YALLAiXDIGHlM SPEECHES, ARGUMENTS, ADDRESSES, AND LETTEKS OF CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. "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." Speech of Jannanj 14, 1803. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY J. WALTER & CO., 19 CITY HALL SQUARE. 1864. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S64, BY J. WALTER & Co., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. THE very large sale, last year, of an imperfect compilation of the speeches of the lion. CLEMENT LAIRD YALLANDIGIIAM, justifies the publication of the present full and authentic edition. And just now is the fitting moment to oifer to the public the patriotic words of warning and wisdom which, for now nearly four years, have been not only rejected, but de- nounced as " treason." Defeated armies, an enormous public debt, and intolerable taxation, a decaying commerce, ruined currency, and bankrupt country these are indeed severe but most instructive schoolmasters. The "Biographical Memoir" prefixed was prepared by Mr. YALLANDIGHAM'S brother, and is accurate. Every statement in it, personal or otherwise, can be strictly verified. J. W. & Co. NEW YORK, July, 1864. CONTENTS. PAOl BIOGRAPHICAL MKMOIE, ; U SFEKCIIB3S, ETC. POWER or THE LEGISLATIVE TO ALTER LEOISLATITK DISTRICTS 63 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM . 11 HISTORY OF ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 9T ARGUMENT IN FUGITIVE SLAVE RESCUE CASK. 134 ARGUMENT IN COXTKSTKD ELECTION CASK Vallandigham and Campbell 15T SPEECH ox CONTESTED ELECTION 169 REMARKS ON IMPEACHMENTS 1S9 " " THE TA EIFK. . . . .192 LETTER ON THE INVASION OF HARPER'S FERRY 201 . THKBB is A WEST ; FOR THE UNION FOKEVER ; OUTSIDE OF THE UNION, FOB UEKSKLF. 205 NEWSPAPERS THE MAILS. Letter to Postmaster-General 225 REMARKS ON DEATH OK TIIK llox. W. 0. GOODK 22T REMARKS ox BILL FOR ARMING MILITIA OF THE STATES 280 11 KM AUKS ON THK " HOUR RULK" 236 REPORT ON THE FKANKING PRIVILEGE 245 JUSTICE TO TUB NORTH-WEST. REMARKS ON MOTION TO EXCUSE HAWKINS, OF FLORIDA, FROM "COMMITTEE OF THIRTY-THRKK" 253 RESPONSE,' UPON BEING CALLED OUT AT SERKNADE GIVEN TO MR. Puou .; 263 REVOLUTION OF 1SG1 265 LETTER TO UEXDRICKSON AND OTHERS 802 EXECUTIVE USURPATION 806 REMARKS ON ins PROPOSITION TO APPOINT COMMISSIONERS TO ACCOMPANY THE AKMY 824 THE TARIFF TK A, COFFEE, AND SUGAR 826 CIIAKGES OF DISLOYALTY REPELLED 82T SPEECH ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL 840 ADDRESS OF DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS TO THK DEMOCBACY 862 ON PUBLIC DEBT, LIABILITY, AND EXPENDITURES 869 SPEECH BEFORE THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, COLUMBUS, 8S4 STATE OF THE COUNTRY. Speech at Dayton 89T ADDRKSS ACCEPTING NOMINATION FOR CONGRESS 415 ADDRESS ACCEPTING CANE PRESENTED BY LADIES OF DAYTOH 41 T THE GREAT CIVIL AVAR IN AMERICA 418 THE CONSCRIPTION BILL ARBITRARY ARRKSTS. 454 PEACE LIBERTY THE CONSTITUTION 479 THE RIGHT OF THK PEOPLE TO KEEP AXD HEAR ARMS .V2 PROTEST BEFORE THE MILITARY COMMISSION 505 ADDRESS TO PEOPLE OF OHIO, UPON GOING INTO EXILK 506 ADDRESS TO PEOPLE OF OHIO UPON ARRIVING IN CANADA V)T LKTTKT. TO THE DEMOCRATIC MKKTIXG AT TOLEDO 5".0 u " " " AT DAYTON M4 " AT CARTHAOB 513 ADDRESS AFTER ELECTION OF 1S63 &20 ADORKSS TO TH R STCT DKNTS OF MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY Ml SPEECH AI-TEK HIS RKTUKN S2t 8 CONTEXTS. S TJ PI? IL, 332 M E N T . Benevolent Institutions of the Stato .......... ." .......................... .................. 585 Patience, Firmness, and Truth ........................................ . ................... 538 Retrenchment Salaries ................................................................... 587 Legislation Its Mysteries .................................................................. 539 Sepulture Cemeteries .................................................................... 539 The Public Debt of Ohio Repudiation ...................................................... 541 The Character of the true Statesman ....................................................... 542 The Mexican War ........................................................................ 543 Slavery the Wilmot Pro viso the Union .................................................. 548 Political Position and Principles. ... ......................................................... 54T The Clergy and Politics ................................................................... 519 Right of Revolution' 4 Dorrism" .......................................................... 549 Conservatism and Progress the True and the False ........................................ 550 Compromise Measures of 1850 ............................................................. 551 Moneyed and Municipal Corporations ...................................................... 552 Campaign of I860 ......................................................................... 554 Pillion v/U l:.c \V..;, Ayiu, iSuA .......................................................... 004 Private Conference on the War and Usurpation, proposed .................................. 555 Letters to Salmi Hough .................... , .............................................. 555 Mason and Slidell the "Trent" affair ............................................ : ...... 556 " Loyalty" Patriotism ............................ ........................................ 553 Finances and Taxation ................... . ................................................ 559 Proscription Redress ................................................................... 5CO Peace Resolutions. ........................................................................ 56'3 Invasion Arrest The Times ............................................................. 564 True Position and Duty of Democratic Party. Letter to Sanderson ......................... 566 The Military Commission the "Charge and Specification" ................................. 56T Reception at Windsor, C. W ............................................................... 568 MISCELLANEOUS. The Union. From Dayton Empire 563 Not ** for Peace before the Union." Card to Cincinnati Enquirer 569 The Union against Bill for abo! ishing Slavery in District of Columbia 569 Soldiers Pay Pensions. Note to Dr. McElwee 569 Laws Rights Duties Reception at Dayton 5TO The Sanitary Commission. Letter to McLauglilin 570 Self-defence Protection Reprisals. Letter to Hubbard & Brother 570 Late, grudging, and imperfect Justice. From New York Tribune 571 PERSONAL NOTICES. As & Member of Ohio Legislature. From Ohio Statesman and Cincinnati Signal 573 Speech of January 14th, 1S63 Opinions of the Press 573 After his Arrest Time on Vallandipham. From Sprinsrfield .It e publican 578 On his Nomination for Governor. From Albany Atla* and Aryus, and Boston Post 576 llis Personal Appearance. From Seneca Falls Rfceiile 576 At Niagara Falls. From New York New . 57T At Windsor, C. W. From Plaindea/tr, Sentinel, and Press. -... 57T Visit of Students of Michigan University. From llillsdale Democrat 578 Vallandigbam's Birthplace. From Wellsville Patriot 579 "The Name of Glorv." Rv Thnma* Hiil.hard Kfifl BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. " Truth, in some age or other, will find her witness, and shall be justified at last by her own children." MILTON. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. THE maternal family of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM (pronounced Val/an'dig- ham) is Scotch-Irish, his grandfather, James Laird, having been born in. the county Down, north Ireland. His mother, Rebecca Laird, was born on the Susquehanna, in York county, Pennsylvania, and still survives at the age of seventy-five, residing in New Lisbon, Ohio.^ She had two brothers, Episcopal clergymen, and one a member of the bar, John Laird, who died in 1824, while an Ohio State Senator from Columbiana county. She is a woman of superior intellect, strong will, and much force of character, and of singular piety. Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM'S paternal ancestors were Flemings, the name being originally VAN LANDEGIIEM. One of that name was one of the four most*distinguished Flemish knights at the battle of " the Golden Spurs," fought by the " Lion of Flanders," near Courtrai, in 1302. There is still a village, Landeghem by name, near Ghent, in East Flanders. In the reign of Louis XIV. they were French Protest- ants, or " Huguenots." Michael Van Landeghem emigrated to Virginia previous to the year 1690, an exile for religious opinion's sake, and settled in what was then Northumberland county. He became a con- siderable land-owner in that and the adjoining counties. His son Michael was born in the same county, in 1705, but died in Fairfax county, not many miles from the now classic stream of " Bull Run," where his son George Vallandigham (the spelling of the name being now changed) was born about 1736. He studied law in Prince George county, Maryland, where he married a daughter of Colonel Joseph Noble, whose mother's name was Dent (of English descent, and one of the oldest families in the State); and about 1773 removed to what was then Youghiogheny county, Virginia, near Pittsburg; where his second son, Clement, was born in 1778. About the time of his migra- tion West, the " Logan War" with the Ohio Indians, broke out ; and from that time till Wayne's victory, in ]794, Colonel Vallandigham was obliged, with a brief interval now and then, to lay aside his Blackstone for the rifle or the sword. He marched as an ofliccr under Lord Dunmarc, the last colonial Governor of Virginia, in his expedition, iu 1774, against the Chillicothe Towns. In 1789, having meantime been surveyed by Mason and Dixon, a few miles into Pennsylvania, he was 12 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIK. admitted to the bar at Pittsburg. lie zealously supported the Federal authorities in the " Whiskey Insurrection," and a year or two after- wards was beaten for Representative in Congress, in consequence of it. During the canvass he was threatened with violence if he should dare attempt to speak at a certain place. But he went and spoke unmolested. He was a man of fine personal appearance, particular in his apparel, scrupulous of his honor, pious, and of most gentlemanly address. His son Clement was educated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1804. He