispatch had been prepared by one of the conspirators, 
 and sent off to the New York Tribune, from Dayton, though dated at 
 Columbus, announcing his (Mr. V. s) "arrest;" and it had never 
 been contradicted to this day.* Democrats, said he, have never 
 received any justice at the hand of the telegraph, and never will, till 
 after the 4th of March, 1865, when, with every thing else, it will be 
 in Democratic hands. The Republican party are teaching us many 
 things, and may find us apt scholars, possibly improving on their 
 lessons, if they shall finally succeed in overthrowing all constitution, 
 law, and order. But I trust that it will never come to this. 
 
 I am for obedience to all laws and constitutions. No man can be 
 a good democrat who is not in favor of law and order. No matter 
 how distasteful constitutions and laws may be, they must be obeyed. 
 I am opposed to all mobs, and opposed also inexorably opposed 
 above every thing, to all violations of constitution and law by men in 
 authority public servants. The danger from usurpations and viola 
 tions by them is fifty-fold greater than from any other quarter, 
 because these violations and usurpations come clothed with the false 
 semblance of authority. Those parts of our constitutions and laws 
 which command or restrain the people must be obeyed ; but still 
 more must those also which limit and restrain public servants,, from 
 the President down. There are rights of the people, to secure which 
 constitutions were ordained, and they must and wi\\ be exacted at all 
 hazards ; and among the most sacred of these rights, are free speech, 
 a free press, public assemblages, political liberty, and above all, or 
 at least, at the foundation of all, PERSONAL LIBERTY, or freedom 
 from illegal and arbitrary arrests. It was a right, secured in Greece, 
 while she was free, and in Rome in her purer days. But it is pecul 
 iarly an Anglo-Saxon right; and it has cost more struggles in En 
 gland to hold it fast than any other. The right is declared, in the 
 strongest language, in the GREAT CHARTER, in the time of King 
 John, six hundred years ago. Here is the pledge wrung from the 
 tyrant by men, none of whom could read or write, but who were 
 resolved to be free : 
 
 " No freeman shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or disseized (of property), or 
 outlawed, or banished, or any ways injured, nor will we pass sentence upon 
 him, nor send trial upon him, UNLESS BY THE LEGAL JUDGMENT OF HIS PEERS, 
 
 OR BY THE LAW OF THE LAND." 
 
 This is the " keystone of English liberty," the pride and boast 
 of every Englishman. The violation of it cost one English monarch 
 his head, another his crown, and a third his most valuable colonies; 
 and to-day, if Queen Victoria were to attempt to suspend it by tele 
 graph, or by executive order, or order of privy council in any way, 
 she would be a refugee in a foreign laiyl before a fortnight. 
 
 * A full account of the infamous transaction here referred to, was published 
 in the Dayton Empire, Aug. 5, 1862. 
 
138 STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 Eighty years later, this sacred and invaluable right to be free from 
 arrest, except by law, was confirmed ; and in 1627, by the celebrated 
 Petition of Right, drawn up by that great lawyer, Lord Coke, was 
 again confirmed and extended, as follow : 
 
 " No man, of what estate or condition that he be, shall be put out of his 
 land, or tenements, nor arrested, nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, nor put 
 to death, without being brought to answer BY DUE PROCESS or LAW." 
 
 And it was further provided that no commissioner should be 
 appointed to try any one by " martial law," who was not in the army, 
 " lest by color of them, any of his Majesty s subjects be destroyed, 
 or put to death, contrary to the laws and franchises of the land." 
 
 Next came the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, to secure the rights 
 asserted by the Great Charter and its confirmations, a statute by 
 virtue of which, says Lord Campbell and with shame I confess now 
 to the justice of the proud boast "Personal liberty has been more 
 effectually guarded in England than it has in any country in the 
 world." 
 
 Next after this came the Bill of Rights of 1689, enacted by the 
 profoundest statesmen and purest patriots which England ever had. 
 These great and good men, after that, by arms, they had driven 
 James II from the throne, for his repeated violations of the rights 
 of Englishmen, declared that he had been guilty of an attempt to 
 subvert the laws and liberties of the kingdom, among other things : 
 
 " 1. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending 
 of laws and the execution of laws, without consent of Parliament. 
 
 " 2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, for humbly peti 
 tioning to be excused from concurring to the said assumed power. 
 
 " 7- By violating the freedom of election of memhers to serve in Parliament. 
 
 " All which," say they, " are utterly and directly contrary to the known 
 laws and statutes and freedom of this realm." 
 
 These, sir, are the " Liberties of Englishmen." They are the 
 Liberties which were brought over by our ancestors from England, 
 and embodied in all our constitutions and laws. In 1641, twenty 
 years after the first settlement of Massachusetts, that infant colony 
 declared, in her " Body of Liberties," that 
 
 "No man s life shall be taken away, no man s honor or good name shall be 
 stained, no man s person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismembered, 
 nor any ways punished, no man shall be deprived of his wife or children, no 
 man s goods or estate shall be taken away from him, nor any way endamaged 
 under color of law or countenance of authority, unless it be by virtue or equity 
 of some express law o the country, warranting the same, etc. 
 
 " No man s person shall be restrained or imprisoned by any authority what 
 soever, before the law hath sentenced him thereto, if he can put in sufficient 
 security, bail, or mainprise," etc. 
 
 So, also, in the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776, 
 among the many grievances set forth against the king, are the 
 following : 
 
 " He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, tho 
 civil power: 
 
 " For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury : 
 " For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses." 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 139 
 
 In the Virginia " Bill of Rights " of 1776, written also by Jefferson, 
 it is declared that 
 
 "All power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that 
 magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. 
 
 " All power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, Ly any authority, 
 without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, 
 and ought not to be exercised. 
 
 " In all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and gov 
 erned by, the civil power. 
 
 "Freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can 
 never be restrained, but by despotic governments." 
 
 And yet again ; in the " Declaration of Rights " of Massachusetts, 
 in 1780, it is laid down that 
 
 " No person shall be held to answer for any crime or offense, until the same 
 is fully and plainly, substantially and formally described to him. And no per 
 son shall be arrested, imprisoned, or despoiled, or deprived of his propertv, im 
 munities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled or deprived 
 of his life, liberty, or estate, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the 
 land. 
 
 "Every person has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches and 
 seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions. 
 
 u The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a State. 
 
 " The people have a right to keep and bear arms for the common defense. 
 The military power shall always be held in exact subordination to the civil 
 authority, and be governed by it. 
 
 " The people have a right in an orderly and peaceable manner to assemble, 
 to consult upon the common good. 
 
 "The power of suspending the laws ought never to be exercised but by the 
 Legislature, or by authority derived from it, to be exercised in such particular 
 cases only as the Legislature shall expressly provide for. 
 
 " Nu person can. in any cose, be subjected to law martial, or to any penalties 
 or pains, by virtue of that law, (except those employed in the army or navy, 
 and except the militia in actual service,) but by authority of the Legislature. " 
 
 Such were the liberties of Americans in the. Revolutionary period 
 of our history, and before it ; and they have been embodied in all 
 our constitutions ever since. 
 
 Let the present Constitution of Ohio speak. In our " Bill of 
 Rights " we declare that 
 
 "All political power is inherent in the people. 
 
 " The people have the right to assemble together in a peaceable manner, to 
 consult for their common good ; to instruct their representatives, and to petition 
 the General Assembly for the redress of grievances. 
 
 "The people have the right to bear arms for their defense and security. 
 The military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power. 
 
 " The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless, 
 in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety require it. No power of 
 suspending laws shall ever be exercised except by the General Assembly. 
 
 "In any trial, in any court, the party accused shall be allowed "a speedy 
 public trial, by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the 
 offense is alleged to have been committed. 
 
 " Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all 
 subjects, being responsible for the abuse of the right; and no law shall be 
 passed to abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. 
 
 " The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and 
 possessions, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. 
 
140 STATE OP THE COUNTRY. 
 
 " All courts shall be open, and justice administered without denial or 
 delay." 
 
 Similar provisions exist in every State constitution in the United 
 States, thus securing every citizen from State tyranny and oppression. 
 Nor is the Federal Constitution less ample and explicit. Hear it : 
 
 "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the 
 United States." 
 
 " The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless 
 when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety require it." 
 
 Now, sir, from the beginning of the Government down to the year 
 1861, no lawyer, no jurist, no statesman, no writer upon the Consti 
 tution, ever pretended that the President, or any other authority, 
 could suspend the privilege of this writ, except Congress alone. 
 
 But I read further : 
 
 "The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising 
 under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or 
 which shall be made, under their authority. 
 
 " The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, 
 and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have 
 been committed. 
 
 " Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against 
 them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No 
 person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two wit 
 nesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 
 
 "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
 prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or 
 of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, arid to petition 
 the government for a redress of grievances. 
 
 "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 
 
 "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and 
 effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and 
 no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or allirrna- 
 tion, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons and 
 things to be seized. 
 
 " No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous 
 crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases 
 arising in the land and naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, 
 in time of war and public danger ; XOR SHALL BE DEPRIVED OF LIFE, LIB 
 ERTY, OR PROPERTY, WITHOUT DUE PROCESS OF LAW; nor shall private prop 
 erty be taken for public use without just compensation. 
 
 "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy 
 and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the 
 crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously 
 ascertained by law; and to be informed of the nature and cause of the 
 accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have com 
 pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance 
 of counsel for his defense. 
 
 "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
 prohibited by it to the- States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to 
 the people." 
 
 These, thus repeated and multiplied over and over again, are the 
 Magna Charta of American freemen. They constitute the Body of 
 American Liberties. They cost much blood and treasure, and are 
 worth the most precious treasure and blood of the whole country. 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 141 
 
 Let them be maintained at every hazard and sacrifice. They are 
 dearer in time of war and public danger, than in time of peace. 
 They are secured by the Constitution, and can only be forfeited in 
 accordance with the Constitution. I abhor and denounce the mon 
 strous doctrine, so rife of late, that the Constitution is suspended in 
 time of war ; or that the powers under it are enlarged ; or, at least, 
 that there is a " war power " above and greater than the Constitu 
 tion, Sir, that instrument was made for war as well as peace. It 
 expressly gives to Congress the right to declare war, raise armies, 
 provide navies, and call out the militia to execute the laws, suppress 
 insurrection, put down rebellion, and repel invasion. Every power, 
 the very utmost necessary and proper for carrying on any war, for 
 eign or domestic, is explicitly given. The "tyrant s plea" of neces 
 sity, is false. No power that ought to be exercised is withheld, and 
 every usurpation is utterly without excuse. Whoever maintains that 
 the fraii) ers of the Constitution failed to make it good enough and 
 strong enough for any crisis for war and for peace libels Wash 
 ington and Madison and Hamilton, and the other patriots of 87. 
 And the man who denounces " sticklers " for the Constitution, and 
 declares that he can tell a " traitor " by his crying out for the Con 
 stitution, is himself a traitor or a fool. Keep an eye on him. 
 
 We have no hope for ourselves, or our children, except in the Con 
 stitution. The President, more than any other man, is bound to 
 obey it. He takes a solemn oath to support it. It is his duty to 
 act according to law. Among the personal rights under the Consti 
 tution is that of habeas corpus. The uniform testimony of courts 
 and statesmen is that it can be suspended only by Congress. If the 
 President can suspend it, it can only be by proclamation, declaring 
 where, and for how long it is suspended. He has no right to send 
 a dispatch for the arrest of any citizen of the United States, and to 
 -say that, by that act, his minions are authorized to suspend the writ. 
 Better to live in Austria, in Turkey, or under any other admitted 
 despotism, than where the President, the servant of the people, shall 
 seize, without "due process of law," and carry off to prison any citi 
 zen under the pretence of treason. 
 
 These guarantees were not in the original Constitution, but de 
 manded by the States and the people, and added afterwards. They 
 were added for fear some President might be elected who would 
 claim to have the power, if not expressly withheld by the Constitu 
 tion. What are they? Freedom of speech, of the press, peaceable 
 assemblages, the right to keep and bear arms, freedom from illegal 
 arrest. Yet you have been told that we shall not be allowed to enjoy 
 these rights that "executive orders" shall be issued against us 
 that men who represent the voice of the people shall not be heard 
 that the press shall be muzzled, and men s mouths gagged, and no 
 censure or criticism of the acts of the President, or of the officials 
 under him, shall be permitted, under penalty of arrest and imprison 
 ment ; and, thus, that our personal and political liberties shall be 
 disregarded, and the Constitution trampled under foot. 
 
 Well, sir, we shall see about it. " No person shall be deprived of 
 
142 STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 life, liberty , or property, without due process of law." Every civil 
 officer knows what u due process of law " is, and, when armed with 
 such due process, it is the duty of every person to obey. But who 
 ever comes with any other papers, or any pretence of authority, by 
 telegraphic dispatch, or otherwise, from the Secretary of War, Com 
 mander-in-chief, or President, deserves to be met as a burglar. It is 
 a desecration of the citizen. There is a statute against it. Let such 
 persons be met by the law. Every house is a castle, the poor man s 
 cottage as well as the rich man s palace, in which he may defy arbi 
 trary power. Such is the law in England. In the language of Lord 
 Chatham, in that noblest outburst of English eloquence, " The poorest 
 man in his cottage may bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. 
 It may be frail ; its roof may shake ; the wind may blow through it; 
 the storm may enter ; the rain may enter; but the King of England 
 can not enter it. All his power dares not cross the threshold of that 
 ruined tenement." (Tremendous cheering.) 
 
 This right is equally sacred and secured to us here in America, 
 and we will never yield it up. least of all to our own public servants. 
 The sooner it is made known to this Administration that the people 
 who created it and put it in power will maintain their rights, the 
 less trouble there will be. I but repeat the declaration of the two 
 hundred thousand Democratic voters of Ohio fifty thousand of them 
 in the army from this State that freedom can not be violated by the 
 Administration. Hear the resolution of that Democracy, in State 
 Convention assembled, on the 4th of July last : 
 
 "That we view with indignation and alarm the illegal and unconstitutional 
 seizure and imprisonment, for alleged political offenses, of our citizens, with 
 out judicial process, in States where such process was unobstructed, but, by 
 executive order, by telegraph or otherwise; and call upon all who uphold the 
 Union, the Constitution, and the laws, to unite with us in -denouncing and 
 repelling such flagrant violation of the State and Federal Constitutions and 
 tyrannical infraction of the rights and liberties of American citizens; and 
 that the people of this State CAN NOT SAFELY, AND WILL NOT SUBMIT to 
 have the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, the two great 
 essential bulwarks of civil liberty, put down by unwarranted and despotic 
 exertion of power." 
 
 Sir, the men who urge on these violations know not what they do. 
 The title to your lairtis, to your personal property, the legal right 
 to all you have, rests in obedience to constitution and laws. Let 
 this terrible truth be proclaimed everywhere, that whenever, either 
 through infraction and usurpation by the President, or by violence, 
 the Constitution is no longer of binding force and the highest rule 
 of action, then we are at the mercy of mere power, military power 
 at last. This is despotism, absolute, unmixed, cruel despotism a 
 despotism, enforcing its orders to-day by arbitrary imprisonments, 
 and to-morrow by bloody executions. Let all men who love the 
 peace, good order, and happiness of society, who desire that the rights 
 of all classes, and that rights of all kinds shall be maintained, lift 
 up their voices against the arbitrary and unconstitutional acts of the 
 party in power. Men of the Republican party, it is your day now : 
 to-morrow, it may be, it will be ours. Be warned in time. Stand 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 143 
 
 by the Constitution by law and order. Do nothing by usurpation 
 or violence. It must react it will react and there is no raging 
 flood, no mountain torrent, neither the whirlwind, the surging ocean, 
 nor the avalanche, like the madness of an oppressed and outraged 
 people. Do men who are inciting to mobs and acts of violence, or 
 applauding usurpation and infraction of Constitution and law, not 
 know that they are those who suffer most and worst in the end? 
 Do they imagine that they whose nights, sacred, by Grod s appoint 
 ment, to silence and rest, have been invaded without process of law, 
 and their wives and children terror-stricken by arbitrary arrests of 
 husbands and fathers editors and public men of the loyal States, 
 who have languished, for opinion s sake, within Bastiles for months 
 will have no day of reckoning for all these enormities ? Sir, that 
 great reaction has set in ; it hastens on. 0, that you may allow it 
 to be under the Constitution and according to law but come it will ; 
 and be assured be assured that when that great day of account 
 does come, BY THE MEASURE YOU HAVE METED OUT TO us, BY 
 
 THAT MEASURE SHALL IT BE METED OUT TO YOU AGAIN. v Remem 
 ber, remember, that wrongs like these burn deep into the innermost 
 recesses of our souls, steeling them against atonement and mercy ; 
 and that when the inevitable change which already is hurrying on 
 upon the wings of the wind, shall have arrived, that same power by 
 virtue of which you imprison us, will be in our hands. Be warned 
 in time. All history has been written in vain, if our day does not 
 come, and come right speedily: 
 
 "For time at last sets all things even 
 And if we do but watch the hour, 
 There never yet was human power 
 "Which could evade, if unforgiven, 
 The patient search and vigil long 
 Of him who treasures up a wrong." 
 
 I speak it not as a menace, but by way of entreaty, that your 
 hereafter in this life depends upon your adherence to the laws and 
 Constitution. And yet I am amazed to learn that men of wealth 
 and position in this city lawyers, clergy, merchants, and others 
 are proclaiming that those in authority have a right to disobey the 
 Constitution and laws, and ought to disobey them, to secure objects 
 which can not be had without disregarding all law and the personal 
 and political rights of the citizen. Do these men know what they 
 do? Have they read history? 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM here referred, at length, to Greece, Rome, England, 
 and the French Re volution for historic parallels, reading from the 10th and 
 14th chapters of Allison s History of Europe. He quoted the "Law of Sus 
 pected Persons," under which all France was divided into twelve classes liable 
 to arrest; among them the following: 
 
 " 1. All those who, in. the assemblies of the people, discourage their enthu 
 siasm by cries, menaces, or cra/ty discourses. 2. All those who more prudently 
 speak only of the misfortunes of the Republic, and are always ready to spread 
 bad news with an affected air of sorrow. 3. All those who have changed 
 their conduct and language according to the course of events, who were mute 
 on the crimes of the Royalists, and loudly exclaimed against the slight faults 
 
144 STATE OP THE COUNTRY. 
 
 of the Republicans. 10. Those who speak with contempt of the constituted 
 authorities, the ensigns of the law, the popular societies, or the defenders 
 of liberty, " etc. 
 
 Having read these passages, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM proceeded : 
 
 Sir, fifty thousand "Revolutionary Committees" sprang up in 
 France to execute this terrible decree. They numbered five hund 
 red and forty thousand members, each one a special marshal or 
 policeman to enforce it ; and in a few weeks seven hundred thousand 
 citizens were suspected of "disloyalty." The prisons were speedily 
 loaded with victims in every part of France. "Let them quake in 
 their cells," said Collot d Herbois, in the Convention ; " let the base 
 traitors tremble at the successes of our enemies ; let a mine be dug 
 under their prisons, and at the approach of those whom they call 
 their liberators, let a spark blow them into the air." 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM then read a passage concluding as follows: 
 "Night came, but with it no diminution of the anxiety of the people. Every 
 family early assembled its members; with trembling looks they gazed round 
 the room, fearful that the ver} T walls might harbor traitors. The sound of a 
 foot, the stroke of a hammer, a voice in the streets, froze all hearts with hor 
 ror. If a knock was heard at the door, every one, in agonized suspense, 
 expected his fate. Unable to endure such protracted misery, numbers com, 
 mitted suicide." 
 
 Sir, all of these enormities sprang first from a disregard of law 
 and right in little things, or in violations declared to be "necessary;" 
 and advanced step by step, till they culminated in the bloody and 
 accumulated atrocities of Marat, Danton, and Robespierre, when, by 
 execution or massacre, tens of thousands perished. All history is 
 but a repetition of itself; and what has been, may be. You of the 
 Republican party did not believe me, two years and more ago. when 
 I foretold that Abolition and sectionalism must and would produce 
 civil war. And you do not believe me now. Neither did the ante 
 diluvians believe Noah ; but the Flood came. 
 
 It is the history of the past, that, in times of great public danger, 
 the provisions of the law will not be respected. It was that which 
 made France go into such great excesses. They began with the 
 savans and lawyers of France, who taught the multitude that con 
 stitutions and laws and personal rights did not stand in their way ; 
 and that men might be imprisoned or put to death without process 
 of law. In such cases, power falls always, at last, into the hands of 
 the worst of men. 
 
 Let the day of reckoning come, and these men will perish as they 
 have done in all ages. Robespierre died horribly in atonement for 
 his crimes ; and, as the ax fell upon his neck, a woman exclaimed in 
 tones of terrible exultation : " Murderer of my kindred, your agony 
 fills me with joy; descend to hell, covered with the curses of every 
 mother in France!" 
 
 Sirs, by the memories of the past, by the history of the tyrannies 
 of Greece and Rome, and the terrors of the French Revolution, I 
 call on all men -to demand of the Administration that it obey the 
 Constitution. - If any man is a traitor, guilty of any act of treason 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 145 
 
 not for opinion s sake, not for political differences let him "be pro 
 ceeded against according to law, and, if guilty, let him perish on a 
 gallows as high as Hainan s. It is because I would avoid these 
 horrors that I call on the President to keep the exercise of the mil 
 itary law where, the Constitution keeps it, in the army and navy 
 and to see t< it that no man, not in the army arid navy, shall be 
 arrested without "due process of law." 
 
 Hear the Constitution again : " No person shall be deprived of life, 
 liberty, or property without due process of law." " The accused 
 shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial 
 jury." Was this, was either of these rights "enjoyed" by Inlanders, 
 of Malone, in New York, a Democratic editor, who was dragged from 
 his family, imprisoned for months, and then released without charge 
 against him, and without redress for the wrong? Were they enjoyed 
 by General Charles Stone? Were they not flagrantly violated in the 
 person of James W. Wall, the honored son of a patriot Senator of 
 New Jersey? Have they been allowed to any one arrested by "Ex 
 ecutive order?" Sir, this Administration has no Constitutional or 
 legal authority to make these arrests. I have as good a right to 
 arrest the President, or any one of his Cabinet, as he or they have to 
 arrest me or any other citizen in this manner. The Constitution is 
 broad enough and strong enough for any emergency. It points out 
 the mode of arrest and trial wherever there is actual or suspected 
 guilt. Let it be obeyed. I, too, have sworn to support that Constitu 
 tion ; and, more than that, .1 have done it. I demand that all men, from 
 the humblest citizen up to the President, shall be made to obey it 
 likewise. In no other way can we have liberty, order, security. I 
 was born a freeman. I shall die a freeman. It is appointed to all 
 men once to die ; arid death never comes too soon to one in the dis 
 charge of his duty. I have chosen my course have pursued it 
 have adhered to it to this hour, and will to the end, regardless of 
 consequences. My opinions are immovable; fire can not melt them 
 out of me. I scorn the mob. I defy arbitrary power. I may be 
 imprisoned for opinion s sake never for crime ; never because false 
 to the country of my birth, or disloyal to the Constitution which I 
 worship. Other patriots, in other ages, have suffered before me. I 
 may die for the cause; be it so; but the "immortal fire shall outlast 
 the humble organ which conveys it, and the breath of liberty, like 
 the word of the holy man, will not die w r ith the prophet, but survive 
 him." (Loud cheers.) 
 
 And, meantime, men of Dayton, the opinions which I entertain, 
 the deep convictions that control me in that course which, before 
 Almighty God, L believe can alone maintain the Constitution and 
 restore the Union as our fathers made it, I never, never will yield up. 
 Neither hight nor depth, neither death nor life, nor principalities, nor 
 powers, nor things present, nor things to come no, nor the knife of 
 the assassin, shall move me from my firm purpose. (Great and long- 
 continued cheering.) 
 
 The President professes to think that the Union can be restored 
 by arms. I do not, A Union founded on consent can never be 
 10 
 
146 STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 cemented by force. This is the testimony of the Fathers. It was 
 his own. He said, in his Inaugural, but sixteen months ago : 
 
 "Suppose you go to war, you can not fight alwavs; and when, after much 
 loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease lighting, the old identical 
 questions as to terms of intercourse are upon you." 
 
 I agree with him in that. But now we are in the midst of war, 
 and they who really think that war will maintain the Constitution 
 and restore the Union, ought to fight. I am for the Union in any 
 event. It is an impelling necessity, it is manifest destiny, certainly 
 in the Valley of the Mississippi, that we be one people. We never 
 can fulfill the Great Mission appointed for us without it. But, under 
 Providence, it can only be brought about through the wisdom, cour 
 age, and integrity of the people. 
 
 At a late "war meeting," so-called, in this city, it was charged by 
 an ex-Governor of the State, of " tin-cup " memory, that I proposed 
 to divide this country into four confederacies or republics. It is 
 false, and he knew it. I proposed only to divide the Senate into four 
 divisions, and to change the mode of electing the President. And 
 this I did in order to preserve, not to destroy the Union. And still 
 my heart s desire and prayer is to see it restored just as our fathers 
 made it. 
 
 And now, men of Montgomery, I have somewhat to say upon what 
 Mr. Lincoln, in his late proclamation, has most justly and truly called 
 "this unnecessary and injurious CIVIL WAR." I am for suppressing 
 rebellion I am. I always have been. Perhaps my mode is not that 
 of other men ; but I have the right and mean to exercise it still 
 of judging for myself of the true and proper mode. I think mine 
 would have prevented it at first ; and even after it began, would have 
 ended it long since. It must, it will be tried at last, if ever any thing 
 is to be accomplished. But I have had no power to try it. They 
 who have the power have determined upon another way with what 
 success, judge ye and, like a good citizen, I resist not, but stand by 
 to see the result of the experiment. If it is successful in maintaining 
 the Constitution and restoring the Union, I will make full, open, 
 explicit confession that I was wrong, utterly, totally wrong, and will 
 retire to private life the residue of my days. But if it fail let the 
 people judge then between me and my accusers. 
 
 I repeat it : J am for suppressing all rebellion both rebellions. 
 There- are two the Secession Rebellion South, and the Abolition 
 Rebellion North and West. I am against both ; for putting clown 
 .both. Since you have resolved that there shall be war, I commit 
 .the armed Rebellion South, to the soldiers of the army, three-fourths 
 of them Democrats, young Democrats. I commit it to Halleck and 
 Buell and Burnside and others, and to that abused, persecuted, out 
 raged general and patriot, George B. McClellan. (Great cheering.) 
 If he can not do it, it is because, in the nature of things, it is riot 
 possible that it be done in that way. The plan proposed by him 
 was the only one which even so much as promised success. And it 
 implied a restoration of the Union as it was, and, meantime, the 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 147 
 
 maintenance of the Constitution as it is. That is the reason why 
 he has been so persecuted by abolition rebels and disunionists. 
 But it is the proud boast of himself and his friends, that in spite 
 of all their abuse and calumny, he has calmly and steadfastly 
 pursued his policy. All our victories were the result of that 
 policy ; all our reverses followed his supersession. From that hour 
 to this, there has been no victory. Defeat has not lost him the con 
 fidence of the people. He has the devoted and enthusiastic affection 
 of his soldiers; and he has the calmness, the firmness, and the 
 unshaken consistency and persistency of purpose which will enable 
 him to triumph in the end, at least, over his enemies at home. To 
 him, therefore, and to the army, I commit the Secession Rebellion 
 of the South. I waste no breath in idle denunciation of an enemy 
 a thousand miles off. Cursing will not put down men in arms, else 
 there would have been an end to this armed rebellion long ago. As 
 Governor Richardson suggested in Congress, the Jericho of Secession 
 is not to be thrown down by the blowing of Abolition horns. Who 
 ever among the Abolitionists would curse secession, let him enlist, 
 and then he will show his faith by his works, and your armies will 
 be full in a week. Let every man who would invite others to go, 
 first go himself. I have never interfered with enlistments. While 
 the war lasts, our armies, for many reasons, must not be disbanded j 
 I said in Congress more than a year ago. Without enlistments 
 they can not be kept up ; and if any man, subject to military duty, 
 really thinks that the Union can be restored by force and arms, and 
 only in that way, let him enlist ; it is his duty to enlist ; he is 
 disloyal" if he does not enlist. (Cries of good, good; that s the 
 talk.) Whoever shall be drafted, should a draft be ordered accord 
 ing to Constitution and law, is in duty bound, no matter what he 
 thinks of the war, to either go, or find a substitute, or pay the fine 
 which the law imposes; he lias no right to resist, and none to run 
 away. 
 
 .Xl have said that, in my deliberate and solemn judgment, war can 
 not restore the Union, but. if continued long enough, must destroy 
 it; and, it may be, our own liberties also. "War," said Douglas, 
 "is disunion; war is final, eternal separation." The Administration 
 do not secni to think so. The country, just now, does not think so. 
 Mr. Lincoln says, that war is the right way to restore the Union. 
 I think there is another, a better, the only way to do it. He has 
 the power to try his ; I have not. War is upon us ; and from the 
 beginning, believing as I did, and yet powerless for good, I laid 
 down the rule for myself, and have faithfully adhered to it, and will 
 to the end, neither to vote for or against any purely war measure 
 of the Administration. Wherever I have voted upon any question, 
 my course has been governed by other considerations than those 
 having reference to my opinions on the war. Accordingly, I have 
 not voted for any army bill, or navy bill, or army or navy appropria 
 tion bill, since the meeting of Congress on the 4th of July, 1861. 
 Neither have I voted against any such bill from the beginning. I 
 appeal to the Globe, and to the Journals of the House, for the proof. 
 
148 STATE OP THE COUNTRY. 
 
 These facts I refer to, because you are my constituents, and "have a 
 right to know them. One thing, however, we all must demand of 
 the Administration : that the war be conducted according to the 
 Constitution, and for a constitutional purpose. 
 
 But, men of Dayton, there is another and different T yet most des 
 perate rebellion to be dealt with the ABOLITION REBELLION of the 
 North and West. It, too, must be put down ; speedily and firmly 
 put down, if we would save the country. In my judgment, you will 
 never suppress the armed Secession Rebellion till you have crushed 
 under foot the pestilent Abolition Rebellion first. Ask the officers 
 and soldiers of the army, and they will tell you the same thing. A 
 Representative, and exempt, therefore, from military service, I believe 
 it my duty to stay at home and fight the Abolition rebels of the 
 North and West. In the exercise of my constitutional rights, which 
 can not and shall not be taken away, I propose to do my part toward 
 putting down this, the earliest and most desperate and malignant 
 rebellion. It must be met by reason and appeals to the people, 
 through the press and in public assemblages, and be put down at the 
 ballot-box. But if the overt rebellion in Wisconsin and in Ohio, at 
 Urbana, in 1857, and Cleveland, in 1859, (the one at Urbana an 
 armed rebellion,) had been promptly and severely punished as they 
 ought to have been, we never would have had any other. 
 
 Here Mr. V. traced briefly the history of the slavery question 
 from the beginning to the present day. In 1787 it had been settled 
 by the compromises of the Constitution, and all had been peace, 
 quiet, and prosperity, till the terrible " Missouri Question," which 
 struck upon the ear of Jefferson " like a fire-bell in the night." 
 That had been settled by COMPROMISE, and we had quiet and peace 
 again for fifteen years, till the systematic and organized anti-slavery 
 agitation began, in 1835, at which time it was so bitterly denounced by 
 President Jackson. But it continued gaining strength every year, 
 till it ended, as every wise man foresaw it must end, in an "unneces 
 sary and injurious CIVIL WAR." Fifteen years ago there were 
 Secession disunionists South, just as there were Abolition disunionists 
 in the North and West. The former were in public places, State 
 and Federal ; but as soon as they proclaimed their disunion proclivi 
 ties, or were even suspected of them, they were speedily ejected from 
 office, even in South Carolina. In 1851, every southern State, with 
 out exception, carried the Union ticket upon a direct issue ; and for 
 years no disunionist, in the South, could be elected to any office. 
 How was it, meantime, in the North and West? From absolute 
 odium and weakness, Abolitionism steadily increased in position and 
 power, till the Senate began to be filled with Abolitionists, open or 
 in disguise, and the House of Representatives also ; and till every 
 free State, in every branch of its government, fell into the hands of 
 active and aggressive anti-slavery men ; and, finally, a President was 
 elected by a sectional anti-slavery party, on a sectional anti-slavery 
 platform, who himself declared that this Union could not endure 
 "part slave and part free." And yet, at the South, even after 
 secession began, it was with difficulty that any State was induced to 
 
STATE OP THE COUNTRY. 149 
 
 secede, except South Carolina. In every other cotton State, thero 
 was a large minority against secession; and up to April 15th, 1861, 
 North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas refused, by largo 
 majorities, to secede, while Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and 
 Missouri adhere to the Union to this day. In the very midst of 
 secession, it any fair and adequate compromise had been proposed by 
 Congress, especially if the "Crittenden propositions" of December, 
 18GO, had been adopted, secession would have perished. Mr. Davis 
 and Mr. Tooinbs both declared that they would be content. . That 
 is the statement of Mr. Pugh. It is the testimony of Mr. Douglas 
 also. But those propositions never received a solitary Republican 
 vote in either the Senate or the House. "Hence, the sole responsi 
 bility for our disagreement," said Douglas, on the 3d of January, 
 1861, "and the only difficulty in the way of our amicable adjust 
 ment, is icitk the Republican party. 1 
 
 Sir, these arfe facts which it is useless to deny, and senseless to 
 quarrel with ; and they are part of the many circumstances upon 
 which I found my immovable hope of a final restoration of the 
 Union, in spite of the folly and madness and wickedness every day 
 exhibited, uniting the South, and dividing the North and West. 
 
 The South is now well nigh united as one man ; and for nearly three 
 months we have met with little else than defeat. What united the 
 South? What changed the fortunes of the war? In the beginning 
 it was declared to be for the Union and the Constitution. These 
 were noble objects, and success attended our arms. Before the 
 battle of Bull Hun, Mr. Crittenden sought to offer his now often 
 quoted resolution, defining the objects of the war, and the Repub 
 licans did not allow it to be even so much as received. It was met 
 with sneers and contempt. The day -after the battle, when Washing 
 ton was full of escaped soldiers, and fugacious Congressmen from, 
 the battle-field, it was offered again, and without objection. But 
 two men, both Republicans, voted against that part of it. I voted 
 for that part of it, but not for the first, because it did not speak 
 the whole truth ; because it did not denounce the Abolition dis- 
 unionists of the North and West also, and hold them responsible 
 too. Six hundred thousand men were soon afterward enlisted. The 
 victories of Hatteras, Port Royal, Mill Springs, Donelson, Roanoke, 
 Winchester, Newbern, Island Ten, New Orleans, Norfolk, and others 
 all followed. Then was the hour for wisdom and sound policy. 
 But, no ; it was the exact time selected by Abolitionism for the very 
 saturnalia of its folly and madness. Every scheme and project of 
 emancipation, execution, and confiscation, Congressional and Execu 
 tive, of the whole session, was pressed forward, and many of them 
 consummated during this same period of victory. The war was every 
 where to be perverted from the spirit of the "Crittenden resolution." 
 And with what result? The South, before that time divided, was 
 now united as one man. Even the border slave States were shaken 
 to the center, and thousands of their citizens driven into the Con 
 federate service. The armies of the South were rapidly filled up. A 
 epirit was breathed into each man s breast which made him a host. 
 
150 STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 It was these things, and such infamous orders as Butler s at New 
 Orleans, which inspired their armies, making them invincible and 
 not overwhelming numbers. Victory everywhere was theirs. Mc 
 Dowell, The Seven Pines, Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys, 
 Port Republic, James Island, Vickshurg, and the Great Seven Days 
 Battle of Richmond all followed. The men, and the women, too, of 
 the South said, If indiscriminate execution, confiscation, and eman 
 cipation are to be the rule of the Federal Government, let us perish 
 rather on the battle-field. 
 
 This is what Abolitionism has cost us already an unnecessary 
 and injurious civil war; a united South; a divided North and West; 
 a diminished Federal army ; an increased Confederate army ; the one 
 dispirited, the other confident ; fifteen months of most vigorous war, 
 with the largest army and most numerous navy of modern times; 
 and yet not a single State restored ; but a public debt of a thousand 
 millions of dollars incurred, and two hundred and fifty thousand 
 brave men lost to the army, no man knows how. For all this, 
 Abolitionism is responsible. Let it answer at the bar of public 
 opinion. Let the people judge. Let the inexorable sentence- go forth, 
 and just and speedy judgment be executed upon it. 
 
 These, men of Dayton, are my opinions. They are my convictions. 
 And yet, for these I am denounced as "disloyal I" W^hat is loyalty? 
 Obedience, faithfulness to law, or, in Norman-French, to LOY ; and 
 there is no higher law than the Constitution. Whoever obeys the 
 laws is loyal ; whoever breaks them, whether one in authority or a 
 private citizen, is disloyal. There is no such thing yet in the United 
 States, thank God, as loyalty to a President, or to any Administration. 
 And yet, I have heard of loyalty to Abraham Lincoln, to a man, a 
 public servant, whom the people made, and can unmake ! Whoever 
 talks thus is fit only to be a slave. If these men mean that I ana 
 opposed to the Administration and party in power, and to the doc 
 trines and policy of Abolition, and think them false to the Constitution, 
 and disastrous to the country ; if they mean that I am a Democrat, 
 devoted to the principles and policy, and faithful to the organization 
 of that grand old party which made this country what it is, and am 
 for the old Constitution and the old Union, then I am disloyal, and 
 bless God for it. But if they mean that I am false to the Constitu 
 tion, untrue to the Union, or disloyal to the country of my birth, in 
 thought, or word, or deed, then, in the language of an eloquent 
 citizen of Indiana, (Mr. Yoorhees,) " they lie in their teeth, in their 
 throats, and in their hearts." (Loud cheers.) 
 
 Who is an Abolitionist? Whoever is for indiscriminate confisca 
 tion, in order to strike at slavery, is an Abolitionist. Whoever is for 
 emancipation and purchase of the slaves of the border States, and 
 the pretended colonization of them abroad, but really their importa 
 tion North and West, to compete with our own white labor, is an 
 Abolitionist. Whoever would reduce the southern States to Territo 
 ries, in order to strike down slavery in them by Federal power, is an 
 Abolitionist. Whoever is in favor of arming the slaves, or of declar 
 ing slavery abolished by executive or military proclamation^ is an 
 
STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 151 
 
 Abolitionist. And, finally, whoever is for converting the war, directly 
 or indirectly, into a crusade for the abolition of slavery, is an Aboli 
 tionist of the worst sort ; and he who votes for those who favor these 
 things, is also an Abolitionist in practice, no matter what his profes 
 sions or his party name may be. Whoever is opposed to these pro 
 jects and votes accordingly, and is for the Constitution as it is, and 
 the Union as it was, is a truly loyal citizen, whether he fights Seces 
 sion rebels in the field, or Abolition rebels at the ballot-box. 
 