was licensed to preach as a Presbyterian clergyman and in 180*7, emigrated to New Lisbon, Columbiana county, Ohio, where, after a most faithful and laborous ministry of more than thirty years, he died in October, 11339. He was a man of talents and learning, of great firmness of purpose, singularly conscientious, and of spotles*s purity of character. CLEMENT LAIRD VALLANDIGHAM was born in New Lisbon, July 29, 1820. At the age of less than two years he had learned the alphabet, and when but eight, commenced the study of Latin and Greek, at home ; completing the usual course in both languages before he had reached the age of twelve. The next five years he spent in reading and study, and in fishing, hunting, and other youthful sports, passing little time at school. Indeed, nearly his entire education was acquired under his father's roof. At the ajje of seventeen he entered the junior class at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and soon acquired, as a spc*uvci .ma debater, a high reputation in the Franklin Literary Society, of which he became a member. At the end of one year he left college, and in October, 1838, took charge, as principal, of the "Union Academy," Snow Hill, on the Eastern shore of Maryland ; many of his scholars being older than himself. Here lie remained for two years, spending his time, in addition to the discharge of his regular duties, in close study and reading (largely oratorical and political), but enjoying also with zest the refined society and elegant hospitality of the Eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia. In August, 1840, he returned to New Lisbon, and at the age of twenty was soon drawn fully into the fierce contests of the memorable Presidential campaign of that year. His first effort at extempore speaking was in a politick", debate at Cal- cutta, in his native county ; where he spoke for an hour with such success, that his Democratic friends bore him off in triumph upon their shoulders. He was thenceforth a champion of the cause. ^ In November, 1840, he returned to Jefferson College to graduate; but soon after, being grossly insulted by the President, in the progress of a controversy which originated in the expression by him of certain political opinions, in the course of the usual recitation on Constitu- tional law, he demanded and received an honorable dismission, and BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 13 \ returned home in the latter part of January, 1841. Some five years later, when a member of the Ohio Legislature, he was twice offered a diploma as a graduate, but refused it. Previous to leaving college he had been chosen by his society as their " debater" for the annual " contest" of 1841, and in March returned to discharge his duty. The form of the question was, in substance, whether our Federal system of Government was in more danger of perishing from Disintegration than Consolidation; but it opened up the whole question* of STATE RIGHTS. Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM maintained the strictest doctrine of the . "Resolutions of '08," in the boldest and most decided manner, and " lost the honor," to his society. But nothing daunted, he changed neither his opinions nor his purpose to succeed in life. His argu- ment remained for several years on the records of the society, and was much admired. He, we are sure, is certainly not ashamed of its doc- trines now. Returning home, he began the study of the law with his eldest brother, then practising in New Lisbon. He was a diligent and pains- taking student, though still devoting much time to literature, politics, and oratory, and participating in the election contests of each year, not neglecting manly exercise and sports. In the winter of 1842, borrowing money for the purpose, as he had borrowed also to defray his expenses at college, he went to. Columbus, Ohio, making the journey in a hack; and there on the fifth of December, was admitted to practice in the supreme and other courts of the State. Returning in a few days, he went into partnership with his brother, who at the end of a year retired from the bar to enter the ministry. Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM applied himself diligently to his profession, with such success that, within four years from his admission, his practice was equal to that of any member of the New Lisbon bar. But he still devoted much of his time to literature, politics, and public speaking. He took an active part especially in the Presidential campaign of 1844, yet never descending to either rant or vulgar denunciation. In the summer of 1845, he was unanimously nominated by the Democratic party of his native county, as one of their candidates for Representative in the State Legislature; and in October of the same year, having just attained the constitutional age, was elected without opposition. The Legislature met on the first day of December, 1845, and MH YALLANMGIIAM took his scat the youngest member of the body. Previous to leaving home he laid down the following " Rules" for his conduct as a legislator: "1. To avoid interfering in merely local matters, unless they involve a grave general principle. 2. To avoid, with persevering resolution, all connection or mingling with the petty factions or personal jealousies and quarrels of politicial friends ; and of 14 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. toes also: if necessary to act in any way in thcin, to do it as an "armed neutral," manifesting at the same time, that I act as a patriot from a sense of duty, and not from feeling as a partisan. 3. To speak but rarely, and never without having made myself complete and thorough master of the subject so that when I rise, every one may expect to hear something worth listening to. No error is more fatal to influence in A deliberative assembly, than the violation of this plain rule : 4 Verily, ye are not heard for your much speaking.' 4. Always to bear in mind the dignity and responsibility of my station, remember- ing that by the favor of my fellow-citizens, I am a part of the government, and that human government is the vicegcrency of Heaven, and the highest exertion of human power." Mr. VALLANDIGHAM'S first effort was made on the 8th of December, upon a motion to print the reports of the Benevolent Institutions of tho State. The subject was selected by him purposely, because it did not involve party feeling, and the speech was extremely well received by members of both parties. On the first day of the session, he had been appointed a member of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, and on the 9th submitted a carefully prepared report upon the question of the eligibility of officers of the State Bank to a seat in the Legislature, maintaining, in opposition to a majority of his party, that they were not constitutionally disqualified. Soon after, on the IStli fiX'i.i iLo IiiinOrit"* Of *^C COlTn 1 "!^ 00 ^ mnrlo J vr>rv pl;iV>r>rntf> report upon the question of "Legislative Districts," in the Morgan count v contested election. The report attracted great attention in the House and throughout the State. Hon. Samson Mason, a distinguished Whig, who, as chairman of the committee, had submitted the report of the majority, said in debate, that " the report of the minority was an able one, and highly creditable to the talents of the gentleman who had made it." And Mr. C. C. ILizcwell, then editor of the Ohio Statesman, now of the Boston Traveller, speaking of it, said, "Columbiana county may well be proud of her young member, who has already achieved for himself an enviable name as a debater, for skill and fairness, and as a writer at once powerful and dignified. He is one, also, who does not think it necessary to disgrace great talents by buffoonery and immo- rality in order to achieve a sudden notoriety." On the 30th, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM spoke briefly in favor of the bill to repeal the Ohio State Bank Act referring, in calm and determined language, to his confidence in the power of Truth, and his readiness to wait patiently and even long, till she should be vindicated. He con- tinued to take an active part in all important debates, carefully observ- ing the rules which he had laid down for himself; and on the llth of February, in a speech which was most flatteringly received, defended BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 15 * the sanctity of cemeteries and other places of human sepulture; and again, on the 24th, in an elaborate speech against the Tax Bill, drew the character of "the True Statesman," as he conceived it. Mr. VALLAXDIG HAM'S first vote, given a few hours after he was sworn in, was in support of a resolution to open the sittings of the House with prayer, a majority of his party voting against it. Soon after, in reply to a member of his own side, who complained that he (Mr. V.) was quite too courteous to the Whigs, he said, paraphrasing Burke, " that he hoped always so to be a Democrat as not to forget that he was a gentleman." About the same time a Whig correspondent of a newspaper, writing in reference to a violent speech by a Democratic member, said, "He was suitably replied to by C. L. Vallandigham, a young gentleman who is always as near right as party trammels will permit him to go, and sometimes a little more so." Thus his high moral character and urbane manners, together with diligent and labori- ous attention to his duties, secured to him the respect and good-will of all ; and, entering the House utterly unknown and the youngest mem- ber of it, his reputation was in three months established throughout the State. Returning home in March, 1846, he resumed the practice of the law with redoubled diligence; but in June, was required to canvass the county throughout, in order to secure a renomination to the Legislature. At the preceding session, Columbiana had been entitled to two mem- bers; this year to but one. Mr. V.'s former colleague appeared against him, and a vehement contest followed, the nomination being equiva- lent to an election, and made by ballot. The cause of the opposition to him was this : Some two years previously the Legislature had passed a so-called "Retrenchment Act," reducing all salaries to a contempti- bly low standard ; Common Pleas Judges being paid seven hundred and fifty dollars a year, and members of the Legislature two dollars (or eight shillings) a day. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM had taken some money with him to the State capital, had lived "righteously and soberly," abstaining totally from liquors and other similar indulgences, and yet had been obliged to borrow money to enable him to return home. He voted and spoke earnestly for the repeal of the " Retrenchment Act." Fully aware that his course would be unpopular with many of his constitu- ents, he said : " Entertaining these opinions, and believing that I am about ,to do right, I enter fearlessly upon the discharge of my duty, satisfied to abide the judgment of a constituency I am proud to repre- sent. If that judgment be against me, I shall be content; having still within my bosom the consoling consciousness that I dared to do what appeared to me just." After an animated contest of several weeks, Mr. V. was renominatcd by a vote of two to one ; and at the following Octo- 16 BIOGEAPI1ICAL MEMOIR. f ber election, in spite of a very vigorous opposition by the Whig party, was re-elected by a large majority. The Legislature met on the 7th of December, 1846, and Mr. VAL- LANDIGHAM was complimented by the unanimous vote of his party for Speaker. The session was marked by the discussion of three most im- portant subjects, Mr. V. taking a leading part as to all. To the prosecution of the war with Mexico, then vehemently op- posed by the Whig party, he gave an earnest support. But in. the resolutions which he offered on the 15th of December, he took care to establish the grounds of his support, declaring it " a war brought about and commenced by the aggressions and acts of Mexico;" "a constitu- tional war /" "a war carried on in pursuance of the Constitution and laws ;" and a war the object of which was not conquest and subjuga- tion, but " a speedy, honorable peace" These resolutions he supported in a strong speech; and being assailed personally in reply by a Whig member, he retorted sharply in a second speech of considerable length, in the course of which he answered the objection that the Legislature was intermeddling in that which did not concern it; saying that "as a friend to our peculiar system in its true spirit, and as a State-Rights man, he would be sorry to see the day when the individual States should cease to feel the deepest solicitude in the acts of the Government of the Union." At the same session, the " Missouri Question" was revived in the form of the " Wilmot Proviso," or proposed exclusion ot Slavery iroin the Territories. In fourteen years the agitation terminated in CIVIL WAR. On the 16th of January, resolutions in favor of the "Proviso" were introduced by a Whig member from the " Western Reserve." Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM promptly moved to lay them upon the table, which was done. A few days later, being called up for discussion, he opposed them in an impassioned speech (briefly and imperfectly reported), declar- ing that the agitation could result only in civil war and disunion, and that he had spoken with great earnestness and feeling, " because he felt called upon, as a patriot and citizen, to resist and expose every measure which might work incalculable mischief, not only to ourselves, but to generations yet unborn." He further declared that whenever any question might arise, involving the. Union in the alternative, he would go with his might on that side on the side of the Union, now and forever, one and inseparable. During the session two several petitions were presented by WTbig members, praying the Legislature, because of the annexation of Texas, to " declare the Union dissolved, and with- draw the Ohio Senators and Representatives from Congress." Mr. V voted for the motion, in each case, to reject the petition. But his ablest speech at this session was made in support of his bill BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 1 7 to provide for calling a Convention to amend the State Constitution. The bill received a majority, but not a two-thirds vote as required, and therefore failed; but the speech attracted much attention throughout the Slate, and ultimately led to the passage of the bill at a subsequent session. Taking an active part upon all important questions, Mr. YALLANDIO- IIAM again found it necessary to separate, now and then, from his. party friends. Upon one of these occasions on a bill to promote the cause of popular education, in which he took a deep interest he said " he was sony to part company with them ou any question ; but was not afraid to vote according to the dictates of his conscience. lie had stood upon the floor before, and was ever proud to stand, even in a minority, when he could feel, as he now did, that lie stood ou the vantage-ground of truth." Upon the question of the so-called "Black Laws," relating to the disabilities of negroes and mulattoes, Mr. V. voted against their repeal, but supported a bill to submit the question to a vote of the people ; expressly declaring that he so voted because the measure " would result in the most effectual putting down of this vexed question for perhaps twenty years to come. ' It would probably fall out as the question of negro suffrage in New York, where the people had voted against it by a majority of fifty thousand." Throughout this his second session, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM maintained and added to the reputation which he had acquired at the first A gentleman (then as now an eminent lawyer and politician), writing to a Cincinnati neutral paper, said of him, in March, 1847 : " Although the yovmcfp^t inombor of the Legislature, he came to be regarded, loncf before the close of his first session, as the leader of his party on the floor, which position he maintained during the lafc short and active session. Courtesy and urbanity in public as well as in private life, have secured for him the esteem of all who know him, without regard to party ; while his abilities have commanded their respect. In all his intercourse with men, there is evinced a frankness and an obliging, generous feeling which, above all other traits of character, create and retain warm personal friends." Upon his return home in February, Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM resumed the practice of the law diligently, declining to be a candidate for re-elec- tion; but during the summer, determined to remove to Dayton, Ohio, where he arrived on the 28th of August, and immediately assumed the editorial charge of the " Western Empire," a weekly Democratic news- paper. In a carefully prepared "Salutatory," he defined his principles, and the manner in which he proposed to conduct it ; accurately dis- tinguishing between true constitutional Democracy and mere popular 2 18 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. licentiousness; declaring his fixed purpose to stand fast to tlie Consti- tution strictly construed; to maintain the doctrine of State Rights as taught in the Resolutions of '98; and to defend the Union; and further declaring that he would " pander to the sectional prejudices, or the fanaticism, or wounded pride, or disappointed ambition, of no man or set of men, whereby that Union should be put in jeopardy." " In our editorial intercourse with the public," he added, " we shall seek no personal controversy, nor shall anv one draw us into any controversy unbecoming a gentleman. Towards all adversaries between whom and us there shall arise any matter of difference, we will exhibit proper respect sometimes for their sake*, always for our own." And speak- ing of despotism, he said: "We will war against it in all its forms, and to us the despotism of the many is no more tolerable than the despotism of the few." * Among his leading articles while editor of the Empire, was one denouncing political preaching and partisan clergymen ; another affirm- ing the right of revolution, but opposing what was then called '"Dorr- ism," or the asserted right of u mere numerical majority, at any time, to set aside existing rules and forms as prescribed by constitutions, and by spontaneous movement, without form or color of law, to set up a new constitution and* government; and another against the repeal, then agitated by the Abolitionists, of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. Li June, 1S10, Mr. VALLJLSDIGUA:! - H -"- V- ? r ,*-r.v/.,?n f- " Empire ;" and after spending the summer and autumn in travel and the winter in general reading and study, resumed the regular and dili- gent practice of the law, in April, 1850, with reputation and success. During the winter preceding, he had been proposed and voted for, by his party in the Legislature, for Judge of the Common Pleas Court of the Montgomery circuit ; but defeated by " the balance of power party," because of his views upon the question of Slavery. In the fall of 1850, he defended the Compromise or Adjustment measures of that year, at a very excited public meeting, called to denounce the Fugitive Slave Act then recently passed ; and a week later, at another most important and respectable meeting, offered a scries of resolutions in support of the Union, the Cc.istitution, and the Laws, which were unanimously adopted. His speech at the first meet- ing called forth the highest commendation from both parties. In the summer of 1851, after the adoption of the new Constitution, he was a candidate before the Democratic State Convention, for the * The newspaper organ of the Whig party of Dayton, thus noticed Mr. V.'s con- nection with the "Empire:" " Mr. VALLAXDIGII.VM presents himself to our people as a political editor, in the temperate and gentlemanly manner, which from pre- vious representations of his character, we had been led to expect." BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 19 office of Lieutenant-Governor, but after an animated contest and a most flattering vote, was defeated. In August, 1852, notwithstanding a very bitter opposition, he was nominated by a large majority, as the Demo- cratic candidate for Representative in Congress, from the third or Dayton district; but after a most exciting canvass, was beaten by a majority of one hundred and forty-seven, in a poll of some twenty thousand. His competitor secured the " third party" or Abolition vote, and also the aid of several treacherous Democrats who "bolted'' the nomination. Two weeks after the election, the Central Committee of the third or " Liberty party" issued a circular referring to