 And now, men of Montgomery, if you desire that the rebellion at 
 the South shall be suppressed, that the Confederate armies shall be 
 dissolved, and that the Constitution shall be maintained, the Union 
 restored, and all laws obeyed, unite with me at the ballot-box in speedily 
 and forever crushing out the execrable Abolition rebellion in the 
 North and West. Whoever feels it his duty to fight armed rebels at 
 the South, let him enlist at once ; let him not buy up a substitute, 
 but go himself. Whoever remains at homo, it is his duty to join with 
 me against Abolition rebels in our midst. This is loyalty ; this is 
 fidelity to the Union. The hour of trial and of vindication will soon, 
 come. The GREAT HEREAFTER is at hand. In .six month I repeat 
 it in three months, in six weeks, it may be sooner or later, come 
 meantime what may, the question will be, ETERNAL SEPARATION, OR 
 THE UNION THROUGH COMPROMISE. Which will you then choose 
 not now, not yet; for amid arms reason, too, is silent but when it 
 does come ? Come it will, and then you must choose between the 
 Union which our fathers made, or a hopeless, cheerless, eternal, and 
 belligerent disunion. I believe that the Administration will declare 
 for separation. Then, as now and ever, I shall be for the Union and 
 against separation. Sir, the choice must be made, and made soon. 
 We have already an enormous debt. A thousand millions would 
 not pay it. We spend three millions a day. How long can you 
 stand that? Our army of six hundred arid thirty-seven thousand last 
 January, has melted away to four hundred thousand ; and now three 
 hundred thousand more volunteers are demanded, and will soon be in 
 the field. Yet, only fifteen months ago, just seventy-five thousand 
 militia were called out, and the insurgents " officially commanded to 
 disperse in twenty days ! A government paper currency of hundreds 
 of millions is upon us; arid a taxation the most onerous and unjust 
 ever levied upon any but a conquered people. A tariff, too, of from 
 forty-one to one hundred and thirteen per cent,, as if to heap up the 
 utmost measure of the load, is now added. Stand in the doorway 
 of your farm-house and behold and feel nothing, nothing not taxed, 
 except the air you breathe, and the bright sun-light or star-light of 
 heaven ! And yet, you must pay it to the uttermost farthing. None 
 but a madman or a traitor will talk of resistance or repudiation. It 
 was not so in Democratic times. For sixty years that party governed 
 this country in peace and prosperity, and with wisdom and sound 
 policy. Try it again. I am a party man more from conviction than 
 inclination. There must be parties under every free government; and 
 if there are not good parties, there will be bad ones ; and " when bad 
 men combine," .said Burke, "good men must associate," Why did 
 
152 POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 
 
 the Democratic party always govern this country wisely and well 
 and all other parties fail ? Because our institutions are Democratic, 
 and the principles and policy of the Democratic party are consistent 
 with them ; just as a piece of mechanism can only be made to work 
 upon the principle or theory on which it is constructed. That is the 
 philosophy of the historic fact. But the Democratic party could not 
 conduct the British government three months without signal and dis 
 astrous failure. Let the people lay these things to heart. Let them 
 restore the Democratic party to power, if they would be rescued at 
 last. And, meantime, if the President would be sustained, let him 
 resist fearlessly the spirit of Abolitionism; let him adhere to the Con 
 stitution ; and himself obey all laws, and execute all laws ; let him 
 unmuzzle the press, and unfetter the tongue, and give freedom again 
 to assemblages of the people and to elections ; let him liberate his 
 so-called prisoners of State, and henceforth arrest no man without 
 due process of law ; in a, word, let him look to love, not fear ; to law, 
 not terror, as the support of his administration ; and every true patriot 
 in the land will rally round him ; and then, in God s good time, our 
 eyes shall yet be gladdened, dark as the hour now is, with the blessed 
 vision of the Constitution maintained, the Union restored, and the 
 old flag of our country known and honored once again in every laud 
 and upon every sea. (Great and long-continued cheering.) 
 
 NUMBER EIGHT. 
 
 POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 
 
 THE Democratic Congressional Convention, composed of the coun 
 ties of Butler, Montgomery, Preble, and Warren, met at Hamilton, in 
 Butler Co., September 4th, and nominated Hon. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, 
 by acclamation. Mr. V. being informed of his nomination, and con 
 ducted to the stand, signified his acceptance by reading the following 
 address : 
 
 To the Democrats and other loyal Union men of the TJiird Congres 
 sional District of Ohio : 
 
 Just after the congressional election in 1860, acknowledging my 
 very many and great obligations to you for past favors, I declared 
 my fixed purpose to decline another candidacy. In this mind I con- 
 
POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 153 
 
 tinned through all the extraordinary changes of the past two years. 
 I learned, indeed, some iiine ago, from many sources, and upon un 
 mistakable evidence, that it was the general desire of the Democracy 
 of the District that I should be their candidate again, and I thanked 
 them for the confidence implied. But recently circumstances have 
 changed. The " reign of terror " has been renewed with more sever 
 ity than ever before. Freedom of the press and of speech has been 
 repeatedly and causelessly stricken down. Political and personal 
 liberty has, over and over again, been assailed by illegal and arbitrary 
 arrests ; and thus a determined purpose evinced to break down the 
 ancient, customary, and constitutional means of opposition to the poli 
 tical party in power, under the false and tyrannical pretence that it 
 is " opposition to the Government." To shrink from a canvass 
 pressed upon me by the unanimous voice of the Democracy of the 
 District, would be cowardice now. You have never deserted me ; I 
 will not, in this hour of peculiar trial and peril, desert you. With 
 many and most heartful thanks, therefore, I accept the unanimous 
 nomination just tendered to me, content with your indorsement here 
 to-day, and the ratification of it, by the Democrats and other loyal 
 Union men of the District at the polls, as of more value than an 
 election purchased by the sacrifice of the party and the principles 
 which my judgment and conscience approve, and which I have 
 adhered to arid maintained from my very boyhood to this day ; a 
 party, too, the success of which is so essential, at this moment, to the 
 reunion of the States, and the peace and prosperity of the country ; 
 for, if there be any one fact proved now beyond a reasonable doubt, 
 it is the utter imcompetency of the party in power to successfully 
 administer the Government. / know, indeed, that the District in 
 which I have been three times honored with, an election, has bee-n 
 changed l>y a " no party " partisan Legislature, and made heavily 
 Republican, for the purpose of preventing the return of a Democrat; 
 and that at the election last fall, the counties which now compose this 
 District, gave the Republican or Fusion candidate for Governor a very 
 large majority. But districts made for party purposes have more 
 than once been changed by the people at the polls, and greater ma 
 jorities than this many times overcome, as was, indeed, done last 
 spring, even in the District as now constituted. In any event, the 
 vindication of Democratic principles and the Democratic cause is, at 
 this time especially, of far more importance than mere success in any 
 election. 
 
 At your demand, therefore, men of the Third District, I accept 
 the nomination, and present myself to the people for their suffrages, 
 upon no other platform than THE CONSTITUTION AS IT is AND THE 
 UNION AS IT WAS. 
 
 It is a platform broad enough for every patriot. Whoever is for 
 it, I ask his support. Whoever is against it, I would not have his 
 vote. Every faculty of body and mind which I possess shall be 
 exerted unremittingly for the great purpose implied in this platform. 
 
 As a Representative, it is my duty to visit the constituency of the 
 old District, still a part of the new, and to render to them an account 
 
154 POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 
 
 of my stewardship as a- public servant. As a candidate, I have a 
 right to address the people upon all political questions, and they 
 have a right to hear me. 
 Says the Constitution : 
 
 "Members of the House of Representatives shall be chosen every second year 
 by the people." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the 
 press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the 
 government for a redress of grievances." 
 
 Our State Constitution is still more explicit : 
 
 u The people have the right to assemble together in a peaceable manner, to 
 consult for their common good; to instruct their representatives, and to peti 
 tion the General Assembly for the redress of grievances. 
 
 These high and essential constitutional rights the Democrats and 
 other loyal Union men of this District everywhere, and I as their 
 candidate, mean to exercise to the fullest extent. And it will tend 
 much toward the quiet and good feeling of communities, if all idle 
 talk, such as that the Democratic candidate shall not speak in this 
 place or that place, be dispensed with : for let it be understood, once 
 for all, that wherever in any part of any county in the District it 
 is deemed convenient and proper to advertise a Democratic meeting, 
 
 IT WILL BE HELD ; AND, GOD WILLING, I WILL ADDRESS IT. 
 
 After reading the foregoing, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM spoke an hour 
 or. more, with great force and effect, often interrupted by applauding 
 responses. No report was made of the speech, beyond a few notes 
 by the secretary, from which we learn that, in closing, he stated, 
 that he had supported the Six Million Bill for paying the three 
 months volunteers ; and had also prepared and reported a bill to 
 pay a bounty of thirty dollars to these volunteers, in addition to 
 their pay. This bill, he said, passed the House, but failed in the 
 Senate. 
 
 Mr. Y. then defined his position as to State defense, expressed in 
 the following resolution, which he offered, and which was adopted 
 by the meeting unanimously, amid great cheering : 
 
 Resolved, Tliat it is the highest duty of the citizen, whenever his 
 country or State is invaded, to rush to its rescue, by arms, if he is 
 capable of military service, and by money or otherwise every way, 
 if he is not ; and that the Democracy, as a part of the people of this 
 district, laying aside all party feeling for that purpose, are ready with 
 life and forfune to do their part in discharging this patriotic duty. 
 
 The way being thus opened, by receiving and accepting the nonii- 
 
POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 155 
 
 nation, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM entered upon a thorough and vigorous 
 canvass of his district. To carry his old congressional district, and 
 by a larger majority than ever before, after all denunciation, was the 
 great point to be attained. But the Legislature, at its last session, 
 had added to his district the county of Warren, one of the strongest 
 Abolition counties in the State, and by this most unfair and dis 
 ingenuous piece of gerrymandering, had provided against the pos 
 sibility of his re-election. But this, with him, was no reason for 
 faltering. It was due to his friends, and the cause, that he should 
 demonstrate to them, and to all concerned, that he had lost none of 
 his fitness for the high office in which they desired to continue him ; 
 and should publicly nail to the wall those base slanders and lies 
 with which the abolition press had been teeming. The occasion, also, 
 furnished an opportunity not to be lost, for bringing clearly and 
 boldly to the view of the people, those great and true principles of 
 political practice and faith, for whose fearless and unwavering advo 
 cacy and defense he had continually suffered the most malignant 
 assaults. 
 
 The occasion was improved ; the six weeks preceding the day of 
 election being spent in addressing large and enthusiastic assemblies, 
 at prominent points in the district. And the result was a triumphant 
 indorsement and vindication of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. His old dis 
 trict, which hehas represented for the last six years, gave him a 
 majority four times larger than ever before. 
 
 The Cincinnati Times, an Abolition paper, in its issue the day 
 after election, said : 
 
 Vallandigham, though his district, in the new apportionment, was 
 arranged especially to defeat him, is barely defeated, and that is all. 
 In his old district, where, a year ago, he scarcely dare attempt to 
 address a popular assemblage, he has a majority of about 700, and 
 is defeated only from the fact that a very strong Republican county 
 has been added to the district. These facts are given as an illustra 
 tion of the political revolution that has undoubtedly begun in the 
 North-western States. 
 
 The Cincinnati Enquirer, referring to this statement, the next 
 day, said : 
 
 The Times is correct in its facts. The Hon. C. L. Vallandigham 
 has obtained the greatest personal and political triumph ever won by 
 any public man in the United States. In the face of a storm of 
 abuse, obloquy, slander, and denunciation, from every Abolition print, 
 and every Abolition orator, from Maine to California, which, in fury, 
 was probably never equaled, Mr. Vallandigham has been indorsed by 
 
156 POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 
 
 the constituents whom he represents in Congress, by a majority 
 of 800 votes, an increase of 700 since his last election, in I860. 
 Denounced as a traitor, as a secessionist, as an enemy of his country, 
 by the fawning parasites of power, by vindictive political partisans, 
 who have sought to make his name synonymous with treason, his 
 life and liberty threatened by those who were ignorant of his political 
 record, he has appealed to the people of his district, and he has been 
 triumphantly sustained. 
 
 It was a spectacle that challenged admiration, to see an able, a 
 bold and brave man standing up for what he deemed right, unawed 
 by power, and unseduced by his personal advantages^ which lay upon 
 the other side. The American people are, a generous people, and 
 love to see fairness and honesty displayed. 
 
 After the indorsement of the people of his district after 10,000 
 American citizens have honored him with their votes the slanderers 
 of Mr. Vallandigham had better, for shame s sake, cease their abuse. 
 If they do not, there is no knowing to what position of prominence 
 he may advance. If Mr. Vallandigham has been beaten, it is owing 
 to the rascality of an Abolition legislature, which made a district 
 with especial view to his defeat. He has carried his own district, 
 but he could hardly be expected to carry Tom Corwin s in addition, 
 which was saddled upon him. 
 
 The haters and slanderers of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM were thus 
 despoiled of the triumph they had hoped to secure, and had nothing 
 to boast of beyond what they obtained by unfair legislation and 
 fraud. 
 
 A most corrupt and infamous Abolition sheet, the most deadly, 
 persistent, and mendacious slanderer of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, on the 
 morning of the election, thus put in its last word : 
 
 VALLANDIGHAM. It will not be enough to beat the cowardly, impu 
 dent, and malignant traitor Vallandigham in his district as it stands. 
 In the name of the honor of Ohio, beat him in the old district. 
 The new district we explain for the public at large is the old one, 
 with Warren county attached. It is discreditable that Vallandigham 
 can have the support of even a faction in Ohio. The disgrace will 
 be black, burning, and infinitely shameful, if he is not beaten over 
 whelmingly. 
 
 Then, surely, the disgrace was " black, burning, and infinitely 
 shameful," for, as the Empire remarked, referring to the above 
 declaration : 
 
 Mr. Vallandigham has not been beaten in the old district ; on the 
 contrary, he triumphantly carries it, by four times as large a ma 
 jority as ever before. And, better still, he is indorsed in his own 
 county, which he never carried before, by a majority of near four 
 hundred. 
 
POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 157 
 
 The Empire says, also : 
 
 And, further, "he has not only been indorsed by the people of his 
 own district, but by the Democracy of the whole State. Does the 
 Commercial remember any thing about the Fourth of July Conven 
 tion, of which it said Vallandigham and Medary were the "ruling 
 spirits ; " that convention of " Butternuts," if you please, over which 
 Sam Medary presided, and at which Vallandigham was the principal 
 speaker? Well, the ticket which the " Vallandighammers " that day 
 nominated has been elected, ratified, and indorsed by the people of 
 the State. Montgomery county has a representative on that ticket, 
 in the person of Professor C. W. H. Cathcart. 
 
 But the fact that Mr. YALLANDIGHAM S non-election was secured 
 by adding to his district a piece of strong Abolition territory, has 
 been studiously ignored, and even lied out of view, by the Abolition 
 press. Referring to this subject, the Hon. J. W. WALL, lately 
 elected United States Senator from New Jersey, said, in a letter to 
 the New York World, in October, 18G2 : 
 
 If I am correctly informed, at the last session of the Ohio Legis 
 lature, over three thousand Republican votes were transferred bodily 
 to the district, for the purpose, as was avowed, of preventing his 
 return to Congress. Besides all this, resort was had to the base 
 means that corruption and misrepresentation understand so well how 
 to wield. 
 
 There is no public man in the State of Ohio who wields the per 
 sonal influence, and has a stronger hold upon the popular heart, than 
 the fearless, incorruptible, and talented Representative from the Day 
 ton district. Knowing him, as I do, and the fierce, malignant oppo 
 sition against which he has had to contend, led on by the remorseless 
 energies of fanaticism, I may say, as was said of Hector, " Si Pergema 
 dcxtra defendi posscnt, etiam liac defensa fuisscnt." But Hector s 
 arm was not strong enough to save the city. 
 
 There is no more patriotic heart beats in any man s bosom than 
 his. No man, either in Congress or out of it, has exhibited more 
 wisdom and remarkable forecast in reference to this war and its 
 results. No man has been more disinterested, devoted himself to 
 his country s best interests, and labored more assiduously to stay 
 the disastrous legislation of the last Congress, which he declared was 
 pregnant with manifold mischief to the country. Any man familiar 
 with his speeches, will be struck with the prophetic sagacity they 
 manifest. He saw the "end from the beginning," and predicted the 
 present ruined, disastrous condition of the country. 
 
 In every part of the Union the defeat of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was 
 deeply regretted, especially as he had been so well sustained by his 
 own district, and was beaten only by a part of Corwin s old &&. -* * 
 
158 POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 
 
 being turned over unto him. The tone of the Democratic press was 
 like this, from the Mount Vernon (Ohio) Banner: 
 
 The defeat of the gallant Clement L. Vallandigham, in the 
 Third District, is greatly lamented by all good Union-loving Demo 
 crats. The Republicans purposely formed a district to defeat him, 
 and they have been successful by a small majority. But they can 
 not put Mr. Vallandigham down. Although slandered more than 
 any living man, he has come out of the "fiery ordeal" like pure 
 gold. Higher honors yet await him. 
 
 The Syracuse (N. Y.) Courier said : 
 
 In this State the malignants and radicals crow lustily over the 
 defeat of the brave, gifted, and patriotic Vallandigham. A high 
 and independent spirit, such as the times require, has, perhaps, fallen 
 there, but not sacrificed by the people whom he had represented. 
 If victimized at all, he is a victim of the same kind of radical gerry 
 mandering of his district as sacrificed Biddle in Pennsylvania. A 
 strong Republican county was added to his district, and it was so 
 constituted that the counties composing the district gave last fall 
 over 3,000 majority against the Democratic ticket. If defeated by 
 800 majority, he has every reason to be proud of the result, and of 
 the confidence evinced by this diminished majority against him. 
 
 In Hamilton, where Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was nominated, a meet 
 ing, held soon after the election, indorsed him in a series of resolu 
 tions, among which are the following : 
 
 WHEREAS, A recent act of the Ohio Legislature remapped the 
 territory of the Third Congressional District, including within its 
 well-known boundary the county of Warren ; and, whereas, such 
 remapping was executed by the enemies of the Democratic party, 
 with the intent to prevent a return to Congress of the chosen tribune 
 of the ancient district ; and, whereas, by such partisan legislation we 
 have been temporarily deprived of the services of our faithful public 
 servant, Hon. C. L. Vallandigham, therefore, 
 
 Resolved, By the Democracy of Butler county, in mass meeting 
 assembled, That we reaffirm our confidence in the patriotism of our 
 Representative, and again record an entire satisfaction of his man 
 agement of our trust. 
 
 Resolved, That to his fortitude and consumate policy as much as to 
 any single existence, we attribute the recently disclosed sober second 
 thought of the people. 
 
 Resolved, That for his earnest deprecation of the calamities of 
 these States ; for his attempt to appease the wrath of the contending 
 people of both sections of the Union ; for his endeavor to invoke 
 reason, and call back the blessings of happier days; for his marvelous 
 perception of the consequences of this "unnatural civil war," and for 
 his unequaled exertions in its repression ; for this catalogue of crimes, 
 which has excited the ire of fanatics, which has furnished the weapons 
 
DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES. 159 
 
 of destruction to an Abolition press, and which has made his name 
 synonymous with traitor, the constituents of Hon. Clement L. Val- 
 landigham demand the judgment of history. 
 
 The closing resolution ends with a quotation which it will not 
 always be treason to repeat, nor is it now treason against Heaven 
 
 "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children 
 of God." 
 
 NUMBER NINE. 
 
 DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES 
 
 AFTER the election of October 14, 18G2, which exhibited the 
 gratifying results of the most important and remarkable political 
 revolution ever witnessed in Ohio, it was determined to have some 
 general jubilee celebrations. Those meetings were started, and went 
 with a rush all over the State. For several weeks the " Democratic 
 jubilees" were the order of the day, and were attended by immense 
 multitudes. Indiana, also, took a part in those jubilees. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM attended a large number of those meetings. 
 One of the first at which he was present was held at Centreville, 
 Indiana, on the 20th of October, where he spoke two hours to an 
 audience of two thousand or more, who heard and applauded his 
 speech with unbounded enthusiasm. One of that crowd ends a 
 report of the doings with the remark that " Not only have the 
 people of his district indorsed him, but the people of Indiana, 
 Ohio, and Pennsylvania have spoken in thunder tones in favor of 
 Vallandigham, the Constitution, and the Union." 
 
 On the 22d of October, two days later, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was 
 at the grand jollification" in Hillsborough, Ohio, held in honor 
 of "the great Democratic victories in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsyl 
 vania." The Hillsborough Gazette says : 
 
 Never was the truth of that old adage, " Truth is mighty and 
 will prevail," more fully verified than on this occasion. Many who 
 
160 DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES. 
 
 had come to hear the speaker, with opinions altogether biased against 
 him, having never been Democrats in their lives, went away from the 
 meeting impressed with the belief that he was the most powerful, 
 forcible, and truthful speaker they had ever heard, and with a 
 fixed determination to vote for him in case he shall ever be a can 
 didate for any office that will give them an opportunity to do so. 
 We do not hesitate to say that Mr. Vallandigham is, to-day, the 
 most popular maa in the State of Ohio ; and, as a rebuke for the 
 shameful manner in which he was gerrymandered out of his seat in. 
 Congress by an Abolition legislature, the people of Ohio would now 
 be willing to bestow upon him any office within their gift. 
 
 Three days later, October 25th, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was at Mt. 
 Vernon, 0., in midst of the Democracy of "Old Knox." The day 
 was stormy and very unpleasant, but the city had no room large 
 enough for the crowd; so they took a stand in the open air, and, 
 defying the weather, listened to Mr. VALLANDIGHAM with the most 
 earnest attention for three full hours. The Mt. Vernon Banner 
 says : 
 
 The audience would have heard him speak a whole day with the 
 greatest pleasure. His speech was certainly, the ablest and best ever 
 delivered in this city ; and men who have heard many of the most 
 eminent speakers in the Union, declare Mr. Vallandigham equal, if 
 not superior, to any of them. The speech, from beginning to end, 
 was characteristic of the statesman, the patriot, and the Christian. It 
 comprehended the situation and crisis of our affairs. The course and 
 tendency of events were well told, and the condition of the country 
 truly depicted. The designs of the factious demagogues, conspiring 
 fanatics, and unfaithful public men, who now, unfortunately, sit in the 
 high places of power and trust, were laid bare and reprobated with 
 crushing truth, reason, and common sense. Would that every honest 
 and really patriotic citizen could hear and heed Mr. Vallandigharn g 
 words of truth and wisdom; the base schemes of wicked men would 
 soon be exploded or frustrated, their authors punished, or, at least, 
 deprived of power to ruin, and the country restored to peace, har 
 mony, and prosperity. 
 
 The next of these meetings at which we find Mr. VALLANDIGHAM 
 was held on the 1st of November, at his old home in New Lisbon, 
 Columbiana county, 0. The Ohio Patriot, of that place, describing 
 the meeting, says : 
 
 Word had circulated that Vallandigham, the friend of the Consti- 
 tion -and the Union which, by Republican interpretation, means the 
 traitor and secessionist was to speak, and the old men of the county, 
 who used to listen to his father s preaching, and the young men who 
 admired his valor and his patriotism, came in, by hundreds, to get the 
 political gospel from the son. Never in New Lisbon did there assem 
 ble so many of the sober and pious people of the county. 
 
DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES. 161 
 
 Tn another editorial the Patriot says : 
 
 Mr. Vallandigham was born and raised in New Lisbon, and was 
 well known to the people of this county previous to his removal to 
 Dayton. When a young man, fully confiding in his ability and integ 
 rity, they elected him to the legislature of the State; and their con 
 fidence in his patriotism and statesmanship has been increased by 
 every act of his life. He has been the subject of much abuse from 
 the Republicans; but they can not show one word he has ever uttered 
 that was disloyal : while it would be very easy to establish, that, if 
 every man in the North had pursued the same course for the last ten 
 years, we would have had no war, no Federal tax, no draft, no stricken 
 people mourning for their dead kindred, victims of battle. Mr. Val 
 landigham is immensely popular. 
 
 On the 5th of November, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was at that immense 
 Democratic celebration in Newark, 0. A correspondent of the Cin 
 cinnati Enquirer, describing the meeting, says : 
 
 Such demonstrations as the one we had here yesterday should con 
 vince the most skeptical of the lively, healthy, vigorous existence of 
 the Democracy. It is affirmed by those who ought to know, that it 
 was the largest political meeting in this city since the year 1840. 
 And certainly it could not well be exceeded in earnestness and zeal. 
 About ten thousand people convened in the court-house square, be 
 tween one and two o clock, P. M. Many came from the adjoining 
 counties. Hon. C. L. Vallandigham made the first speech. His 
 introduction was accompanied by an enthusiastic outburst of applause 
 from the whole multitude. Mr. Vallandigham began by referring 
 to and narrating the incidents and revealing the motives of the recent 
 causeless and most foul murder, at Dayton, of one of his best friends, 
 J. F. Bollmeyer, editor of the Dayton Empire, by an Abolition 
 assassin. He had, the day before, attended the funeral of his mar 
 tyred friend, a victim of Abolition vindictiveness. He spoke most 
 feelingly on this subject; he characterized the murder very truly and 
 properly as one of the sad results of the Gospel of Hate, which has 
 been for years persistently preached by so many of the clergy, and 
 diffused and instilled by the Abolition press of the land. He scouted 
 and exposed the false and miserable pretence which the lying tele 
 graph and the Abolition papers had alleged, that it was the issue of 
 a rencounter about a dog. The fact of the Grand Jury having 
 indicted the assassin for murder in the first degree, showed the real 
 character of the affair. It was a cowardly Abolition murder of a 
 noble, talented, and courageous man, for no other reason than that 
 he was an able and prominent Democrat. 
 
 Although. Mr. Vallandigham said, he sometimes felt like harboring 
 a spirit of revenge for the many persecutions and outrages, even to 
 the shedding of blood and loss of life, which had been inflicted upon 
 Democrats by the Abolitionists, yet he counseled charity toward them, 
 and would seek for redress, at least in the first place, at the hands 
 11 
 
162 DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES. 
 
 of the law and through the ballot-box. His rebuke at our hypo 
 critical opponents, who profess to be such pure Christians and mor 
 alists, was most scathing. He contrasted their conduct and practice 
 with that of the Democracy, as to who had manifested the greater 
 regard for the precepts of Christianity, which, as he understands it 
 is the Gospel of Love. The Abolitionists had preached arid prac 
 ticed the Gospel of Hate hate toward everybody except the nesro, 
 and even with respect to him, they were more actuated by hate for 
 the negro s master than by love for the negro. 
 
 On the 13th of November, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM spoke at the mass 
 meeting in Circleville ; and the next day at Lancaster. He then 
 suddenly disappeared from the State ; but, on the day following, was 
 heard of at Cambridge, Ind., where a grand Democratic jubilee \v; s 
 that day to be held. 
 
 The "Butternuts" came in by car-loads, while wagons and horses, 
 by thousands, brought up. the rear. Mr. YALLANDIGHAM was there, 
 as a part of the programme. He had visited the same district on 
 the 20th of October, and spoken at Centreville, as we have said. 
 Being, of course, a suspicious character, he was dogged by the 
 United States Marshal for Indiana, named Garland Rose, under 
 orders from Governor Morton, of that State, Referring to his former 
 visit and its adventures, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM began his speech thus : 
 
 Is the Marshal of Indiana here to-day? Are his minions about? 
 Is his committee here again? Why liest thou hid now. 0, sweet- 
 scented Rose? Lift up thy delicate head, thou daughter of a mild 
 sky. 
 
 "Quid lates dudum. Rosa?" 
 
 Why has not Morton threatened to deck me this time, also, with 
 a garland of roses? Ah ! I remember me, elections have been held, 
 and the PEOPLE have spoken. Their voice, as the voice of many 
 waters, has been heard. It has reached the palaces at Washington 
 and Indianapolis and Columbus, and penetrated even their darkened 
 and deaf recesses. Lincoln and Morton have heard it, and their 
 knees have smitten together. Tod heard it. The "Democratic 
 thunder" reached his ears; he knew it, and his "back-bone" soft 
 ened and shriveled and shrunk before it. Si c semper tyranny s. 
 Let us rejoice. The people are once more masters, and henceforth, 
 no more shall the rights of the citizen and the courtesies and hos 
 pitalities of States be violated. The occupation of marshals and 
 detectives and spies and informers and affidavit-makers, is gone, 
 never to return; and their offices, at least the official existence of 
 them, one and all, will soon cease. "Teach me the measure of my 
 days," says the Psalmist ; and I commend the pious reflection to 
 Lincoln and Morton and Tod, and all others under and around, or 
 like them, who have abused power, and outraged the people. The 
 
DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES. 163 
 
 4th of March, 1864, will end their days. Habeas corpus is here. 
 Arbitrary arrests are at an end. The people of New York had 
 restored the great charter of liberty on the 6th of November, and 
 the people of Ohio and Indiana on the 14th day of October. In the 
 midst of a despotism worse than that of Austria, the people of these 
 great States have risen in their might, and pulled down the temple 
 of Abolitionism, never to rise again. Not a vestige of it will be left. 
 Its site will be plowed over, and salt sowed, after the custom of the 
 Romans, upon the spot where it stood. 
 
 In the contest just closed, while the sky was dark, and the storm 
 was gathering when the old Democratic ship was struggling with 
 the billows men who had professed to be leaders, who had been 
 foremost when the sky was bright and the wind blew fair, had 
 deserted their posts. It was always so. Some were terrified, and 
 fled ; others, ambitious men, who would secure power dishonorably, 
 fled ] but the people, always true to themselves, retired to their 
 homes, to their farms and their workshops and their offices, in the 
 hour of trial, to commune with their sober thoughts, and they came 
 forth at the appointed time, and righted the floundering ship. They 
 achieved a victory surprising even to themselves, and perfectly 
 astounding to the Abolitionists. 
 
 The railroads, the banks, the telegraph lines, the express com 
 panies, and another element, that had of late defiled itself in the 
 land the Churches were all arrayed against the people. The pure 
 altars of Christianity were defiled, and the disciples had huckstered 
 in the political markets. The Churches had departed from the doc 
 trines of Christ and him crucified, and taken up the negro and him 
 glorified ! There will be no Union, no peace, no hope, no country, 
 until you drive out those who have defiled the temple of the Savior 
 of mankind, and restore the gospel in its purity. It is time to aban 
 don the Abolition churches. Refuse them support. It is time to 
 (?peak out. 
 
 Mr. Vallandigham said he was the son of a clergyman, but of one 
 who did not disgrace his calling. He had of late quoted freely from 
 the Scriptures, in his speeches. Some of his friends remarked it, and 
 he told them he had not attended church lately, and consequently he 
 had time to examine the Bible. In his closet he could find its 
 teachings, but not in the pulpit. 
 
 Proscription had been another means used. Men were proscribed 
 in every way. His advice was to meet proscription with proscription. 
 We have as much money as they have at least, honestly. We 
 have not as many contractors, nor as heavy amounts of stealings 
 hoarded up, but we consume as much as they do, eat as much, wear 
 as much, and, by honest toil, can pay for as much. Proscription 
 is a game that two can play at, and they will be the first to tire of it. 
 
 Over all these means, freely and unscrupulously used, we behold 
 the sublime spectacle of twenty millions of freemen making their 
 voices heard, even in the White House. Abraham has heard it, the 
 Cabinet have heard it, and the governors of States have heard it. 
 
 Mr. Vallandigham then counseled his Democratic friends to stand 
 
164 DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES. 
 
 by the laws, to seek redress through the courts, and administer that 
 rebuke to the corrupt "exclusion from office." We will get satis 
 faction for our wrongs through the law. He called upon every man 
 who had been unlawfully imprisoned in the walls of a Bastile, to seek 
 for redress through the forms of law, as he valued himself arid the 
 liberties of his countrymen. England has given us examples of 
 illegal arrest these usurpers can not even claim the merit of origin 
 ality for their tyranny she has also given us examples of the pun 
 ishment of the offenders. In England, the person of a subject is 
 inviolate. An Englishman s house or home is his castle. We have 
 a notable instance of what an Englishman s liberty for one hour is 
 considered worth by an English jury. A secretary of state arrested 
 a British subject, and imprisoned him for one hour. At the end of 
 that time he was released. He brought suit against " my Lord/ and 
 recovered a verdict for 85,000. Lord Chief Justice Pratt, afterward 
 Lord Caniden the advocate of the cause of the Colonies, the friend 
 of America in its youth made the memorable declaration in this 
 rase: "None but an English jury can estimate the value of an 
 Englishman s liberty for one hour." An Indiana jury may be able 
 to make a like estimate. That is the way we should and will have 
 satisfaction. The people have spoken they must be heard, and will 
 be heard. " We will have the Union as it was, the Constitution as 
 it is, and the negroes where they are." 
 
 Mr. Vallandigham said that the campaign had only just begun. 
 It must be kept up. We have a wily and unscrupulous antagonism 
 to contend with. The good old times will return. He did believe 
 in the possibility, nay, the probability, of the restoration of the Union 
 as it was. We have commenced the work here, with the ballot-box ; 
 with it we have smitten the Philistines hip and thigh. The people 
 of the South, after a little while, will, by the same instrumentality, 
 put down the Secessionists there, as we have the Abolitionists here, 
 and peace and union will once more smile upon the land. That is 
 the sentiment in the ranks of both armies, and if you would to-day 
 put ballots in the hands of the private soldiers of the North and 
 South, the agitators and leaders, who are forcing streams of blood to 
 flow, would be effectually put down. He related several instances of 
 this feeling in the army, and concluded with an elegant peroration, 
 which was received as the main parts of his speech had been, 
 throughout by thunders of applause. 
 
 On the 21st of November, at the residence of Judge MORSE, near 
 Dayton, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was presented with an elegant gold- 
 headed cane, a gift from ladies of that city. Mr. THOMAS 0. 
 LOWE, who, on behalf of the ladies, made the presentation speech, 
 alluding to the sentiments of those for whom he was commissioned 
 to speak, said : 
 
 There are yet some who, from their very natures, have deprecated 
 this war, who desired, as you did, that it should be averted, and who 
 
DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES. 165 
 
 now pray that the ruler of heaven and earth, who is the Prince of 
 Peace arid God of Love, will turn the hearts of men from all bitter 
 ness and strife, so that bloodshed may be known among us no more 
 forever. And if there be a prayer which the " ministering angels " 
 round about us more gladly hear, and more quickly bear to the ear 
 of heaven, than any other, it must be theirs. The Savior of men 
 said u Blessed are the peacemakers," and 
 
 "Gave his life 
 
 To bend man s stubborn will; 
 "When elements were fierce with strife, 
 Said to them Peace; be still. " 
 
 And, describing the estimation those ladies had placed upon the 
 services of him to whom this elegant gift was offered, Mr. LOWE Baid : 
 
 They desire to express to you their belief that if all the men of 
 the North and South had but loved this Union as well, and had strug 
 gled as wisely for the best interests of the country as you, this war 
 would have been averted ; and that, even now, if the combatants 
 could but be imbued with a patriotism as true as yours, this struggle 
 would speedily cease, our Union be restored as it was, and every thing 
 which has, in days gone by, made Americans proud of their country, 
 would come back to us again. They believe, too, that when the his 
 torian shall come to write of the causes of the downfall of this great 
 Republic if, in the providence of God, it be doomed to fall if he 
 write with an unprejudiced pen, " nothing extenuating, naught setting 
 down in malice," he will have this to say of you : You hated arid. 
 resisted the fell spirit of Abolitionism, which you knew to be 
 
 " False, deceitful, 
 
 Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin 
 That has a name," 
 
 which, invigorated by the blood and carnage of the rebellion, you 
 saw endeavoring, under various pretexts, to destroy our dearest lib 
 erties, and for this cause, and this alone, you were made the object 
 of a persecution which, for malignity and persistency, has few par- 
 allels in history. 
 
 Mr. LOWE closed by saying : 
 
 And we all think, sir, that it is not among the least of the services 
 you have rendered to your country, that you have shown that there 
 is such a thing as unconquerable devotion to principle that there is 
 one statesman among us who is not to be moved from his conviction 
 of right by any danger or threatenings that if one obeys the exhorta 
 tions of Woolsey, and makes his aims " his country s, his God s and 
 truth s," he need not fear. Though storms may be raging all around 
 him, he will be " sustained by an unfaltering trust." and have "that 
 peace which is above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet con- 
 ecience." 
 
166 DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES. 
 
 Accepting the beautiful gift, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM said : 
 
 MR. LOWE : With a grateful heart I receive this cane from the 
 ladies for whom you have just spoken. Valuable in itself, it is to 
 me far more valuable because of the kindly motives which have 
 induced its presentation ; but especially as a testimony of their 
 approbation of my conduct as a public man, in the recent and present 
 perilous times of the country. From them I accept it as a large 
 recompense for whatever of calumny and reproach I have endured 
 for the last eighteen months, because of my adherence to principle 
 and a course of public policy which, in my conscience and judgment, 
 I believed essential to the restoration of the Union and the best 
 interests of my country. Such honors are bestowed commonly upon 
 the heroes of military warfare. But if I merit any part of the 
 praise which you have so eloquently expressed, it is moral heroism 
 which, to-night, is honored by these ceremonies. It is the victories 
 of PEACE which you here celebrate. Her triumphs are, indeed, 
 grander, and her conquests nobler than any achieved by the military 
 hero upon the battle-field. And it is especially fitting that these 
 honors should be paid to the cause though I, myself, may deserve 
 them not by THE WOMEN of the country ; and, while I lament that 
 so many among them should have forgotten the softness of their 
 sex, and the mild teachings of a religion, essential, indeed, to man, 
 but especially congenial to woman s nature, yet I rejoice that so 
 many, also, have laid not aside the ornament of a meek and quiet 
 spirit, but remembered and clung yet the more steadfastly to the 
 gospel of peace and love, even amid the phrensy of a desolating and 
 demoralizing civil war. True to woman s mission, they are, or will 
 be, the wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters, who, by precept, ex 
 ample, or association, shall bring back yet the present, or educate a 
 new generation which shall restore peace, the Union, and constitu 
 tional liberty, with all their virtues and their blessings, once more to 
 this bleeding and distracted country. If, indeed, sir, I have exhibited 
 any part of the high qualities of courage, fortitude, and immovable 
 devotion to THE GOOD AND THE RIGHT, which, on behalf of these 
 ladies, you have so kindly attributed to me, it is to one of their own 
 sex, more than to any other human agency, that I am indebted for 
 them MY MOTHER. In childhood, in boyhood, and in youth, in the 
 midst of many trials, from her teachings, and by her example, I 
 learned those lessons, and formed the character and habits if it be 
 so which fitted me, with courage and endurance, and unfaltering 
 faith, to straggle with the terrible times in the midst of which we 
 live. 
 