Mr. V. in these terms : " In opposition to Mr. Campbell, the Democratic party had nomi- nated 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 (and- 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." Two years afterwards lie was unanimously renominated by his party for the same post ; but it was the well-remembered Kansas-Nebraska and "Know-Nothing" campaign, and he was beaten by nearly twenty- six hundred votes. Incapable of discouragement, he again accepted a unanimous nomination by the Democratic party of the district, in 185G. It was the year of the first struggle for the Presidency, by the Republi- can or Abolition party, now consolidated by the total dissolution of the Whig party. The Presidential canvass was extremely violent ; but in the third district, it was wholly forgotten in the terrible bitterness of the Congressional contest Nothing equal to it had ever occurred in the United States. The Abolition party had renominated Mr. CAMP- BELL, who had twice before been Mr. VALLANDIGHAM'S successful com- petitor. For three months, day and night, every energy of the candi- dates and their respective parties, was exhausted ; and at the end of the canvass, Mr. CAMPBELL appeared by the .official count to be elected by nineteen majority. Gross and palpable frauds had been committed by the successful party; and upon this ground, and because a number of negro votes had been cast for his competitor, the friends of Mr. V. demanded that he should contest the election. He consented, and on the first of December, 1857, giving up his law-practice which had every year, notwithstanding his devotion to politics, become larger and more lucrative, he appeared in Washington to prosecute the contest. But the " Lccompton Question" was absorbing all attention, and had divided the Democratic partv. lie was in great danger of having the justice of his case sacrificed to the interests of faction ; but after a tedious and 20 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. most harassing content of six months, trying both patience and temper, and requiring the utmost tact and ability, he was declared entitled to the scat, by a majority of seven votes ; and accordingly, on the 25th of May, 1858, was sworn in as a member. But the session was nearly at an end, and he soon after returned home ; and being accepted by his party as a candidate without the formality v of a convention, was, in October following, re-elected over Mr. CAMPBELL, by a majority of one hundred and eighty-eight votes. This was his first political success since the renewal of the Anti-slavery agitation in 1846. Because of his determined hostility to abolition fanaticism, and his unbending purpose never to yield principle to mere policy or expediency, he had failed repeatedly in every political aspiration. lie himself in his speech of January 14, 1863, thus records his position and his experience: "Sir, I am one of that number who have opposed abolitionism, or the politi- cal development of the Anti-slavery sentiment of the North and West> from the beginning. In school, at college, at the bar, in public assem- blies, 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 1 excht sion from office and honor, at that period of life when honors are sweet- est. No matter; I learned early to do right and to wait." He did wait, and was finally successful, and so continued, till the whirlwind of civil war changed every thing, and again compelled him to appeal to truth, justice, U...L! L...C. But iLio *^ 1J ^ mtuivai was nut UMpiOlilaUiy spent. These repeated contests and defeats disciplined and strengthened and hardened him for the yet severer struggle to come; and meantime, besides the assiduous and successful practice of his profession, he devoted himself to political science and philosophy, and especially to the read- ing of history, always his favorite study. During this period he com- pleted a full course of history from the earliest records in the Bible, down to the present time. A part also of his leisure was occupied in modern literature and the ancient classics. And lie always found time for all ; yet spent the hot months of each summer in travel and recrea- tion. Subsequent to the October election in 1855, Mr. VALLAXDIGHAM delivcrH, before a Democratic meeting in Dayton, one of the ablest speeches of his life. It is a searching and exhaustive review and ex- position of the rise, progress, and full development of the Abolition movement in the United States. After several years of halting and trimming before that party, then holding the balance of power, during which the Democracy of Ohio had obtained a precarious control of the State government, they were, at last, badly beaten at two elections; and the purpose of the speech was to bring the party np to meet the BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 21 Slavery issue fairly and boldly, and thus to restore it to sound doctrine and discipline, and therefore to power and usefulness. He concluded with these warning words : " 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 ancestors, false to ourselves, false to those who shall come after us, traitors to our country and to the hopes of free government through- out the globe, Bancroft will yet write the last sad chapter in the his- tory of the American Republic." At the following State Convention, the halting policy on that ques- tion was abandoned. Mr. V. was chosen a delegate from the State at large to the Cincinnati Convention, and took an active part in its pro- ceedings, especially as a member of the committee on the " Platform." In June, 1S57, occurred the " Ohio Rebellion" of that year. The deputies of the United States Marshal for the southern district of that State, 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 Clark into Green, and there overpowered, and the prisoners rescued. They were also themselves arrested on State process. To discharge them from imprisonment, a habeas corpus was issued from the United States District Court at Cincinnati. The Attorney-General of Ohio was sent down by Mr. Chase (then the Governor), to argue the* case for the State. Mr. PUGII, Mr. VALLAXDIGHAM, and another, appeared for the United States. Mr. V.'s argument called forth the highest commenda- tion. Maintaining the vital doctrine of STATE RIGHTS to the fullest ex- tent, he yet asserted and upheld the absolute supremacy of the Federal Government within its constitutional limits. During the wearisome contest at the first session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress, Mr. YALLANDIGHAM had been assiduous in attendance upon the sittings of the House, diligently observing and studying the usages and rules of parliamentary bodies, as he had also done while a repre- sentative in the State Legislature. At the second session, 1858-'9, he took little rart in the current debates, but continued the study of par- liamentary law ; addressing the House, however, upon the subjects of Impeachments and the Tariff, and successfully defending himself against a charge made at the preceding session, in regard to his vote upon the repeal of the " Black Laws," while a member of the Ohio House of Representatives. In October, 1859, returning from a visit to Washington and Balti- 20 BIOGRAPHICAL MKMOIE. more, it was his ill fortune to hear the first gun and witness the first conflict of the great Civil War which soon after convulsed the whole country in revolution. lie arrived at Harper's Ferry upon the train which passed just after the capture of "John Brown," by Colonel Robert E. Lee. Delaying a few hours, he, by accident, saw this first martvr of Abolitionism, and held some conversation with him, which being made public by the reporters, he was bitterly assailed by the abolition press, as though guilty of some great sacrilege. To these assaults he replied in a letter, stating the occasion and nature of his interview, and giving a brief description of Brown, and a narrative of his raid. It is a valuable part of the history of that memorable affair. The Thirty-Sixth Congress met in its first session, amid great excite- ment, on the 5th of December. In the House, neither the Democratic nor " Republican 1 ' or Abolition party, had a majority, the balance of power being held by the so-called "American" or "Know-Nothing" party. By the Abolitionists, John Sherman, of Ohio, a man of much pretension and small ability, w r as put in nomination for Speaker. He was an indorser of " Helper's Impending Crisis," that manual of assassi- nation and robbery, which aided much to foment the " John Brown Raid," and, along with other causes, to kindle the flames of civil war between the North and South. A violent, and, at times, almost bloody struggle for two months, ensued over the speakership. The debates, after the first two weeks, became most turbulent in their character. The hostile pai'tics glowered upon eucli olu^i. * United States, vote one dollar of money whereby one drop of American blood should be shed in a civil war ;" which declaration he says, in a card published soon after, "was received with vehement and long-con- tinued applause, the entire yast assemblage rising as one man, and cheering for some minutes." Six months later, when he had made the declaration good, that same " vast assemblage" would have torn him in pieces had he ventured to set foot in the city of New York. Yet "after some time be past," sobered by the chastening ordeal of blood and of financial and commercial ruin, they will again rise up to do him honor, because he kept his faith and word. Late in the afternoon of the day of election, he reached home and gave his vote, remarking to a friend that " he feared it was the last which any one would give for a President of the United States." In a speech at Dayton, on the 19th of May (while at home on a brief visit), he had denounced Lincoln's doctrine of " the irrepressible con- flict" in a vehement and impassioned manner, as "revolutionary, disor- ganizing, subversive of the Government, and ending necessarily in dis- union" " Our fathers," lie said, " 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 axe at the BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 25 very root of the Union." And in a later speech at the same place, he said: " Kill the Northern and Western anti-shivery organization (the Republican party), and the extreme Southern pro-sla\ cry, 'fire-eating' organization of the Cotton States (its offspring), will expire in three months. Continue the Republican party above all, put it in power, and the antagonism will grow till the whole South will become a unit" On the first of August, he had addressed a very large Democratic meeting at Detroit, in Michigan. In the course of the speech, he said : "Northern sectionalism and fanaticism has been approaching nearer and nearer to Mason and Dixon's line, while 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 which must ensue ? They must meet, if the floods of fanaticism be not checked. When they meet on the southern borders of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, how long can the country endure ? Human nature has been misread from the time of Cain to thin day, if blood, blood, human blood, be not the result. But, thank God, between the two sections there is a band of national men, patriots, who love their country more than sec- tionalism, ready to stay this conflict. Our mission is to drive this sec- tionalism of the North back towards the Lakes; and that of the South back to the Gulf of Mexico." It was upon this occasion that he first crossed the river to Windsor, little imagining that in three years it was to be his place of sojourn while in exile for the exercise of his constitu- tional rights as a citizen. lie foresaw the Civil War, but not the im- mediate overthrow of personal and political liberty. Soon after the Presidential election, referring, in a card, to his decla- ration in the speech at the Cooper Institute, he said: "I now deliber- ately 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 :s 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 can 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 wholesome counsels, and hearken only to the madmen who threaten chastisement with scorpions, let him see to it, lest it be recorded at last that none remained to serve him 0(5 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 1 save the house of Judah only.' At least, if he will forget the seces- sion of the Ten Tribes, will he not remember and learn a lesson of wis- dom from the secession of the Thirteen Colonies ?" Congress met, in second session, on the 3d of December. The next day a member from Virginia moved that a committee of thirty-three, one from each State, be appointed to consider and report upon the "perilous condition of the country." Mr. VALLAXDIGIIAM voted for the motion ; because, as he remarked, it was an expedient ; and though totally inadequate, he was willing to support any and every expedient, trusting that something might be yet done to avert the impending dan- gers. Mr. Hawkins, of Florida, being named one of the committee, moved to be excused. A debate followed, and Mr. Y. spoke briefly but earnestly in protest against the composition of the committee j criticising it also as too numerous, and therefore discordant and slow ; and asking what kind of conciliation and compromise that was, which began by forcing a member to serve upon a committee raised for the very purpose of peace? He spoke also earnestly in defence of the Northwest, declaring that the people of that section, to secure a mari- time boundary, would, if necessary, " cleave their way to the sea-coast with the sword." They might be a nation of warriors, but a tribe of shepherds never. He closed with a solemn warning that the time was short and the danger imminent, and that standing in the forum of his- tory, acting in the eye of posterity, all duties should be discharged in- stantly and aright, it' we would be " Medicined to that sweet sleep Which yesterday we owed." The House refused to excuse Mr. Hawkins ; but he did not serve. It was in this debate that Mr. Sickles repeated, substantially, Mr. V.'s declaration against supporting a civil war, pledging that no man should ever pass through the city of New York to coerce a seceded State, and threatening that that city would assert her own independence-. He re- canted, and is a major-general : Mr. VALLANDIGHAM made his declara- tion good, and is now an exile. But in proud conscientiousness he could exclaim in Congress, after two years of desolating and disastrous war, " ^ o-day I bless God that not the smell of so much as one drop of its blood is upon my garments," A stormy session ensued. All compromise was first delayed and then finally rejected by the Abolition party, and the secession of seven States and the establishment of the Confederate Government followed, Mr. Pagh spoke against coercion in a powerful and most eloquent speech on the 20th of December; and at a serenade given in his honor a few days later, Mr. Y. earnestly advocated conciliation, not force ; peace, not BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 27 civil war; saying that although they who so counselled "might be prostrated for a time by the heavy tide of public opinion which would run against them, yet upon the gravestone of every such patriot would be written ^Resuryam ;' and it would be a glorious resurrection." On the 20th of February, 1801, he spoke at length in a very elabo- rate speech, in behalf of compromise and especially in support of his own proposed amendments to tlie Constitution. Xo propositions were ever so grossly misrepresented. Mr. Y^LLANDIGHAM had prepared, in advance, an abstract of them for the telegraphic agent of the "Asso- ciated Press" at the capital, who transmitted it correctly to the Eastern papers ; but at Philadelphia the knavish agent of the Association tele- graphed it to the Western press as a proposition to divide the United States into four separate republics. Mr. V. demanded a correction ; but the perversion was only repeated in a form still more false. This was but the beginning of that persistent and a^ravatcd misrepresen- tation in every form, by telegraph as well as otherwise, to which, for . more than three years now, he has been subjected. The propositions are published in full in this volume along with the speech. They were amendments only to the existing Constitution. They proposed " sections" within the Union ; not distinct nationalities or republics outside of it. The preamble itself recites, as the purpose of the propositions, that " it concerned the peace and stability of the Federal Union and Govern-, mcnt, that a division of the States into mere slaveholding and non- slaveholding sections, causing hitherto and from the nature and neces- sity 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 he himself, in a card published a few days after their introduction, declared : " My propo- sitions look solely to the restoration and maintenance of the Union forever by suggesting a mode of votiny in the United States Senate and 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 hereafter arrested. My object the sole motive by which I have been guided from the beginning of this most fatal revolution is to maintain the Union, and not to destroy it." So far as any suggestion has ever been made respecting a possible future division of the American Republic " into four distinct nation- alities," it came from the pon of Lieutenant-General Scott, who even went so far as to name the probable capitals of three of the " nation- alities." At the time this speech was delivered, the voice of nearly the whole country was decidedly for peace. At the opening of the session, Mr. 28 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. V. Lad found himself almost alone against " coercion ;" but in February, the sentiment had greatly changed both in Congress and out of it. Immediate danger of civil war seemed to have passed by. Yet satis- fied that all hope of present adjustment was at an end, and separation or disunion an existing, though, as he hoped, a temporary tact, he spoke chiefly in review of the more remote and hidden but real cause which had led to the crisis; and from these sought to deduce the true nature of the searching and decisive remedies which he believed O essential. But in the whirl wind of the hour, neither the House nor the country was in a temper to hear philosophy, and the speech attracted then no part of the attention which it has since received. It was appropriately entitled, in the pamphlet edition published at the time, "The Great American Revolution of 1861" a revolution which he pro- nounced " the ^randest and the saddest of modern times." It is almost O useless to add that he voted for the Crittendcn Compromise proposi- tions, and for all others which, in his own language, " so much as prom- ised even to heal our troubles and to restore the Union of the States.'* But he voted also steadily, in common with nearly the whole body of the Democratic and Conservative members, against the Force Bill and all other measures of coercion; believing that threats would avail nothing to intimidate the seceded States ; while justice and fair com- promise would satisfy the vast majority of their people. During the rr>nrr> r>cinn Mr r*rriT-ir VOlMrnr wifk.-*"*- YMVM-^>O + ? ^> - * I .