 Congratulating the ladies on the selection of yourself as their 
 representative upon this occasion, and thanking you cordially for the 
 many kind things you have been pleased to say, I accept this beauti 
 ful present, with my most grateful acknowledgments to one and all 
 here assembled. 
 
 The next day Mr. VALLANDIGHAM addressed, at length, a very 
 
DEMOCRATIC JUBILEES- 167 
 
 large Democratic meeting at Springfield, Clark county, Ohio. The 
 Democrat of that city, speaking of it, said : 
 
 We would like to give a synopsis of his great speech, but will not 
 attempt it. We but quote the words of hundred of others when we 
 say that for beauty, simplicity, and strength many of the passages 
 <! the speech were equal to the best periods of Webster. Would to 
 (iod that all his revilers could have heard him! 
 
 On the i-Gth of November Mr. VALLANDIGHAM attended another 
 of those Democratic jubilees, held at Chiilicothe, Ohio. -The day 
 was cold and unpleasant, and yet not less than four thousand were 
 there. Mr. YALLANDIGHAM followed Hon. WM. ALLEN, and spoke 
 until near dark. The Chiilicothe Advertiser says : 
 
 It was a remarkable circumstance a thing almost unparalleled 
 that so many men and women should stand out there in the cold 
 fully four hours after an election, and listen to two political speeches. 
 31 r. Valla ndigha m spoke free from all restraint free from the 
 restraint that weighed many speakers down before the election and 
 yet no one could find in that speech either open or covert treason, 
 unless the urivailing of the Republican Mohkanna is obnoxious to 
 that charge. 
 
 He believed it possible, since the rendition of the verdict of the 
 people through the ballot-box at the late elections, that the Union 
 might be restored ; he believed it would be in time that when the 
 Abolitionists were put down through the ballot-box, then the people 
 of the South would put down secession there, and then would com 
 mence the work of restoration. His conviction, from the first, had 
 been that the Union could not be restored through the agency of 
 arms ; he believed so now more firmly than ever. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM closed amidst a profusion of bouquets 
 thrown to him by the ladies, who, in addition, presented him a very 
 beautiful wreath. 
 
 But the unbounded enthusiasm of the people was not satisfied by 
 a four hours meeting in the open air. They met again, at the court 
 house, in. the evening. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, not expecting to speak 
 again, came in late, but was "so earnestly called for," says the 
 Advertiser, " that he felt constrained to respond, and did respond in 
 a spoccli of two hours," which is described as fully equal to his 
 effort of the afternoon. 
 
 The Advertiser expresses the belief that " the seed thus sown will 
 undoubtedly, ripen into a butternut crop by next fall far larger 
 than the one that blessed the Democratic husbandmen this last 
 fall." 
 
168 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 This is the man whom some people call a "traitor;" and such 
 were the proud and triumphant receptions with which the people of 
 Ohio were delighted to honor a " defeated candidate." 
 
 Immediately after the meeting in Chillicothe, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM 
 left for Washington city, the day for the reassembling of Congress 
 being at hand. 
 
 NUMBER TEN. 
 
 THE GREAT CIVIL AVAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 14, 1863. 
 
 No speech ever heard in the Halls of Congress has made a deeper 
 impression on the mind of the American people than the one deliv 
 ered by Mr. VALLANDIGHAM on the 14th of January, 1863. From 
 the day Congress assembled, public expectation had been turned 
 toward him, and many were waiting to hear what counsels he would 
 give in this most perilous hour of our country s history. The 
 highest hopes of his friends, and the worst fears of his enemies were 
 realized; for he spoke like a statesman, a patriot, an American. 
 
 Already that speech has found a million of readers, but we will 
 repeat it here, revised and corrected, for this purpose, by the author. 
 Those who have read it will be glad to have it in a permanent form, 
 while they and others will value it more highly in this connection, 
 the last of a series of speeches,, which, in the aggregate, furnish a 
 thorough and complete exposition of the growth, progress, develop 
 ment, and culmination of a most pernicious, deadly, and destructive 
 fanaticism. 
 
 It is right to call attention to the fact that the estimate we have 
 formed of this speech is fully sustained by the opinions of the press, 
 true index and exponent of popular sentiment. 
 
 The Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, a bitter 
 and malignant political opponent of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, describing 
 the speech, and the effect of its delivery, relates that the most busy 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 1C9 
 
 and active members, such as Colfax, Wickliffe, Lovejoy. Olin, and others 
 dropped every thing else, and obtained the best positions for hearing. 
 An effort was making to get a joint session of the military and naval 
 committees to consider a matter to which attention had been called 
 by the Secretary of War. Only three out of fourteen members could 
 be got to the committee-room in the course of an hour. Even the 
 reporters in the galleries wake up; the ladies cease their eternal 
 chattering, and lean forward to catch every word. 
 
 Such are some of the indications, of deep and unusual interest, as 
 described by the correspondent referred to, who says : 
 
 This man is the hero of our Northern rebels ; the most respectable 
 in talents, the most honest in declaring his positions, the bravest in 
 maintaining them against whatever storm of opposition and obloquv. 
 
 Describing his manner of commencing, the same writer says : 
 
 He begins boldly, defiantly, even ; and is speedily preaching the 
 very doctrine of devils. " You can never subdue the seceded States. 
 Two years of fearful experience have taught you that. Why carry 
 on the war? If you persist, it can only end in final separation 
 between the North and South. And in that case, believe it now, as 
 you did not my former warnings, the whole North-west will go with 
 the South!" 
 
 He waxes more earnest as he approaches this key-note of his 
 harangues, and with an energy and force that makes every hearer 
 as his moral nature revolts from the bribe acknowledge, all the 
 more, the splendid force with which the tempter urges his cause, with 
 flashing eye and livid features and extended hand, trembling with 
 the passion of his utterance, he hurls the climax of his threatening 
 argument again upon the Republican side of the House : <; Believe 
 me, as you did not the solemn warning of years past, the day which 
 divides the North from the South, the self-same day decrees eternal 
 divorce between the West and the East!" 
 
 These solemn warnings have, at last, caught the ear of leading 
 Republicans. Will they heed them ? 
 
 The group of Republicans standing in the open space before the 
 Clerk s desk, increases ; they crowd down the aisles among the 
 Opposition and cluster around the Speaker. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM tells them : 
 
 There is not one drop of rain that falls over the whole vast expanse 
 of the North-west that does not find its home in the bosom of the 
 Gulf. We must and ice will follow it, with travel and trade; not by 
 treaty, but by right; freely, peaceably, and without restriction or 
 tribute, under the same Government and flag. 
 
170 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 The correspondent, whose unwilling testimony we are quoting, saya 
 of the above declaration : 
 
 It is eloquently spoken, and none are more willing to concede it 
 than his opponents. 
 
 The strongest testimony to Mr. VALLANDIGHAM S power as a 
 speaker, and to the resistless force of the great truths he was utter 
 ing, is given by this writer, in saying : 
 
 He has spoken over an hour and a quarter, and accomplished the 
 rare feat of compelling the closest attention of the most disorderly 
 deliberative body in the world, from the beginning to the end. 
 
 The speech being ended, the Gazettes correspondent adds : 
 
 There is a gradual relaxation, a sudden humming of conversation 
 again on the floor and through the galleries. The Democrats and 
 Border-State men, with faces wreathed in smiles, crowd around their 
 champion with their congratulations. At a single step, the shunned 
 and execrated Vallandigham has risen to the leadership of their 
 party. Deny it, as some of them still may, henceforth it is accom 
 plished. 
 
 The Washington correspondent of the New York Herald said : 
 
 The speech of Mr. Vallandigham in the House, to-day, produced a 
 profound sensation. It was bold and able. The Republican side, 
 also, listened intently to it. 
 
 The correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce wrote : 
 
 Mr. Yallandigham s speech of to-day commanded marked attention, 
 and those who do not agree with him in policy, give him credit for 
 great abilities. He declared himself for the Union as it was, wanted 
 Massachusetts to come back where she was in other days, and in the 
 event of a final separation, prophesied that the North-west would go 
 with the South, leaving the North-east "in the cold" but still he 
 battled, with great force, for a united country. 
 
 The correspondent of the Boston Herald, describing the speech 
 and the effect of its delivery, says : 
 
 The long-expected speech of Yallandigham was delivered in the 
 presence of a large audience in the galleries, and an unusual attend 
 ance on the floor. As soon as he arose to address the House, a large 
 number of members of all parties gathered about him. His method 
 of speaking is very attractive. Added to fine appearance of person, 
 he has a good voice and gesture, and always speaks without notes. 
 To-day he was bold and determined ; and while his views may be 
 regarded " as words of brilliant and polished treason," it was univer 
 sally admitted to have been a most able speech from that stand-point. 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR, IN AMERICA. 171 
 
 He spoke for an hour without interruption of any ^ind, and had 
 most attentive listeners. I might add, that Vallandigham s great 
 coolness amid the most heated discussions, is one of his peculiarities, 
 and gives him decided advantages over more impassioned antagonists. 
 
 Of a similar character is the notice of the Washington correspond 
 ent of the St. Louis Republican, who writes : 
 
 The peace speech of this Ohio Congressman, in the House, yester 
 day, was received with remarkable and respectful attention by the 
 Republicans ; and it is significant, as the first occasion when that 
 party in Congress calmly listened to the semi-secession doctrines of 
 Vallandigham, or any other peace man. It also attracts attention 
 from every other quarter, and, to-day, is the general subject of 
 comment in the city. 
 
 The Boston Courier, one of the ablest and most reliable of the 
 Eastern papers, thus certifies its worth : 
 
 This is an extremely able and a very honest speech. No one can 
 read it and help believing that Mr. Vallandigham is a brave and 
 honest man ; and the speech itself affords irresistible evidence that it 
 is his unfaltering devotion to the Union and the Constitution which 
 has led those less loyal to stigmatize him as a secessionist and a 
 traitor. His opinions will answer for themselves ; but for its histori 
 cal value and its strong grasp of the future, the speech ought to have 
 the widest circulation. 
 
 The Philadelphia Constitutional Union has a bold, full, and une 
 quivocal indorsement : 
 
 The speech of this distinguished statesman and heroic defender of 
 the Constitution, which we present in full to-day, is the crowning 
 effort of his public life. It rises above the mere cant and humbug of 
 present popularity, into the clear and comprehensive realm of unself 
 ish statesmanship, and discusses the exciting and momentous topics 
 of the day with that measure of candor which their importance 
 demands. While proclaiming that peace is the only road which can 
 lead to a satisfactory settlement of this vexed question, Mr. Vallan 
 digham at the same time points out the principles upon which peace 
 must rest, in order to make it permanent. He traces with a master- 
 hand the causes which have produced our national estrangement, 
 shows how the difficulties have grown to their present gigantic 
 proportions, and then appeals to the good sense of the nation to 
 apply the remedy before it be too late. The speech should be read 
 by every man in the country. 
 
 The above are fair specimens of the opinions of leading newspa 
 pers. Even the Republican press has limited its denunciations to 
 the sentiments of the speech ; and no paper whose opinions the public 
 
172 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 respect, has Denied its great power and merit as a production of 
 eloquence and logical skill. Even FORNEY, in the Washington 
 Chronicle, says it is a " logical and powerful speech" 
 
 A few quotations will indicate the general tone of the Democratic 
 press of Ohio. The Cincinnati Enquirer says : 
 
 No speech has been made in Congress for years that has produced 
 so great an effect in political circles, has been so universally admired 
 for surpassing ability, for genuine and manly patriotism, for its wise 
 statesmanship, as that of Mr. Vallandigham. It is a valuable and 
 undying contribution to American Congressional eloquence, and will 
 raise its author to a high place among the greatest men of the 
 country. We do not know of a speech made by any of our eminent 
 statesmen that has received higher praise or been more sought for. 
 
 The Columbus Crisis, edited by Gov. MEDARY, says : 
 
 This is no ordinary speech made by no ordinary man, and under 
 circumstances the most remarkable which ever overtook any nation 
 or people. It will be well if this nation ponders seriously and with 
 judgment over the words of wisdom and burning eloquence which 
 run through every paragraph, sentence, and line. 
 
 The speech of CATO, in the Roman Senate, warning the people 
 against the designs of CJESAR upon the liberties of the Roman 
 people, contained not more truthful and thrilling interest to that 
 great people about to be sacrificed at the shrine of ambition, than 
 does this speech of the member from the Dayton district, but the 
 true representative of the whole people, of all the States, and the 
 nation as it was, collectively. 
 
 The Newark Advoccrte calls it " the ablest speech Mr. VALLAN 
 DIGHAM has ever made," and says : " No higher praise need be 
 desired." The Bucyrus Forum says : " Every Democratic paper that 
 comes, contains the great master-speech of VALLANDIGHAM," whom 
 the Forum calls the " coming man." The Marion Mirror pro 
 nounces it " the greatest effort of the age," and says " it reflects 
 undying credit upon its author." The Ohio Democrat calls it u the 
 most able speech delivered in Congress during the war." The Stark 
 County Democrat says : " This speech is in favor of stopping the 
 war, and looking to other means for restoring the Union," and adds: 
 " That is the right talk." With general agreement, the Democratic 
 press everywhere, but especially in Ohio and other Western States, 
 has bestowed higher commendations than upon any other speech 
 delivered during the late Congressional session. Arid this is the 
 estimate the public, also, are forming of the speech that here 
 follows, and which is destined to find a prominent place in the 
 literature these perilous times have created. 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 173 
 
 M* VALLANDIGHAM said : 
 
 MR. SPEAKER : Indorsed at the recent election, within the same 
 district for which I still hold a seat on this floor, by a majority four 
 times greater than ever before, I speak to-day in the name and by 
 the authority of the people who, for six years, have intrusted me 
 with the Office of a Representative. Loyal, in the true and highest 
 sense of the word, to the Constitution and the Union, they have 
 proved themselves devotedly attached to, and worthy of, the liberties 
 to secure which the Union and the Constitution were established. 
 With candor and freedom, therefore, as their Representative, and much 
 plainness of speech, but with the dignity and decency due to this 
 presence, I propose to consider the STATE OF THE UNION to-day, 
 and to inquire what the duty is of every public man and every 
 (Utizen in this the very crisis of the Great Revolution. 
 
 It is now two years, sir, since Congress assembled soon after the 
 Presidential election. A sectional anti-slavery party had then just 
 succeeded through the forms of the Constitution. For the first time 
 a President had been chosen upon a platform of avowed hostility 
 to an institution peculiar to nearly one half of the States of the 
 Union, and who had himself proclaimed that there was an irrepress 
 ible conflict, because of that institution, between the States; and that 
 the Union could not endure "part slave and part free." Congress 
 met, therefore, in the midst of the profoundest agitation, not here 
 only, but throughout the entire South. Revolution glared upon us. 
 Repeated efforts for conciliation and compromise were attempted, in 
 Congress and out of it. All were rejected by the party just com 
 ing into power, except only the promise in the last hours of the 
 session, and that, too, against the consent of a majority of that party 
 both in the Senate and House : that Congress not the Executive 
 should never be authorized to abolish or interfere with slavery in 
 the States where it existed. South Carolina seceded; Georgia, Ala 
 bama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas speedily followed. 
 The Confederate Government was established. The other slave 
 States held back. Virginia demanded a peace congress. The com 
 missioners met, and, after some time, agreed upon terms of final 
 adjustment. .But neither in the vSenate nor the House were they 
 allowed even a respectful consideration. The President elect left his 
 home in February, and journeyed towards this capital, jesting as he 
 came ; proclaiming that the crisis was only artificial, and that " no 
 body was hurt." He entered this city under cover of night and in 
 disguise. On the 4th of March he was inaugurated, surrounded by 
 soldiery; and, swearing to support the Constitution of the United 
 States, announced in the same breath that the platform of his party 
 should be the law unto him. From that moment all hope of peace 
 able adjustment fled. But for a little while, either with unstead- 
 fast sincerity or in premeditated deceit, the policy of peace was pro 
 claimed, even to the evacuation of Suinpter and the other Federal 
 forts and arsenals in the seceded States. Why that policy was sud 
 denly abandoned, time will fully disclose. But just after the spring 
 
174 THE GEE AT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 elections, and the secret meeting in this city of the Governors *f 
 several northern and western States, a fleet carrying a large number 
 of men was sent down ostensibly to provision Fort Suinpter. The 
 authorities of South Carolina eagerly accepted the challenge, and 
 bombarded the fort into surrender, while the fleet fired not a gun, 
 but, just as soon as the flag was struck, bore away and returned to 
 the North. It was Sunday, the 14th of April, 1861 ; and that -day 
 the President, in fatal haste, and without the advice or consent of 
 Congress, issued his proclamation, dated the next day, calling out 
 seventy-five thousand militia for three months, to repossess the forts, 
 places, and property seized from the United States, and commanding 
 the insurgents to disperse in twenty days. Again the gage was 
 taken up by the South, and thus the flames of a civil war, the 
 grandest, bloodiest, and saddest in history, lighted up the whole 
 heavens. Virginia forthwith seceded. North Carolina, Tennessee, and 
 Arkansas, followed ; Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri 
 were in a blaze of agitation, and within a week from the proclama 
 tion, the line of the Confederate States was transferred from the 
 cotton States to the Potomac, and almost to the Ohio and the Missouri, 
 and their population and fighting men doubled. 
 
 In the North and West, too, the storm raged with the fury of a 
 hurricane. Never in history was anything equal to it. Men, women, 
 and children, native and foreign born, Church and State, clergy 
 and laymen, were all swept along with the current. Distinction 
 of age, sex, station, party, perished in an instant. Thousands bent 
 before the tempest; and here and there only was one found bold 
 enough, foolhardy enough it may have been, to bend not, and him 
 it smote as a consuming fire. The spirit of persecution for opinion s 
 sake, almost extinct in the old world, now, by some mysterious 
 transmigration, appeared incarnate in the new. Social relations 
 were dissolved; friendships broken up; the ties of family and kin 
 dred snapped asunder. Stripes and hanging were every where threat 
 ened, sometimes executed. Assassination was invoked ; slander 
 sharpened his tooth ; falsehood crushed truth to the earth ; reason 
 fled; madness reigned. Not justice only escaped to the skies, but 
 peace returned to the bosom of God, whence she came. The gospel 
 of love perished ; hate sat enthroned, and the sacrifices of blood 
 smoked upon every altar. 
 
 But the reign of the mob was inaugurated only to be supplanted 
 by the iron domination of arbitrary power. Constitutional limitation 
 was broken down ; habeas corpus fell ; liberty of the press, of speech, 
 of the person, of the mails, of travel, of one s own house, and of relig 
 ion; the right to bear arms, due process of law, judical trial, trial 
 by jury, trial at all; every badge and muniment of freedom in re 
 publican government or kingly government all went down at a 
 blow ; and the chief law officer of the crown I beg pardon, sir, but 
 it is easy now to fall into this courtly language the Attorney- 
 General, first of all men, proclaimed in the United States the maxim 
 of Roman servility : Whatever pleases the President, that is law ! 
 Prisoners of State were then first heard of here. Midnight and 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IX AMERICA. 175 
 
 arbitrary arrests commenced ; travel was interdicted ; trade embar 
 goed ; passports demanded ; bastiles were introduced ; strange oaths 
 invented; a secret police organized; "piping" began; informers 
 multiplied ; spies now first appeared in America. The right to declare 
 war, to raise and support armies, and to provide and maintain a 
 navy, was usurped by the Executive ; and in a little more than two 
 months a land and naval force of over three hundred thousand men 
 was in the field or upon the sea. An army of public plunderers 
 followed, and curruption struggled with power in friendly strife for 
 the mastery at home. 
 
 On the 4th of July Congress met, not to seek peace ; not to re 
 buke usurpation nor to restrain power ; not certainly to deliberate ; 
 not even to legislate, but to register and ratify the edicts and acts 
 of the Executive ; and in your language, sir, upon the first day of 
 the session, to invoke a universal baptism of fire and blood amid the 
 roar of cannon and the din of battle. Free speech was had only at 
 the risk of a prison ; possibly of life. Opposition was silenced by 
 the fierce clamor of " disloyalty." All business not of war was 
 voted out of order. Five hundred thousand men, an immense navy, 
 and two hundred and fifty millions of money were speedily granted. 
 In- twenty, at most in sixty days, the rebellion was to be crushed 
 out. To doubt it was treason. Abject submission was demanded. 
 Lay down your arms, sue for peace, surrender your leaders forfeit 
 ure, death this was the only language heard on this floor. The 
 galleries responded ; the corridors echoed ; and contractors and place 
 men and other venal patriots everywhere gnashed upon the friends 
 of peace as they passed by. In five weeks severity-eight public and 
 private acts and joint resolutions, with declaratory resolutions, in 
 the Senate and House, quite as numerous, all full of slaughter, were 
 hurried through without delay and almost without debate. 
 
 Thus was CIVIL WAR inaugurated in America. Can any man to 
 day see the end of it? 
 
 And now pardon me, sir, if I pause here a moment to define my 
 own position at that time upon this great question. 
 
 Sir, I am one of that number who have opposed abolitionism; or 
 the political development of the anti-slavery sentiment of the North 
 and West, from the beginning. In school, at college, at the bar, in 
 public assemblies, in the Legislature, in Congress, boy and man, as 
 a private citizen and in public life, in time of peace and in time of 
 war, at all times and at every sacrifice, I have fought against it. It 
 cost me ten years exclusion from office and honor, at that period of 
 life when honors are sweetest. No matter : I learned early to do 
 right and to wait. Sir, it is but the development of the spirit of 
 intermeddling, whose children are strife and murder. Cain troubled 
 himself about the sacrifices of Abel, and slew him. Most of the 
 wars, contentions, litigation, and bloodshed, from the beginning of 
 time, have been its fruits. The spirit of non-intervention is the very 
 spirit of peace and concord. I do not believe that if slavery 
 had never existed here we would have had no sectional controversies. 
 This very civil war might have happened fifty, perhaps a hundred years 
 
176 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 later. Other and stronger causes of discontent and of disunion, it 
 may be, have existed between other States and sections, and are now 
 being developed every day into maturity. The spirit of intervention 
 assumed the form of abolitionism because slavery was odious in name, 
 and by association to the northern mind, and because it was that 
 which most obviously marks the different civilizations of the two 
 sections. The South herself, in her early and later efforts to rid 
 herself of it, had exposed the weak and offensive parts of slavery to 
 the world. Abolition intermeddling taught her at last to search for 
 and defend the assumed social, economic, and political merit and 
 values of the institution. But there never was an hour from the 
 beginning when it did not seem to me as clear as the sun at broad 
 noon, that the agitation in any form, in the North and West, of the 
 slavery question, must sooner or later end in disunion and civil war. 
 
 This was the opinion and prediction for years of Whig and Dem 
 ocratic statesmen alike; and after the unfortunate dissolution of 
 the Whig party, in 185-1, and the organization of the present Repub 
 lican party upon an exclusively anti-slavery and sectional basis, the 
 event was inevitable ; because, in the then existing temper of the 
 public mind, and after the education through the press, and by the 
 pulpit, the lecture and the political canvass for twenty years, of -a 
 generation, taught to hate slavery and the South, the success of that 
 party, possessed, as it was, of every engine of political, business, 
 social, and religious influence, was certain. It was only a question 
 of time, and short time. Such was its strength, indeed, that I do not 
 believe that the union of the Democratic party, in I860, on any can 
 didate, even though he had been supported also by the entire so-called 
 conservative or anti-Lincoln vote of the country, would have availed 
 to defeat it ; and if it had, the success of the Abolition party would 
 only have been postponed four years longer. The disease had fast 
 ened too strongly upon the system to be healed until it had run its 
 course. The doctrine of the "irrepressible conflict" had been taught 
 too long, and accepted too widely and earnestly, to die out until 
 it should culminate in secession and disunion ; and, if coercion 
 were resorted to, then in civil war. I believed from the first that 
 it was the purpose of some of the apostles of that doctrine to 
 force a collision between the North and the South, either to bring 
 about a separation, or to find a vain, but bloody pretext for abolish 
 ing slavery in the States. In any event, I knew, or I thought I 
 knew, that the end was certain collision, and death to the Union. 
 
 Believing thus, I have for years past denounced those who taught 
 that doctrine with all the vehemence, the bitterness, if you choose 
 I thought it a righteous, a patriotic bitterness of an earnest and 
 impassioned nature. Thinking thus, I forewarned all who believed 
 the doctrine, or followed the party which taught it, with a sincerity 
 and a depth of conviction as profound as ever penetrated the heart 
 of man. And when, for eight years past, over and over again, I have 
 proclaimed to the people that the -success of a sectional anti-slavery 
 party would be the beginning of disunion and civil war in America, 
 I believed it. I did. I had read history, and studied human nature, 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 177 
 
 and meditated for years upon the character of our institutions and 
 form of government, and of the people South as well as North ; and 
 I could not doubt the event. But the people did not believe me, 
 nor those older and wiser and greater than I. They rejected the 
 prophesy, and stoned the prophets. The candidate of the Republican 
 party was chosen President. Secession began. Civil war was im 
 minent. It was no petty insurrection ; no temporary combination to 
 obstruct the execution of the laws in certain States; but a REVOLUTION, 
 systematic, deliberate, determined, and with the consent of a majority 
 of the people of each State which seceded. Causeless it may have 
 been ; wicked it may have been ; but there it was ; not to be railed 
 at, still less to be laughed at, but to be dealt with by statesmen as a 
 fact. No display of vigor or force alone, however sudden or great, 
 could have arrested it, even at the outset. It was disunion at last. 
 The wolf had come. But civil war had not yet followed. In my 
 deliberate and most solelnn judgment, there was but one wise and 
 masterly mode of dealing .with it. Non-coercion would avert civil 
 vrar, and compromise crush out both Abolitionism and Secession. The 
 parent and the child would thus both perish. But a resort to force 
 would at once precipitate war, hasten secession, extend disunion, and, 
 while it lasted, utterly cut off all hope of compromise. I believe, 
 that war, if long enough continued, would be final, eternal disunion. 
 I said it ; I meant it ; and, accordingly, to the utmost of my ability 
 and influence, I exerted myself in behalf of the policy of non-coer 
 cion. It was adopted by Mr. Buchanan s Administration, with the 
 almost unanimous consent of the Democratic and Constitutional Union 
 parties in and out of Congress ; and, in February, with the con 
 currence of a majority of the Republican party in the Senate and 
 this House. But that party, most disastrously for the country, refused 
 all compromise. How, indeed, could they accept any ? That which 
 the South demanded, and the Democratic and conservative parties of 
 the North and West were willing . to grant, and which alone could 
 avail to keep the peace and save the Union, implied a surrender of 
 the sole vital element of the party and its platform of the very 
 principle, in fact, upon which it had just won the contest for the 
 Presidency; not, indeed, by a majority of the popular vote the 
 majority was nearly a million against it but under the forms of the 
 Constitution. Sir, the crime, the " high crime " of the Piepublican 
 party was not so much its refusal to compromise, as its original organ 
 ization upon a basis and doctrine wholly inconsistent with the stability 
 of the Constitution and the peace of the Union. 
 
 But to resume : the session of Congress expired. The President 
 elect was inaugurated ; and now, if only the policy of non-coercion 
 could be maintained, and war thus averted, time would do its work 
 in the North and the South, and final peaceable adjustment and 
 reunion be secured. Some time in March it was announced that the 
 President had resolved to continue the policy of his predecessor, and 
 even go a step further, and evacuate Sumter and the other Federal forts 
 and arsenals in the seceded States. His own party acquiesced ; the 
 whole country rejoiced. The policy of non-coercion had triumphed,. 
 12 
 
178 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 snd for once, sir, in my life, I found myself in an immense majority. 
 No man then pretended that a Union founded in consent, could be 
 cemented by force. Nay, more, the President and the Secretary of 
 State went further. Said Mr. Seward, in an official diplomatic letter 
 to Mr. Adams : 
 
 " For these reasons, he (the President) would not be disposed to reject a 
 cardinal dogma of theirs, (the Secessionists,) namely, that the Federal Gov 
 ernment could not reduce the seceding States to obedience by conquest, although 
 he were disposed to question that proposition. But in .fact the President will 
 ingly accepts it as true. Only an imperial or despotic Government could subjugate 
 tfwroughly disaffected and insurrectionary members of the Stated 
 
 Pardon me, sir, but I beg to know whether this conviction of the 
 President and his Secretary, is not the philosophy of the persistent 
 and most vigorous efforts made by this Administration, and first of 
 all through this same Secretary, the moment war broke out, and ever 
 since till the late elections, to convert the United States into an 
 imperial Or despotic Government ? But Mr. Seward adds, and I agree 
 with him : 
 
 "This Federal Republican system of ours is, of all forms of government, 
 the very one which is most uniitted for such a labor." 
 
 This, sir, was on the 10th of April, and yet that very day the 
 fleet was under sail for Charleston. The policy of peace had been 
 abandoned. Collision followed; the militia were ordered out; civil 
 war began. 
 
 Now, sir, on the 14th of April, I believed that coercion would 
 bring on war, and war disunion. More than that, I believed, what 
 you all in your hearts believe to-day, that the South could never be 
 conquered never. And not that only, but I was satisfied and you 
 of the Abolition party have now proved it to the world that the 
 secret but real purpose of the war was to abolish slavery in the States. 
 In any event, I did not doubt that, whatever might be the moment 
 ary impulses of those in power, and whatever pledges they might 
 make, in the midst of the fury, for the Constitution, the Union, and 
 the flag, yet the natural and inexorable logic of revolutions would, 
 sooner or later, drive them into that policy, and with it to its final 
 but inevitable result, the change of our present democratical form 
 of government into an imperial despotism. 
 
 These were my convictions on the 14th of April. Had I changed 
 them on the 15th, when I read the President s proclamation, and 
 become convinced that I had been wrong all my life, and that all 
 history was a fable, and all human nature false in its development 
 from the beginning of time, I would have changed my public con 
 duct also. But my convictions did not change. I thought that, if 
 war was disunion on the 14th of April, it was equally disunion on 
 the 15th, and at all times. Believing this, I could not, as an honest 
 man, a Union man, and a patriot, lend an active support to the war; 
 and I did not. I had rather my right arm were plucked from its 
 socket and cast into eternal burnings than, with my convictions, to 
 have thus defiled my soul with the guilt of moral perjury. Sir, I was 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 179 
 
 not taught in that school which proclaims that "all is fair in politics." 
 I loathe, abhor and detest the execrable maxim. I stamp upon it. 
 No State can endure a single generation whose public men practice 
 it. Whoever teaches it is a corrupter of youth. What we most want 
 in these times, and at all times, is honest and independent public 
 men. That man who is dishonest in politics, is not honest at heart 
 in any thing; and sometimes moral cowardice is dishonesty. Do 
 right; and trust to God, and truth, and the people. Perish office^ 
 perish honors, perish life itself but do the thing that is right, and 
 do it like a man. I did it. Certainly, sir, I could not doubt what 
 he must suffer who dare defy the opinions and the passions, not to 
 say the madness, of twenty millions of people. Had I not read his 
 tory? Did I not know human nature? But I appealed to TIME; 
 and right nobly hath the Avenger answered me. 
 
 I did not support the war ; and to-day I bless God, that not the 
 smell of so much as one drop of its blood is upon my garments. 
 Sir, I censure no brave man who rushed patriotically into this war ; 
 neither will I quarrel with any one, here or elsewhere, who gave to 
 it an honest support. Had their convictions been mine, I, too, would 
 doubtless have done as they did. With rny convictions I could not. 
 
 But I was a Representative. War existed by whose act no mat 
 ter not mine. The President, the Senate, the House, and the 
 country, all said that there should be war war for the Union ; a 
 union of consent and good-will. Our southern brethren were to be 
 whipped back into love and fellowship at the point of the bayonet. 
 Q, monstrous delusion ! I can comprehend a war to compel a people 
 to accept a master ; to change a form of government ; to give up 
 territory; to abolish a domestic institution in short, a war of 
 conquest and subjugation; but a war for union! Was the Union 
 thus made ? Was it ever thus preserved ? Sir, history will record 
 that, after nearly six thousand years of folly and wickedness in every 
 form arid administration of government theocratic, democratic, mo 
 narchic, oligarchic, despotic and mixed it was reserved to American 
 statesmanship, in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, to try 
 the grand experiment, on a scale the most costly and gigantic in its 
 proportions, of creating love by force, and developing fraternal affec 
 tion by war ! And history will record, too, on the same page, the 
 utter, disastrous, and most bloody failure of the experiment. 
 
 But to return : the country was at war ; and I belonged to that 
 school of politics which teaches that when we are at war, the Gov 
 ernment I do not mean the Executive alone, but the Government 
 is entitled to demand and have, without resistance, such number of 
 men, and such amount of money and supplies generally, as may be 
 necessary for the war, until an appeal can be had to the people. 
 Before that tribunal alone, in the first instance, must the question of 
 the continuance of the war be tried. This was Mr. Calhoun s opinion, 
 and he laid it down very broadly and strongly in a speech on the 
 loan bill, in 1841. Speaking of supplies, he said: 
 
 "I hold that there is a distinction in this respect between a state of peace 
 and war. In the latter, the right of withholding supplies ough ; ever to be 
 
180 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 held subordinate to the energetic and successful prosecution of the war. I go 
 further, and regard the withholding supplies, with a view of forcing the coun 
 try into a dishonorable peace, as not only to be what it has been called, moral 
 treason, but very little short of actual treason itself." 
 
 Upon this principle, sir, he acted afterward in the Mexican War. 
 Speaking of that war, in 1847, he said : 
 
 "Every Senator knows that I was opposed to the war; but none knows 
 but myself the depth of that opposition. With my conception of its char 
 acter and consequences, it was impossible for me to vote for it." 
 
 And again, in 1848: 
 
 "But, after the war was declared, by authority of the Government, / acqui 
 esced in what I could not prevent, and which it was impossible for me to arrest; 
 and I then felt it to be my duty to limit my efforts to give such direction to the 
 war as would, as far as possible, prevent the evils and dangers with which it 
 threatened the country and its institutions. 1 
 
 Sir, I adopt all this as my own position and my defense ; though, 
 perhaps, in a civil war I might fairly go further in opposition.. I 
 could not, with my convictions, vote men and money for this war, 
 and I would not, as a Representative, vote against them. I meant 
 that, without opposition, the President might take all the men and all 
 the money he should demand, and then to hold him to a strict 
 accountability before the people for the results. Not believing the 
 soldiers responsible for the war, or its purposes, or its consequences, 
 I have never withheld my vote where their separate interests were 
 concerned. But I have denounced, from the beginning, the usurpa 
 tions and the infractions, one and all, of law and Constitution, by 
 the President and those under him; their repeated and persistent 
 arbitrary arrests, the suspension of habeas corpus, the violation of 
 freedom of the mails, of the private house, of the press and of 
 sjfcech, and all the other multiplied wrongs and outrages upon public 
 liberty and private right, which have made this country one of the 
 worst despotisms on earth for the past twenty months ; and I will 
 continue to rebuke and denounce them to the end ; and the people, 
 thank God ! have at last heard and heeded, and rebuked them, too. 
 To the record and to time I appeal again for my justification. 
 
 And now,, sir, I recur to the state of the Union to-day. What is 
 it? Sir, twenty months have elapsed, but the rebellion is not crushed 
 out ; its military power has not been broken ; the insurgents have 
 not dispersed. The Union is not restored ; nor the Constitution 
 maintained ; nor the laws enforced. Twenty, sixty, ninety, three 
 hundred, six hundred days have passed ; a thousand millions been 
 expended; and three hundred thousand lives lost or bodies mangled; 
 and to-day the Confederate flag is still near the Potomac and the 
 Ohio, and the Confederate Government stronger, many times, than at 
 the beginning. Not a State has been restored, not any part of any 
 State has voluntarily returned to the Union. And hae any thing 
 been wanting that Congress, or the States, or the people in their 
 generous enthusiasm, their most impassionate patriotism, could 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 181 
 
 bestow? Was it power? And did not the party of the Executive 
 control the entire Federal Government, every State government, every 
 county, every city, town and village in the North and West? Was 
 it patronage ? All belonged to it. Was it influence ? What more ? 
 Did not the school, the college, the church, the press, the secret 
 orders, the municipality, the corporation, railroads, telegraphs, express 
 companies, the voluntary association, all, all yield it to the utmost? 
 Was it unanimity ? Never was an Administration so supiported in 
 England or America. Five men and half a score of newspapers made 
 up the Opposition. Was it enthusiasm ? The enthusiasm was fanati 
 cal. There has been nothing like it since the Crusades. Was it con 
 fidence ? Sir, the faith of the people exceeded that of the patriarch. 
 They gave up Constitution, law, right, liberty, all at your demand 
 for arbitrary power that the rebellion might, as you promised, be 
 crushed out in three months, and the Union restored. Was credit 
 needed ? You took control of a country, young, vigorous, and inex 
 haustible in wealth and resources, and of a Government almost free from 
 public debt, and whose good faith had never been tarnished. Your 
 great national loan bubble failed miserably, as it deserved to fail ; 
 but the bankers and merchants of Philadelphia, New York and 
 Boston lent you more than their entire banking capital. And when 
 that failed too, you forced credit by declaring your paper promises to 
 pay, a legal tender for all debts. Was money wanted ? You had 
 all the revenues of the United States, diminished indeed, but still in 
 gold. The whole wealth of the country, to the last dollar, lay at 
 your feet. Private individuals, municipal corporations, the State gov 
 ernments, all, in their frenzy, gave you money or means with reckless 
 prodigality. The great eastern cities lent you $150,000.000. Con 
 gress voted, first, $250,000,000, and next $500,000,000 more in loans ; 
 and then, first $50,000,000, next $10,000,000, then $90,000,000, and, 
 in July last, $150,000,000 in Treasury notes ; and the Secretary has 
 issued also a paper "postage currency," in sums as low as five cents, 
 limited in amount only by his discretion. Nay, more : already since 
 the 4th of July, 1861, this House has appropriated $2,017,864,000, 
 almost every dollar without debate, and without a recorded vote. A 
 thousand millions have been expended since the 15th of April, 1861; 
 and a public debt or liability of $1,500,000,000 already incurred. 
 And to support all this stupendous outlay and indebtedness, a system 
 of taxation, direct and indirect, has been inaugurated, the most 
 onerous and unjust ever imposed upon any but a conquered people. 
 