*>- > -.t ~/1 to raise a laugh at the expense of his " unhappy colleague," Mr. V. retorted sharply I " Sir, this is the most important question ever de- bated in the American Congress, and too serious every way for jest. It ought to make every man * unhappy ;' and I am very sorry that my facetious colleague is not unhappy over it, too. It is -a pity, *ir, that he cannot lay aside his levity long enough to consider it with a little of the seriousness which it demands. This is no time for smartness, but for sadness and solemnity rather." Mr. VALLANDIGHAM returned home in March, trusting that peace at least might be, for the present, maintained. On the 15th of that month, Mr. Douglas, who during the early part of the second session had inclined strongly towards coercion, made his memorable speech, the most statesmanlike of his life, declaring, " War is disunion ; war is final, eternal separation." But the necessities, if not the purposes, of the Ad- ministration and of the Republican party, required civil war, and they found means to precipitate it. A fleet threatened Charleston ; Sumtcr fell, and the proclamation of the loth of April followed. Mr. V. did not hesitate for one moment to maintain his position. It is scarcely possible to realize the howl of denunciation which forthwith was raised against him, or the ridiculous and preposterous reports among others BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIE. 29 that his house had been destroyed and that he himself had fled which were circulated. He noticed them in a card on the 17th of April, de- claring that his position had long since been taken, was well known, and would be maintained to the end. Some days later he wrote two strictly private letters to a gentleman in Cincinnati, who, having been arrested for " treason" upon a judicial warrant a few months afterwards, was tried before a United States Commissioner; the sole proof against him being the production of these letters. Yet the Federal District- Attorney, Flamcn Ball by name, was not ashamed to urge on the case upon this evidence. His argument was after this fashion, doubtless : Mr. VALLANDIGHAM is, of course, a "traitor:" the accused corresponds with him ; " arg:" the accused is a traitor. The letters thcinsefrcs, very brief, contain not any thing of note except that they suggest a/ear or apprehension (common to almost all men before that time) that war being disunion, nothing remained but separation. But they do not express desire or wish, or anv thing similar, for disunion. On the con- trary, Mr. V. distinctly says that " he would watch the first favorable chance to move publicly for peace and restoration." During the latter pail of April and the months of May and June, as also for many months afterwards at Washington, in his journcyings and at home, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was exposed day and night to imminent danger of personal harm or death. Even his assassination was publicly invited by men holding responsible official positions under the Admin- istration. In his own language, " he carried his life in the hollow of his hand." But no evil befell him or came nigh his dwelling. On the 3d of May, the proclamation of the President, calling out volunteers and increasing the regular army and the navy, without act of Congress, was issued. It was a bold and most dangerous usurpation, which, if submitted to without remonstrance, could end only in the final subversion of the Constitution in. every part. Mr. V. immediately issued a private circular, addressed to some twenty or more of the, most prominent Democratic politicians of the State, proposing a conference at Chillicothe on the 15th of the month, to concert measures to arouse the people to a sense of the danger which was so imminent from the bold conspiracy to usurp all power into the hands of the Executive, and thus to " rescue the Republic from an impending military despot- ism." But four answers were received three favorable, and one ad- verse to the conference. It was not held. Certain of his constituents having addressed him a letter, requesting his views more at length, he replied on the 13th of May, quoting from and adopting Mr. Douglas's speech before referred to, and declaring : "As for the conquest and subjugation of the South, I will not impeach the intelligence of any man among you, by assuming that you dream 30 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. of it as at any time or in any way possible. Remember the warning rf Lord CHATHAM to the .British Parliament: 'My Lords, you cannot con- quer America.' A public debt of hundreds of millions, weighing us and our posterity down for generations, we cannot escape. Fortunate shall we be if we escape with our liberties. Indeed, it is no longer so much a question of w-ar with the South, as whether we ourselves are to have constitutions and a republican form of government hereafter in the North and )Vcst. In brief: I am for the CONSTITUTION first, and at all hazards ; for whatever can now be saved of the UNION next ; and for PEACE always as essential to the preservation of either." Such were his sentiments, his conception of the impending dangers, ana his convictions as to the final issue of the war during the first month after the proclamation, and when, amid the storm which swept over the whole land, scarcely ten men in the country dared confess that they were of the same opinion. On the 4th of July, the Thirty-Seventh Congress met in first or extraor- dinary session. The Speaker elect delivered a ferocious and bloodthirsty address, declaring that territorial unity must be maintained though the "waters of the Mississippi should be crimsoned with human yore, and every foot of American soil baptized in fire and blood.' 1 ' 1 This atrocious sentiment was received, according to the official report, with " vociferous applause upon the floor and in the galleries, which lasted for many minute," Indeed, th? entire ~?onc re^indc-l one of soi..-.- . f iho iii^,l dencd spectacles exhibited by the French National and Constituent As- semblies, rather than the sitting of a Congress of sober and rational statesmen. It was the purpose of the Administration leaders to prevent all debate, and there seemed to be a general disposition among the mem. bers on both sides to acquiesce. But Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was resolved to be heard, and he obtained the floor on the 10th of July. No speech was ever delivered in the midst of greater personal danger not even Cicero's oration for Milo, or Curran's defence of Bond. The galleries and lobbies were filled with an excited soldiery and infuriated partisans, threatening assassination. A leading Administration paper in New York had, two days before, declared, that if an attempt was made to speak fo- peace, the " aisles of the hall would run with blood." Arbi- trary arrests for opinion and speech had already been commenced. Al- most without sympathy upon his own side of the House, and with a fierce, insolent, and overwhelming majority upon the other, Mr. VAL- LANDIGHAM, calm and unawcd, met every peril, and spoke as firmly, solemnly, and earnestly, as under ordinary circumstances. " My duty," said he, " shall be discharged calmly, firmly, quietly, and regardless of consequences. The approving voice of a conscience void of offence, and the approving judgment xdiich shall follow, ' after some time be BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 31 past,' those, God help me, are my trust and my support," The "motto" from Lord Bacon's will, prefixed to the pamphlet edition of the speech, is significant; interpreted, as it has now l>ecn, by the light of three years' experience. A very large number of copies was circulated in various forms, North and South, and it was published also in England and on the continent. The peroration lias been espe- cially admired ; but it fell upon hostile or unwilling ears. His fit audi- ence was to be gathered in the presence-chamber of Time. But com- parative freedom of speech, which otherwise might have perished, was made secure, at least within the halls of Congress. On the 12th, in debate on the Volunteer Army Bill, he moved for the appointment of seven commissioners to accompany the army, i-^ receive and consider propositions from the Confederate States or any one of them, looking to a suspension of hostilities, and the return of those States or any of them to the Union. He supported the motion in a few remarks, saying, that while he would not in the beginning have given a dollar or a man to commence the war, he would now vote as many men and 'as much money as might be necessary to defend and to protect the Federal Government; but he would not support a war of aggression or invasion. His proviso received but twenty-one votes upon a count. The only terms of peace then, as proclaimed on the floor by a " war Democrat," amid frantic applause in the galleries, were that the people of the. South should lay down their arms, sue for peace, and surrender their leaders for .execution. Similar terms had once before been demanded by George the Third and Lord North. Mr. VALLAN- DIGHAM voted for the second part of the celebrated " Crittcnden Reso- lution" of July 22d, the day after the rout at Bull Run ; but for reasons which he assigned in his speech at Dayton, of August 2, 1862, refused to support the first. It was a solemn day ; the Gascon inso- lence, and vociferous levity of July 4th, had been succeeded by craven fear. Every moment members sat in anxious suspense, lest the sound of Beaurcgard's cannon should awaken the echoes of the Capitol. Mr. Crittcnden's resolution had been scouted out of the House three days previously ; it passed now with but two dissenting voices. Upon a question relating to army chaplains, Mr. V. testified his de- votion to religious toleration, by moving to strike out the clause which required them to belong to some " Christian denomination," and insert " religious society," so as to include men of the Hebrew faith ; remark- ing that " while we were in one sense a Christian people and yet in another not the most Christian people in the world ours was still not a Christian Government, nor a Government which has any connection with any one form of religion in preference to any other form." The amendment was rejected. 32 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. The Military Academy bill being under consideration, Mr. VALLAN- DIGHAM denounced the new-fangled oath of allegiance -which it pro- posed to require of the cadets. "I am especially opposed,". he said, " to the unheard-of and execrable oath required by one of its sections. There is no inconsistency, not the slightest, between the allegiance which every man owes to the State in which he lives, and that which, he bears to the United States, They are perfectly reconcilable. Yet it requires the renunciation of the allegiance which every cadet owes, by birth or adoption, to his State. It is an oath which ought not to be required of any young man of honor, or of any citizen of a free country. I denounce it, too, as unconstitutional. All that that instru- ment provides for, is an oath to support it." Here his remarks were arrested and declared out of order, whereupon he resumed his seat, say- ing, " Then, sir, I propose to discuss it in that GREAT HEREAFTER to which I have so often had occasion of late to appeal." Before the ad- journment he introduced a joint resolution providing for the calling of a Convention of the States, to adjust all controversies in the mode prescribed by the Constitution; but never, during the tm tire Congress, was able to secure any action upon it. He had taken a most active and vigilant part in the proceedings throughout the session, and al- though with the sympathy and support of but some eight or ten mem- bers, was always upon the alert, and on the day of the adjournment, was aptlv described by a Republican member, as " the yonnnr man standing in the aisle, where he has stood nearly all the session on the frontier." The House adjourned on the 6th of August, in the midst of the most fatuous and childish levity. On the 7th of July, Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM'S courage and presence of mind had been severely tested. He had that day visited the Ohio camps on the west side of the Potomac, where several hundred of his constituents were stationed. Soon after arriving upon the ground, some members of a Cleveland company approached and notified him to leave. He refused indignantly : a tumult ensued. Several of the officers and a large majority of the men soon rallied to his support, and the rioters retired to their own limits. He remained an hour or two, and then returned to Washington. A substantially correct statement of the affair, referring to " the nerve and courage" shov/n by him, was telegraphed from Alexandria to Baltimore and Philadelphia; but at the latter place suppressed, and a false and distorted version substituted by the agent of the "Associated Press," and thence duly transferred to that shameless compilation of falsehood and trash, Putnam and Moore's "Rebellion Record." The adjournment was followed by one of those periodic and spas- modic reigns of terror, with which the Administration has so often BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 33 afflicted the country during the war. But Mr. V. was not molested. In contempt of all threats of violence, he addressed several public meetings in his own district, during and after the canvass, which re- sulted in overwhelming defeat to the Democratic party in every State. Upon the meeting of Congress in second session, in December, the House, in hot haste, indorsed the act of Captain Wilkes in seizing Mason and Slidell on board the British mail-steamer Trent. Two weeks later, news arrived of the preparation of England for war, and Mr. V. for the purpose of exposing the shallow but blustering and cowardly statesmanship of the Abolition party in the House, offered a preamble reciting the action of the Navy Department and the resolu- tions of the House, and proposed to pledge Congress to support the Executive in maintaining the position thus assumed; but his resolution was summarily referred to a committee, and thus suppressed.* "Be- fore three mouths," said he, " these men will be surrendered in face of a threat" It \vas done in ten days. In a subsequent debate, he deprecated the surrender thus made, but in stron^ lano-ua^e con- * ?"> f? O dcmned the original seizure as against international law, maintaining that they should have been given up at first. During this debate, January 7, 1862, his "loyalty," as usual, was called in question, and he replied : " Consistency, firmness, and sanity in the midst of general madness these make up my oftence. But 'Time, the Avenger,' sets all things even; and I abide his leisure I appealed then, as I appeal now, alike to the near and to 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." On the 3d of February, he addressed the House on the subject of finances and the United States Note or "Legal Tender" bill, in a searching and exhaustive argument against a forced Government paper currency; predicting the inevitable result depreciation and final ex- plosion. Just at this time, such and so great had been the flood of de- nunciation and falsehood poured out upon him, that it is safe to say that in Congress and out of it, he was the most unpopular, best abused, most execrated man in America, He was himself fully conscious of the fact ; and one of the opening paragraphs of the speech freely confesses it. "Nor am 1 to be deterred," he said, "from a faithful discharge of my duty, by the consciousness that my voice may not be hearkened to here, or in the country, because of the continued, persistent, but most causeless and malignant assaults and misrepresentation's to which, for months past, I have been subjected. Sir, I am not here to reply to them * A false and corrupted copy will be found in tho " Robellioa Record." 3 34 BIOGRAPHICAL M1OIOIB. to-day. Neither am I to be driven from the line of duty by them. 'Strike, but hear.' " lie was barely listened to in the House; yet the speech was received very favorably among the better class of bankers and financiers in New York and Boston. On the 19th of the same month, John ITiekman, of Pennsylvania, moved a resolution of inquiry into Mr. YALLANDIGHAM'S "loyalty," founded upon a local item in a Baltimore newspaper of the lowest class. An intensely interesting and exciting scene followed. The resolution, although wholly without notice, gave him the fit occasion, Jong waited for, to defend himself from the suspicions and calumnies to which he had so long been exposed, and he instantly improved it to the utmost ; and with undisturbed self-possession and dignity, but in tones the most earnest and indignant, retorted with so much vigor and spirit upon his accuser, that he was glad to escape by withdrawing the resolution. The rencontre was of very great advantage to Mr. V., and was the first break in the cloud which hitherto had rested over him. His allusion to the iia^ which hung above the Speaker's seat, forced admiration from even a hostile House and galleries. As he sat down he overheard a friend say, " He has not made a mistake nor spoken an ill-advised word from the beginning." In April, Mr. Wade, of Ohio, in a speech in the Senate, assailed Mr. VALLANUIGIIAM as "a man who never had any sympathy with the RormMif. but whose everv breath was devoted to its dnstrurtion. inst ns for as his heart dare permit him to go." Patiently waiting a few days for a fitting opportunity, Mr. \ T . read the sentence and said : " Now, sir, here in my place in the House, and as a representative, I denounce and I speak advisedly the author of that speech as a liar, a scoundrel, and a coward. His name is Benjamin F. Wade." An effort was made to censure him, but he had the resolution ruled out upon a point of order. This was the only occasion upon which he ever departed from the strictest decorum and propriety of language in the House ; but the provocation was extreme, and Wade was the first responsible imlorser whom he had found, of the accumulated falsehoods and detraction of a whole year. Petitions, finally, for his expulsion as " a traitor and a disgrace to the State of Ohio," were presented from Cincinnati and Springfield, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, but re- ported back and laid upon the table, as unfounded. Seven times, during the session, these attacks were renewed, and as often failed. Indeed, he has himself said that for months he never heard an Administration member address the Chair, without looking up to sec if a resolution for his censure or expulsion was about to be offered. But he escaped the trying ordeal unscathed. It was said afterwards that " he could not be detected because he was too sharp to leave his tracks uncovered." BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIK. 35 "Never make any tracks," said he, in reply, "and none will ever be found out." During this session also, his vigilance was never for a moment relaxed. Powerless in numbers and influence, he had but one weapon knowledge of the rules of the House, and skill in parliament- ary law ; and he used it with the utmost efficiency. " I am always uneasy," said a member, not originally friendly tq him, " when Vallan- digham is out of his scat, lest some mischief should be slipped in contrary to rule." A concerted effort, for election purposes, having been made by the Secretary of' the Treasury ^ (Mr. Chase), and several Administration members of the House, to underestimate the public debt and expendi- tures, Mr. V., on the 30th of June, in a statistical and carefully pre- meditated speech, exposed the cheat, and exhibited the real extent of the liabilities incurred up to that date. The violent public commotion which followed the proclamation of tlie 15th of April, L861, the apparent unanimity in support of the war, the desertion of many of the old Democratic leaders and the fatal timidity of others, together with the specious cry of " No party," had greatly paralyzed the Democratic organization. Its disastrous defeat that year in every State where the elections were contested, almost dis- solved it. Repeated efforts had been made by Mr. YALLANDIGHAM and the little band with which he acted, to restore the party ; but all had failed, and two several "caucuses" of the Democratic members of Congress had broken up in disorder. The case was still more hopeless ill December. But he closely watched and calmly waited for the oppor- tune moment; and in March, 18G2, taking advantage of the rapid and bold development of the real purposes of the party in power in their various schemes for Confiscation and Emancipation, he drew up a call for a conference of the Democratic Senators arid Representatives, and ob- tained signatures to the number of thirty-five. The meeting was held on the 25th of March, and after a full discussion and some altercation, it was resolved that the organization of the party should be perfected, and on motion of Mr. V. ordered that a committee be appointed to 'prepare an Address to the People of the United States. But previous to this, a secret and concerted effort was being made by certain Eastern politi- cians of the Democratic party, in combination with others of the old Whig and "American" parties, to disband the former, and to consoli- date a new " conservative" organization with a new name. They who were in this movement managed, upon the pretext that Mr. VALLAN- DIGHAM was too unpopular to be on the committee, or, indeed, to be recognized as a member of the party, to postpone, and finally to de- feat the appointment of the committee ordered by the conference. But he, and those who acted with him, were not to be thus beaten. lie 36 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. prepared an Address, which, after much delay and difficulty, was signed by twelve Democratic Representatives from the West (six of them from Ohio), and by two from Pennsylvania, and one from Xe\v Jersey : all the other Eastern members except one, and four of the Western, refusing peremptorily to sign it. It was issued on the 8th of May ; and three days later, the new " Conservative" movement culminated in a caucus in the ball of the House" of Representatives, John J. Crittcnden presiding. But the "Address" was already before the public, and to the Demo- cratic masses it was as the call of the trumpet to battle. Few political documents have ever produced a greater effect. The effort to super- sede the Democratic organization utterly failed. In every State Demo- cratic tickets were put in nomination, and the extraordinary and almost universal successes of the year followed. About the time of the publi- cation of the " Address," Mr. V. visited Philadelphia and New York for the first time since the commencement of the war, and was in both cities and along the route, received with honor by his friends. In the latter, he was tendered a serenade at the Metropolitan Hotel; but apprehending that the war-fury had not yet sufficiently subsided, lie declined it. On the 2d of July he left Washington for Columbus, Ohio, to attend the Democratic State Convention on the Fourth. It was one of the largest, most enthusiastic, and harmonious, ever convened in the State. From the east side of the State House, at the close of the business pro- ceedings, he addressed it in a speech wiiuli) c.