 Money and credit, then, you have had in prodigal profusion. And 
 were men wanted ? More than a million rushed to arms ! Seventy- 
 five thousand first, (and the country stood aghast at the multitude,) 
 then eighty-three thousand more were demanded ; and three hundred 
 and ten thousand responded to the call. The President next asked 
 for four hundred thousand, and Congress, in their generous con 
 fidence, gave him five hundred thousand ; and, not to be outdone, he 
 took six hundred and thirty-seven thousand. Half of these melted 
 away in their first campaign ; and the President demanded three hund 
 red thousand more for the war, and then drafted yet another three 
 
182 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 hundred thousand for nine months. The fabled hosts of Xerxes 
 have been out-numbered. And yet victory, strangely, follows the 
 standard of the foe. From Great Bethel to Vicksburg, the battle 
 has not been to the strong. Yet every disaster, except the last, has 
 been followed by a call for more troops, and every time, so far, they 
 have been promptly furnished. From the beginning the war has 
 been conducted like a political campaign, and it has been the folly 
 of the party in power that they have assumed, that numbers alone 
 would win the field in a contest not with ballots but with musket 
 and sword. But numbers, you have had almost without number the 
 largest, best appointed, best armed, fed, and clad host of brave men, 
 well organized and well disciplined, ever marshaled. A Navy, too, 
 not the most formidable perhaps, but the most numerous and gallant, 
 and the costliest in the world, and against a foe, almost without a 
 navy atall. Thus, with twenty millions of people, and every element 
 of strength and force at command power, patronage, influence, 
 unanimity, enthusiasm, confidence, credit, money, men, an Army and 
 a Navy the largest and the noblest ever set in the field, or afloat upon 
 the sea ; with the support, almost servile, of every State, county, and 
 municipality in the North and West, with a Congress swift to do the 
 bidding of the Executive ; without opposition anywhere at home ; 
 and with an arbitrary power which neither the Czar of Russia, nor 
 the Emperor of Austria dare exercise ; yet after nearly two years _pf 
 more vigorous prosecution of war than ever recorded in history ; after 
 more skirmishes, combats and battles than Alexander, Csesar, or the 
 first Napoleon ever fought in any five years of their military career, 
 -you have utterly, signally, disastrously I will not say ignominiously 
 failed to subdue ten millions of " rebels," whom you had taught 
 the people of the North and West not only to hate, but to despise. 
 Rebels, did I say? Yes, your fathers were rebels, or your grand 
 fathers. He, who now before me on canvas looks down so sadly 
 upon us, the false, degenerate, and imbecile guardians of the great 
 Republic which he founded, was a rebel. And yet we, cradled our 
 selves in rebellion, and who have fostered and fraternized with every 
 insurrection in the nineteenth century everywhere throughout the 
 globe, would now, forsooth, make the word " rebel " a reproach. 
 Rebels certainly they are ; but all the persistent and stupendous 
 efforts of the most gigantic warfare of modern times have, through 
 your incompetency and folly, availed nothing to crush them out, cut 
 off though they have been, by your blockade, from all the world, and 
 dependent only upon their own courage and resources. And yet, they 
 were to be utterly conquered and subdued in six weeks, or three 
 months ! Sir, my judgment was made up, and expressed from the 
 first. I learned it from Chatham : " My lords, you can not conquer 
 America." And you have not conquered the South. You never 
 will. It is not in the nature of things possible ; much less under 
 your auspices. But money you have expended without limit, and 
 blood poured out like water. Defeat, debt, taxation, sepulchers, these 
 are your trophies. In vain, the people gave you treasure, and the 
 soldier yielded up his life. " Fight, tax, emancipate, let these," said 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 183 
 
 the gentleman from Maine, (Mr. Pike,) at the last session, " be the 
 trinity of our salvation. Sir, they have become the trinity of your 
 deep damnation. The war for the Union is, in your hands, a most 
 bloody and costly failure, The President confessed it on the 22d 
 of September, solemnly, officially, and under the broad seal of the 
 United States. And he has now repeated the confession. The priests 
 and rabbis of abolition taught him that Grod would not prosper such 
 a cause. War for the Union was abandoned ; war for the negro 
 openly begunJand with stronger battalions than before. With what 
 success ? Let the dead at Fredericksburg and Vicksburg answer. 
 
 And now, sir, can this war continue? Whence the money to carry 
 it on? Where the men? Can you borrow? From whom? Can 
 you tax more? Will the people bear it? Wait till you have col 
 lected what is already levied. How many millions more of "legal 
 tender 1 to-day forty-seven per cent, below the par of gold can 
 you float? Will men enlist now at any price? Ah, sir, it is easier 
 to die at home. I beg pardon ; but I trust I am not " discouraging 
 enlistments." If I am, then first arrest Lincoln, Stanton, Halleck, 
 and some of your other generals, and I will retract; yes, I will 
 i-jcant. But can you draft again? Ask New England New York. 
 Ask Massachusetts. Where are the nine hundred thousand? Ask 
 nut Ohio the Northwest. She thought you in earnest, and gave 
 you all, all more than you demanded. 
 
 " The wife whose babe first smiled that day, 
 
 The fair, fond bride of yester eve, 
 And aged sire arid matron gray, 
 Saw the loved warriors haste away, 
 
 And deemed it sin to grieve." 
 
 Sir, in blood she has atoned for her credulity ; and now there is 
 mourning in every house, and distress and sadness in every heart. 
 Shall she give you any more ? 
 
 But ought this war to continue? I answer, no not a day, not 
 an hour. What then? Shall we separate? Again I answer, no, 
 no, no! What then? And now, sir, I come to the grandest and 
 most solemn problem of statesmanship from the beginning of time ; 
 and to the God of heaven, illuminer of hearts and minds, I would 
 humbly appeal for some measure, at least, of light and wisdom and 
 strength to explore and reveal the dark but possible future of this 
 hind. 
 
 CAN THE UNION OF THESE STATES BE RESTORED ? HOW SHALL IT 
 
 BE DONE? 
 
 And why not? Is it historically impossible? Sir, the frequent 
 civil wars and conflicts between the States of Greece did not prevent 
 their cordial union to resist the Persian invasion; nor did even the 
 thirty years Peloponnesiari war, springing, in part, from the abduc 
 tion of slaves, and embittered and disastrous as it was let Thucidi- 
 des speak wholly destroy the fellowship of those States. The wise 
 Romans ended the three years Social War, after many bloody battles 
 
184 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 and much atrocity, by admitting the States of Italy to all the rights 
 and privileges of Roman citizenship the very object to secure 
 which these States had taken up arms. The border wars between 
 Scotland and England, running through centuries, did not prevent 
 the final union, in peace and by adjustment, of the two kingdoms 
 under one monarch. Compromise did at last what ages of coercion 
 and attempted conquest had failed to effect. England kept the 
 crown, while Scotland gave the king to wear it ; and the memories 
 of Wallace, and the Bruce of Bannockburn, became part of the 
 glories of British history. I pass by the union of Ireland with 
 England a union of force, which God and just men abhor ; and 
 yet precisely "the Union as it should be" of the Abolitionists of 
 America. Sir, the rivalries of the houses of York and Lancaster, 
 filled all England with cruelty and slaughter ; yet compromise and 
 intermarriage ended the strife at last, and the white rose and the red 
 were blended in one. Who dreamed a month before the death of 
 Cromwell that in two years the people of England, after twenty 
 years of civil war and usurpation, would, with great unanimity, 
 restore the house of Stuart, in the person of its most worthless 
 prince, whose father, but eleven years before, they had beheaded ? 
 And who could have foretold, in the beginning of 1812, that within 
 some three years, Napoleon would be in exile upon a desert island; 
 and the Bourbons restored? Armed foreign intervention did it; 
 but it is a strange history. Or who then expected to see a nephew 
 of Napoleon, thirty-five years later, with the consent of the people, 
 supplant the Bourbon, and reign Emperor of France ? Sir, many 
 States and people, once separate, have become united in the course 
 of ages, through natural causes, and without conquest; but I remem 
 ber a single instance only, in history, of States or peoples once 
 united, and speaking the same language, who have been forced per 
 manently asunder by civil strife or war, unless they were separated 
 by distance or vast natural boundaries. The secession of the Ten 
 Tribes is the exception : these parted without actual war ; and their 
 subsequent history is not encouraging to secession. But when 
 Moses, the greatest of all statesmen, would secure a distinct nation 
 ality and government to the Hebrews, he left Egypt, and established 
 his people in a distant country. In modern times, the Netherlands, 
 three "centuries ago, won their independence by the sword ; but 
 Prance and the English channel separated them from Spain. So 
 did our Thirteen Colonies ; but the Atlantic ocean divided us from 
 England. So did Mexico, and other Spanish colonies in America, 
 but the same ocean divided them from Spain. Cuba and the Cana- 
 das still adhere to the parent Governments. And who now, North 
 or South, in Europe or America, looking into history, shall pre 
 sumptuously say, that because of civil war the reunion of these States 
 is impossible? War, indeed, while it lasts, is disunion, and, if it 
 lasts long enough, will be final, eternal separation first, and anarchy 
 and despotism afterward. Hence, I would hasten peace now, to-day, 
 by every honorable appliance. 
 
 Are there physical caus3 which render reunion impracticable ? 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 185 
 
 None. Where other causes do not control, rivers unite ; bnt 
 mountains, deserts, and great bodies of water oceani dissociabiles 
 separate a people. Vast forests originally, and the lakes now also, 
 divide us not very widely or wholly from the Canadas, though we 
 speak the same language, and are similar in manners, laws, and 
 institutions. Our chief navigable rivers run from North to South.. 
 Most of our bays and arms of the sea take the same direction. So 
 do our ranges of mountains. Natural causes all tend to Union, 
 except as between the Pacific coast and the country east of the 
 Rocky mountains to the Atlantic. It is " manifest destiny." Union 
 is empire. Hence, hitherto we have continually extended our terri 
 tory, and the Union with it, South and West. The Louisiana pur 
 chase, Florida, and Texas all attest it. We passed desert and 
 forest, and. scaled even the Rocky mountains, to extend the Union to 
 the Pacific. Sir, there is no natural boundary between the North 
 and the South, and no line of latitude upon which to separate ; and 
 if ever a line of longitude shall be established it will be east of the 
 Mississippi valley. The Alleghanies are no longer a barrier. High 
 ways ascend them everywhere, and the railroad now climbs their 
 summits, and spans their chasms, or penetrates their rockiest 
 sides. The electric telegraph follows, and, stretching its connecting 
 wires along the clouds, there mingles its vocal lightnings with the 
 fires of heaven. 
 
 But if disunionists in the East will force a separation of any of 
 these States, and a boundary, purely conventional, is at last to be 
 marked out, it must, and it will be either from Lake Erie upon the 
 shortest line to the Ohio river, or from Manhattan to the Oanadas. 
 
 And now, sir, is there any difference of race here so radical as to 
 forbid reunion? I do not refer to the negro race, styled now, in 
 unctuous official phrase, by the President, " Americans of African 
 descent." Certainly, sir, there are two white races in the United 
 States, both from the same common stock, and yet so distinct one 
 of them so peculiar that they develop different forms of civiliza 
 tion, and might belong, almost, to different types of mankind. But 
 the boundary of these two races is not at all marked by the line 
 vuich divides the slaveholding from the non-slaveholding States. 
 if race is to be the geographical limit of disunion, then Mason and 
 Dixon s can never be the line. 
 
 Next, sir, do not the causes which, in the beginning, impelled to 
 Union, still exist in their utmost force and extent? What were 
 they ? 
 
 First, the common descent and, therefore, consanguinity of 
 the great mass of the people from the Anglo-Saxon stock. Had 
 the Oanadas been settled, originally, by the English, they would, 
 doubtless, have followed the fortunes of the Thirteen Colonies. 
 Next, a common language, one of the strongest of the ligaments which 
 bind a people. Had we been contiguous to Great Britain, either the 
 causes which led to a separation would have never existed, or else 
 been speedily removed; or, afterward, we would long since have been 
 reunited as equals, and with all the rights of Englishmen. And 
 
186 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 along with these were similar, at least not essentially dissimilar, 
 manners, habits, laws, religion, and institutions of all kinds, except 
 one. The common defense was another powerful incentive, and is 
 named in the Constitution as one among the objects of the " more 
 perfect Union" of 1787. Stronger yet than all these, perhaps, but 
 made up of all of them, was a common interest. Variety of climate 
 and soil, and, therefore, of production, implying, also, extent of 
 country, is not an element of separation, but, added to contiguity, 
 becomes a part of the ligament of interest, and is one of its toughest 
 strands. Variety of production is the parent of the earliest commerce 
 and trade ; and these, in their full development, are, as between for 
 eign nations, hostages for peace ; and between States and people 
 united, they are the firmest bonds of union. But, after all, the 
 strongest of the many original impelling causes to the Union was 
 the securing of domestic tranquillity. The statesmen of 1787 well 
 knew that between thirteen independent but contiguous States, with 
 out a natural boundary, and with nothing to separate them, except 
 the machinery of similar governments, there must be a perpetual, in 
 fact, an : irrepressible conflict " of jurisdiction and interest, which, 
 there being no other common arbiter, could only be terminated by 
 the conflict of the sword. And the statesmen of 1863 ought to 
 know that two or more confederate governments, made up of similar 
 States, having no natural boundary either, and separated only by 
 different governments, can not endure long together in peace, unless 
 one or more of them be either too pusillanimous for rivalry, or too 
 insignificant to provoke it, or too weak to resist aggression. 
 
 These, sir, along with the establishment of justice, and the securing 
 of the general welfare, and of the blessings of liberty to themselves 
 and their posterity, made up the causes and. motives which impelled 
 our fathers to the Union at first. 
 
 And now, sir, what one of them is wanting? What one dimin 
 ished? On the contrary, many of them are stronger to-day than in 
 the beginning. Migration and intermarriage have strengthened the 
 ties of consanguinity. Commerce, trade, and production have im 
 mensely multiplied. Cotton, almost unknown here in 1787, is now 
 the chief product and export of the country. It has set in motion 
 three-fourths of the spindles of New England, and given employ 
 ment, directly or remotely, to full half the shipping, trade, and 
 commerce of the United States. More than that: cotton has kept 
 the peace between England and America for thirty years; and, had 
 the people of the North been as wise and practical as the statesmen 
 of Great Britain, it would have maintained union and peace here. 
 But we are being taught in our first century, and at our own cost, 
 the lessons which England learned through the long and bloody 
 experience of eight hundred years. We shall be wiser next time. 
 Let not cotton be king, but peace-maker, and inherit the blessing. 
 
 A common interest, then, still remains to us. And union for the 
 common defense, at the end of this war, taxed, indebted, impover 
 ished, exhausted, as both sections must be, and with foreign fleets 
 and armies around us, will be fifty-fold more essential than ever 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 187 
 
 before. And finally, sir, without union, our domestic tranquillity must 
 forever remain unsettled. If it can not be maintained within the Union, 
 how, then, outside of it. without an exodus or colonization of the 
 people of one section or the other to a distant country? Sir, I repeat, 
 that two governments so interlinked and bound together every way, 
 by physical and social ligaments, can not exist in peace without a 
 common arbiter. Will treaties bind us ? What better treaty than 
 the Constitution ? What more solemn, more durable ? Shall we 
 settle our disputes then by arbitration and compromise ? Sir,, let us 
 arbitrate and compromise now, inside of the Union. Certainly it will 
 be quite as easy. 
 
 And now, sir, to all these original causes and motives which 
 impelled to Union at first, must be added certain artificial ligaments, 
 which eighty years of association under a common Government have 
 most fully developed. Chief among these are canals, steam naviga 
 tion, railroads, express companies, the post-office, the newspaper 
 press, and that terrible agent of good arid evil mixed " spirit of 
 health, and yet goblin damned/ if free, the gentlest minister of truth 
 and liberty, when enslaved, the supplest instrument of falsehood 
 and tyranny the magnetic telegraph. All these have multiplied the 
 speed or the quantity of trade, travel, communication, migration, and 
 intercourse of all kinds, between the different States and sections ; 
 and thus, so long as a healthy condition of the body-politic contin 
 ued, they became powerful cementing agencies of union. The numer 
 ous voluntary associations, artistic, literary, charitable, social, and 
 scientific, until corrupted and made fanatical ; the various ecclesias 
 tical organizations, until they divided ; and the political parties, so 
 long as they remained all national, and not sectional, were also among 
 the strajig ties which bound us together. And yet all of these, per 
 verted and abused for some years in the hands of bad or fanatical 
 men, became still more powerful instrumentalities in the fatal work 
 of disunion ; just as the veins and arteries of the human body, 
 designed to convey the vitalizing fluid through every part of it, will 
 carry also, and with increased rapidity it may be, the subtile poison 
 which takes life away. Nor is this all. It was through their agency 
 that the -imprisoned winds of civil war were all let loose at first with 
 such sudden and appalling fury ; and, kept in motion by political 
 power, they have ministered to that fury ever since. But, potent 
 alike for good and evil, they may yet, under the control of the 
 people, and in the hands of wise, good, and patriotic men, be made 
 the most effective agencies, under Providence, in the reunion of these 
 States. 
 
 Other ties, also, less material in their nature, but hardly less per 
 suasive in their influence, have grown up under the Union. Long 
 association, a common history, national reputation, treaties and diplo 
 matic intercourse abroad, admission of new States, a common juris 
 prudence, great men whose names and fame are the patrimony of the 
 whole country, patriotic music and songs, common battle-fields, and 
 glory won under the same flag. These make up the poetry of the 
 Union ; and yet, as in the marriage relation, and the family, with 
 
188 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 similar influences, they are stronger than hooks of steel. He was a 
 wise statesman, though he may never have held an office, who said : 
 " Let me write the songs of a people, and I care not who makes their 
 laws." Why is the Marseillaise prohibited in France? Sir, Hail 
 Columbia and the Star-Spangled Banner Pennsylvania gave us one, 
 and Maryland the other have done more for the Union than all the 
 legislation and all the debates in this capitol for forty years; and 
 they will do more yet again than all your armies, though you call 
 out another million of men into the field. Sir, I would add "Yan 
 kee Doodle ;" but first let me be assured that Yankee Doodle loves 
 the Union more than he hates the slaveholder.^ 
 
 And now, sir, I propose to briefly consider the causes which led 
 to disunion and the present civil war ; and to inquire whether they 
 are eternal and ineradicable in their nature, and at the same time 
 powerful enough to overcome all the causes and considerations which 
 impel to reunion. 
 
 Having, two years ago, discussed fully and elaborately the more 
 abstruse and remote causes whence civil commotions in all Govern 
 ments, and those also which are peculiar to our complex and Federal 
 system, such as the consolidating tendencies of the General Govern 
 ment, because of executive power and patronage, and of the tariflf, 
 and taxation and disbursement generally, all unjust and burdensome 
 to the West equally with the South, I pass them by now. 
 
 What then, I ask, is the immediate, direct cause of disunion and 
 this civil war? Slavery, it is answered. Sir, that is the philosophy 
 of the rustic in the play "that a great cause of the night, is lack 
 of the sun." Certainly slavery was in one sense very obscure, indeed 
 the cause of the war. Had there been no slavery here, this par 
 ticular war about slavery would never have been waged. In a like 
 sense, the Holy Sepulcher was the cause of the war of the Crusades, 
 and had Troy or Carthage never existed, there never would have 
 been Trojan or Carthaginian war, and no such personages as Hector 
 and Hannibal ; and no Iliad or ^Eneid would ever have been written. 
 But far better say that the negro is the cause of the war ; for had 
 there been no negro here, there would be no war just now. What 
 then? Exterminate him ? Who demands it? Colonize him? How? 
 W^here ? When ? At whose cost ? Sir, let us have an end of this 
 folly. 
 
 But slavery is the cause of the war. Why ? Because the South 
 obstinately and wickedly refused to restrict or abolish it at the 
 demand of the philosophers or fanatics and demagogues of the North 
 and West. Then, sir, it was abolition, the purpose to abolish or 
 interfere with and hem in slavery, which caused disunion and war. 
 Slavery is only the subject, but Abolition the cause of this civil war. 
 It was the persistent and determined agitation in the free States of 
 the question of abolishing slavery in the South, because of the alleged 
 " irrepressible conflict " between the forms of labor in the two sec- 
 
 * In truth, the song was written in derision by a British officer, and not by 
 an American. 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 189 
 
 tlons, or, in the false and mischievous cant of the day, between free 
 dom and slavery, that forced a collision of arms at last. Sir, that 
 conflict was not confined to the Territories. It was expressly proclaimed 
 by its apostles, as between the States also against the institution of 
 domestic slavery everywhere. But, assuming the platforms of the 
 Republican party as a standard, and stating the case most strongly in 
 favor of that party, it was the refusal of the South to consent that 
 slavery should be excluded from the Territories, that led to the con 
 tinued agitation, North and South, of that question, and finally to 
 disunion and civil war. Sir, I will not be answered now by the old 
 clamor about "the aggressions of the slave power." That miserable 
 specter, that unreal mockery, has been exorcised and expelled by debt 
 and taxation and blood. If that power did govern this country for 
 the sixty years preceding this terrible revolution, then the sooner 
 this Administration and Government return to the principles and 
 policy of Southern statesmanship, the better for the country ; and 
 that, sir, is already, or soon will be, the judgment of the people. But 
 I deny that it was the " slave power " that governed for so many years, 
 arid so wisely and well. It was the Democratic party, and its prin 
 ciples and policy, molded and controlled, indeed, largely by Southern 
 statesmen. Neither will I be stopped by that other cry of mingled 
 fanaticism and hypocrisy, about the sin and barbarism of African 
 slavery. Sir, I see more of barbarism and sin, a thousand times, in 
 the continuance of this war, the dissolution of the Union, the break 
 ing up of this Government, and the enslavement of the white race, 
 by debt and taxes and arbitrary power. The day of fanatics and 
 sophists and enthusiasts, thank God, is gone at last ; and though the 
 age of chivalry may not, the age of practical statesmanship is about 
 to return. Sir, I accept the language and intent of the Indiana 
 resolution, to the full " that in considering terms of settlement, we 
 will look only to the welfare, peace, and safety of the white race, 
 without reference to the effect that settlement may have upon the 
 condition of the African." And when we have done this, my word 
 for it, the safety, peace, and welfare of the African will have been 
 best secured. Sir, there is fifty-fold less of anti-slavery sentiment 
 to-day in the West than there was two years ago ; and if this war be 
 continued, there will be still less a year hence. The people there 
 begin, at last, to comprehend, that domestic slavery in the South is 
 a question, not of morals, or religion, or humanity, but a form of 
 labor, perfectly compatible with the dignity of free white labor in the 
 same community, and with national vigor, power, and prosperity, and 
 especially with military strength. They have learned, or begin to 
 learn, that the evils of the system affect the master alone, or the 
 community and State in which it exists ; and that we of the free 
 States partake of all the material benefits of the institution, unmixed 
 with any part of its mischief. They believe, also, in the subordina 
 tion of the negro race to the white, where they both exist together, 
 and that the condition of subordination, as established in the South, 
 is far better every way, for the negro, than the hard servitude of 
 poverty, degradation, and crime, to which he is subjected in the free 
 
190 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 States. All this, sir, may be " pro -slavery ism," if tliere be such 
 a word. Perhaps it is ; but the people of the West begin now to 
 think it wisdom and good sense. We will not establish slavery in 
 our own midst ; neither will we abolish it, or interfere with it outside 
 of our own limits. 
 
 Sir, an anti-slavery paper in New York, (the Tribune^ the most 
 influential, and therefore most dangerous, of all of that class it 
 would exhibit more of dignity, and command more of influence, if it 
 were always to discuss public questions and public men with a decent 
 respect laying aside now the epithets of " secessionist " and " traitor," 
 has returned to its ancient political nomenclature, and calls certain 
 members of this House " pro-slavery." Well, sir, in the old sense 
 of the term, as applied to the Democratic party, I will not object. 
 I said years ago, and it is a fitting time now to repeat it : 
 
 "If to love my country; to cherish the Union; to revere the Constitution; 
 if to abhor the madness and hate the treason, which would lift up a sacri 
 legious hand agninst either; if to read that in the past, to behold it in the 
 present, to foresee it in the future of this land, which is of more value to us, 
 and to the world, for ages to come, than all the multiplied millions who have 
 inhabited Africa from the creation to this day ! if this it is to be pro-slavery, 
 then in every nerve, fiber, vein, bone, tendon, joint, and ligament, from the 
 topmost hair of the head to the last extremity of the foot, I am all over and 
 altogether a pro-slavery man." 
 
 And now, sir, I c ome to the great and controlling question within 
 which the whole issue of union or disunion is bound up : Is there 
 "an irrepressible conflict" between the slaveholding and non-slave- 
 hplding States? Must " the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina, 
 and the sugar plantations of Louisiana," in the language of Mr. 
 Seward, " be ultimately tilled by free labor, and Charleston and New 
 Orleans become marts for legitimate merchandise alone, or else the 
 rye fields and wheat fields of Massachusetts and New York again be 
 surrendered by their farmers to slave culture and the production of 
 slaves, and Boston and New York become, once more markets for trade 
 in the bodies and souls of men ? " If so, then there is an end of 
 all union, and forever. You can not abolish slavery by the sword ; 
 still less by proclamations, though the President were to "proclaim " 
 every month. Of what possible avail was his proclamation of Sep 
 tember ? Did the South submit? W r as she even alarmed? And yet, 
 he has now fulmined another " bull against the comet " brutum ful- 
 m&n and, threatening servile insurrection with all its horrors, has 
 yet coolly appealed to the judgment of mankind, and invoked the 
 blessing of the God of peace and love ! But declaring it a military 
 necessity, an essential measure of "war to subdue the rebels, yet, with 
 admirable wisdom, he expressly exempts from its operation the only 
 States, and parts of States, in the South, where he has the military 
 power to execute it. 
 
 Neither, sir, can you abolish slavery by argument. As well attempt 
 to abolish marriage, or the relation of paternity. The South is 
 resolved to maintain it at every hazard, and by every sacrifice ; and 
 if "this Union can not endure, part slave and part free," then it ia 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 191 
 
 already and finally dissolved. Talk not to me of "West Virginia." 
 Tell me not of Missouri, trampled under the feet of your soldiery. 
 As well talk to me of Ireland. Sir, the destiny of those States must 
 abide the issue of the war. But Kentucky you may find tougher. 
 And Maryland 
 
 "E en in her ashes live their wonted fires." 
 
 Nor will Delaware be found wanting in the day of trial. 
 
 But I deny the doctrine. It is full of disunion and civil war. It 
 is disunion itself. Whoever first taught it ought to be dealt with as 
 not only hostile to the Union, but an enemy of the human raee 
 /Sir, the fundamental idea of the Constitution is the perfect and 
 eternal compatibility of a union of States " part slave and part free : " 
 else the Constitution never would have been framed, nor the Union 
 founded ; and seventy years of successful experiment have approved 
 the wisdom of the plan. In my deliberate judgment, a confederacy 
 made up of slaveholding and non-slaveholding States, is, in the nature 
 of things, the strongest of all popular governments. African slavery 
 has been, and is, eminently conservative. It makes the absolute 
 political equality of the white race everywhere practicable^-/ It dis 
 penses with the English order of nobility, and leaves every white 
 man, North and South, owning slaves or owning none, the equal of 
 every other white man. It has reconciled universal suffrage, through 
 out the free States, with the stability of government. I speak riot 
 now of its material benefits to the North and West, which are many 
 and more obvious. But the South, too, has profited many ways by 
 a union with the non-slaveholding States. Enterprise, industry, self- 
 reliance, perseverance, and the other hardy virtues of a people living 
 in a higher latitude, and without hereditary servants, she has learned 
 or received from the North. Sir, it is easy, I know, to denounce all 
 this, arid to revile him who utters it. Be it so. The English is, of 
 all languages, the most copious in words of bitterness and reproach. 
 " Pour on : I will endure." 
 
 Then, sir, there is not an " irrepressible conflict " between slave 
 labor and free labor. There is no conflict at all. Both exist 
 together in perfect harmony in the South. The master and the slave, 
 the white laborer and the black, work together in the same field, or 
 the same shop, and without the slightest sense of degradation. They 
 are not equals, either socially or politically. And why, then, can 
 not Ohio, having only free labor, live in harmony w r ith Kentucky, 
 which has both slave and free? Above all, why can not Massachu 
 setts allow the same right of choice to South Carolina, separated as 
 the) are a thousand miles, by other States, who would keep the 
 peace, and live in good will? Why this civil war? Whence dis 
 union ? Not from slavery not because the South chooses to have 
 two kinds of labor instead of one but from sectionalism, always and 
 every where a disintegrating principle. Sectional jealousy and hate 
 these, sir, are the only elements of conflict between these States ; 
 and, though powerful, they are yet not at all irrepressible. They 
 exist between families, communities, towns, cities, counties, and 
 
192 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 States ; and if not repressed, would dissolve all society and govern 
 ment. They exist, also, between other sections than the North and 
 South. Sectionalism East, many years ago, saw the South and West 
 united by the ties of geographical position, migration, intermarriage, 
 and interest, and thus strong enough to control the power and policy 
 of the Union. It found us divided only by different forms of labor, 
 and, with consummate, but most guilty sagacity, it seized upon the 
 question of slavery as the surest and most powerful instrumentality 
 by which to separate the West from the South, and bind her wholly 
 to the North. Encouraged every way, from abroad, by those who 
 were jealous of our prosperity and greatness, arid who knew the 
 secret of our strength, it proclaimed the "irrepressible conflict" 
 between slave labor and free labor. It taught the people of the 
 North to forget both their duty and their interests ; and, aided by 
 the artificial ligaments and influences which money and enterprise 
 had created between the seaboard and the North-west, it persuaded 
 the people of that section, also, to yield up every tie which binds 
 them to the great valley of the Mississippi, arid to join, their political 
 fortunes especially, wholly with the East. It resisted the fugitive 
 slave law, and demanded the exclusion of slavery from all the Terri 
 tories, and from this District, and clamored against the admission of 
 any more slave States into the Union. It organized a sectional anti- 
 slavery party, and thus drew to its aid as well political ambition and 
 interest as fanaticism ; and, after twenty-five years of incessant and 
 vehement agitation, it obtained possession, finally, and upon that 
 issue, of the Federal Government, and of every State government, 
 North and West. And, to-day, we are in the midst of the greatest, 
 most cruel, most destructive civil war ever waged. But two years, 
 sir, of blood and debt arid taxation, and incipient commercial ruin, 
 are teaching the people of the West, and, I trust, of the North, also, 
 the folly and madness of this crusade against African slavery, and 
 the wisdom and necessity of a union of the States, as our fathers 
 made it, "part slave and part free." 
 
 What then, sir, with so many causes impelling to reunion, keeps 
 us apart to-day? Hate, passion, antagonism, revenge all heated 
 seven times hotter by war. Sir, these, while they last, are the most 
 powerful of all motives with a people, and with the individual man ; 
 but, fortunately, they are the least durable. They hold a divided 
 sway in the same bosoms with the nobler qualities of love, justice, 
 reason, placability ; and, except when at their hight, are weaker than 
 the sense of interest, and always, in States, at least give way to it at 
 last. No statesman who yields himself up to them can govern wisely 
 or well ; and no State whose policy is controlled by them can either 
 prosper or endure. But war is both their offspring and their aliment, 
 and, while it lasts, all other motives are subordinate. The virtues 
 of peace can not flourish, can not even find development in the 
 midst of fighting ; and this civil war keeps in motion all the cen 
 trifugal forces of the Union, and gives to them increased strength 
 and activity every day. But such, and so many and powerful, in 
 my judgment, are the cementing or centripetal agencies impelling us 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 193 
 
 together, that nothing but perpetual war and strife can keep us 
 always divided. 
 
 Sir, I do not under-estimate the power of the prejudices of section, 
 or, what is much stronger, of race. Prejudice is colder, and, there 
 fore, more durable than the passions of hate and revenge, or the 
 spirit of antagonism. But, as I have already said, its boundary in 
 the United States is not Mason and Dixon s line. The long standing 
 mutual jealousies of New England and the South do not primarily 
 grow out of slavery. They are deeper, and will always be the chief 
 obstacle in the way of full and absolute reunion. They are founded 
 in difference of manners, habits, and social life, and different notions 
 about politics, morals, and religion. Sir, after all, this whole war is 
 not so much one of sections least of all, between the slaveholding 
 and non-slaveholding sections as of races, representing not difference 
 in blood, but mind and its development, and different types of civ 
 ilization. It is the old conflict of the Cavalier and the Roundhead, 
 the Liberalist and the Puritan ; or, rather, it is a conflict, upon new 
 issues, of the ideas and elements represented by those names. It is 
 a war of the Yankee and the Southron. Said a Boston writer, the 
 other day, eulogizing a New England officer who fell at Fredericks- 
 burg : " This is Massachusetts war ; Massachusetts and South Caro 
 lina made it." But, in the beginning, the Roundhead outwitted the 
 Cavalier, and, by a skillful use of slavery and the negro, united all New 
 England first, and afterwards the entire North and West, and finally 
 sent out to battle against him Celt and Saxon, German and Knicker 
 bocker, Catholic and Episcopalian, and even a part of his own house 
 hold, and of the descendants of his own stock. Said Mr. Jefferson, 
 when New England threatened secession, some sixty years ago : "No, 
 let us keep the Yankees to quarrel with." Ah, sir, he forgot that 
 quarreling is always a hazardous experiment ; and, after some time, 
 the countrymen of Adams proved themselves too sharp at that work 
 for the countrymen of Jefferson. But every day the contest now 
 tends again to its natural and original elements. In many parts of 
 the North-west I might add, of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 
 New York city the prejudice against the " Yankee " has always 
 been almost as bitter as in the South. Suppressed for a little while 
 by the anti-slavery sentiment and the war, it threatens now to break 
 forth in one of those great, but unfortunate, popular uprisings, in the 
 midst of which reason and justice are, for the time, utterly silenced. 
 I speak advisedly, and let New England heed, else she, and the whole 
 East, too, in their struggle for power, may learn yet, from the West, the 
 same lesson which civil war taught to Home, that evulgato imperii 
 arcano, posse principem alibi, quam Roince fieri. The people of the 
 West demand peace, and they begin to more than suspect that New 
 England is in the way. The storm rages ; and they believe that she, 
 riot slavery, is the cause. The ship is sore tried; and passengers and 
 crew are now almost ready to propitiate the waves, by throwing the 
 ill-omened prophet overboard. In plain English not very classic, 
 but most expressive they threaten to " set New England out in the 
 cold." 
 
 13 
 
194 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA, 
 
 And now, sir, I, who have not a drop of New England blood in 
 my veins, but was born in Ohio, and am wholly of southern ancestry 
 with a slight cross of Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish would speak a 
 word to the men of the West and the South, in behalf of New 
 England. Sir, some years ago, in the midst of high sectional con 
 troversies, and speaking as a western man, I said some things harsh 
 of the North, which now, in a more catholic spirit, as a United .States 
 man, and for the sake of reunion, I would recall. My prejudices, 
 indeed, upon this subject, are as strong as any man s ; but in this, 
 the day of great national humiliation and calamity, let the voice of 
 prejudice be hushed. 
 
 Sir, they who would exclude New England in any reconstruction 
 of the Union, assume that all New Englanders are "Yankees" and 
 Puritans ; and that the Puritan or pragmatical element, or type of 
 civilization, has always held undisputed sway. Well, sir, Yankees, 
 certainly, they are, in one sense ; and so to Old England we are all 
 Yankees, North and South; and to the South just now, or a little 
 while ago, we, of the middle and western States, also, are. or were, 
 Yankees, too. But there is really a very large, and most liberal and 
 conservative non-Puritan element in the population of New England, 
 which, for many years, struggled for the mastery, and sometimes held 
 it. It divided Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, and once 
 controlled Rhode Island wholly. It held the sway during the Revo 
 lution, and at the period when the Constitution was founded, and 
 for some years afterwards. Mr. Calhoun said, very justly, in 1847, 
 that to the wisdom and enlarged patriotism of Sherman and Ells 
 worth, on the slavery question, we were indebted for this admirable 
 Government; and that, along with Paterson, of New Jersey, "their 
 names ought to be engraven on brass, and live forever." And Mr. 
 Webster, in 1830, in one of those grand historic word-paintings, in 
 which he was so great a master, said of Massachusetts and South 
 Carolina : " Hand in hand they stood around the Administration of 
 Washington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support." 
 Indeed, sir, it was not till some thirty years ago that the narrow, 
 presumptuous, intermeddling, and fanatical spirit of the old Puritan 
 element began to reappear in a form very much more aggressive and 
 destructive than at first, and threatened to obtain absolute mastery in 
 Church, and School, and State. A little earlier it had struggled 
 hard, but the conservatives proved too strong for it; and so long as 
 the great statesmen and jurists of the Whig and Democratic parties 
 survived, it made small progress, though John Quincy Adams gave 
 to it the strength of his great name. But after their death, it broke 
 in as a flood, and swept away the last vestige of the ancient, liberal, 
 and tolerating conservatism. Then every form and development of 
 fanaticism sprang up in rank and most luxuriant growth, till abo 
 litionism, the chief fungus of all, overspread the whole of New En 
 gland first, and then the middle States, and finally every State in the 
 North-west. 
 
 Certainly, sir, the more liberal or non-Puritan element was mainly, 
 though not altogether, from the old Puritan stock, or largely crossed 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 195 
 
 with it. But even within the first ten years after the landing of the 
 Pilgrims, a more enlarged and tolerating civilization was introduced. 
 Roger Williams, not of the Mayflower, though a Puritan himself, and 
 thoroughly imbued with all its peculiarities of cant and creed and 
 form of worship, seems yet to have had naturally a more liberal 
 spirit ; and, first, perhaps, of all men, some three or more years before 
 the Ark and the Dove touched the shores of the St. Mary s, in Mary 
 land, taught the sublime doctrine of freedom of opinion and practice 
 in religion. Threatened first with banishment to England, so as to 
 remove, as far as possible, the infection of his principles," and, after 
 ward, actually banished beyond the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, 
 because, in the language of the sentence of the General Court, " he 
 broached and divulged divers new and strange doctrines against the 
 authority of magistrates," over the religious opinions of men, thereby 
 disturbing the peace of the colony, he became the founder of Rhode 
 Island, and, indeed, of a large part of New Egland society. And, 
 whether from his teachings and example, and in the persons of his 
 descendants and those of his associates, or from other causes and 
 another stock, there has always been a large infusion throughout New 
 England of what may be called the Roger Williams element, as dis 
 tinguished from the extreme Puritan or Mayflower and Plymouth 
 Rock type of the New Engiander ; and, its influence, till late years, 
 has always been powerful. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The gentleman s hour has expired. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. I ask for a short time longer. 
 
 Mr. POTTER. I hope there will be no objection from this side of 
 the House. 
 
 The SPEAKER. If there be no objection, the gentleman will be 
 allowed further time. 
 
 There was no objection, and it was ordered accordingly. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. Sir, I would not deny or disparage the 
 austere virtues of the old Puritans of England or America. But I 
 do believe that, in the very nature of things, no community could 
 exist long in peace, and no government endure long alone, or become 
 great, where that element, in its earliest or its more recent fo.rm, 
 holds supreme control. And, it is my solemn conviction, that there 
 can be no possible or durable reunion of these States, until it shall 
 have been again subordinated to other and more liberal and conserva 
 tive elements, and, above all, until its worst and most mischievous 
 development, Abolitionism, has been utterly extinguished. Sir, the 
 peace of the Union and of this continent demands it. But, fortu 
 nately, those very elements exist abundantly in New England herself j 
 and to her I look with confidence to secure to them the mastery 
 within her limits. In fact, sir, the true voice of New England has, 
 for some years past, been but rarely heard, here or elsewhere, in 
 public affairs. Men now control her politics, and are in high places, 
 State and Federal, who, twenty years ago, could not have been 
 chosen selectmen in old Massachusetts. But, let her remember, at 
 last, her ancient renown ; let her turn from vain-glorious admiration 
 of the stone monuments of her heroes and patriots of a former age, 
 
190 THE GKEAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 to generous emulation of the noble and manly virtues which they 
 were designed to commemorate. Let us hear less from her of the 
 Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower and of Plymouth Rock, and 
 more of Roger Williams and his compatriots, and his toleration. 
 Let her banish, now and forever, her dreamers and her sophists and 
 her fanatics, and call back again into her State administration, and 
 into the national councils, " her men of might, her grand in soul "- 
 some of them still live and she will yet escape the dangers which 
 now threaten her with isolation. 
 
 Then, sir, while I am inexorably hostile to Puritan domination in 
 religion or morals or literature or politics, I am not in favor of the 
 proposed exclusion of New England. I would have the Union as it 
 was, and, first, New England as she was. But if New England will 
 have no union with slaveholders, if she is not content with " the 
 Union as it was," then, upon her own head be the responsibility for 
 secession ; and there will be no more coercion now ; I, at least, will 
 be exactly consistent. 
 
 And now, sir, can the central States, New York, New Jersey, and 
 Pennsylvania, consent to separation? Can New York city? Sir, the 
 trade of the South made her largely what she is. She was the factor 
 and banker of the South. Cotton filled her harbor with shipping, 
 and her banks with gold. But in an evil hour, the foolish, I will 
 not say bad "men of Gotham" persuaded her merchant princes 
 against their first lesson in business that she could retain or force 
 back the southern trade by war. War, indeed, has given her, just 
 now, a new business and trade, greater and more profitable than the old ; 
 but with disunion, that, too, must perish. And let not Wall street, 
 or any other great interest, mercantile, manufacturing, or commercial, 
 imagine that it shall have power enough, or wealth enough, to stand 
 in the way of reunion through peace. Let them learn, one and all, 
 that a public man, who has the people as his support, is stronger 
 than they, though he may not be worth a million, nor even one 
 dollar. A little while ago the banks said that they were king, but 
 President Jackson speedily taught them their mistake. Next, rail 
 roads assumed to be king ; and cotton once vaunted largely his king 
 ship. Sir, these are only of the royal family princes of the blood. 
 There is but one king on earth. Politics is king. 
 
 But to return : New Jersey, too, is bound closely to the South, 
 and the South to her ; and more and longer than any other State, she 
 remembered both her duty to the Constitution and her interest in 
 the Union. And Pennsylvania, a sort of middle ground, just between 
 the North and the South, and extending, also, to the West, is united 
 by nearer, if not stronger ties to every section than any other one 
 State, unless it be Ohio. She was she is yet the keystone in the 
 great but now crumbling arch of the Union. She is a border State ; 
 and, more than that, she has less within her of the fanatical or dis 
 turbing element than any of the States. The people of Pennsylvania 
 are quiet, peaceable, practical, and enterprising, without being aggress 
 ive. They have more of the honest old English and German thrift 
 than any other. No people mind more diligently their own business. 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 197 
 
 They have but one idiosyncrasy or specialty the tariff; and even 
 that is really far more a matter of tradition than of substantial interest. 
 The industry, enterprise, and thrift of Pennsylvania are abundantly 
 able to take care of themselves against any competition. In any event, 
 the Union is of more value, many times, to her, than any local interest. 
 
 But other ties also bind these States Pennsylvania and Ne\* 
 Jersey, especially to the South, and the South to them. Only an 
 imaginary line separates the former from Delaware and Maryland. 
 The Delaware river, common to both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 
 flows into Delaware Bay. The Susquehanna empties its waters, 
 through Pennsylvania and Maryland, into the Chesapeake. And 
 that great watershed itself, extending to Norfolk, and, therefore, 
 almost to the North Carolina line, does belong, and must ever belong, 
 in common, to the central and southern States, under one govern 
 ment; or else the line of separation will be the Potomac to its head 
 waters. All of Delaware and Maryland, and the counties of Acco- 
 mac and Northampton, in Virginia, would, in that event, follow the 
 fortunes of the northern confederacy. In fact, sir, disagreeable as 
 the idea may be to many within their limits, on both sides, no man 
 who looks at the map and then reflects upon history and the force of 
 natural causes, and considers the present actual and the future prob 
 able position of the hostile armies and navies at the end of this war, 
 ought for a moment to doubt that either the States and counties 
 which I have named, must go with the North, or Pennsylvania and 
 New Jersey with the South. Military force on either side can not 
 control the destiny of the States lying between the mouth of the 
 Chesapeake and the Hudson. And if that bay were itself made the 
 line, Delaware, and the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, 
 would belong to the North ; while Norfolk, the only capacious harbor 
 on the south-eastern coast, must be commanded by the guns of some 
 new fortress upon Cape Charles ; and Baltimore, the now queenly 
 city, seated then upon the very boundary of two rival, yes, hostile, 
 confederacies, would rapidly fall into decay. 
 
 And now, sir, I will not ask whether the North-west can consent 
 to separation from the South. Never. Nature forbids. We are 
 only a part of the great valley of the Mississippi. There is no line 
 of latitude upon which to separate. Neither party would desire the 
 old line of 36 30 on both sides of the river; and there is no natural 
 boundary east and west. The nearest to it are the Ohio and Missouri 
 rivers. But that line would leave Cincinnati and St. Louis, as border 
 cities, like Baltimore, to decay, and, extending fifteen hundred miles 
 in length, would become the scene of an eternal border warfare, with 
 out example even in the worst of times. Sir, we can not, ought not, 
 will not, separate from the South. And if you of the East who have 
 found this war against the South, and for the negro, gratifying to 
 your hate or profitable to your purse, will continue it till a separation 
 be forced between the slaveholding and your non-slaveholding States, 
 then, believe me, and accept it, as you did not the other solemn warn 
 ings of years past, the day which divides the North from the South, 
 that self -same day decrees, eternal divorce between the West and the East. 
 
198 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 Sir, our destiny is fixed. There is not one drop of rain which, 
 descending from the heavens and fertilizing our soil, causes it to 
 yield an abundant harvest, but flows into the Mississippi, and there 
 mingling with the waters of that mighty river, finds its way, at last, 
 to the Gulf of Mexico. And we must and will follow it with travel 
 and trade not by treaty, but by right freely, peaceably, and with 
 out restriction or tribute, under the same government and flag, to 
 its home in the bosom of that gulf. Sir, we will not remain, after 
 separation from the South, a province or appanage of the East, to 
 bear her burdens and pay her taxes ; nor, hemmed in and isolated 
 as we are, and without a sea-coast, could we long remain a distinct 
 confederacy. But wherever we go, married to the South or the 
 East, we bring with us three -fourths of the territories of that valley 
 to the Rocky Mountains, and it may be to the Pacific the grandest 
 and most magnificent dowry that bride ever had to bestow. 
 
 Then, sir, New England, freed at last from the domination of her 
 sophisters, dreamers, and bigots, and restored to the control once 
 more of her former liberal, tolerant, and conservative civilization, 
 will not stand in the way of the reunion of these States upon terms 
 of fair and honorable adjustment. And in this great work the cen 
 tral free and border slave States, too, will unite heart and hand. To 
 the West it is a necessity, and she demands it. And let not the 
 States now called Confederate insist upon separation and independ 
 ence. What did they demand at first? Security against Abolition 
 ism within the Union: protection from the "irrepressible conflict," 
 and the domination of the absolute numerical majority : a change of 
 public opinion, and consequently of political parties in the North 
 and West, so that their local institutions and domestic peace should 
 no longer be endangered. And now, sir, after two years of persist 
 ent and most gigantic effort on part of this Administration to compel 
 them to submit, but with utter and signal failure, the people of the 
 free States are now, or are fast becoming, satisfied that the price of 
 the Union is the utter suppression of Abolitionism or anti-slavery 
 as a political element, and the complete subordination of the spirit 
 of fanaticism and intermeddling which gave it birth. In any event, 
 they are ready now, if I have not greatly misread the signs of the 
 times, to return to the old Constitutional and actual basis of fifty 
 years ago : three-fifths rule of representation, speedy rendition of 
 fugitives from labor, equal rights in the Territories, no more slavery 
 agitation anywhere, and transit and temporary sojourn with slaves, 
 without molestation, in the free States. Without all these there 
 could be neither peace nor permanence to a restored union of States 
 "part slave .and part free." With it, the South, in addition to all 
 the other great and multiplied benefits of union, would be far more 
 secure in her slave property, her domestic institutions, than under a 
 separate government. Sir, let no man, North or West, tell me that 
 > this would perpetuate African slavery. I know it. But so does the 
 Constitution. I repeat, sir, it is the price of the Union. Whoever 
 hates negro slavery more than he loves the Union must demand 
 separation at last. I think that you can never abolish slavery by 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 199 
 
 fighting. Certainly you never can till you have first destroyed the 
 South, and then, in the language, first of Mr. Douglas and after 
 ward of Mr. Seward, converted this Government into an imperial 
 despotism. And, sir, whenever I am forced to a choice between the 
 loss, to my own country and race, of personal and political liberty, 
 with all its blessings, and the involuntary domestic servitude of 
 the negro. I shall not hesitate one moment to choose the latter alter 
 native. /The sole question, to-day, is between the Union, with slavery, 
 or fin^l disunion, and, I think, anarchy and despotism. I am for 
 the Union. It was good enough for my fathers. It is good enough 
 for us. and our children after us. 
 
 And. sir, let no man in the South tell me that she has been 
 invaded, and that all the horrors implied in those most terrible of 
 words, civil war, have been visited upon her. I know that, too. But 
 we, also, of the North and West, in every State, and by thousands, 
 who huve dared so much as to question the principles and policy, or 
 doubt the honesty, of this Administration and its party, have suffered 
 everything that the worst despotism could inflict, except only loss 
 of life itself upon the scaffold. Some even have died for the cause, 
 by the hand of the assassin. And can we forget? Never, never. 
 Time will but burn the memory of these wrongs deeper into our 
 hearts. But shall we break up the Union ? Shall we destroy the 
 Government, because usurping tyrants have held possession, and per 
 verted it to the most cruel of oppressions ? Was it ever so done in 
 any other country? In Athens? Home? England? Anywhere? 
 No, sir ; let us expel the usurper, and restore the constitution and 
 laws, the rights of the States, and the liberties of the people ; and 
 then, in the country of our fathers, under the Union of our fathers, 
 and the old flag the -symbol once again of the free and the brave 
 let us fulfill the grand mission which Providence has appointed for 
 us among the nations of the earth. 
 
 And now, sir, if it be the will of all sections to unite, then upon 
 what terms ? Sir, between the South arid most of the States of the 
 North, and all of the West, there is but one subject in controversy 
 slavery. It is the only question, said Mr. Calhoun, twenty-five years 
 ago. of sufficient magnitude and potency to divide this Union ; and 
 divide it it will, he added, or drench the country in blood, if not 
 arrested. It has done both. But settle it on the original basis of 
 the constitution, and give to each section the power to protect itself 
 within the Union, and now, after the terrible lessons of the past two 
 years, the Union will be stronger than before, and, indeed, endure 
 for ages. Woe to the man. North or South, who, to the third or 
 fourth generation, should teach men disunion. 
 
 And now the way to reunion : what so easy ? Behold to-day two 
 separate governments in one country, arid without a natural dividing 
 line; with two presidents and cabinets, and a double Congress; and 
 yet, each under a constitution so exactly similar, the one to the other, 
 that a stranger could scarce discern the difference. Was ever folly 
 and madness like this? Sir, it is not in the nature of things that it 
 should so continue long. 
 
200 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 But why speak of ways or terms of reunion now ? The will is yet 
 wanting in both sections. Union is consent, and good will, and frater 
 nal affection. War is force, hate, revenge. Is the country tired at 
 last of war ? Has the experiment been tried long enough ? Has 
 sufficient blood been shed, treasure expended, and misery inflicted in 
 both the North and the South ? What then ? Stop fighting. Make 
 an armistice no formal treaty. Withdraw your army from the seceded 
 States. Reduce both armies to a fair and sufficient peace establish 
 ment. Declare absolute free trade between the North and South. 
 Buy and sell. Agree upon a zollverein. Ptecall your fleets. Break 
 up your blockade. Reduce your navy. Restore travel. Open up 
 railroads. lie-establish the telegraph. Reunite your express com 
 panies. No more Monitors and iron-clads, but set your friendly 
 steamers and steamships again in motion. Visit the North and West. 
 Visit the South. Exchange newspapers. Migrate. Intermarry. 
 Let slavery alone. Hold elections at the appointed times. Let us 
 choose a new President in sixty-four. And when the gospel of peace 
 shall have descended again from heaven into their hearts, and the 
 gospel of abolition and of hate been expelled, let your clergy and 
 the churches meet again in Christian intercourse, North and South. 
 Let the secret orders and voluntary associations everywhere reunite as 
 brethren once more. In short, give to all the natural, and all the 
 artificial causes which impel us together, their fullest sway. Let 
 time do his office drying tears, dispelling sorrows, mellowing pas 
 sion, and making herb and grass and tree to grow again upon the 
 hundred battle-fields of this terrible war. 
 
 " But this is recognition." It is not formal recognition, to which 
 I will not consent. Recognition now, arid attempted permanent 
 treaties about boundary, travel, and trade, and partition of Territories 
 would end in a war fiercer and more disastrous than before. Recog 
 nition is absolute disunion ; and not between the slave and the free 
 States, but with Delaware and Maryland as part of the North, and 
 Kentucky and Missouri part of the West. But wherever the actual 
 line, every evil and mischief of disunion is implied in it. And, for 
 similar reasons, sir, I would not, at this time, press hastily a conven 
 tion of the States. The men who now would hold seats in such a 
 convention, would, upon both sides, if both agreed to attend, come 
 together full of the hate and bitterness inseparable from a civil war. 
 Na, sir ; let passion have time to cool, and reason to resume its 
 sway. It cost thirty years of desperate and most wicked patience and 
 industry to destroy or impair the magnificent temple of this Union. 
 Let us be content if, within three years, we shall be able to 
 restore it. 
 
 But, certainly, what I propose is informal, practical recognition. 
 And that is precisely what exists to-day, and has existed, more or 
 less defined, from the first. Flags of truce, exchange of prisoners, 
 and all your other observances of the laws, forms, and courtesies of 
 war, are acts of recognition. Sir, does any man doubt, to-day, that 
 there is a Confederate Government at Richmond, and that it is a 
 "belligerent?" Even the Secretary of State has discovered it at 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 201 
 
 last, though he has written ponderous folios of polished rhetoric to 
 prove that it is not. Will continual war then, without extended and 
 substantial success, make the Confederate States any the less a gov 
 ernment in fact? 
 
 " But it confesses disunion." Yes, just as the surgeon, who sets 
 your fractured limb in splints, in order that it may be healed, 
 admits that it is broken. " But the Government will have failed to 
 crush out the rebellion." Sir, it has failed. You went to war to 
 prove that we had a Government. With what result? To the 
 people of the loyal States it has, in your hands, been the Govern 
 ment of King Stork, but to the Confederate States, of King Log. 
 " But the rebellion will have triumphed." Better triumph to-day 
 then ten years hence. But I deny it. The rebellion will, at last, 
 be crushed out, in the only way in which it ever was possible. " But 
 no one will be hung at the end of war." Neither will there be, 
 though the war should last half a century, except by the mob or 
 the hand of arbitrary power. But, really, sir, if there is to be no 
 hanging, let this Administration, and all who have done its bidding 
 everywhere, rejoice and be exceeding glad. 
 
 And now, sir, allow me a word upon a subject of very great 
 interest at this moment, and most important, it may be, in its influ 
 ence upon the future FOREIGN MEDIATION. I speak not of armed 
 and hostile intervention, which I would resist as long as but one 
 man was left to strike a blow at the invader. But friendly media 
 tion the kindly offer of an impartial power to stand as a daysman 
 between the contending parties in this most bloody and exhausting 
 strife ought to be met in a spirit as cordial and ready as that in 
 which it is proffered. It would be churlish to refuse. Certainly, it 
 is not consistent with the former dignity -of this Government to ask 
 for mediation, neither, sir, would it befit its ancient magnanimity to 
 reject it. As proposed by the Emperor of France, I would accept 
 it at once. Now is the auspicious moment. It is the speediest, 
 easiest, most graceful mode of suspending hostilities. Let us hear 
 no more of the mediation of the cannon and the sword. The day 
 for all that has gone by. Let us be statesmen at last. Sir, I give 
 thanks, that some, at least, among the Republican party, seem ready 
 now to lift themselves up to the hight of this great argument, and 
 to deal with it in the spirit of the patriots and great men of other 
 countries and ages, and of the better days of the United States. 
 
 And now, sir, whatever may have been the motives of England, 
 France, and the other great powers of Europe, in witholding recogni 
 tion HO long from the Confederate States, the South and the North 
 are both indebted to them for an immense public service. The 
 South has proved her ability to maintain herself by her own strength 
 and resources, without foreign aid, moral or material. And the North 
 and V\ r e<t the whole country, indeed these great powers have served 
 incalculably, by holding back a solemn proclamation to the world 
 that the Union of these States was finally and formally dissolved. 
 They have left to us every motive and every chance for reunion ; and 
 if that has been the purpose of England especially our rival so 
 
202 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 long, interested more than any other in disunion, and the consequent 
 weakening of our great naval and commercial power, and suffering, 
 too, as she has suffered, so long and severely because of- this war I 
 do not hesitate to say that she has performed an act of unselfish 
 heroism without example in history. Was such, indeed, her pur 
 pose? Let her answer before the impartial tribunal of posterity. 
 In any event, after the great reaction in public sentiment in the 
 North and West, to be followed, after some time, by a like reaction 
 in the South, foreign recognition now of the Confederate States could 
 avail little to delay or prevent final reunion, if, as I firmly believe, 
 reunion be not only possible, but inevitable. 
 
 Sir, I have not spoken of foreign arbitration. That is quite 
 another question. I think it impracticable, and fear it as dangerous. 
 The very powers or any other power which have hesitated to aid 
 disunion directly or by force, might, as authorized arbiters, most 
 readily pronounce for it at last. Very grand, indeed, would be the 
 tribunal before which the great question of the Union of these 
 States, and the final destiny of this continent, for ages, should be 
 heard, and historic, through all time, the ambassadors who should 
 argue it. And, if both belligerents consent, let the subjects in con 
 troversy be referred to Switzerland, or Russia, or any other impartial 
 and incorruptible power or state in Europe. But, at last, sir, the 
 people of these several States here, at home, must be the final arbi 
 ters of this great quarrel" in America ; and the people and States of 
 the Northwest, the mediators who shall stand, like the prophet, 
 betwixt the living and the dead, that the plague of disunion may be 
 stayed. 
 
 Sir, this war, horrible as it is, has taught us all some of the most 
 important and salutary lessons which a people ever learned. 
 
 First, it has annihilated, in twenty months, all the false and perni 
 cious theories and teachings of Abolitionism for thirty years, and 
 which a mere appeal to facts and arguments could not have untaught 
 in half a century. We have learned that the South is not weak, 
 dependent, unenterprising, or corrupted by slavery, luxury, and idle 
 ness; but powerful, earnest, warlike, enduring, self-supporting, full of 
 energy, and inexhaustible in resources. We have been taught, and 
 now confess it openly, that African slavery, instead of being a source 
 of weakness to the South, is one of her main elements of strength ; 
 and hence the " military necessity," we are told, of abolishing slavery 
 in order to suppress the rebellion. We have learned, also, that the 
 non-slaveholding white men of the South, millions in number, are 
 immovably attached to the institution, and are its chief support: and 
 Abolitionists have found out, to their infinite surprise and disgust, 
 that the slave is not "panting for freedom," nor pining in silent, but, 
 revengeful grief over cruelty and oppression inflicted upon him, but 
 happy, contented, attached deeply to his master, and unwilling at 
 least not eager to accept the precious boon of freedom, which they 
 have proffered him. I appeal to the President for the proof. I 
 appeal to the fact, that fewer slaves have escaped, even from Virginia, 
 ia now yearly two years, than Arnold and Cornwallis carried away iu 
 
THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 203 
 
 six months of invasion, in 1781. Finally, sir, we have learned, and 
 the South, too, what the history of the world ages ago, and our own 
 history might have taught us, that servile insurrection is the least of 
 the dangers to which she is exposed. Hence, in my deliberate judg 
 ment, African slavery, as an institution, will come out of this conflict 
 fifty-fold stronger than when the war began. 
 
 The South, too, sir, has learned most important lessons; and among 
 them, that personal courage is a quality common to all sections, and 
 that in battle, the men of the North, and especially of the West, are 
 their equals. Hitherto there has been a mutual, and most mischievous 
 mistake upon both sides. The men of the South over-valued their 
 own personal courage, and under-valued ours, and we, too, readily 
 consented ; but at the same time they exaggerated our aggregate 
 strength and resources, and under-estimated their own ; and we fell 
 into the same error ; and hence, the original and fatal mistake, or vice, 
 of the military policy of the North, and which has already broken 
 down the war by its own weight the belief that we could bring 
 overwhelming numbers and power into the field, and upon the sea, 
 and crush out the South at a blow. But twenty months of terrible 
 warfare have corrected many errors, and taught us the wisdom of a 
 century. And now, sir, every one of these lessons will profit us all 
 for ages to come ; and if we do but reunite, will bind us in a closer, 
 firmer, more durable union than ever before. 
 
 I have finished now, Mr. Speaker, what I desired to say at this 
 time, upon the great question of the reunion of these States. I have 
 spoken freely and boldly not wisely, it may be, for the present, or 
 for myself personally, but most wisely for the future and for my 
 country. Not courting censure, I yet do not shrink from it. My 
 own immediate personal interests, and my chances just now for the 
 more material rewards of ambition, I again surrender as hostages to 
 that GREAT HEREAFTER, the echo of whose footsteps already I hear 
 along the highway of time. Whoever, here or elsewhere, believes 
 that war can restore the Union of these States ; whoever would have 
 a war for the abolition of slavery, or disunion ; and he who demands 
 southern independence and final separation let him speak, for him 
 I have offended. Devoted to the Union from the beginning, I will 
 not desert it now in this the hour of its sorest trial. 
 
 Sir, it was the day-dream of my boyhood, the cherished desire of 
 my heart in youth, that I might live to see the hundredth anniver 
 sary of our national independence, and, as orator of the day, exult in 
 the expanding glories and greatness of the still United States. That 
 vision lingers yet before my eyes, obscured, indeed, by the clouds and 
 thick darkness and the blood of civil war. But, sir, if the men of 
 this generation are wise enough to profit by the hard experience of 
 the past two years, and will turn their hearts now from bloody in 
 tents to the words and arts of peace, that day will find us again the 
 United States. And if not earlier, as I would desire and believe, at 
 least upon that day let the great work of reunion be consummated ; 
 that thenceforth, for ages, the States and the people who shall fill 
 up this mighty continent, united under one Constitution, and in one 
 
204 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 Union, and the same destiny, shall celebrate it as the birthday both 
 of Independence and of the Great Restoration. 
 
 Sir, I repeat it, we are in the midst of the very crisis of this revo 
 lution. If, to-day, we secure peace, and begin the work of reunion, 
 we shall yet escape ; if not, I see nothing before us but universal 
 political and social revolution, anarchy, and bloodshed, compared with 
 which, the Reign of Terror in France was a merciful visitation. 
 
 NUMBER ELEVEN. 
 
 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 23, 1863. 
 
 IN the last days of the late Congress, a law was enacted which 
 gives the President power to call into the military service every man 
 between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. No exceptions on the 
 ground of .color ; and only a few special exemptions, at the head of 
 which is the President. The Bill virtually admits that the war is no 
 longer one to which the people give, freely, themselves and their 
 substance; but a war whose further prosecution must be enforced by 
 arbitrary power. The Constitution makes a distinction between the 
 army and the militia ; to the States, it reserves the right to control, 
 officer, and discipline the latter, until mustered into the service of 
 the United States This reserved right of the States the Conscription 
 Bill disregards, and clothes the President with power to convert the 
 entire militia into a Federal army, under his immediate direction and 
 command ; leaving out those who are able and willing to commute by 
 paying three hundred dollars. 
 
 The Bill passed the Senate without much opposition : went through 
 at midnight, when Democrats and Conservatives were not there to 
 oppose it, or even record their votes against it. On coming to the 
 House, the Chairman of the Military Committee gave notice of 
 their intention to bring the Bill to a final vote, without debate. Its 
 opponents could not muster more than thirty fighting men, but had 
 such men as VALLANDIGHAM and VOOEHEES for leaders, and deter- 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 205 
 
 mined to give all the resistance parliamentary rules would permit. 
 By perseverance and management, they brought the majority to a 
 discussion of the Bill, and the war opened in earnest. A debate 
 ensued which, for po.wer, eloquence, strength of argument, and bold 
 defense of constitutional rights, has not often been equalled. In 
 spired with the courage always given to those who are right, VAL- 
 LANDIGHAM, VoORHEES, PENDLETON, and the others, standing un 
 moved against the strong current of despotism, boldly assailed the 
 most dangerous and vulnerable features of the Bill. Its friends 
 faltered, relaxed their hold upon one after another of their favorite 
 despotic measures. They had determined to give the provost marshals 
 power to arrest and hold civilians, but were compelled to insert a 
 provision that persons arrested should be handed over to the civil 
 authorities for trial. All that related to "treasonable practices" was 
 stricken out, though retained in the " Indemnity Bill." Other im 
 portant concessions were made ; thus, by fearless, and manly courage, 
 a few sacred constitutional rights were wrested from the hard grasp 
 of despotism. At the most exciting moment of the conflict, Mr. V. 
 addressed the House. BINGIIAM, of Ohio, thought his " assumptions 
 unworthy of any man who had grown to man s estate under the shelter 
 of the Constitution." VOORIIEES replied he "had held the House 
 hpell-bound with one of the ablest arguments he had ever heard." 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM said : 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : I do not propose to discuss this bill at any great 
 length in this House. I am satisfied that there is a settled purpose 
 to enact it into a law, so far as it is possible for the action of the 
 Senate and House, and the President, to make it such. I appeal, 
 therefore, from you, from them, directly to the country ; to a forum 
 where there is no military committee, no previous question, no hour 
 rule, and where the people themselves are the masters. I commend 
 the spirit in which this discussion was commenced by the chairman 
 of the military committee, (Mr. Olin,) and I do it the more cheer 
 fully because, unfortunately, he is not always in so good a temper as 
 he was to-day; and I trust, that throughout the debate, and on its 
 close, he will exhibit that same disposition which characterized his 
 opening remarks. Only let me caution him that he can not dictate 
 to the minority here what course they shall pursue. But, sir, I 
 regret that I can not extend the commendation to the gentleman 
 from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Campbell,) who addressed the House a 
 little while ago. His speech was extremely offensive, and calculated 
 to stir up a spirit of bitterness and strife, not at all consistent with 
 that in which debates in this House should be conducted. If he, or 
 any other gentleman of the majority, imagines that any one here is 
 to be deterred by threats, from the expression of his opinions, or 
 from giving such votes as he may see fit to give, he has utterly mis 
 apprehended the t ^nper and determination of those who sit on this 
 
206 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 side of the Chamber. His threat I hurl back with defiance into 
 his teeth. I spurn it. I spit upon it. That is not the argument 
 to be addressed to equals here ; and I, therefore, most respectfully 
 suggest, that hereafter, all such be dispensed with, and that we 
 shall be spared personal denunciation, and insinuations against the 
 loyalty of men who sit with me here ; men whose devotion to the 
 Constitution, and attachment to the Union of these States is as 
 ardent and immoveable as yours, and who only differ from you as 10 
 the mode of securing the great object nearest their hearts. 
 
 Mr. CAMPBELL. The gentleman will allow me 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I yield for explanation. 
 
 Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. Speaker : It is a significant fact, that the 
 gentleman from Ohio has applied my remarks to himself, and others 
 on his side of the House. Why was this done? I was denouncing 
 traitors here, and I will denounce them while I have a place upon 
 this floor. It is my duty and my privilege to do so. And if the 
 gentleman from Ohio chooses to give my remarks a personal appli 
 cation, he can so apply them. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. That is enough. 
 
 Mr. CAMPBELL. One moment. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Not another moment after that. I yielded 
 the floor in the spirit of a gentleman, and not to be met in the 
 manner of a blackguard. (Applause and hisses in the galleries.) 
 
 Mr. CAMPBELL. The member from Ohio is a blackguard. (Re 
 newed hisses and applause in the galleries.) 
 
 Mr. ROBINSON. I rise to a question of order. I demand that the 
 galleries be cleared. We have been insulted time and again by 
 contractors and plunderers of the Government, in these galleries, 
 and I ask that they be now cleared. 
 
 Mr. Cox. I hope my friend from Illinois will not insist on that. 
 Only a very small portion of those in the galleries take part in these 
 disturbances. The fool killer will take care of them. 
 
 The SPEAKER pro tern. The chair will have to submit the ques 
 tion to the House. 
 
 Mr. Cox. I hope the demand will be withdrawn. 
 
 The SPEAKER pro tern. The Chair will state, that if disorder is 
 repeated, whether by applause or expressions of disapprobation, he 
 will feel called upon himself to order the galleries to be cleared, 
 trusting that the House will sustain him in so doing. 
 
 Mr. ROBINSON. I desire the order to be enforced now, and the 
 galleries to be cleared, excepting the ladies gallery. 
 
 Mr. ROSCOE CONKLING. I was going to say that I hoped the 
 order would not be extended to that portion of the galleries 
 
 Mr. ROBINSON. The galleries were cautioned this afternoon. 
 
 Mr. JOHNSON. And it is the same men who have been making this 
 disturbance now. I know their faces well. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I think, Mr. Speaker, that this lesson has 
 not been lost ; and that it is sufficiently impressed now upon the 
 minds of the audience that this is a legislative, and is supposed to 
 be a deliberative, assembly, and that no breach of decorum or order 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 207 
 
 should occur among them, whatever may be the conduct of any of 
 us on the floor. I trust, therefore, that my friends on- this side 
 will withdraw the demand for the enforcement of the rule of the 
 House. 
 
 Mr. ROBINSON. I withdraw the demand. 
 
 Mr. VERREE. I raise the point of order, that members here, in 
 debating questions before the House, are not at liberty to use lan 
 guage that is unparliamentary, and unworthy of a member. 
 
 The SPEAKER. That is the rule of the House. 
 
 Mr. VERREE. I hope it will be enforced. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. And I hope that it will be enforced, also, 
 against members on the other side of the Chamber. We have borne 
 enough, more than enough of such language, for two years past. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Illinois withdraws his demand 
 to have the galleries cleared. The Chair desires to say to gentlemen 
 in the galleries, that this being a deliberative body, it is not becom 
 ing this House, or the character of American citizens, to disturb it? 
 deliberations by any expression of approval or disapproval. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM. The member from Pennsylvania (Mr. Camp 
 bell) alluded to-day, generally, to gentlemen on this side of the 
 House. There was no mistaking the application. The language 
 and gesture were both plain enough. He ventured also, approvingly, 
 to call our attention to the opinions and course of conduct of some 
 Democrats in the State of New York, as if we were to learn our les 
 sons in Democracy, or in any thing else, from that quarter. I do 
 not know, certainly, to whom he alluded. Perhaps it was to a gentle 
 man who spoke, not long since, in the city of New York, and advocated 
 on that occasion, what is called in stereotype phrase " the vigorous 
 prosecution of the war," and who, but two months previously, 
 addressed assemblages in the same State and city, in which he pro 
 posed only to take Richmond, and then let the " wayward sisters depart 
 in peace." Now I know of no one on this side of the Chamber 
 occupying such a position ; and I, certainly, will not go to that quar 
 ter to learn lessons in patriotism or Democracy. 
 
 I have already said, that it is not my purpose to debate the general 
 merits of this Bill at large, and for the reason, that I am satisfied 
 that argument is of no avail here. I appeal, therefore, to the people. 
 Before them, I propose to try this great question the question of 
 constitutional power, and of the unwise and injudicious exercise of 
 it in this Bill. We have been compelled, repeatedly, since the 4th 
 of Maich, 1861, to appeal to the same tribunal. We appealed to it 
 at the recent election. And the people did pronounce judgment 
 upon our appeal. The member from Pennsylvania ought to have heard 
 their sentence, and I venture to say that he did hear it, on the night 
 of the election. In Ohio they spoke as with the voice of many 
 waters. The very question, of summary and arbitrary arrests, now 
 sanctioned in this Bill, was submitted, as a direct issue, to the people 
 of that State, as also of other States, and their verdict was ren 
 dered upon it. The Democratic Convention of Ohio, assembled on 
 the 4th of July, in the city of Columbus, the largest and best, ever 
 
208 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 held in the State, among other resolutions, of the same temper and 
 spirit, adopted this without a dissenting voice : 
 
 " And we utterly condemn and denounce the repeated and gross violation, 
 by the Executive of the United States, of the rights thus secured by the 
 Constitution ; and we also utterly repudiate and condemn the monstrous 
 dogma, that in time of war the Constitution is suspended, or its power in 
 any respect enlarged beyond the letter and true meaning of that instrument. 
 
 And we view, also, with indignation and alarm, the illegal and unconsti 
 tutional seizure and imprisonment, for alleged political offenses, of our citizens, 
 without judicial process, in States where such process is unobstructed, but by 
 Executive order by telegraph, or otherwise, and call upon all who uphold the 
 Union, the Constitution and the laws, to unite with us, in denouncing and 
 repelling such flagrant violation of the State and Federal Constitutions, and 
 tyrannical infraction of the rights and liberties of American citizens; and that 
 the people of this State CAN NOT SAFELY, AND WILL NOT, SUBMIT to have the 
 freedom of speech and freedom of the press, the two great and essential bulwarks 
 of civil liberty, put down by unwarranted and despotic exertion of power." 
 
 On that, the judgment of the people was given at the October 
 elections, and the party candidates nominated by the convention 
 which adopted that resolution, were triumphantly elected. So, too, 
 with the candidates of the same party in the States of Wisconsin, 
 Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. And, 
 sir, that " healthy re-action," recently, of which the member from 
 Pennsylvania (Mr. Campbell) affected to boast, has escaped my 
 keenest sense of vision. I see only that hand-writing on the wall 
 which the fingers of the people wrote against him and his party, and 
 this whole Administration, at the ballot-box, in October and Novem 
 ber last. Talk to me, indeed, of the leniency of the Executive ! too 
 few arrests ! too much forbearance by those in power ! Sir, it is the 
 people who have been too lenient. They have submitted to your 
 oppressions and wrongs as no free people ought ever to submit. 
 But the day of patient endurance has gone by at last. Mistake them 
 not. They will be lenient no longer. Abide by the Constitution, 
 stand by the laws, restore the Union, if you can restore it not by 
 force you have tried that and failed. Try some other method now 
 the ancient, the approved, the reasonable way the way in which the 
 Union was first made. Surrender it not now not yet never. But 
 unity is not Union ; and attempt not, at your peril I warn you 
 to coerce unity by the utter destruction of the Constitution and of 
 the rights of the States and the liberties of the people. Union is 
 liberty and consent : unity is despotism and force. For what was 
 the Union ordained? As a splendid edifice, to attract the gaze and 
 admiration of the world? As a magnificent temple a stupendous 
 superstructure of marble and iron, like this Capitol, upon whose 
 lofty dome the bronzed image hollow and inanimate of Freedom 
 is soon to stand erect in colossal mockery, while the true spirit, the 
 living Goddess of Liberty, veils her eyes and turns away her face in 
 sorrow, because, upon the altar established here, and dedicated by 
 our fathers to her worship you, a false and most disloyal priest 
 hood, ofifer up, night and morning, the mingled sacrifices of servitude 
 and despotism? No, sir. It was for the sake of the altar, the 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 209 
 
 service, the religion, the devotees, that the temple of the Union was 
 first erected ; arid when these are all gone, let the edifice itself 
 perish. Never never never will the people consent to lose their 
 own personal and political rights and liberties, to the end that you 
 may delude and mock them with, the splendid unity of despotism. 
 
 Sir, what are the bills which have passed, or are still before the 
 House ? The bill to give the President entire control of the cur 
 rency the purse of the country. A tax-bill to clothe him with 
 power over the whole property, of the country. A bill to put all 
 power in his hands over the personal liberties of the people. A bill 
 to indemnify him, and all under him, for every act of oppression and 
 outrage already consummated. A bill to enable him to suspend the 
 writ of habeas corpus^ in order to justify or protect him, and every 
 minion of his, in the arrests which he or they may choose to make 
 arrests, too. for mere opinions sake. Sir, some two hundred years 
 ago, men were burned at the stake, subjected to the horrors of the 
 Inquisition, to all the tortures that the devilish ingenuity of man 
 could invent for what? For opinions on questions of religion of 
 man s duty and relation to his God, And now, to-day, for opinions 
 on questions political, under a free government, in a country whose 
 liberties were purchased by our fathers by seven years out-pouring 
 of blood, and expenditure of treasure we have lived to see men, the 
 born heirs of this precious inheritance, subjected to arrest and cruel 
 imprisonment at the caprice of a President, or a secretary, or a 
 constable. And, as if that were not enough, a bill is introduced 
 here, to-day, and pressed forward to a vote, with the right of debate, 
 indeed extorted from you by the minority but without the right to 
 amend, with no more than the mere privilege of protest a bill 
 which enables the President to bring under his power, as com- 
 mander-in-chief, every man in the United States between the ages of 
 twenty and forty-five three millions of men. And, as if not satis 
 fied with that, this bill provides, further, that every other citizen, 
 man, woman, and child, under twenty years of age and over forty- 
 five, including those that may be exempt between these ages, shall 
 be also, at the mercy ^so far as his personal liberty is concerned 
 of some miserable "provost marshal" with the rank of a captain of 
 cavalry, who is never to see service in the field ; and every Con 
 gressional district in the United States is to be governed yes, 
 governed by this petty satrap this military eunuch this Baba 
 and he even may be black who is to do the bidding of your Sultan, 
 or his Grand Vizier. Sir, you have but one step further to go give 
 him the symbols of his office the Turkish bow-string and the sack. 
 
 What is it, sir, but a bill to abrogate the Constitution, to repeal 
 all existing laws, to destroy all rights, to strike down the judiciary, 
 and erect, upon the ruins of civil and political liberty, a stupendous 
 superstructure of despotism. And for what? To enforce law ? No, 
 sir. It is admitted now, by the legislation of Congress, and by the two 
 proclamations of the President ; it is admitted by common consent, 
 that the war is for the abolition of negro slavery, to secure freedom 
 to the black man. You tell me, some of you, I know, that it is so 
 14 
 
210 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 prosecuted because this is the only way to restore the Union; but 
 others openly and candidly confess that the purpose of the prosecu 
 tion of the war is to abolish slavery. And thus, sir, it is that the 
 freedom of the negro is to be purchased, under this bill, at the 
 sacrifice of every right of the white men of the United States. 
 
 Sir, I am opposed earnestly, inexorably opposed to this measure. 
 If there were not another man in this House to vote against it if 
 there were none to raise his voice against it I, at least, dare stand 
 here alone in my place, as a Representative, undismayed, unseduced, 
 unterrified, and heedless of the miserable cry of "disloyalty," of 
 sympathy with the rebellion, and with rebels, to denounce it as the 
 very consummation of the conspiracy against the Constitution and 
 the liberties of my country. 
 
 Sir, I yield to no man in devotion to the Union. I am for main 
 taining it upon the principles on which it was first formed ; and I 
 would have it, at every sacrifice, except of honor, which is " the life 
 of the nation." I have stood by it in boyhood and in manhood, to 
 this hour; and I will not now consent to yield it up; nor am I to 
 be driven from an earnest and persistent support of the only means 
 by which it can be restored, either by the threats of the party of 
 the Administration here, or because of affected sneers and contemptu 
 ous refusals to listen, now, to re-union, by the party of the Admin 
 istration at Richmond. I never was weak enough to cower before 
 the reign of terror inaugurated by the men in power here, nor vain 
 enough to expect favorable responses now, or terms of settlement, 
 from, the men in power, or the presses under their control, in the 
 South. Neither will ever compromise this great quarrel, nor agree 
 to peace on the basis of re-union : but I repeat it stop fighting, and 
 let time and natural causes operate uncontrolled by military influ 
 ences and the ballot there, as the ballot here, will do its work. I 
 am for the Union of these States; and but for my profound convic 
 tion that it can never be restored by force and arms ; or, if so 
 restored, could not be maintained, and would not be worth maintain 
 ing, I would have united, at first even now would unite, cordially 
 in giving, as I have acquiesced, silently, in your taking, all the 
 men and all the money you have demanded. But I did not believe, 
 and do not now believe, that the war could end in any thing but 
 final defeat ; and if it should last long enough, then in disunion ; or, 
 if successful upon the principles now proclaimed, that it must and 
 would end in the establishment of an imperial military despotism 
 not only in the South but in the North and West. And to that I 
 never will submit. No, rather, first I am ready to yield up property, 
 and liberty nay, life itself. 
 
 Sir, I do not propose to discuss now the question of the constitu 
 tionality of this measure. The gentleman from Ohio, who preceded me, 
 (Mr. White,) has spared me the necessity of an argument on that 
 point. He has shown that, between the army of the United States, 
 of which, by the Constitution, the President of the United States is 
 the commander-in-chief, and the militia, belonging to the States, 
 there is a wide 3 and clearly marked line of distinction. The dis- 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 211 
 
 tinction is fully and strongly defined in the Constitution ; and has been 
 recognized in the entire legislation and practice of the Government from 
 the beginning. The States have the right, and have always exercised it, 
 of appointing the officers of their militia, and you have no power to 
 take it away. Sir, this bill was originally introduced in the Senate as 
 a militia bill, and as such, it recognized the right of the States to 
 appoint the officers; but finding it impossible, upon that basis, to give 
 to the Executive of the United States the entire control of the mil 
 lions thus organized into a military force, as the conspirators against 
 State rights and popular liberty desire, the original bill was aban 
 doned ; and to-day behold here a stupendous Conscription Bill, for 
 a standing army of more than three millions of men, forced from 
 their homes, their families, their fields, and their workshops an 
 army organized, officered z and commanded by the servant President, 
 now tho master Dictator, of the United States. And for what? 
 Foreign war? Home defense? No; but for coercion, invasion, and 
 the abolition of negro slavery by force. Sir, the conscription of 
 Russia is mild and merciful and just, compared with this. And yet, 
 the enibrc-einent of that conscription has just stirred again the 
 slumbering spirit of insurrection in Poland, though the heel of des 
 potic power has trodden upon the necks of her people for a century. 
 
 Where now are your taunts and denunciations, heaped upon the 
 Confederate Government for its conscription, when you, yourselves, 
 become the humble imitators of that government, and bring in here 
 a Conscription Act, more odious even tlian that passed by the Con 
 federate Congress at Richmond? Sir, the chairman of the military 
 committee rejoiced that for the last two years the army had been 
 filled up by voluntary enlistments. Yes, your army has hitherto 
 been thus filled up by the men of the North and West. One 
 million two hundred and thirty-seven thousand men for most of- 
 the drafted men enlisted, or procured substitutes have voluntarily 
 surrendered their civil rights, subjected themselves to military law, 
 and thus passed under the command and within the control of the 
 President of the United States. It is not for ine to complain of that. 
 It was their own act done of their own free will and accord unless 
 bounties, promises, and persuasion may be regarded as coercion. The 
 work you proposed was gigantic, and your means proportionate to it. 
 And what has been the result? What do you propose now? What 
 is this bill? A confession that the people are no longer ready to 
 enlist: that they are not willing to carry on this war longer, until 
 some effort has been made to settle this great controversy in some 
 other way than by the sword. And yet, in addition to the 1.237,000 
 men who have voluntarily enlisted, you propose now to force the 
 entire body of the people, between the ages of twenty and forty-five, 
 under military law, and within the control of the President, as com- 
 mander-in-ohief of the army, for three years, or during the war 
 which is to say -for life ;" aye, sir, for life, and half your army has 
 already found, or will yet find, that their enlistment was for life too. 
 
 I repeat it, sir, this bill is a confession that the people of the 
 country are against this war. It is a solemn admission, upon the 
 
212 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 record in the legislation of Congress, that they will not voluntarily 
 Consent to wage it any longer. And yet, ignoring every principle 
 upon which the Government was founded, this measure is an attempt, 
 by compulsion, to carry it on against the will of the people. Sir, 
 what does all this mean ? You were a majority at first, the people 
 were almost unanimously with you, and they were generous and 
 enthusiastic in your support. You abused your power, and your 
 trust, and you failed to do the work which you promised. You have 
 lost the confidence, lost the hearts of the people. You are now 
 in a minority at home. And yet, what a spectacle is exhibited 
 here to-night ! You, an accidental, temporary majority, condemned 
 and repudiated by the people, are exhausting the few remaining 
 hours of your political life, in attempting to defeat the popular will, 
 and to compel, by the most desperate and despotic of expedients ever 
 resorted to, the submission of the majority of the people, at home, 
 to the minority, their servants, here. Sir, this experiment has been 
 tried before, in other as:es and countries, and its issue always, among 
 a people born free, or fit to be free, has been expulsion or death to 
 the conspirators and tyrants. 
 
 I make no threats. They are not arguments fit to be addressed 
 to equals in a legislative assembly ; but there is truth, solemn, 
 alarming truth, in what has been said, to-day, by gentlemen on this 
 side of the Chamber. Have a care, have a care, I entreat you, that 
 you do not press these measures too far. I shall do nothing to stir up 
 an already excited people not because of any fear of your contemptible 
 petty provost marshals, but because I desire to see no violence or revolu 
 tion in the North or West. But I warn you now, that whenever, against 
 the will of the people, and to perpetuate power and ofiBce in a popular 
 government which they have taken from you, you undertake to enforce 
 this bill, and, like the destroying angel in Egypt, enter every house 
 for the first-born sons of the people remember Poland. You can 
 not, and will not be permitted to, establish a military despotism. 
 Be not encouraged by the submission of other nations. The people 
 of Austria, of Russia, of Spain, of Italy, have never known the inde 
 pendence and liberty of freemen. France, in seventy years, has wit 
 nessed seven principal revolutions the last brought about in a single 
 day, by the arbitrary attempt of the king to suppress freedom of 
 speech and of the press, and next the free assembling of the people j 
 and when he would have retraced his steps and restored these liberties, 
 a voice from the galleries, not filled with clerks and plunderers and 
 place-men, uttered the sentiments and will of the people of France, 
 in words now historic : " It is too late." The people of England 
 never submitted, and would not now submit, for a moment, to the 
 despotism which you propose to inaugurate in America. England 
 can not, to-day, fill up her standing armies by conscription. Even the 
 " press gang," unknown to her laws, but for a time acquiesced 
 in, has long since been declared illegal ; and a sweeping conscription 
 like this now, would hurl not only the ministry from power, but 
 the queen from her throne. 
 
 Sir, so far as this bill is a mere military measure, I might have 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 213 
 
 been content to have given a silent vote against it ; but there are two 
 provisions in it hostile, both to the letter and spirit of the Constitu 
 tion, and inconsistent with the avowed scope and purpose of the bill 
 itself; and, certainly, as I read them in the light of events which have 
 occurred in the past two years, of a character which demands that the 
 majority of this House shall strike them out. There is nothing in 
 the argument, that we. have no time to send the bill back to the Senate, 
 lest it should be lost. The presiding officers of both Houses are 
 friends of the bill, and will constitute committees of conference of men, 
 favorable to it. They will agree at once, and can at any moment, 
 between this and the 4th of March, present their report as a question 
 of the highest privilege ; and you have a two-thirds majority in both 
 branches to adopt it. 
 
 With these provisions of the bill stricken out, leaving it simply 
 as a military measure, to be tested by the great question of 
 peace or war, I would be willing that the majority of the House 
 should take the responsibility of passing it without further debate ; 
 although, even then, you would place every man in the United States, 
 between the ages of twenty and forty-five, under military law, and 
 within the control, everywhere, of the President, except the very few 
 who are exempt ; but you would leave the shadow, at least, of liberty 
 to all men not between these ages, or not subject to draft under this 
 bill, and to the women and children of the country too. 
 
 Sir, these two provisions propose to go a step further, and include 
 every one, man, woman and child, and to place him or her under 
 the arbitrary power, not only of the President and his cabinet, but 
 of some two hundred and fifty other petty officers, captains of cavalry, 
 appointed by him. There is no distinction of sex, and aone of age. 
 These provisions, sir, are contained in the seventh and twenty-fifth 
 sections of the bill. What are they ? I comment not on the appoint 
 ment of a general provost marshal of the United States, and provost 
 marshals in every Congressional District. Let that pass. But what 
 do you propose to make the duty of each provost marshal in carry 
 ing out the draft? Among other things, that he shall "inquire into, 
 and report to the provost marshal general 1 what? Treason? No. 
 Felony? No. Breach of the peace, or violation of law of any 
 kind ? No ; but " treasonable practices " yes, TREASONABLE PRAC 
 TICES. What mean you by these strange, ominous words ? Whence 
 come they ? Sir, they are no more new or original than any other 
 of the cast- off rags filched by this Administration from the lumber- 
 bouse of other and more antiquated despotisms. The history of 
 European tyranny has taugkt us somewhat of this doctrine of con 
 structive treason. Treasonable practices ! Sir, the very language is 
 borrowed from the old proclamations of the British monarchs, some 
 hundreds <jf years ago. It brings up the old, identical quarrel of the 
 fourteenth, century. Treasonable practices ! It was this that called 
 forth that English Act of Parliament of twenty-fifth Edward III, 
 from which we have borrowed the noble provision against constructive 
 treason, in the Constitution of the United States. Arbitrary arrests, 
 for no crime known,, defined or limited by law, but for pretended 
 
214 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 offenses, herded together under the general and most comprehensive 
 n#me of "treasonable practices," had been so frequent, in the worst 
 periods of English history, that in the language of the act of Henry 
 the Fourth, "no man knew how to behave himself, or what to do or 
 say, for doubt of the pains of treason." The statute of Edward the 
 Third, had cut all these fungous, toadstool treasons up by the root; 
 and yet, so prompt is arbitrary power to denounce all opposition to 
 it as treasonable, that, as Lord Hale observes. 
 
 "Things were so carried by parties and factions, in the succeeding reign of 
 Richard the Second, that this statute was but little observed, but as this or 
 that party got the better. So the crime of high treason was, in a manner, 
 arbitrarily imposed and adjudged fc> the disadvantage of the party which was 
 to be judged ; which by various vicissitudes and revolutions, mischiefed all 
 parties, first and last, and left a great unsettledness and unquietness in the 
 minds of the people, and was one of the occasions of the unhappiness of the 
 king." 
 
 And he adds that, 
 
 "It came to pass that almost every oifense that was, or seemed to le> a "breach 
 of the faith and allegiance due to the king, was, by construction, consequence^ 
 and interpretation, raised into the offense of high treason." 
 
 Richard the Second, procured an Act of Parliament ^even he did 
 not pretend to have power to do it by proclamation declaring that 
 the bare purpose to depose the king, and to place another in his 
 stead, without any overt act, was treason ; and yet, as Blackstone 
 remarks, so little effect have over-violent laws to prevent crime, that 
 within two years afterward this very prince was both deposed and 
 put to death. Still the struggle for arbitrary and despotic power 
 continued ; and up to the time of Charles the First, at various periods, 
 almost every conceivable offense relating to the government, and every 
 form of opposition to the king, was declared high treason. Among 
 these were execrations against the king ; calling him opprobrious 
 names by public writing ; refusing to abjure the Pope ; marrying 
 without license, certain of the king s near relatives; derogating from 
 his royal style or title ; impugning his supremacy, or assembling 
 riotously to the number of twelve, and reusing to disperse on proc 
 lamation. But steadily, in better times, the people and the Parliament 
 of England returned to the spirit and letter of the act of Edward 
 the Third, passed by a Parliament which now, for five hundred years, 
 has been known and honored as parliamentum benedictum, the 
 " blessed Parliament " just as this Congress will be known, for ages 
 to come, as " the accursed Congress " and among many other acts, 
 it was declared by a statute, in the first year of the Fourth Henry s 
 reign, that " in no time to come any. treason be judged, otherwise than as 
 ordained by the statute of king Edward the Third." And for nearly 
 two hundred years, it has been the aim of the lawyers and judges of 
 England to adhere to the plain letter, spirit, and intent of that act, 
 " to be extended," in the language of Erskine, in his noble defense 
 of Hardy, " by no new or occasional constructions to be strained 
 by no fancied analogies to be measured by no rules of political 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 215 
 
 expediency to be judged of by no theory to be determined by the 
 wisdom of no individual, however wise but to be expounded by 
 the simple, genuine letter of the law." 
 
 Such, sir, is the law of treason in England to-day ; and so much 
 of the just and admirable statute of Edward as is applicable to our 
 form of government, was embodied in the Constitution of the United 
 States. The men of 1787 were well read in history and in English 
 constitutional law. They knew that monarchs and governments, in 
 all ages, had struggled to extend the limits of treason, so as to include 
 all opposition to those in power. They had learned the maxim that, 
 miserable is the servitude where the law is either uncertain or 
 unknown , and had studied and valued the profound declaration of 
 Montesquieu, that "if the crime of treason be indeterminate, that 
 alone is sufficient to make any government degenerate into arbitrary 
 power." Hear Madison, in the Federalist: 
 
 As new-fangled and artificial treasons have been the great engines by 
 which violent factions, the natural offspring of free governments, have usually 
 wreaked t/ieir alternate malignity on each other, the convention have, with 
 great judgment, opposed a barrier to this peculiar danger, by inserting a 
 constitutional definition of the crime, fixing the proof necessary for convic 
 tion of it, and restraining the Congress, even in punishing it, from extending 
 the consequences of guilt beyond the person of its author." 
 
 And Story, not foreseeing the possibility of such a party or 
 Administration as is now in power, declared it " an impassable barrier 
 against arbitrary constructions, either by the courts or by Congress, 
 upon the crime of treason." " Congress " that, sir, is the word, for 
 he never dreamed that the President, or, still less, his clerks, the 
 cabinet ministers, would attempt to declare and punish treasons. And 
 yet, what have we lived to hear in America daily, not in political 
 harangues, or the press only, but in official proclamations and in 
 bills in Congress ! Yes. your high officials talk now of " treasonable 
 practices/ as glibly "as girls of thirteen do of puppy dogs." Treas 
 onable practices ! Disloyalty ! Who imported these precious phrases, 
 and gave them a legal settlement here ? Your Secretary of War. 
 He it was who by command of our most noble President, authorized 
 every marshal, every sheriff, every township constable, or city police 
 man, in every State in the Union, to fix, in his own imagination, 
 what he might choose to call a treasonable or disloyal practice, and 
 then to arrest any citizen at his discretion, without any accusing oath, 
 and without due process, or any process of law. And now, sir, all this 
 monstrous tyranny, against the whole spirit and the very letter of the 
 Constitution, is to be deliberately embodied in an Act of Congress ! 
 Your petty provost marshals are to determine what treasonable 
 practices arc, and "inquire into," detect, spy out, eavesdrop, ensnare, 
 and then inform, report to the chief spy at Washington. These, sir, 
 are now to be our American liberties under your Administration. 
 There is not a crowned head in Europe who dare venture on such 
 an experiment. How long think you this people will submit ? But 
 words, too conversation or public speech are to be adjudged 
 L - treasonable practices." Men, women, and children are to be haled 
 
216 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 to prison for free speech. Whoever shall denounce or oppose this 
 Administration whoever may affirm that war will not restore the 
 Union, and teach men the gospel of peace, may be reported and 
 arrested, upon some old grudge, and by some ancient enemy, it may 
 be, and imprisoned as guilty of a treasonable practice. 
 
 Sir, there can be but one treasonable practice, under the Constitu 
 tion, in the United States. Admonished by the lessons of English 
 history, the framers of that instrument defined what treason is. It 
 is the only offense defined in the Constitution. We know what it 
 k. Every man can tell whether he has committed treason. He has 
 only to look into the Constitution, and he knows whether he has 
 been guilty of the offense. But neither the Executive, nor Congress, 
 nor both combined, nor the courts, have a right to declare, either by 
 pretended law, or by construction, that any other offense shall bo 
 treason, except that defined and limited in this instrument. What 
 is treason? It is the highest offense known to the law the most 
 execrable crime known to the human heart the crime of IWSOB majes- 
 tatis ; of the parricide who lifts his hand against the country of his 
 birth or his adoption. " Treason against the United States," says the 
 Constitution, " shall consist ONLY in levying war against them, or in 
 adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." (Here a 
 Republican member nodded several times and smiled, and Mr. V. 
 said.) Ah, sir, I understand you. But was Lord Chatham guilty 
 of legal treason, treasonable aid and comfort, when he denounced 
 the war against the Colonies, and rejoiced that America had resisted? 
 Was Burke, or Fox, or Barre guilty, when defending the Americans, 
 in the British Parliament, and demanding conciliation arid peace? 
 Were even the Federalists guilty of treason, as defined in the Con 
 stitution, for " giving aid and comfort" to the enemy, in the war of 
 1812? Were the Whigs in 1846? Was the Ohio Senator liable 
 to punishment, under the Constitution, and by law, who said, sixteen 
 years ago, in the Senate Chamber, when we were at war in Mexico, 
 u If I were a Mexican as I am an American, I would greet your 
 volunteers with bloody hands, and welcome them to hospitable 
 graves?" Was Abraham Lincoln guilty, because he denounced that 
 same war, while a Representative on the floor of this House ? Was 
 all this "adhering to the enemy, giving him laid and comfort," within 
 the meaning of this provision ? 
 
 A MEMBER. The Democratic papers said so. 
 
 Mr. YALLANDIGHAM. Sir, I am speaking now as a lawyer, and as a 
 legislator, to legislators and lawyers acting under oath and the other 
 special and solemn sanctions of this Ch amber, and not in the loose 
 language of the political canvass. And I repeat, sir, that if such 
 had been the intent of the Constitution, the whole Federal party,, 
 and the whole Whig party, and their Representatives in this and the 
 other Chamber, might have been indicted and punished as traitors. 
 Yet, not one of them was ever arrested. And shall they, or their 
 descendants, undertake now to denounce and to punish, as guilty of- 
 treason, every man who opposes the policy of this Administration, 
 or is against this civil war ; and for peace upon honorable terms ? I 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 217 
 
 hope, in spite of the hundreds of your provost marshals, and all 
 your threats, that there will be so much of opposition to the war as 
 will compel the Administration to show a decent respect for, and 
 yield some sort of obedience to, the Constitution and laws, and to the 
 rights and liberties of the States and of the people. 
 
 But to return; the Constitution not only defines the crime of 
 treason, but, in its jealous care to guard against the abuses of tyrannic 
 power, it expressly ascertains the character of the proof, and the 
 number of witnesses necessary for conviction, and limits the punish 
 ment to the person of the offender, thus going beyond both the 
 statute of Edward, and the common law. And yet every one of 
 these provisions is ignored or violated by this bill. 
 
 " No person," says the Constitution, " shall be covicted of treason " as 
 just defined " unless on the testimony of two witnesses." 
 
 Where, and when, and by whom, sir, are the two witnesses to be 
 examined, and under what oath ? By your provost marshals, your 
 captains of cavalry? By the jailors of your military bastiles, and 
 inside of forts Warren and Lafayette ? Before arrest, upon arrest, 
 while in prison, when discharged, or at any time at all ? Has any 
 witness ever been examined in any case heretofore ? What means 
 the Constitution by declaring that no person shall be convicted of 
 treason "unless on the testimony of two witnesses?" Clearly, convic 
 tion in a judicial court, upon testimony openly given under oath, 
 with all the sanctions and safeguards of a judicial trial to the party 
 accused. Arid if any doubt there could be upon this point ; it is 
 removed by the sixth article of the amendments. 
 
 But the Constitution proceeds : 
 
 " Unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act." 
 
 But words, and still less, thoughts or opinions, sir, are not acts ; 
 and yet, nearly every case of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, in 
 the wholly loyal States, at least, has been for words spoken or written, 
 or for thoughts, or opinions supposed to be entertained by the party 
 arrested. And that, too, sir, is precisely what is intended by this 
 bill. 
 
 But further : 
 
 " The testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or coiijession in 
 open court," 
 
 What, court? The court of some deputy provost marshal at home, 
 or of your provost marshal general, or Judge Advocate General, here 
 in Washington ? The court of a military bastile, whose gates are 
 shut day and night against every officer of the law, and whose very 
 casemates are closed to the light and air of heaven? Call you that 
 "open court?" Not so the Constitution. It means judicial court, 
 law court, with judge and jury and witnesses and counsel ; and to 
 speak of it as any thing else, is a confusion of language, and an insult 
 to intelligence and common sense. Yet, to-night, you deliberately 
 
218 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 propose to enact the illegal and unconstitutional executive orders, or 
 proclamations, of last summer, into the semblance and form of law. 
 
 " To inquire into treasonable practices," says the bill. So, then, 
 your provost-marshals are to be deputy spies to the grand spy, hold 
 ing his secret inquisitions here in Washington, upon secret reports, 
 sent by telegraph perhaps, or through the mails, both under the 
 control of the Executive. What right has he to arrest and hold me 
 without a hearing, because some deputy spy of his chooses to report 
 me guilty of " disloyalty," or of " treasonable practices ? " Is this 
 the liberty secured by the Constitution ? Sir, let me tell you, that 
 if the purpose of this bill be to crush out all opposition to the 
 Administration and the party in power, you have no constitutional 
 right to enact it, and not force enough to compel the people, your 
 masters, to submit. 
 
 But the enormity of the measure does not stop here. Says the 
 Constitution : 
 
 " Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the 
 press." 
 
 And yet speech mere words, derogatory to the President, or in 
 opposition to his Administration, and his party and policy, have, over 
 and over again, been reported by the spies and informers and shad 
 ows, or other minions, of the men in power, to be " disloyal prac 
 tices," for which hundreds of free American citizens, of American, 
 not African, descent, have been arrested and imprisoned for months, 
 without public accusation, and without trial by jury, or trial at all. 
 Even upon pretence of guilt of that most vague and indefinite, but 
 most comprehensive of all offenses, " discouraging enlistments," men 
 have been seized at midnight, and dragged from their beds, their 
 homes, and their families, to be shut up in the stone casemates of 
 your military fortresses, as felons. And now, by this bill, you propose 
 to declare, in the form and semblance of law, that whoever " coun 
 sels or dissuades " any one from the performance of the military duty 
 required under this conscription, shall be summarily arrested by your 
 provost marshals, and held, without trial, till the draft shall have 
 been completed. Sir, even the " Sedition Law " of 98 was constitu 
 tional, merciful and just, compared with this execrable enactment. 
 Wisely did Hamilton ask, in the Federalist, " What signifies a 
 declaration that the liberty of the press (or of speech) shall be 
 inviolably preserved, when its security must altogether depend on 
 public opinion, and on the general spirit of the people, and of the 
 Government." 
 
 But this extraordinary bill does not stop here. 
 
 "ISTo person," says the Constitution, "no person shall he held to answer for 
 a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment 
 of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land and naval force, or in 
 the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor bo 
 deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." 
 
 Note the exception. Every man not in the military service, is 
 exempt from arrest, except by due process of law ; or, being arrested 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 219 
 
 without it, is entitled to demand immediate inquiry and discharge, or 
 bail ; and if held, then presentment or indictment by a grand jury 
 in a civil court, and according to the law of the land. And yet you 
 now propose, by this Bill, in addition to the 1,237,000 men who have 
 voluntarily surrendered that great right of freemen, second only to 
 the ballot and, indeed, essential to it to take it away forcibly, and 
 against their consent, from three millions more, whose only crime is 
 that they happen to have been so born as to be now between the 
 ages of twenty and forty-five. Do it, if you can, under the Con 
 stitution ; and when you have thus forced them into the military 
 service, they will be subject to military law, and not entitled to arrest 
 only upon due process of law, nor to indictment by a grand jury in 
 a civil court. But you can not, you shall not because the Consti 
 tution forbids it deprive the whole people, also, of the United 
 States, of these rights, " inestimable to them, and formidable to 
 tyrants only," under " the war power," or upon pretense of "military 
 necessity," and by virtue of an act of Congress creating and defining 
 new treasons, new offenses, not only unknown to the Constitution, 
 but expressly excluded by it. 
 But again : 
 
 "In all criminal prosecutions," 
 
 and wherever a penalty is to be imposed, imprisonment or fine 
 inflicted, it is a criminal prosecution 
 
 " In all criminal prosecutions," says the Constitution, " the accused shall 
 enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the 
 State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district 
 shall have been previously ascertained by law; and to be informed of the 
 nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses 
 against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, 
 and to have the assistance of counsel, for his defense." 
 
 / 
 
 Do you propose to allow any of these rights? No, sir none 
 not one ; but, in the twenty-fifth section, you empower these provost 
 marshals of yours to arrest any man men not under military law 
 whom he may charge, or any one else may charge before him, with 
 "counseling or dissuading" from military service, and to hold him 
 in confinement indefinitely, until the draft has been completed. Sir, 
 has it been completed in Connecticut yet? Is it complete in New 
 York ? Has it been given up ? If so now, nevertheless it was in pro 
 cess of pretended execution for months. In any event, you propose, 
 now, to leave to the discretion of the Executive the time during which 
 all persons arrested, under the provisions of this Bill, shall be held 
 in confinement upon that summary and arbitrary arrest ; and when 
 he sees fit, and then only, shall the accused be delivered over to the 
 civil authorities for trial. And is this the speedy and public trial 
 by jury, which the Constitution secures to every citizen not in the 
 military service ? 
 
 " The State and district wherein the crime " 
 
220 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 Yes, crime, for crime it must be, known to and defined by law, to 
 justify the arrest 
 
 "Shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously 
 ascertained by law." 
 
 Do you mean to obey that, and to observe State lines, or district 
 lines, in arrests and imprisonments? Has it ever been done? Were 
 not Keyes, and Olds, and Mahoney, and Sheward, and my friend here 
 to the left, (Mr. Allen, of Illinois,) and my other friend from Mary 
 land, (Mr. May,) dragged from their several States and districts, to 
 New York, or Massachusetts, or to this city ? The pirate, the mur 
 derer, the counterfeiter, the thief you would have seized by due and 
 sworn process of law, and tried forthwith, by jury, at home ; but 
 honorable and guiltless citizens, members of this House, your peers 
 upon this floor, were thrust, and may, again, under this bill, be 
 thrust into distant dungeons and bastiles, upon the pretence of some 
 crawling, verminous spy and informer, that they have " dissuaded " 
 some one from obedience to the draft, or are otherwise guilty of 
 some "treasonable practice." 
 
 "And to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation." 
 
 How? By presentment or indictment of a grand jury. When ? 
 "Speedily," says the Constitution. "When the draft is completed," 
 says this bill ; and the President shall determine that. But who is 
 to limit and define, " counseling or dissuading " from military serv 
 ice? Who shall ascertain and inform the accused of the "nature 
 and cause" of a "treasonable practice?" Who, of all the thousand 
 victims of arbitrary arrests, within the last twenty-two months, even 
 to this day, has been informed of the charge against him, although 
 long since released? Yet even the Roman pro-consul, in a conquered 
 province, refused to send up a prisoner, without signifying the crimes 
 with which he was charged. 
 
 "To be confronted with the witnesses against him." 
 
 Witnesses, indeed ! Fortunate will be the accused if there be any 
 witnesses against him. But is your deputy provost marshal to call 
 them? 0, no; he is only to "inquire into, and report." Is your 
 provost marshal general ? What ! call witnesses from the remotest 
 parts of the Union, to a secret inquisition here in Washington. Has 
 any " prisoner of State," hitherto, been confronted with witnesses, at 
 any time ? Has he even been allowed to know so much as the names 
 of his accusers ? Yet, Festus could boast, that it was not the manner 
 of the Romans, to punish any man, " before that he, which is accused, 
 have the accusers face to face." 
 
 "To have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor." 
 
 Sir, the compulsory process will be, under this bill, as it has been 
 from the first, to compel the absence rather, of not only the wit 
 nesses, but the friends and nearest relatives of the accused ; even the 
 wife of his bosom, and his children the inmates of his own house- 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 221 
 
 hold. Newspapers, the bible, letters from home, except under sur 
 veillance, a breath of air, a sight of the waves of the sea, or of the 
 mild, blue sky, the song of birds, whatever was denied to the pris 
 oner of Chillon, and more too; yes, even a solitary lamp in the case 
 mate, where a dying prisoner struggled with death, all have been 
 refused to the American citizen accused of disloyal speech or opin 
 ions, by this most just and merciful Administration. 
 And, finally, says the Constitution : 
 
 "To have the assistance of counsel for his defense." 
 
 And yet your Secretary of State, the " conservative " Seward the 
 confederate of Weed, that treacherous, dissembling foe to constitu 
 tional liberty, and the true interests of his country forbade his 
 prisoners to employ counsel, under penalty of prolonged imprison 
 ment. Yes, charged with treasonable practices, yet the demand for 
 counsel was to be dealt with as equal to treason itself. Here is an 
 order, signed by a minion of Mr. Seward, and read to the prisoners 
 at Fort Lafayette, on the 3d of December, 1861 : 
 
 "I am instructed, by the Secretary of State, to inform you, that the De 
 partment of State, of the United States, will not recognize any one a* an 
 attorney for political prisoners, and will look with distrust upon all applica 
 tions for release through such channels; and that such applications will be 
 regarded as additional reasons for declining to release the prisoners." 
 
 And here is another order to the same effect, dated " Department 
 of State, Washington, November 27, 1861," signed by William H. 
 Seward himself, and read to the prisoners at Fort Warren, on the 
 29th of November, 1861 : 
 
 "Discountenancing and repudiating all such practices." 
 The disloyal practice, forsooth, of employing counsel : 
 
 "The Secretary of State desires that all the State prisoners may understand 
 that they are expected to revoke all such engagements now existing, and avoid 
 any hereafter, as they can only lead to new complications and embarrassments 
 to the cases of prisoners, on whose behalf the Government might be disposed to 
 act with liberality." 
 
 Most magnanimous Secretary! Liberality toward men guilty of 
 no crime, but who, though they had been murderers or pirates, were 
 entitled, by the plain letter of the Constitution, to have " the assist 
 ance of counsel for their defense." Sir, there was but one step further 
 possible, and that short step was taken some months later, when the 
 prisoners of State were required to make oath, as the condition of 
 their discharge, that they would not seek their constitutional and 
 legal, remedy in Court, for the wrongs and outrages inflicted upon 
 them. 
 
 Sir, incredible as all this will seem some years hence, it has hap 
 pened, all of it, and more yet untold, within the last twenty months, 
 in the United States. Under executive usurpation, and by virtue of 
 presidential proclamations and cabinet orders, it has been done with- 
 
222 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 out law and against Constitution ; and now it is proposed, I repeat, 
 to sanction and authorize it all, by an equally unconstitutional and 
 void act of Congress. Sir, legislative tyranny is no more tolerable 
 than executive tyranny. It is a vain thing to seek to cloak all this 
 under the false semblance of law. Liberty is no more guarded or 
 secured, and arbitrary power no more hedged in and limited here, 
 than under the executive orders of last summer. We know what has 
 already been done, and we will submit to it no longer. Away, then, 
 with your vain clamor about disloyalty, your miserable mockery of : 
 treasonable practices. We have read, with virtuous indignation, in 
 history, ages ago, of an Englishman executed for treason, in saying 
 that he would make his son heir to the crown, meaning of his own 
 tavern-house, which bore the sign of the crown ; and of that other 
 Englishman, whose favorite buck the king had killed, and who suffered 
 death as a traitor, for wishing, in a fit of vexation, that the buck, 
 horns and all, were emboweled in the body of the king. But what 
 have we not lived to see in our own time ? Sir. not many months 
 ago, this Administration, in its great and tender mercy toward the 
 six hundred and forty prisoner of State, confined, for treasonable 
 practices, at Camp Chase, near the capital of Ohio, appointed a com 
 missioner, an extra-judicial functionary, unknown to the Constitution 
 and laws, to hear and determine the cases of the several parties 
 accused, and with power to discharge at his discretion, or to banish 
 to Bull s Island, in Lake Erie. Among the political prisoners called 
 before him, was a lad of fifteen, a newsboy upon the Ohio river, 
 whose only offense proved, upon inquiry, to be, that he owed 
 fifteen cents, the unpaid balance of a debt due to his washer-woman 
 possibly a woman of color who had him arrested by the provost 
 marshal, as guilty of " disloyal practices." And yet, for four weary 
 months the lad had lain in that foul and most loathsome prison, under 
 military charge, lest, peradventure, he should overturn the Govern 
 ment of the United States ; or, at least, the Administration of Abra 
 ham Lincoln! 
 
 SEVERAL MEMBERS ON THE DEMOCRATIC SIDE OF THE HOUSE. 
 Oh no ; the case can not be possible. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. It is absolutely true, and it is one only 
 among many such cases. Why, sir, was not the hump-back carrier 
 of the New York Daily News, a paper edited by a member of this 
 House, arrested in Connecticut, for selling that paper, and hurried 
 off out of the State, and imprisoned in Fort Lafayette ? And yet, 
 Senators and Representatives, catching up the brutal cry of a blood 
 thirsty but infatuated partisan press, exclaim (i the Government has 
 been too lenient, there ought to have been more arrests ! " 
 
 Well did Hamilton remark, that " arbitrary imprisonments have 
 been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of 
 tyranny ;" and not less truly, Blackstone declares, that they are " a less 
 public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbi 
 trary government," than executions upon the scaffold. And yet, to 
 night, you seek here, under cloak of an act of Congress, to authorize 
 these arrests and imprisonments, and thus to renew again that reign 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 223 
 
 of terror which smote the hearts of the stoutest among us, last sum 
 mer, as "the pestilence which walketh in darkness." 
 But the Constitution provides further, that 
 
 " The right of the people to be secure in their persons, house?, papers, and 
 effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and 
 no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirm 
 ation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons 
 or things to be seized? 
 
 Sir, every line, letter, and syllable of this provision has "been 
 repeatedly violated, under pretence of securing evidence of disloyal 
 or treasonable practices ; and now you propose, by this bill, to sanc 
 tion the past violations, and authorize new and continued infractions 
 in future. Your provost marshals, your captains of cavalry, are to 
 "inquire into treasonable practices." How? In any way, sir, that 
 they may see fit; and of course, by search and seizure of person, 
 house, papers or effects ; for, sworn and appointed spies and informers 
 as they are, they will be and can be of no higher character, arid no 
 more scrupulous of law, or right, or decency, than their predecessors 
 of last summer, appointed under executive proclamations of no more 
 or less validity than this bill, which you seek now to pass into a law. 
 Sir, there is but one step farther to take. Put down the peaceable 
 assembling of the people ; the right of petition for redress of griev 
 ances ; the " right of the people to keep and bear arms ;" and finally, 
 the right of suffrage and elections, and then these United States, 
 this Republic of ours, will have ceased to exist. And that short step 
 you will soon take, if the States and the people do not firmly and 
 speedily check you in your headlong plunge into despotism. What 
 yet remains ? The Constitution declares that : 
 
 " The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be con 
 strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people," 
 
 And again : 
 
 " The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
 prohibited by it to the {States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to 
 the people." 
 
 And yet, under the monstrous doctrine, that in war the Constitu 
 tion is suspended, and that the President as commander-in-chief, not 
 of tbe military forces only, but of the whole people of the United 
 States, may, under " the war power," do whatever he shall think 
 necessary and proper to be done, in any State or part of any State, 
 however remote from the scene of warfare, every right of the people 
 is violated or threatened, and every power of the States, usurped. 
 Their last bulwark, the militia, belonging solely to the States, when 
 not called, as such, into the actual service of the United States, you 
 now deliberately propose, by this bill, to sweep away, and to con 
 stitute the President supreme military dictator, with a standing array 
 of three millions and more at his command. And for what purpose 
 are the militia to be thus taken from the power and custody of the 
 
224 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 States ? Sir, the opponents of the Constitution anticipated all this, 
 and were denounced as raving incendiaries or distempered enthusiasts. 
 The Federal Government, said Patrick Henry, in the Virginia Con 
 vention, 
 
 " Squints towards monarchy. Tour President may easily become a king. 
 If ever he violates the laws, will not the recollection of his crimes teach him. 
 to make one bold push for the American throne? Will not the immense dif 
 ference between being master of everything, and being ignominiously tried 
 and punished, powerfully excite him to make this bold push ? But, sir, where 
 is the existing force to punish him? Can he not, at the head of his army, 
 beat down all opposition? What then will become of you and your rights? 
 Will not absolute despotism ensue ? "* 
 
 And yet, for these apprehensions, Henry has been the subject of 
 laughter and pity for seventy years. Sir, the instinctive love of 
 liberty is wiser and more far-seeing than any philosophy. 
 
 Hear, now, Alexander Hamilton, in the Federalist. Summing up 
 what he calls the exaggerated and improbable suggestions respecting 
 the power of calling for the services of the militia, urged by the 
 opponents of the Constitution, whose writings he compares to some 
 ill-written tale, or romance full of frightful and distorted shapes, he 
 says : 
 
 " The militia of New Hampshire (they allege) is to be marched to Georgia ; 
 of Georgia to New Hampshire; of New York to Kentucky; and of Ken 
 tucky to Lake Champlain. Nay, the debts -due to the French and Dutch, 
 are to be paid in militia-men, instead of Louis d ors and ducats. At one 
 moment, there is to be a large army to lay prostrate the liberties of the 
 people; at another moment, the militia of Virginia are to be dragged from 
 their homes, five or six hundred miles, to tame the republican contumacy of 
 Massachusetts ; and that of Massachusetts is to be transported an equal distance, 
 to subdue the refractory haughtiness of the aristocratic Virginians. Do persons 
 \vho rave at this rate, imagine that their eloquence can impose any conceits 
 or absurdities upon the people of America, for infallible truths ? " 
 
 And yet, sir, just three-quarters of a century later, we have lived 
 to see these raving conceits and absurdities practiced, or attempted, 
 as calmly and deliberately as though the power and the right had 
 been expressly conferred. 
 
 And now, sir, listen to the answer of Hamilton to all this him 
 self the friend of a strong government, a Senate for life, and an 
 Executive for life, with the sole and exclusive power over the militia, 
 to be held by the National Government ; and the Executive of each 
 State to be appointed by that Government: 
 
 " If there should be an army to be made use of as the engine of despotism, 
 what need of the militia ? If there should be no army, whither would the mili 
 tia, irritated at being required to undertake a distant and distressing expedition, 
 for the purpose of riveting the chains of slavery upon a part of their countrymen^ 
 
 * And the reporter, unable to follow the vehement orator of the Revolu 
 tion, adds : . ^ 
 
 " Here, Mr. Henry strongly and pathetically expatiated on the probability 
 of the President s enslaving America, and the horrid consequences that must 
 result." 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 225 
 
 direct their course, BUT TO THE SEATS OF THE TYRANTS WHO HAD MEDITATED 
 
 SO FOOLISH, AS WELL AS SO WICKED, A PROJECT ; TO CRUSH THEM IN THEIR 
 IMAGINED INTRENCHMENTS OF POWER, AND MAKE THEM AN EXAMPLE OF THE 
 VENGEANCE OF AN ABUSED AND INCENSED PEOPLE ? Is this the Way in 
 
 which usurpers stride to dominion over a numerous and enlightened nation? 1 
 
 Sir, Mr. Hamilton was an earnest, sincere man, and, doubtless, 
 wrote what he believed : he was an able man also, and a philosopher ; 
 and yet how little did he foresee, that just seventy-five years later, 
 that same Government, which he was striving to establish, would, in 
 desperate hands, attempt to seize the whole militia of the Union, and 
 convert them into a standing army, indefinite as to the time of its 
 service, and for the very purpose of not only beating down State 
 sovereignties, but of abolishing even the domestic and social institu 
 tions of the States. 
 
 Sir, if your objects are constitutional, you have power abundantly 
 under the Constitution, without infraction or usurpation. The men 
 who framed that instrument, made it both for war and peace. Nay, 
 more, they expressly provide for the cases of insurrection and rebel 
 lion. You have ample power to do all that of right you ought to 
 do all that the people, your masters, permit under their supreme 
 will, the Constitution. Confine, then, yourselves within these limits, 
 and the rising storm of popular discontent will be hushed. 
 
 But I return, now, again, to the arbitrary arrests sanctioned by 
 this Bill, and by that other consummation of despotism, the Indem 
 nity and Suspension Bill, now in the Senate. Sir, this is the very 
 question which, as I said a little while ago, we made a chief issue 
 before the people in the late elections. You did, then, distinctly 
 claim and you found an Attorney-General and a few other venal or 
 very venerable lawyers to defend the monstrous claim that the 
 President had the right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus; and 
 that every one of these arrests was legal and justifiable. We went 
 before the people with the Constitution and the laws in our hands, 
 and the love of liberty in our hearts ; and the verdict of the people 
 was rendered against you. We insisted that Congress alone could 
 suspend the writ of habeas coitus when, in cases of rebellion or 
 invasion, the public safety might require it. And to-day, sir, that is 
 beginning to be again the acknowledged doctrine. The Chief Justice 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States so ruled in the Merriman 
 case; and the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, I rejoice to say, has 
 rendered a like decision ; and if the question be ever brought before 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, undoubtedly it will be so 
 decided, finally and forever. You yourselves now admit it ; and at 
 this moment, your " Indemnity Bill," a measure more execrable than 
 even this Conscription, and liable to every objection which I have 
 urged against it, undertakes to authorize the President to suspend the 
 writ all over, or in any part of, the United States. Sir, I deny that 
 you can thus delegate your right to the Executive. Even your own 
 power is conditional. You can not suspend the writ except where 
 the public safety requires it, and then only in cases of rebellion or 
 invasion. A foreign war, not brought home by invasion, to our own 
 15 
 
226 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 soil, does not authorize the suspension, in any case And who is to 
 judge whether and where there is rebellion or invasion, and whether 
 and when the public safety requires that the writ be suspended ? 
 Congress alone, and they can not substitute the judgment of the 
 President for their own. Such, too, is the opinion of Story : " The 
 right to judge," says he, " whether exigency has arisen, must exclu 
 sively belong to that body." But not so under the bill which passed 
 this House the other day. 
 
 Nor is this all. Congress alone can suspend the writ. When and 
 where ? In cases of rebellion or invasion. Where rebellion ? Where 
 invasion? Am I to be told, that because there is rebellion in South 
 Carolina, the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in Pennsylvania 
 and Massachusetts where there is none ? Is that the meaning of the 
 Constitution ? No, sir ; the writ can be suspended only where the 
 rebellion or invasion exists in States, or parts of States alone, where 
 the enemy, foreign or domestic, is found in arms ; and moreover, the 
 public safety can require its suspension only where there is rebellion 
 or invasion. Outside of these conditions, Congress has no more 
 authority to suspend the writ, than the President and least of all, 
 to suspend it without limitation as to time, and generally all over the 
 Union, and in States not invaded or in rebellion. Such an act of 
 Congress is of no more validity, and no more entitled to obedience, 
 than an Executive proclamation ; and in any just and impartial court, 
 I venture to affirm that it will be so decided. 
 
 But, again, sir, even though the writ be constitutionally suspended, 
 there is no more power in the President to make arbitrary arrests 
 than without it. The gentleman from Rhode Island, (Mr. Sheffield,) 
 said, very justly and I am sorry to see him lend any support to this 
 bill that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus does not au 
 thorize arrests, except upon sworn warrant, charging some offence 
 known to the law, and dangerous to the public safety. He is right. 
 It does not ; and this was so admitted in the bill which passed the 
 Senate, in 1807. The suspension only denies release upon bail, or 
 a discharge without trial, to parties thus arrested. It suspends no 
 other right or privilege under the Constitution certainly not the 
 right to a speedy public trial, by jury, in a civil Court. It dispenses 
 with no "due process of law," except only that particular writ. It 
 does not take away the claim for damages to which a party illegally 
 arrested, or legally arrested, but without probable cause, is entitled. 
 
 And yet, everywhere, it has been assumed, that a suspension of 
 the writ of habeas corpus, is a suspension of the entire Constitution, 
 and of all laws, so far as the personal rights of the citizen are con 
 cerned, and that, therefore, the moment it is suspended, either by the 
 President, as heretofore asserted, or by Congress, as now about to be 
 authorized, arbitrary arrests, without sworn warrant, or other due 
 process of law, may be made at the sole pleasure or discretion of the 
 Executive. I tell you no ; and that, although we may not be able 
 to take the body of the party arrested from the provost marshal by 
 writ of habeas corpus, every other right and privilege of the Consti 
 tution and of the common law remains intact, including the right to 
 
THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 227 
 
 resist the wrong-doer or trespasser, who. without due authority, would 
 violate your person, or enter your house, which is your castle; and, 
 after all this, the right also to prosecute on indictment, or for damages. 
 as the nature or aggravation of the case may demand. And yet, 
 as claimed by you of the party in power, the suspension of this writ 
 i> a total abrogation of the Constitution and of the liberties of the 
 citizen, and the rights of the States. Why, then, sir, stop with arbi 
 trary arrests and imprisonments? Does any man believe that it will 
 end here? Not so have I learned history. The guillotine ! the guil 
 lotine ! the guillotine follows next. 
 
 Sir, when one of those earliest confined in Fort Lafayette I had 
 it from his own lips made complaint to the Secretary of State of the 
 injustice of his arrest, and the severity of the treatment to which he 
 had been subjected in the exercise of arbitrary power, no offence being 
 alleged against him, "Why, sir," said the Secretary, with a smilo of 
 most significant complacency, " my dear, sir, you ought not to com 
 plain ; loe migJit have none further." Light flashed upon the mind 
 of the gentleman, and he replied: "Ah! that is true, sir; you had 
 just the same right to behead, as to arrest and imprison me." And 
 hhall it come to this? Then, sir, let us see who is beheaded first. It 
 is horrible enough to be imprisoned without crime, but when it 
 becomes a question of life or death, remember the words of the book 
 of .lob "All that a man hath will he give for his life." 
 
 Sir, it is this which makes revolutions. A gentleman upon the 
 other side asked, this afternoon, which party was to rise now in revolu 
 tion. The answer of the able and gallant gentleman from Pennsyl 
 vania, (Mr. Eiddle,) was pertinent arid just " No party, but an 
 outraged people." It is not, let rue tell you, the leaders of parties 
 who begin revolutions. Never. Did any one of the distinguished 
 characters of the llevolution of 1776, participate in the throwing 
 of the tea into Boston harbor ? Who was it ? Who, to-day, can 
 mime the actors in that now historic scene ? It was not Hancock, 
 nor Samuel Adams, nor John Adams, nor Patrick Henry, nor 
 Washington ; but men unknown to fame. Good men agitate ; obscure 
 men. begin real revolutions ; great men finally direct and control 
 them. And if, indeed, we are about to pass through the usual stages 
 of revolution, it will not be the leaders of the Democratic party, not 
 I, not the men with me here, to-night but some man among the 
 people, now unknown and unnoted, who will hurl your tea into the 
 harbor ; and it may even be in Boston once again ; for the love of 
 liberty, I would fain believe, lingers still under the shadow of the 
 monument on Bunker Hill. But sir, we seek no revolution except 
 through the ballot-box. The conflict to which we challenge you, is 
 nut of arms but of argument. Do you believe in the virtue and 
 intelligence of the people ? Do you admit their capacity for self-gov 
 ernment ? Have they not intelligence enough to understand the right, 
 and virtue enough to pursue it? Come then: meet us through the 
 press, and with free speech, and before the assemblages of the people, 
 and we will argue these questions, as we and our fathers have done 
 from the beginning of the Government "Are we right, or you right, 
 
228 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 
 
 we wrong or you wrong? " And by the judgment of the people, we 
 will, one and all, abide. 
 
 Sir, I have done now with my objections to this bill. I have 
 spoken as though the Constitution survived, and was still the supreme 
 law of the land. But if, indeed, there be no Constitution any longer, 
 limiting and restraining the men in power, then there is none binding 
 upon the States or the people. God forbid. We have a Constitution 
 yet, and laws yet. To them I appeal. Give us our rights ; give us 
 known and fixed laws; give us the judiciary; arrest us only upon 
 due process of law ; give us presentment or indictment by grand 
 juries ; speedy and public trial ; trial by jury and at home ; tell us 
 the nature and. cause of the accusation; confront us with witnesses; 
 allow us witnesses in our behalf, and the assistance of counsel for 
 our defense ; secure us in our persons, our houses, our papers, and 
 our effects ; leave us arms, not for resistance to law or against right 
 ful authority, but to defend ourselves from outrage and violence ; give 
 us free speech and a free press ; the right peaceably to assemble ; and 
 above all, free and undisturbed elections and the ballot take our sons, 
 take our money, our property, take all else, and we will wait a little, till 
 at the time and in the manner appointed by Constitution arid law, 
 we shall eject you from the trusts you have abused, and the seats 
 of power you have dishonored, and other and better men shall reign 
 in your stead. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 UNDER this head, we add some passages and items of historical value and 
 : nterest. The collection, as will be seen, is gathered from the whole public 
 Mfe of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. The design is, to add to the foregoing SPEECHES, 
 us much as our space will admit of, matter best calculated to give a fair and 
 full understanding of what Mr. VALLANDIGHAM has said, written, and done, 
 bearing upon "Abolition, Slavery, and the Civil War. 1 These questions are now 
 before the people, and, in some of their varied aspects, determine the estimation 
 of every man, who occupies any public position. By this ordeal every man s 
 record must be tried. And it helps to assure us of the strength and endurance 
 of a man s devotion to the principles held to-day, if, on examining his record, 
 we find that the same principles have been consistently held and advocated 
 through a long series of years. 
 
 A brief statement in relation to Mr. VALLANDIGHAM S parentage and educa 
 tion, may gratify a reasonable curiosity on the part of the public. 
 
 CLEMENT LAIKD VALLANDIGHAM was born in New Lisbon, Columbiana 
 county, Ohio, July 29th, 1820. His father, a presbyterian clergyman, was a 
 native of Virginia. His grandfather was also a Virginian, born near tho 
 now classic fields of " Bull Kun." The name, originally, was Van Landeghem; 
 the family came from French Flanders. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was educated at Jefferson College, Pa. After leaving 
 college, he was for some time principal of an academy on the Eastern Shore of 
 Maryland. Thence, he returned to his ( native county, where, in December, 1842, 
 at the early age of twenty-two years, he was admitted to the practice of law. 
 Three years later, he was chosen a representative from that county, in the Ohio 
 Legislature of 1845-6-7. This was the opening of his political record. 
 Additions have been continually made, and the record is not closed. A few 
 Interesting facts and items here follow, numbered for convenience. 
 
 No. I. OPPOSITION TO THE WILMOT PROVISO. The present evil condition 
 of the country began more directly with the renewal of the "Missouri con 
 troversy," by the introduction of the " WILMOT PROVISO," in the summer of 
 1846. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, while a member of the Ohio Legislature, distin 
 guished himself by his opposition to that measure, and to all the schemes of 
 the Abolitionists and semi-abolitionists, then beginning to lift their hydra head 
 throughout the country. 
 
 On the 16th of January, 1847, HARRISON G. BLAKE, now a Pvepublicaa 
 
 (229). 
 
2oO OPPOSITION TO THE WILMOT PROVISO. 
 
 member of Congress, moved a joint resolution, in the Ohio House of Repre 
 sentatives, requesting our Senators and Representatives to vote for "the exclu 
 sion of slavery from the territory of Oregon, and also from any oilier territory 
 that now is, or may hereafter be, annexed to the United States. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM moved the resolution be laid on the table, which 
 motion prevailed. On the 18th of January, it came up again, and, on motion 
 of Mr. TRIMBLE, of Highland, it was again laid on the table, Mr. VAL 
 LANDIGHAM voting in the affirmative. On the 21st of January, it was hror^lit, 
 up again, and after a long parliamentary fight, running lute into the night, it 
 passed. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM opposed it strongly. (House Journal, 1846-7, 
 pp. 241, 254, 288, 291, 295.) During the struggle, the following debate took 
 place, which we transcribe from the Ohio Statesman, of January 22, 1847: 
 
 Mr. ELLISON, of Brown, moved to add these words : 
 
 "Excepting in those cases where the welfare and safety of THE UNION may 
 otherwise require." 
 
 Mr. FRANKLIN T. BACKUS, of Cuyahogn, [late Republican nominee for 
 Supreme Judge,] moved to amend, by inserting after the word "Union," the 
 words " in the opinion of the chivalry." (A laugh.) 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM rose, and began by rebuking the laughter, and laughing 
 gentlemen, and asked them, if they had forgotten the great Missouri Com 
 promise ? That compromise the principle of concession which was now 
 (1847) laughed at had saved the Union in 1820. But for the respect which 
 our fathers felt for this principle, and which was then manifested by none more 
 worthily than by Mr. Clay himself, this Union would have then been dissolved. 
 Mr. V. declared, for himself, that whenever any question might arise, involving 
 the Union in the alternative, he would go with his might on that side ON TLI K 
 SIDE or THE UNION, "NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND IXSEPERABLE." Would 
 any gentleman relinquish the Union rather than tolerate the existence of 
 slavery in the South ? 
 
 Mr. BACKUS also believed the compromise (1820) to have been necessary to 
 the perpetuity of the Union. But such an issue was not likely again to occur. 
 The slaveholding States would be the last to secede and dissolve the Union.. 
 With what face could gentlemen give out their fears on this subject, when 
 they remember the treatment which John Quincy Adams received at their 
 hands, at the time when he stood up in Congress for a considerate and rational, 
 report upon A PETITION TO DISSOLVE THE UNION. What a bluster they made, 
 and they were going to expel the old man from the House! Mr. B. affirmed 
 again that we had all been deceived the slaveholders themselves, by their 
 acts had manifested the fact, that the very salvation of their system depends 
 upon their remaining in the Union. Wo had heard enough of these threats 
 to know how to regard them. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. The gentleman says that such a portentous issue as 
 that involved in the Missouri question was not likely again to arise. Let him 
 not lay to his soul that flattering unction. But the gentleman from Cuyahoga 
 seems o er familiar with this talk of dissolving the Union. That gentleman, 
 (Mr. B.,) resided in a district claiming that there now existed cause for dissolv 
 ing the Union. He belonged to the district of Joshua R. (Biddings, who 
 declared of them, that they were dissolved from all political connection with the 
 Southern States, on account of the annexation of Texas. But the mind of the 
 House was not to be drawn off from this question by raising a dispute, whether 
 Mr. Clay ever acted as an honest man. The question was, whether such an 
 exigency as that developed in the Missouri question may not happen again. 
 What had once, happened might happen again; and let us not become wise 
 above what comes to us as the lessons of the past. The gentleman from Cuya 
 hoga had riot answered the question, "If he were to decide between the exclu 
 sion of slavery, with the dissolution of the Union, and the perpetuation of the 
 
PETITIONS TO DISSOLVE THE UNION. 231 
 
 Union, in connection with that institution, whether he would prefer to go for 
 dissolution? He, (Mr. V.,) trusted the amendment would carry without the 
 mutilation proposed by the gentleman from Cuyahoga. If we were to throw a 
 frebrand toward the South if we must needs throw down the gauntlet before 
 them, in the shape of these resolutions, they should, at least, be shaped so AS NOT 
 TO END ANGER THE UNION; they shoidd, by all means, be put in such a guarded 
 i orm os not to endanger our favored institutions. Mr. V. felt that, perhaps, 
 he had been too much in earnest upon this question. He had spoken from 
 impulse, and, perhaps, with too much freedom and feeling, because he felt 
 called upon as a patriot and citizen to resist and expose every measure which 
 r."i{/ht worli incalculable mischief, not only to ourselves, but to generations yet 
 unborn. 
 
 Mr. BACKUS moved to amend the first resolution, by adding thereto the fol 
 lowing: "And strenuously to resist all attempts that may hereafter be made 
 to introduce into this Union any new State, by the Constitution of which slavery 
 is not forever excluded from the territory of such State;" which motion was lost. 
 Yeas 23, nays 37. Among the yeas, Backus, Blake, W. P. Cutler, etc.; among 
 the nays, Vallandigham, etc. 
 
 No. IT. PETITIONS TO DISSOLVE THE UNION. At the same session, on the 
 25th of January, 1847, in the House of Representatives: 
 
 Mr. TRUESDALE, of Trumbull, presented the memorial of thirty-eight 
 inhabitants of Lowell, and vicinity, in relation to the annexation of Texas, and 
 asking the Legislature to DECLARE THE UNION DISSOLVED, and to withdraw 
 our Senators and Representatives in Congress. 
 
 Mr. TRUESDALE moved that said petition be laid upon the table. 
 
 Mr. SMITH, of Hamilton, moved that said petition be rejected. 
 
 Upon which motion the yeas and nays being demanded and ordered, 
 resulted yeas 41, nay? 24. House Journal, 1846-7, p. 321. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, of course, denounced the petition, and those who sup 
 ported it. He and every other Democrat in the House, except one, also several 
 Whigs, voted to reject the petition. Those who voted to lay it on the table 
 were: BEATTY, BENNETT, BLAKE, BRECK, CLARK of Franklin, COTTON, 
 HARSH, HIBBERD, HOGUE, HORTON, JOHNSTON, KILER, MATTHEWS, MOORE, 
 MeGREW, OWEN, PARK, POOR, POTTER, TALLMAN, TRUESDALE, WHITE, 
 WILSON, and the Speaker, WM. P. CUTLER. 
 
 We venture to say that nearly every man among those twenty-four, if alive, 
 is to-day supporting the Abolition party. And those traitors are now denounc 
 ing Mr. VALLANDIGHAM for his faithful adherence to the constitution and 
 laws of our country. He is still standing where he then did, contending for 
 the Union of our fathers, while they are battling to destroy it. 
 
 Again, at the same session, on the 1st day of February, 1847, in the Houso 
 of Representatives: 
 
 Mr. HOGUE presented the petition of Lot Holmes, and fifty-nine other 
 citizens, of Fairfield township, Columbiana county, asking, as a consequence of 
 the annexation of Texas, that the Legislature may DECLARE THE UNION DIS 
 SOLVED, and the recall of our Senators and Representatives in Congress. 
 
 Mr. HOGUE moved to lay said petition on the table. 
 
 Mr. SMITH, of Hamilton, moved that said petition be rejected. 
 
 Upon which motion the yeas and nays being demanded and ordered, 
 resulted yeas 33, nays 21. House Journal, 1816-7, p. 428. 
 
232 AS EDITOR OF THE DAYTON EMPIRE. 
 
 Among the yeas, for rejection, were VALLANDIGHAM, and every other 
 Democrat in the House, and several Whigs ; among the nays were the same 
 members as upon the former vote, with two or three exceptions, and the addi 
 tional names of BACKUS, FRANKLIN, CORWIN, CURTISS, and TRIMBLE of Mus- 
 kingum. 
 
 In that same Winter, of 1847, Massachusetts passed a secession resolution, 
 which, to this day, remains unrescinded upon its official records. 
 
 No. III. THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846-7.- On the 15th of December, 1846, 
 ia the Ohio House of Representatives, Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM offered the fol 
 lowing resolutions, which he supported in two speeches, boldly advocating 
 the- "vigorous prosecution" of that foreign war to an honorable peace: 
 
 That the war thus brought about and commenced by the aggressions and 
 act of Mexico herself, having been recognized by Congress, according to the 
 forms of the Constitution, is a Constitutional war, and a war of the whole 
 people of the United States, begun, (on our part,) and carried on in pursuance 
 of the constitution and laws of the Union. 
 
 That this General Assembly has full confidence in the wisdom and tho 
 ability of the Executive of the United States to prosecute the war to a suc 
 cessful and speedy termination by AN HONORABLE PEACE ; and that we hereby 
 tender the cordial sympathies and support of this commonwealth, to the said 
 Executive, in the further prosecution of the war. 
 
 These resolutions were smothered in committee, and never received a single 
 Whig vote. 
 
 No. IV. As EDITOR or THE DAYTON EMPIRE. At the conclusion of hia 
 term in the Legislature of Ohio, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM removed to Dayton, 
 and on the 2d of September, 1847, assumed the editorial control of the Day 
 ton Empire. In that position, he distinguished himself as a vigorous and able 
 journalist, and as a patriot, who sought to preserve the principles of constitu 
 tional liberty which were born of our Revolution. He took a prominent part, 
 among the friends of the Union in Ohio, in favor of the compromise measures 
 of 1850, the work of CLAY and WEBSTER, and other true men and patriots, 
 who then saved the ship of state from splitting on the rock of Abolitionism. 
 
 The following, from his "Introductory Address," will give an idea of the 
 principles to whose advocacy and defense his labors, as editor, were devoted: 
 
 We will support the CONSTITUTION or THE UNITED STATES, in its whole 
 integrity, as it came to us from "the Fathers/ believing it to establish, in 
 principle, the very best form of government which the wisdom of man ever 
 devised. 
 
 We will protect and defend, according to our opportunities and abilities, 
 THE UNION or THESE STATES, as in very deed the " Palladium of our polit 
 ical prosperity," "the only rock of our safety," less sacred only than Liberty 
 herself; and we will pander to the sectional prejudices, or the fanaticism, or 
 wounded pride, or disappointed ambition, of no man or set of men, whereby that 
 Umon shall be put in jeopardy. 
 
COMPROMISE MEASURES. 233 
 
 To the present Administration (James K. Folk s) we will lend that sup 
 port (whatever it is worth) which an honest and independent man may and 
 ought to extend to the administration of the party to which he belongs. 
 Above all, and to the very uttermost of our energy and abilities, we will 
 defend and support it in the war now waged against Mexico, till it shall have 
 been terminated by AN HONORABLE PEACE. 
 
 On the 27th of June, 1849, Mr. YALLANDIGHAM S connection with the 
 Empire, terminated. In his "Valedictory" is the following. Referring to the 
 principles announced by him in his Introductory, he says: 
 
 We would stand or fall by them now as then, and throughout life. Of 
 the vital importance to the welfare of the whole country in general, and the 
 Democratic party in particular, of two, in an especial manner, to these princi 
 ples, every hour has added to our deep conviction. And we would write them 
 as in the rock, upon the hearts of our friends forever : 
 
 First, that which is really and most valuable in our American liberties, de 
 pends upon the preservation and vigor of THE UNION OF THESE STATES ; and 
 therefore, all and every agitation in one section, necessarily generating coun 
 ter-agitation in the other, ought, from what quarter soever it may come, by 
 every patriot and well-wisher of his country, to be " indignantly frowned upon," 
 and arrested ere it be "too late." 
 
 No. V. COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850. On the 19th of October, 1850, a 
 public meeting was held in the City Hall, Dayton, Ohio, to denounce tho 
 Compromise Measures" of 1850. The following is one of the resolutions; 
 
 Resolved, That the Congress which could be so far frightened from its pro 
 priety, by the insolent bluster and bravado of a few slaveholders, as to pass an 
 act (the Fugitive Slave Act) so fraught with injustice, and so odious, deserves 
 the rebuke of the people of these United States. 
 
 From the official proceedings, we quote the following: 
 
 C. L. Vallandigham, Esq., replied in opposition to the resolutions, and in 
 favor of the compromise policy which gave birth to the law. 
 
 From the Dayton Journal, (Whig) editorial, we quote the following : 
 
 C. L. Vallandigham, Esq., followed in opposition to the resolutions. His 
 speech was ingenuous and eloquent. His objection to the course pi^oposed by the 
 resolutions was, that it would lead to further agitation, and TEND TO ENDANGEP. 
 THE UNION. 
 
 The Empire noticed Mr. VALLANDIGHAM S speech as follows: 
 
 C. L. VALLANDIGHAM, Esq. The speech of this gentleman, at the meeting 
 on Saturday night, is universally spoken of as a most eloquent and patriotic 
 effort; and the positions he took in favor of such measures as would tend to 
 restrain undue excitement and agitation, rather than increase them, can not but 
 receive the approbation of every cool and reflecting mind. 
 
 His remarks were earnest, dignified, and appropriate. He strongly deprecated 
 every new attempt to inflame the public mind, while he enforced, in strains of 
 lofty and impassioned eloquence, the duty of every good citizen to observe and 
 maintain the sanction of law as the only way to secure the peace, order, and 
 happiness of society anywhere. The sentiments he uttered were warmly and 
 enthusiastically applauded at the time, and are such, we doubt not, as will ba 
 approved and sustained by our citizens generally. 
 
234 NOMINATED FOR CONGRESS. 
 
 THE SECOND " COMPROMISE MEETING." On the 26th of October, 1850, a 
 very large meeting, composed of the first citizens of Dayton, assembled at the 
 City Hall. From the committee, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, as chairman, reported 
 the following resolutions. In the first will be found the counterpart of the 
 now celebrated motto of the Democratic party : " The Constitution as it is, and 
 the Union as it was." 
 
 1. That we are for the Union as it is, and the Constitution as it is, and that 
 we will preserve, maintain, and defend both at every hazard, observing, with 
 scrupulous and uncalculating fidelity, every article, requirement, and com 
 promise of the constitutional compact between these States, to the letter, and 
 in its utmost spirit, and recognizing no "higher law," between which and the 
 Constitution we know of any conflict. 
 
 2. That the Constitution was "the result of a spirit of amity, and of that 
 mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situa 
 tion rendered indispensable," that by arnity, conciliation and compromise 
 alone can it, and the Union which it established, be preserved; and that it is 
 the duty of all good citizens to frown indignantly upon every attempt, where 
 soever or by whomsoever made, to array one section of the Union against the 
 other; to foment jealousies and heart-burnings between them, by svsternatic 
 and organized misrepresentation, denunciation and calumny, and thereby, to 
 render them in feeling and affection the inheritors of so noble a common patri 
 mony purchased by our fathers at so great expense of blood and treasure. 
 
 3. That as the friends of peace and concord as lovers of the Union, and 
 foes, sworn upon the horns of the altar of our common country, to all who seek, 
 and all that tends to its dissolution, we have viewed with anxiety and alarm 
 the perilous crisis brought upon us by years of ceaseless and persevering agita 
 tion of the slavery question in its various forms; and that the Executive and 
 Congress of the United States have deserved well of the Republic, for their patri 
 otic efforts so to compromise and adjust this vexed question, as to leave no good 
 cause for clamor or offense by any portion of the Union. 
 
 4. That a strict adherence in all its parts, to the compromise thus deliberately 
 and solemnly affected, is essential to the restoration and maintenance of peace, 
 harmony, and fraternal affection between the different sections of the Union, 
 and thereby to the preservation of the Union itself; and that GOOD FAITH 
 imperatively demands that adherence at the hands of all good citizens, whether 
 of the North or of the South. 
 
 5. That, believing this compromise the very best which, in view of the cir 
 cumstances and temper of the times, could have been attained, we are for it as 
 it is, and opposed to all agitation, looking to a repeal or essential modification of 
 any of its parts, and that we will lend no aid or comfort to those who, for any 
 purpose, seek further to agitate arid embroil the country upon these questions. 
 
 6. That " all obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and 
 associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, 
 control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted 
 authorities, are destructive of the fundamental principle of our institutions 
 and of fatal tendency ; that all such efforts, wherever made or by whomsoever 
 advised, find no answering sympathy in our breast nothing but loathing and 
 contempt and that we hereby pledge ourselves to the country, that, so far as 
 in us lies, the UNION, THE CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS, must and shall be 
 maintained." 
 
 Ncf. VI. NOMINATED FOR CONGRESS. In 1852, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was 
 first put iii nomination, by the Democracy of the Third District of Ohio, com 
 posed of the counties of Montgomery, Butler, and Preble. His competitor 
 was Hon. LEWIS D. CAMPBELL, the candidate of the anti-compromise or 
 
ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 235 
 
 Abolition party. Mr. CAMPBELL was elected, which so rejoiced the old "Lib 
 erty party " of Ohio, which run JOHN P. HALE, for President, and GEORGE 
 W. JULIAN, for Vice-President, that their State committee issued a circular, 
 in which they said of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM: 
 
 In opposition to Mr. Campbell, the Democratic party had nominated C. L. 
 Vallandigham, a lawyer of high standing, an eloquent and ready debater, of 
 gentlemanly deportment and unblemished private character, and untiring 
 industry and energy. But he was known, to all, to be an ultra pro-slavery 
 man, (anti-Abolitionist;) he undertook, with a relish, to carry the load of the 
 COMPROMISE MEASURES, the Fugitive-Slave Law included, and he broke 
 down under the burden. 
 
 No. VII. ELECTION TO CONGRESS COMMENCEMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL 
 LABORS. In 1854, Mr VALLANDIGHAM was unanimously renominated by the 
 democracy against Mr. CAMPBELL, but was beaten by two thousand five hundred 
 and sixty-five votes, his competitor being carried triumphantly through on 
 the "Know Nothing" flood. 
 
 In 1856, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was again, by acclamation, the democratic 
 candidate against Mr. CAMPBELL. His friends went into the canvas with 
 "VALL AND THE UNION" on their banners, while his opponents bore flags, 
 with only sixteen stars on them ensigns of disunion. The canvas was 
 intensely exciting a hand to hand struggle. Scarcely a voter in the district 
 but was secured by one party or the other. The returns showed nineteen 
 majority against Mr VALLANDIGHAM. He contested the election on the 
 ground that the majority was made up of negro votes, and, after a tedious 
 and annoying contest, obtained the seat. On the *22d of May, 1858, arguing 
 the contest before the House of "Representatives, and speaking of NEGRO SUF 
 FRAGE AND EQUALITY, Mr. VALLAKDIGHAM said: 
 
 It is enough to know that Ohio has chosen to make citizenship of the 
 United States a qualification for her electors. The language of the Constitu 
 tion of 1851 is: "Every white male citizen of the United States/ Two 
 qualifications are here prescribed color and citizenship of the United States. 
 Were these mulattoes and persons of color "white" within the meaning of 
 the Constitution ? That, sir, is a term of ancient and established signification, 
 in constitutional language. It needs no gloss; it has no synonym; it admits 
 of no definition. It means wh te pure white ! and not any shade, or any 
 variety of shades, between white and black. Such it is in philology, and in 
 the arts. "White and black are the two extremes, between which there is a 
 large variety of colors. No artist ever confounds these terms ; no man in 
 ordinary conversation confounds them. He may speak of a dark blue, or a 
 light brown, or a bright yellow; but never of a dark white, or a light black. 
 
 But the term "white," in constitutions, is a designation of race rather than 
 color; and it is used in this country to distinguish primarily between the 
 African race and all others between a servile race and races which are free. 
 Strictly, indeed, it may refer to the several varieties of the Caucasian race. 
 But in constitutions, and in popular language in the United States, it is a 
 word of exclusion against the whole negro race, in every degree. Whoever 
 has a distinct and visible admixture of the blood of that race is not white; 
 and it is an utter confusion of language to call him white. Sir, it is a question 
 of vision, of autopsy; it is to be resolved upon actual view, and by personal 
 inspection rather than by pedigree. And the Almighty has marked the dis 
 tinguishing characteristics of the race &c strong, he has furrowed them so 
 
236 COMMENCEMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL LABORS. 
 
 d*ep, that they aro not eradicated in several generations. The Constitution 
 of North Carolina has fixed the degree at the sixteenth; and this corresponds, 
 in fact, with the rule adopted generally by courts, North and South, that A 
 distinct and visible admixture of negro blood, without reference to the exact 
 proportions, degrades to the class of persons of color. 
 
 But, apart from all this, the reason of the rule applies, equally, to all of 
 the African race, no matter how they may have come to our shores. No 
 negro emigrant could be naturalized. It is not alone his descent from slaves, 
 in this country, that degrades him in the scale of social and political being. 
 It is his color and his blood. It is because he is the descendant of a servile 
 und degraded race almost from the beginning of time. The curse of Ham 
 pursues him in every age, and all over the globe. Bayard Taylor no 
 apologist for slavery speaks but the testimony of history, when he writes 
 from Nubia, in upper Egypt, that 
 
 ; The only negro features represented in Egyptian sculpture are those of 
 slaves and captives taken in Ethiopian wars of the Pharaohs ; and that the 
 temples and pyramids throughout Nubia, as far as Daref and Abyssinia, all 
 bear the hieroglyph y of monarchs ; and that there is no evidence, in all the 
 valley of the Nile, that the negro race ever attained a higher degree of civil 
 ization than is at present exhibited in Congo and Ashantee." 
 
 Sir, no wise people will ever, in any manner, encourage the attempt to 
 elevate such a race to social and political equality. And if the question of 
 law were here doubtful, I might well demand, upon these high motives of 
 public policy, that the doubt should be resolved against the race. Above all, 
 [ would urge these great considerations now, and in future, against this same 
 spurious and mongrel issue, in whose behalf a relaxation of the policy is 
 demanded. Look to Spanish America. Look at Mexico. The blood of the 
 conquerors was lost in the veins of inferior and outcast races, and Mexico 
 has no "people" to-day. With no tyrant strong enough to bind her down, 
 and no yeomanry fit for self-government, she is the sport of faction, and the 
 prey of anarchy and bloodshed; and, to-day, the spirit of the murdered 
 (ruatemozin, wandering three centuries through the halls of the Montezumas, 
 gluts itself with revenge. 
 
 Sir, it is this same spurious and mongrel race who constitute your " free 
 negroes/ North and South. They will not be slaves, and they are not fit for 
 freemen. And when this Government shall be broken up, and the fanaticism 
 of the age shall have culminated in the North in red Republicanism and 
 negro equality, and the South shall have driven out her free negroes upon 
 you, arid you shall have stolen away her slaves, then your troubles with this 
 race, which already has plagued America for a century, will but have begun. 
 They are your petty thieves now; they rob your larders and your sheep- 
 ^otes; they do fill up your penitentiaries, and they would fill up your hos 
 pitals and your alms-houses, if you ivould let them. Then they will be your 
 highwaymen, your banditti ; they will make up your mobs. With just 
 enough of intelligence, derived from a white ancestry, to know, and enough 
 of brutishness, inherited from the old African stock, to avenge, in any form, 
 the ignominy and degradations of four thousand years; with fetish ideas of 
 religion, and fanatic notions of politics, they are the sans culotte, who, led on. 
 by the worst of white men, will make your revolutions, and overturn your 
 governments. Sir, such things have already occurred in history. They are 
 not the baseless fabrics of a vision. No wonder the States of the Northwest 
 have begun to erect Constitutional barriers, stronger than ever, against a 
 negro population. .In all this there is eminent wisdom, and a statesmanlike 
 foresight. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIQIIAM was admitted to a seat, in the House of Representatives, 
 on the 25th of May, 1858, and soon after, Congress adjourned. At the subse 
 quent session, of 1858-9, he replied to, and refuted, a charge made by a southern 
 member, of having voted for the repeal of the " Black Laws " of Ohio. He 
 apoke, also, upon the taritf, on the 24th of February, 1859. 
 
THE OHIO REBELLION JOHN BROWN RAID. 237 
 
 No. VIII. THE OHIO REBELLION 1857. In the year 1857, the deputies 
 of the United States Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio were resisted 
 in the execution of. regular judicial writs issued under the Fugitive-Slave Act. 
 They were pursued by a body of armed men, more than fifty in number, from 
 Champaign county, through Clarke, into G-reene, and there overpowered, and 
 their prisoners rescued. They were, also, themselves arrested on State process. 
 To discharge them from imprisonment, a habeas corpus was issued by Judge 
 Leavitt, of the United States District Court. It was heard at Cincinnati, on 
 the 25th of June, 1857. SALMON P. CHASE, now Secretary of the Treasury, 
 but then the Governor of Ohio, sent the Attorney- General of the State, C. P. 
 WOLCOTT, now Assistant Secretary of "War, to argue against their discharge. 
 Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, along with Mr. PUGH and Mr. STANLEY MATTHEWS. 
 argued the case for the Marshals. Maintaining the vital doctrine of Stale 
 Rights to their fullest extent, Mr. V. asserted and upheld the absolute suprem 
 acy of the Federal authority, within its Constitutional limits. He also 
 denounced Abolitionism and " personal liberty bills, 7 in language severe 
 indeed, but most just. The following are extracts from his argument : 
 
 For sixty-eight years, also, the people of Ohio lived happily, freely, pros 
 perously, and in neighborly intercourse with her sister States and Territories. 
 Without slavery in her own limits, she yet had no quarrel, and waged no 
 war, with those who had. Slaves repeatedly escaped into her territory, and 
 were always peaceably and quietly, and oftentimes without officer or warrant, 
 recaptured and remanded. Ohio herself, not many years ago, volunteered to 
 enact a {i Fugitive-Slave Law," not less stringent, and certainly more odious, than 
 the now accursed Act of 1850. But times have changed, and we are changed with 
 them. Men. wise above what is written wiser than the fathers, men of more 
 capacity, and a wisdom and sagacity more than ordinary more than human, 
 or of intellects narrowed and beclouded by ignorance, and fanaticism, or 
 seduced by a corrupt and most wicked ambition, have discovered that the 
 Constitution is all wrong, and its compacts all wrong, or, rather, that there 
 is a higher law than the Constitution, and that discord is piety, and sedition 
 patriotism. They have resolved to annul, and set at naught, an important 
 and most essential part of the Constitution and its compacts, and to compel 
 the Government of the United States to succumb to their resolves, or to bring 
 the authorities of the State and of the Union into deadly and most destructive 
 conflict. 
 
 I concur with the Attorney-General in all that he has said, of the vast 
 importance of the case now and hereafter, and the more especially, if the 
 menaces which he, the law officer of the State, and her representative in this 
 forum, has seen fit to more than insinuate, in case of an adverse decision by 
 this tribunal, are, in the hour of madness, to be carried out by her authorities, 
 as they are now constituted. But I am confident that this Court is prepared 
 -that the whole Government of the United States is prepared ; and I tell 
 Mr. Attorney-General, and through him the Executive of the State, whose vain 
 defiance he has this day borne here to this presence, that it is not to be awed 
 by threats, not to be put down by denunciation, nor to be turned aside from 
 its firm purpose to enforce its laws, and the process of its courts, in any event, 
 at all hazards, and without respect to persons or to States, whether those 
 States be Khode Island or Ohio. 
 
 The writ was sustained and the defendants discharged. 
 
 No. IX. THE "JOHN BROWN RAID" 1859. Returning from a visit to 
 Washington City, in October, 1859, it was Mr. VALLANDIGHAM S ill-fortune 
 
238 CAMPAIGN OP 18CO. 
 
 to witness the first shedding of blood in the great quarrel between the North 
 and the South. Passing through Harper s Ferry a few hours after the cap 
 ture of "old Ossawattamie Brown," he saw that "first martyr," and asked 
 him a few questions about the raid and its purpose, which, being duly reported, 
 with the answers, in the New York Herald, Mr. V. was persistently and 
 bitterly assailed and abused for it, by the Abolition orators and press. The 
 abuse was of the same quality, and carne from the same dark fountain with 
 that which has been poured upon him for the last two years. 
 
 No. X. SUPPRESSING NEWSPAPERS IN THE POST-OFFICE. In December, 
 1859, a postmaster, in Hardy county, Virginia, having suppressed the 
 Religious Telescope, of Dayton, O., at his office, as an Abolition paper, Mr. 
 VALLANDIGIIAM, at the request of the editor, addressed a letter to the Post- 
 Ofiice Department remonstrating against the act. The Virginia postmaster 
 was immediately commanded to obey the law, and the Telescope had no further 
 trouble. The following is an extract from Mr. V. s letter : 
 
 They, at least, whom I have the honor to represent, have always obeyed 
 and respected, and ever will respect and obey, every requirement and obliga 
 tion of the Constitutional compact. The vast majority of them, certainly, 
 regard none of its obligations and requirements as either odious or onerous ; 
 and they ask only that their rights also, under that compact, shall be, in like 
 manner and fully, protected and enjoyed. 
 
 Publishing the correspondence, the Telescope said : 
 
 We thank Mr. Vallandigham, and our readers, especially those in Vir 
 ginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and other slave States, will thank him ; for tho 
 prompt attention which he has given to this matter. 
 
 No. XI. CAMPAIGN OF 1860. On the 19th of May, 1860, Mr. VALLANDIG 
 IIAM returned home, on a brief visit, from Washington, and addressed the peo 
 ple in front of the Dayton Court-House. The following are extracts from 
 a condensed report of the speech : 
 
 He was not for the North, nor for the South, but for the whole country ; 
 and yet, in a conflict of sectional interests, he was for THE WEST all the time. 
 In a little while even after the present year, men east of the mountains 
 would learn that there was a West, which to them has heretofore been an 
 " undiscovered country." He hoped fervently to see the day when we should 
 hear no more of sections; but as long as men elsewhere demanded a "united 
 North," and a "united South," he wanted to see a "united West." Still the 
 "United States" was a better term, more patriotic, more constitutional, and 
 more glorious than any of them. 
 
 Referring to Mr. Lincoln s " irrepressible conflict" speech of 1858, 
 
 Mr. Vallandigham proceeded for some time to denounce the sentiment of 
 the speech in a vehement and impassionate manner, as revolutionary, disorgan 
 izing, subversive of the government, and ending necessarily in disunion. Our 
 fathers had founded a government expressly upon the compatibility and 
 harmony of a Union of States, " part slave, and part free," and whoever 
 affirmed the contrary, laid the ax at the very root of the Union. 
 
CAMPAIGN OF 1860. 239 
 
 On the 30th of June, 1860, Mr. VALLAXDIGHAM returned home from Con 
 gress, and again addressed the people in front of the Court-House. The 
 following is an extract from the speech : 
 
 There are now two extreme sectional parties. Six years ago the Abolition 
 sentiments of the free States culminated in the Kepublican organization. In 
 the course of time it has brought forth its inevitable fruit, in the organ 
 ization, especially in the Gulf or Cotton States, of an extreme Southern or 
 pro-slavery party, the offspring, but the very antipode of the Republican party. 
 If either of these is suffered to prevail, the Union is at an end. Even now 
 it is in peril from mere conflict between them. But the death of the parent 
 will be the death of the child. Kill the Northern and Western anti-slavery 
 organization, the Kepublican party, and the extreme Southern pro-slavery, 
 " tire-eating : organization of the Cotton States, will expire in three months. 
 Continue the Kepublican party above all, put it in power, and the antago 
 nism, will groiu till the whole Soulh will become a unit. It is our mission here 
 in Ohio, as one of the free States, to conquer and crush out Northern and 
 Western sectionalism, as this is the especial enemy in our midst. 
 
 On the 1st of August, 1860, Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM addressed the Democracy 
 of Detroit, Michigan. The following is an extract: 
 
 For twenty years the country has been agitated by this subject of slavery. 
 Men of the North and West have been taught to hate the men of the South, 
 and Southerners have been taught to hate the men of the North and West. 
 This Northern sectionalism and fanaticism has been approaching nearer and 
 nearer to Mason and Dixon s line, while the Southern fanaticism, starting in 
 the Cotton States, has been creeping northwardly, until the two factions have 
 nearly met. What will be the inevitable result of the conflict that must 
 ensue? They must meet, if the floods of fanaticism be not checked. When 
 they meet on the plains of southern Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, how long, in 
 God s name, can the country endure? Human nature has been misread from 
 the time of Cain to this day, if blood, blood, human blood is not the result. But, 
 thank God, between the two sections there is a band of national men, patriots, 
 who love their country more than sectionalism, ready to stay this conflict. 
 Our mission is to drive this sectionalism of the North back to Canada, whence 
 it sprung ; and that of the South back to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 No. XII. AFTER THE ELECTION OF 1860. On the 10th of November, 
 1860, four days after the Presidential election, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM published 
 the card in reply to an attack by a Kepublican paper, which see on page 91. 
 
 On the 22d of December. 1860, at a serenade in Washington, at which tho 
 Hon. JOHN J. CRITTENDKN spoke also, given to Senator PUGH, of Ohio, for 
 his noble anti-coercion and compromise speech in the Senate Mr. VALLAN 
 DIGHAM, among other similar things, said : 
 
 To-night you are here to indorse the great policy of conciliation, not force; 
 peace, not civil war. The desire nearest the heart of every patriot, in thia 
 crisis, is the preservation of the Union of these States, as our fathers made it. 
 (Applause.) But the Union can be preserved only by maintaining the Con 
 stitution and the constitutional rights, and above all, the perfect equality of 
 every State and every section of this Confederacy. (Cheers.) That Constitu 
 tion was made in peace ; it has, for now more than seventy years, been pre 
 served by the policy of peace at home, and it can alone be maintained for our 
 children, and their children after them, by that same peace policy. 
 
240 ANTI-COMPROMISE AND SECESSION WINTER OF 1860-61. 
 
 We mean to stand by it. Public sentiment may, indeed, at first be against 
 us; the tide may run heavily the other way for a little while; but, thank God, 
 we all have nerve enough, and will enough, and faith enough in the people, tp 
 know that, at last, it will turn for peace ; and though we may be prostrated 
 for a time by the storm, yet, upon the gravestone of every patriot who shall 
 die now in the cause of peace and humanity and the country, shall be written : 
 " Resurgam" I shall rise again. And it will be a glorious resurrection. 
 (Loud and continued applause). 
 
 Fellow-citizens, / am all over, and altogether a Union man. I would pre 
 serve the Union in all its integrity and worth. But, I repeat that this can not 
 be done by coercion by the sword. 
 
 No. XIII. THE ANTI-COMPROMISE AND SECESSION WINTER OF 1860-61. 
 The Presidential election of 1860, having resulted in the choice of ABRA 
 HAM LINCOLN, the whole South was, forthwith, stirred with the most violent 
 excitement. Secession of some if not all of the Southern States, became 
 imminent. Immediately upon the assembling of Congress, on the 3d of De 
 cember, 1860, various propositions looking to compromise and settlement, were 
 introduced. One of those propositions was the measure introduced by Mr, 
 BOTELER, of Virginia, who proposed "That so much of the Message as relates 
 to the peculiar condition of the country, be referred to a Special Committee of 
 One from each State." The resolution was adopted : and, two days after, the 
 Committee was appointed. Mr. BOTELER having expressed a desire to be 
 omitted from the Committee of which he would, by courtesy, have been 
 chairman his request was granted, and Mr. CORWIN, of Ohio, appointed to 
 that place. The Committee being filled and named, the member appointed for 
 Florida (Mr. HAWKINS) asked to be excused from serving, saying he "be 
 lieved the time for compromise had passed forever." 
 
 On the question of excusing Mr. HAWKINS, an animated discussion arose, in 
 which Mr. YALLANDIGHAM participated. His remarks on this question, made 
 on the 10th of December, contain the following incidental but important 
 defense of the rights and interests of the West. He said : 
 
 But, I repeat, sir, there is not, upon your Committee, one solitary Eepresent- 
 ative east of the Rocky Mountains, of that mighty host, numbering one 
 million six hundred thousand men, which, for so many years, has stood as a 
 vast breakwater against the winds and waves of sectionalism; and upon 
 whose constituent elements, at least, this country must still so much depend in 
 the great events which are thronging thick upon us, for all hope of preserva 
 tion now or of restoration hereafter. Sir, is any man here insane enough to 
 imagine, for a moment, that this great Northern and Western Democracy 
 constituting an essential part, and by far the most numerous part, of that great 
 Democratic party which, for half a centuiy, molded the policy and con 
 trolled the destinies of this Republic; that party which gave to the country 
 some of the brightest jewels of which she boasts; that party which placed 
 upon your statute-books every important measure of enduring legislation from 
 the beginning of the Government to this day that such a section of such a partv 
 is to be thus utterly ignored, insulted, and thrust aside as of no value? I tell 
 you, you mistake the character of the men you have to deal with. We are in 
 a minority, indeed, to-day at the ballot-box, and ice bow quietly, now, to the 
 popular will thus expressed. We are defeated, but not conquered; and he is a 
 fool in the wisdom of this world, who thinks that in the midst of the stirring 
 
NOTES UPON THE VARIOUS COMPROMISE MEASURES. 241 
 
 and revolutionary times which are upon us, these sixteen hundred thousand 
 men, born free and now the equals of their brethren men whose every pulse 
 throbs with the spirit of liberty will tamely submit to be degraded to inferior 
 ity and reduced to political servitude. Never never while there is but one 
 man left to strike a blow at the oppressor. 
 
 Sir, we love this Union ; and more than that, we obey the Constitution. "We 
 are, here, a gallant little band of less than thirty men, but representing more 
 than a million and a half of freemen. We are here to maintain the Constitu 
 tion, which makes the Union, and to exact and yield that equality of rights 
 which makes the Constitution worth maintaining. "We are ready to do all 
 and to suftl-r all in the cause of our thank God ! yet common country ;, and 
 by no vote or speech or act of ours, here or elsewhere, shall any thing be done 
 to defile or impair or to overthrow this the grandest temple of human liberty 
 ever erected in any age. But we demand to worship at the very foot of the 
 altar; and not. as servants and inferiors, in the outer courts of the edifice. 
 
 <S ir, ivc of ike North-west have a deeper interest in the preservation of this 
 Government in its present form than any other section of the Union. Hemmed 
 in, isolated, cut oft* from the sea-board, upon every side; a thousand miles and 
 more from the mouth of the Mississippi, the free navigation of which, tinder the 
 law of nations, we demand, and will have at every cost; with nothing else but 
 our great inland seas, the lakes and their outlet, too, through a foreign 
 country what is to be our destiny? Sir, we have fifteen hundred miles of 
 southern frontier, and but a little strip of eighty miles or less, from Virginia 
 to Lake Erie, bounding us upon the east. Ohio is the isthmus that connects 
 the South with the British Possessions, and the East with the West. .The 
 Kocky Mountains separate us from the Pacific. Where is to be our outlet? 
 What are we to do when you shall have broken up and destroyed this Govern 
 ment? We are seven States now, with fourteen Senators and fifty-one Repre 
 sentatives, and a population of nine millions. We have an empire equal in. 
 area to the third of all Europe, and we do not mean to be a dependency or 
 province either of the East or of the South; nor yet an inferior or second-rate 
 power upon this continent;, and if we can not secure a maritime boundary 
 upon other terms, we will cleave our way to the sea-coast with the sword. A 
 nation of warriors we may be; a tribe of shepherds never. 
 
 Xo. XIV. VOTES UPOX THE VARIOUS COMPROMISE MEASURES. On the 
 27th of February, 1861, the House proceeded to vote on the various Compro 
 mise Propositions before it. 
 
 Mr. KELLOGG, of Illinois, had submitted a proposition similar to the Mis 
 souri Compromise of 1820, but to be embodied in the Constitution. It was 
 rejected yeas 33, nays 158. All the yeas were Democrats and Constitutional- 
 Union men, except Mr. KELLOGG himself. MR, VALLANDIGIIAM voted 
 for the Proposition. Congressional Globe, p. 1260. 
 
 The question then recurred on the " Crittenden Propositions," offered in the 
 House by Mr. CLEMENT, of Virginia, in the form of a motion to submit them 
 to the people of the United States. . It was these propositions which Mr. 
 DAVIS and Mr. TOOMBS both declared would be satisfactory to the South and 
 avert secession (Douglas speech, January 13, 1861. Appendix to Congressional 
 Globe, p. 41.) And, as in the Senate, so also in the House, they were rejected, 
 and by a vote of yeas SO, nays 113, every Democrat and Southern man, except 
 HINDMAX, of Arkansas, voting for them, and every Republican, without one 
 single exception, voting against them. Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM voted aye. The 
 following is a list of the yeas and nays: 
 
 YEAS Messrs. Adraiu, W r iliiam C. Anderson, Avery, Barr, Barrett, Bocockg 
 16 
 
242 THE AFFAIR AT CAMP UPTON. 
 
 Boteler, Bouligny, Brabson, Branch, Briggs, Bristow, Brown, Burch, Burnett, 
 Horace F. Clark, John B. Clark, John Cochrane-, Cox, James Craig, Burton 
 Craige, John G. Davis, De Jarnette, Dimmiek, Edmundsoa, English, Flor 
 ence, Fouke, Garnett, Gilmer, Hamilton, J. Morrison Harris, John T, Harris, 
 Hatton, Holman, "William Howard r Hughes, Jenkins, Kunkle, Larabee, James 
 M. Leach, Leake, Logan, Maclay, Mallory r Charles D. Martin, Elbert S, Mar 
 tin, Maynard, McClernand, MeKenty, Millson r Montgomery, Laban T. Moore, 
 Isaac N. Morris, Nelson, Niblack, Noell, Peyton, Ph-elps r Pryor, Quarles, 
 Riggs, James C. Robinson, Rust, Sickles, Simms, William Smith, William N 
 H. Smith, Stevenson, James A. Stewart, SSokes, Stout, Tkomas, VALLANDIQ- 
 HAM, Vance, Webster, Whitely, Win-slow, Woodson, and Wright 80. 
 
 NAYS Messrs. Charles F. Adams, Aldrich, Alley, Ashley, Babbitt, Beale, 
 Bingham, Blair, Blake, Brayton, Buffinton, Burlingarae, Burjiham, Butter- 
 field, Campbell, Carey, Carter, Case, Coburn, Clark B. Cochrane, Colfax, 
 Conkling, Conway, Corwirt, COT ode, H, "Winter Davis, Dav/es, Delano, Duell, 
 Dunn, Edgerton, Edwards, Elliot, Ely, Etheridge, Farnsworth, Fenton, Ferry r 
 Foster, Frank, French, Gooch, Graham, Grow, Hale, Hall, Helnaick, Hick- 
 man, Hindman, Hoard, William A. Howard, Humphrey, Hutching, Irvine-, 
 Junkin, Francis W. Kellogg, William Kellogg, Ksnyon, Kilgore, Killinger r 
 DeWitt C. Leach, Lee, Longnecker, Loomis, Lovejoy, Marston, McKean*, 
 McKniglit, McPherson, Moorhead, Morrill, Morse, Nixon, Olin, Palmer, 
 Perry, Pettit, Porter, Potter, Pottle, Edwin K. Reynolds, Pvice, Christopher 
 Eobinson, Royce, Scranton, Sedgwick, Sherman, Sbmes, Spaulding, Spinner, 
 Stanton, Stevens, William Stewart, Stratton, Tappan, Thayer, Theaker, 
 Tomkins, Train, Trimble, Yandever, Van Wyck, Verree, Wade, Waldron r 
 Walton, Cadwalader G. Wa&hburne, Elihu B. Washburne, Wells, Wilson ? 
 Windorn, Wood and Woodruff 113. Congressional Globe, p. 126-1. 
 
 Of the eighty who voted for compromise, nineteen ar& in either the Federal 
 or Confederate army, while of the one hundred and thirteen who voted 
 against compromise, only six ; one of them being Hindman, now a Confederate- 
 general. The other fi-ve are ia tbe Federal army. 
 
 No. XV. THE AFFAIK AT CAMP UPTOHF, -A story to- the- eSect that Mr, 
 VALLANDIG-HAM, when visiting a camp of Ohio soldiers, near Washington, 
 was indignantly repelled, and driven frona their lines, has been widely circu 
 lated. The telegjapfeic dispatch, from the agent of the Associated Press, relat 
 ing to that disturbance, was substantially correct, except that the "disposi 
 tion " referred to, was limited to a single company from Cleveland. But the 
 dispatch appeared only in the papers of Washington, Baltimore and Phila 
 delphia. It was suppressed beyond, eastward and westward. Many papers, 
 unfriendly to Mr. VALLAN-DIGHAM, supplied the omission, not by copying, 
 the dispatch from newspapers that received it,, but by giving their own version 
 for popular us-e. Hence the perverted and exaggerated form the story assumed, 
 The dispatch wa&aa follows: 
 
 ALEXANDRIA, July 7, 1861. Mr. Vallandigbam, member of Congress 
 from Ohio, visited the Ohio regiments to-day. Wh-ile in the camp of tho 
 first regiment, a disposition was shown by many to oust him, and, notwith 
 standing the nerve and courage shown by Mr, Vallandighani, it is prob 
 able they would have succeeded, but for the protection afibrded him by the- 
 Dayton companies, and a pass from General Scott. He finally retired to th& 
 camp of the second regiment, after declaring himself as good a Union man* 
 as any of them, and expressing bis scora for the mob spirit shown by hi& 
 fellow-citizens,. 
 
PEACE RESOLUTIONS. 243 
 
 No, XVI. PEACE FOR THE SAKE OF THE UNION. On the 20th of 
 August, 1861, in reply to the charge that he had said that "he was for peace 
 Before the Union," Mr, VALLAXDKSHAM published a card denying it, in 
 which the following statements occur: 
 
 I never, either in my pla-ce in the House of Representatives, or any-toJtere 
 <else, said any thing of the kind. 
 
 It is a part of that mass of falsehood created and set afloat so persistently 
 for the last few years, in regard to all that concerns me; and is of the same 
 coinage as that other falsehood, that I once said that "Federal troops must pass 
 over my dead body on their way South" a speech of intense stupidity, which 
 I never, at any time, in any place, in any shape or form, uttered in my life. 
 
 But now, allow me, also, to say that I am for peace speedy and honorable 
 peace because I am for the Union, and know, or think I know, that every 
 hour of 
 I repeat 
 and wit 
 
 No, XVIL SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, On the llth of 
 April, 1862, Mr, VALLAXDIGHAM spoke and voted against the bill to abolish 
 slavery in the District of Columbia. The following is an extract from his 
 
 remarks : 
 
 Had I no other reason, I am opposed to it, because I regard all this class of 
 legislation as tending to prevent a restoration of the Union of these States as 
 it was, and that is the grand object to which I look. 1 know well, that in a 
 very little while the question will be between the old Union of these States 
 the Union as our fathers made it or some new one, or some new unity of 
 government, or eternal separation disunion. To both these latter I am 
 unalterably and unconditionally opposed. It is to the restoration of the Union 
 AS it was, in 1789, and continued for over seventy years, that I am bound to 
 the last hour of my political and personal existence, if it be within the limits 
 of possibility, to restore and maintain that Union. 
 
 No. XVIII. PEACE RESOLUTIONS, On the 16th of December, 1862, Mr. 
 VALLANDIGHAM introduced the following resolutions into the House of 
 Representatives; they were postponed for debate: 
 
 Resolved, 1. That the Union as it was must be restored and maintained 
 forever, under the Constitution as it is the fifth article, providing for 
 amendments, included. 
 
 2. That no final treaty of peace, ending the present civil war, can be per 
 mitted to be made by the Executive, or any other person in the civil or 
 military service of the United States, on any other basis than the integrity 
 and entirety of the Federal Union, and of the States composing the same 
 as at the beginning of hostilities, and upon that basis peace ought immediately 
 to be made. 
 
 3. That the Government can never permit armed or hostile intervention by 
 any foreign power, in regard to the present civil war. 
 
 4. That the unhappy civil war in which we are engaged was waged, in the 
 beginning, professedly, "not in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose 
 of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or interfering with 
 the rights or established institutions of the States, but to defend and maintain 
 the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the 
 dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired," and was 80 
 
244 PEACE RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 understood and accepted by the people, and especially "by the army and navy 
 of the United States; and that, therefore, whoever shall pervert, or attempt 
 to pervert, the same to a war of conquest and subjugation, or for the over 
 throwing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of any of 
 the States, and to abolish slavery therein, or for the purpose of destroying or 
 impairing the dignity, equality, or rights of any of the States, will be guilty 
 of a flagrant breach of public faith, and of a high crime against the Constitu 
 tion and the Union. 
 
 5. That whoever shall propose, by Federal authority, to extinguish any of 
 the States of the Union, or to declare any of them extinguished, and to estab 
 lish territorial governments, or permanent military governments within the 
 same, will be deserving of the censure of this House and of the country. 
 
 6. That whoever shall attempt to establish a dictatorship in the United 
 States, thereby superseding or suspending the constitutional authorities of the 
 Union, or to clothe the President, or any other officer, civil or military, with 
 dictatorial or arbitrary power, will be guilty of a high crime against the Con 
 stitution and the Union, and public liberty. 
 
 On the 22d of the same month, Mr. VALLAXDIGHAM offered the following, 
 which, also, went over for debate : 
 
 Resolved, That this House earnestly desire that the most speedy and effectual 
 measures be taken for restoring peace in America, and that no time may be 
 lost in proposing an immediate cessation of hostilities, in order to the speedy 
 settlement of the unhappy controversies which brought about this unnecessary 
 and injurious civil war, by just and adequate security against the return of 
 like calamities in time to come ; and this House desire to offer the most earnest 
 assurances to the country, that they will in due time cheerfully co-operate with 
 the Executive and the States for the restoration of the Union, by such explicit 
 and most solemn amendments and provisions of the Constitution as may be 
 found necessary for securing the rights of the several States and sections 
 within the Union, under the Constitution. 
 
 On the next day, Mr. V. briefly referred to the foregoing resolution, as fol 
 lows: 
 
 The resolution which I offered yesterday, and which lies over for debate, 
 was originally part of the series submitted by me some time since, and which, 
 as afterward modified, were postponed till the 6th of January. I did not 
 offer it at the same time with the others, because I desired a separate vote upon 
 them; and, through the kindness of the member from Illinois (Mr. Lovejoy) 
 and his friends upon the other side of the House, my desire was promptly 
 gratified, just as I anticipated. The resolutions were laid upon the table by a 
 strict party vote, and thus the record for that GREAT HEREAFTER, made up, 
 and I am content. 
 
 And now let me add that the resolution of yesterday is but an almost exact 
 transcript of an amendment to the address in answer to the King s speech, 
 proposed in the House of Commons, on the 18th of November, 1777, by the 
 Marquis of Granby, and supported by Lord John Cavendish, Mr. Burke, and 
 the other British patriots of that day. Had I pressed it to a vote, its fate 
 would, I doubt not, have been just the same as that of the amendment itself, 
 which was rejected by the followers of Lord North, by a vote of 243 to 86, in 
 tho third year of the American war. That war, sir, as we all know, went on 
 for four years longer, and ended at last in the eternal separation of the Thir 
 teen Colonies from the British Crown. So far as I am concerned, no similar 
 result shall be the issue of our present unhappy war. 
 
 But by speedy, honorable peace, conciliation, and adjustment alone, in my 
 deliberate and most solemn judgment, now, as from the very first, can that 
 calamity be averted. 
 
245 
 
 No. XIX. THE "."DEAD-BODY" FALSEHOOD. An apology would bo 
 needed for alluding to so contemptible a matter as " the dead-body lie," were 
 it not for its late revival in Congress. 
 
 Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM is charged with having said at an Ohio caucus, in 
 "Washington, December, I860, that " before Federal troops should be permitted 
 to pass through the Miami Valley, they must march over his dead body." 
 Soon after the charge was first made, he denied it, saying in a published 
 card, "It is a speech of intense stupidity, which I never, at any time, in any 
 place, in any shape or form, uttered in my life." An attempt has since been 
 made to prove the charge by the certificates of Abolition members of Con 
 gress, who were at the caucus. On the other hand, Mr. PENDLETON and Mr. 
 Cox declared in the House, on the 28th of February, 1863, that they heard 
 Mr. VALLAXDIGHAM S remarks, on the occasion referred to, and that he used 
 no such language. Mr. V. himself explained, in the same debate, that similar 
 language was used about the same time in the Senate, by a Senator, whose 
 remarks and his own were some months afterward confounded. See Con 
 gressional Globe, 1860-61, p. 144. 
 
 "We now add conclusive proof of the falsity of the charge from Abolition 
 authority. The "Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, 
 "W. D. BICKHAM, on the 18th of December, the d&y after the caucus, telegraphed 
 the following to that paper. Mr. B., it should be observed, was not at the 
 caucus ; he received his information only from those who have since certified to 
 the lie. The heading is : 
 
 " Vollandigham re-defines and MODIFIES his position. He is anxious that the 
 Miami Valley shall not be the battle-ground between the North and the South. 11 
 
 The correspondent says : 
 
 " Yallandigham said, if South Carolina assailed the Government forts and 
 killed troops, he would treat her as he would treat any other foreign nation 
 under similar circumstances. But if war was waged on her merely to keep her 
 in the Union, Republicans might fight the battle, but should not make the 
 Miami Valley the battle-ground" 
 
 The next day, the same correspondent wrote a report of the caucus debate, 
 which appeared in the Commercial, of December 22, 1860. He says, his 
 information was " carefully collated from both sides ;" and it is substantially 
 correct, except that Mr. VALLANDIQHAM declined to discuss the abstract right 
 of secession. He says: 
 
 Our friend Gurley took occasion to run a tilt in warlike vein, and our 
 frank friend Yallandigham, who detests any thing like an unfair advantage in 
 politics, went to work with the sword, with which the North-west proposes 
 "to cleave her way to the sea-shore" under certain important conditions. 
 "Vail" took his peculiar views of the case, and, according to his colleagues, 
 on the Democratic side of the House, quite dispassionately reviewed the pre 
 mises, and concluded that a State has a right to secede, and .what is com 
 monly called " coercing a State " is not exactly the thing. If South Car 
 olina murdered our troops at Fort Moultrie, he would treat her as a foreign 
 enemy, but unless she committed some " overt act," he would not countenance 
 war upon her [nobody proposed to do so]; and he gave notice that if there 
 was war upon such conditions, the Republicans might fight the battle. They 
 might have transit through the Miami Valley, provided they would not disturb 
 any body ; but they should not make the Miami Valley their battle-ground." 
 
246 RECEPTION AT HOME. 
 
 And yet, EDGERTON, GURLEY, BLAKE, THEAKER, ASHLEY, HTTTCHINS, 
 and BINGHAM, two years afterward, have assumed to "certify" to the false 
 hood. They forgot the old saying, that a certain class of men ought to have 
 good memories. 
 
 No. XX. KECEFTION AT HOME. On the 13th of March, 18G3, Mr. 
 VALLANDIGHAM returned to his home, in Dayton, Ohio. An immense 
 crowd met and welcomed him at the depot. It seemed as if every man, 
 woman and child in the district had come out to do honor to this champion 
 advocate of Constitutional rights. A reception speech was made by Hon. 
 DAVID A. HOUR, in which, addressing Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, he said: 
 
 You, sir, have been a faithful sentinel upon the watch-tower of public lib 
 erty, and in the darkest hour of the night, and when the storms of popular 
 fury raged most fiercely, have kept the light of hope burning, and have 
 promptly, fearlessly, and resolutely, sounded the alarm upon every approach 
 to danger. 
 
 An ancient Jewish King, upon a memorable occasion, called all the Princes 
 of Israel, the captains, the stewards of all the substance of his household, and 
 of his children, and all the valiant men unto Jerusalem. 
 
 And when he had assembled them about him, he stood up and said : "Hear mo, 
 my brethren and my people; as for me, I had it in my heart to build a house 
 of rest, for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, 
 and had made ready for the building but God said unto me, Thou shalt not 
 build a house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast 
 shed blood. " 
 
 When the shattered temple of Constitutional liberty shall be reconstructed in 
 this country, it will not be done by the men of blood. 
 
 You, sir, have not been unmindful of those divine admonitions, and of the 
 promises of the gospel of peace, as uttered by Him who said : " Blessed are the 
 peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." 
 
 After a handsome acknowledgment of this flattering welcome, Mr. V. said : 
 
 It is the determination of the Democratic party to maintain free speech, a 
 free press, and a free ballot, at all hazards. I am for obedience to all laws, 
 and for requiring the men in power to obey them. I would try all questions 
 of Constitution and law before the Courts, and then enforce the decrees of the 
 Courts. I am for trying all political questions by the ballot. I would resist 
 no law by force, but would endure almost every other wrong as long as free 
 discussion, free assemblages of the people, and a free ballot remain, but the 
 moment they are attacked, I would resist. We have a right to change 
 Administrations, policies, and parties, not by forcible revolution, but by the 
 ballot-box ; and this right must be maintained at all hazards. 
 
 Referring to the Conscription Bill, he said : 
 
 The three-hundred-dollar provision is a most unjust discrimination against 
 the poor. I propose that the City Council of Dayton appropriate money enough, 
 and vote a tax for it, to release the city from the draft, and thus spare the 
 lives and limbs of those citizens who are too poor to pay. I would recommend 
 the same measure to Cincinnati, Chicago, and other cities of the North. The 
 tax will equalize the burden, and make the rich pay some part of that "last 
 dollar." Three hundred dollars, too, is just the price fixed, by an Abolition 
 Congress, for the emancipated negroes of the District of Columbia. It is now 
 the price of blood. The Administration says to every man between twenty and 
 forty-five, THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS OR YOUR LIFE. A tax by every city, 
 township and county is just the way to meet and equalize the demand. 
 
BIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. 247 
 
 No. XXI. EIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. On the 21st of March, 
 1863, a very large Democratic meeting was held at Hamilton, Ohio. Mr. 
 VALLANDIGHAM was one of the speakers, and in the course of his remarks, 
 commented, in the following terms, upon a military order recently issued at 
 Indianapolis. He said: 
 
 I will not speak disrespectfully of Colonel Carrington. He and I served 
 pleasantly together in the militia of Ohio, on the peace establishment (laughter,) 
 and I found him always gentlemanly in his deportment. I am glad to learn 
 that he is still so regarded at Indianapolis. How could he have issued such 
 an order? I know he is "great" on general orders; but such a one passes 
 my comprehension. I am sure he can not want to do wrong, for he must 
 know that two years hence, under the legislation of the late Congress, a 
 Democratic President or Secretary of War and who knows but I may be 
 Secretary myself? (laughter and cheers) can strike his name from the roll 
 without even a why or wherefore. It should be well for all ambitious 
 military gentlemen just now to recollect this small fact, and confine them 
 selves strictly to their legal and Constitutional military duties, and to allow 
 others to enjoy their opinions and civil rights unmolested. But to the order. 
 Here it is : 
 
 u HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES FORCES, \ 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., March 17, 1863. j 
 
 "General Order No. 15. 
 
 "I. The habit of carrying arms upon the person has greatly increased" 
 
 Well, so it has, and in times of threats and danger like these, it ought to, 
 and in spite of all "orders," it will increase 
 
 " And is prejudicial to peace and good order " 
 
 Sir, restore to us peace and good order, and we will lay aside all arms, and 
 be glad of the chance. (Great applause.) 
 
 "As well as a violation of civil law " 
 
 I deny it ; but, if so, who gave authority to this gentleman to lecture on 
 civil law in a military order? 
 
 " Especially at this time, it is unnecessary, impolitic, and dangerous." 
 
 Was ever the like heard or read of before? "At this time" at a time 
 when Democrats are threatened with violence everywhere; when mobs are 
 happening every day, and Democratic presses destroyed ; when secret societies 
 are being formed all over the country to stimulate to violence; when, at hotels 
 and in depots, and in railroad cars and on the street corners, Democrats are 
 scowled at and menaced, a military order coolly announces that it is unneces 
 sary, impolitic, and dangerous to carry arms! And who signs this order? 
 "Henry B. Carrington, Colonel 18th U. S. Infantry, Commanding" 
 
 Commanding what? The 18th U. S. Infantry, or at most the United States 
 forces of Indiana but not the people, the free white American citizens of 
 American descent, not in the military service. That is the extent of his 
 authority, and no more. And now, sir, I hold in my hand a general order 
 also an order binding on all military men and all civilians alike on colonels 
 and generals and commanders-in-chief State and Federal. (Applause.) 
 Hear it : 
 
 " The right of the people to KEEP AND BEAR arms shall not be infringed. 11 
 By order of the States and people of the United States. George Washington, 
 commanding. (Great cheering.) 
 
 That, sir, is General Order No. 1 the Constitution of the United States. 
 (Loud cheers.) Who now is to be obeyed Carrington or Washington? 
 
 But I have another "order" yet. 
 
 " The people have a right to bear arms for their defense and security, and 
 the military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power." (Kenewed 
 cheering.) 
 
 That, sir, is General Order No. 2 the Constitution of Ohio, by order of tho 
 
248 KIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. 
 
 people of Ohio. Here, sir, are our warrants for keeping and bearing arms, 
 and by the blessing of God, we mean to do it ; and if the men in power 
 undertake in an evil hour to demand them of us, we will return the Spartan 
 answer, "Come and take them." 
 
 But Colonel Carrington s order proceeds: 
 
 "The Major-General commanding the Department of the Ohio." 
 
 Commanding whom, again I ask? Only the military forces of the Depart 
 ment of Ohio, but not a single citizen in it 
 
 " Having ordered that all sales of arms, powder, lead and percussion caps 
 be prohibited until further orders." 
 
 "Where, sir, is the law for all that? Are we a conquered province governed 
 by a military proconsul? And so then it has come to this, that the Constitu 
 tion is now suspended by a military General Order, No. 15 ! Sir, the Consti 
 tutional right to keep and bear arms carries with it the right to buy and sell 
 arm ; and fire-arms are useless without powder, lead, and percussion caps. It 
 is our right to have them, and we mean to obey General Orders Nos. 1 and 2, 
 instead of No. 15. (Loud applause.) 
 
 But I read further "and that any violation of said order will be followed 
 by the confiscation of the goods sold, and the seizure of the stock of the 
 vender." 
 
 Is the man deranged? Confiscation, indeed! "Why, sir, the men who are 
 clothed now with a little brief authority seern to think of nothing except 
 taxation, emancipation, confiscation, conscription, and every other word ending 
 in t-i-o-n. (Laughter.) But General Order No. 1 says, "No man shall bo 
 deprived of property without due process of law;" and General Order No. 2 
 says, "Private property shall ever be held inviolate, and every person, for an 
 injury done him in his land, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy 
 by due course of law." And though the writ of habeas corpus may be sus 
 pended, the writs of replevin and injunction can not be. (Cries of " Good, 
 good: ) 
 
 But Order No. 15 proceeds: "And said order having been extended, by the 
 Major-General, to cover the entire department, is hereby promulged." 
 
 Yes, promulged u for immediate observance throughout the State." 
 
 Can military insolence go further? Is this the way the military is to be in 
 strict subordination to the civil power? And does the colonel commanding the 
 18th U. S. Infantry thus undertake to "promulge" a general order suspending 
 or abrogating the Constitution of the United States and of Indiana? Are we 
 living in America or Austria? 
 
 And now the fitting commentary on all this attempt to disarm the white 
 man, while public arms are being put into the hands of the negro, is in the 
 second section of this General Order No. 15, alluding to the recent destruction 
 of a Democratic printing press, by what the colonel commanding the 18th U. 
 S. Infantry, drawing it mild after the fashion of Sarey Gamp, calls a "popular 
 demonstration ;" and yet not one of the perpetrators of this outrage, although 
 soldiers, and under military law, have been punished, nor ever will be. Yet at 
 just such a time of lawless violence, it is proposed that the people shall be dis 
 armed. Never. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 Sir, I repeat now what I believe to be the true programme for these times: 
 Try every question of law in your Courts, and every question of politics before 
 the people, and through the ballot-box; maintain your Constitutional civil 
 rights, at all hazards, against military usurpation. Let there be no resistance 
 to law, but meet and repel all mobs and mob violence by force and arms on 
 the spot. (Great and continued cheering.) 
 
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