\tcjiip^iaucui..->, mil must impassioned, and delivered with voice and gesture terribly in earnest. Its effect upon the audience was very great. One delegate described his shoulders as bruised and blue for several days, from the spasmodic working of the fingers of a stalwart countryman behind him during the delivery. At the beginning, throughout, and at the close, the applause was unbounded. In fact, his entire reception at Columbus was one of the proudest and most gratifying. He arrived in that city on the even- ing of the 3d, and after midnight responded to a serenade; the next day addressed the convention, and again at night spoke from the hotel to an immense assemblage three speeches within twenty hours. McClellan had just been defeated and hurled back upon the James river, though after a gallant and stubborn resistanc-3, and a most mas- terly retreat. Pope's short but disastrous and disgraceful campaign began. More troops were demanded, and the reign of terror was re- 1 newed with greater violence than ever before. Two clergymen from the " Union" Slave States, who hr.d been upon a visit to Mr. VALLANDI- GHAM, were arrested on their way home. It had been the intention to arrest them at his house, and to seize him with them. Arrangements were made subsequently to effect his arrest separately, and officers camo BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 37 up for that purpose from Cincinnati. Mr. V.'s friends rallied to his support, and his house, and all approaches to it, were securely guarded. For several weeks lie sat up or lay whole nights in his day-clothes. Regular reports of the arrival of all trains were brought to him, and ward and watch kept continually till break of day. Not a footfall upon the pavement escaped his ear. He himself, in his speech at New- ark, Nc\v Jersey, in February, 1803, has described "that most terrible of all apprehensions, haunting you, walking with you, abiding with you the fear of arrest." " I felt it," he adds, " when night after night, in my own house which one of the noblest of Englishmen told me, which my father told me, which the Constitution of my country told me, was my castle when night after night from the setting of the sun, from the hour when the gray starlight had gathered around that which should have been a peaceful and undisturbed home, until day dawned, I watched in suspense for every footfall upon the pavement, and the sound of every carriage which rumbled along the street, lest some ex- ecrable minion should dare attempt to cross the threshold of that castle. * Not while memory holds a seat in this distracted globe,' shall the vigils of those terrible nights be forgotten." The intention to arrest him ( was abandoned. Meantime, however, he resolved to address the people of Dayton, to whom he had not spoken since the war began. It was a bold movement, exhibiting the highest moral as well as physical courage; since repeated threats had been made, during the preceding eighteen months, that he would not be allowed to speak ; and, independent of this, the deed of assassination might easily be done under cover of darkness. Uncertain as to the number who would attend, the meeting was announced for a public hall in the city ; but as evening approached, an immense concourse of people, numbering some eight thousand, assembled. The hall was speedily filled to overflowing, but not an eighth part of the audience could gain entrance. The meeting was adjourned to the south side of the beauti- ful stone court-house of the city; and thence Mr. VALLA&DIGHAM ad- dressed the vast and excited multitude for nearly three hours, in a speech which was received with exalted enthusiasm, and which, when published, called forth the highest encomiums. " Elevated in tone, states- manlike in conception, full of pathos, and pure in diction," said the editor of the Crisis, " it thrills the reader as though fresh from a Roman Senate in the hour of Rome's most terrible trials for freedom and existence." At the close, the people accompanied him in triumph to his homo. The victory was won, and he was secure. One passage only need be quoted here : " I, too, have sworn to support the Constitution ; and more than that, / have done it. I demand that all men, from the humblest citizen 33 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIB. up to the President, shall be made to obey it likewise. In no other iv ay can we have liberty, order, security. I was born a freeman. I shall die a freeman. It it appointed to all men once to die; and death never comes too soon to one in the discharge of his dutv. I have O v chosen my course have pursued it have adhered to it to this hour, and will to the end, regardless of consequences. My opinions are im- movable; fire cannot 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 suf- fered before me. I may die for the cause : be it so; but u 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 with the prophet, but survive him." And, meantime, men of Dayton, the opinions which I entertain, the deep convictions that control me in that course which, before Almighty God, I believe can alone maintain the Constitution and restore the Union as our fathers made it, I never, never will yield up. Neither height 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." ^n September he was nominated the sixth time, and by acclamation, as the Democratic candidate for Congress. He accepted in a brief ad- ( ] r ^co owl roforri""- *o t^ ^jr~"" 1 ' ^ t 1 ^ f"v - T.'l ^ - f 1 .: ' !l ' he would not be permitted to speak in certain localities, said : " 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 announce a Demo- cratic meeting, it will be held ; and, God willing, I will address it" He made his declaration good, canvassing every county, and addressing large and enthusiastic meetings of the people. But since the election in I860, a hostile Legislature had changed the district, adding thereto a county giving always an overwhelming Abolition majority. The sole struggle, therefore, was to carry his original district, and in this he succeeded by a largely increased majority. The fall elections in all the States resulted in Democratic triumphs. The reign of terror was broken down and free spc % ch once more se- cured. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM addressed many immense meetings in Ohio and Indiana, continuing his labors up to the day of his departure for Washington. He was everywhere received with extraordinary honors and enthusiasm. But at one of these meetings in Indiana, arrange- ments were made by the Governor and United States Marshal to arrest him on his way home at night His friends urged that under cover of darkness, he should be taken in a carriage past the point where the ar- rest was to be made ; but he answered, " I came by the cars, and in BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 39 that way I mean to return, arrested or not so help me God." lie took the train, and although the marshal and a company of soldiers were at the depot, no arrest was attempted. lie subsequently addressed a meeting near the same place and upon the same road, but was not even threatened. Soon after this an elegant gold-headed cane was presented to him, with appropriate ceremonies, by the ladies of Dayton. Reply- ing to the address, he referred in fitting but delicate terms to his mother, saying: " If, indeed, sir, I have exhibited any of the hij^h qual- ities of courage, fortitude, and immovable devotion to THE GOOD AND THE RIGHT, which, on behalf of these ladies, you have so kindly attrib- uted 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 child- hood, in boyhood, and in youth, in the midst of many trials, from her teachings, and by her example, I have learned those lessons and formed the character and habits if it be so which fitted me, with courage and endurance, and unfaltering faith, to struggle with the terrible times in the midst of which we live." The Thirty-Seventh Congress met in third session, in December. From May down to that period, scarcely any thing but disaster had befallen the Federal arms. The elections had nearly all terminated adversely to the Administration. All was alarm, almost terror. Arbi- trary arrests were suspended ; Forts Warren and Lafayette and other Bastiles gave up their prisoners ; and Mr. Seward graciously announced in an official dispatch, the return of the country to its " normal condi- tion," when all citizens might freely oppose and criticise the measures and conduct of the men in power. But one more effort was yet to be essayed against Richmond. The fortunes of battle were committed to the " weak but presumptuous Burnside," who, on the 13th of Decem- ber, for five hours, with frantic recklessness, drove on his columns against the Confederate intrenchments, and at nightfall, after the loss of fourteen thousand of his best troops, had earned the well-deserved cognomen of "The Butcher of Fredcricksburg." The day before the battle, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM had arrived in New York. Affairs were now changed; and accepting a proffered serenade at the New York Hotel, he addressed a very large assembly, and there, amid great ap- plause, first uttered the word " PEACE" in public meeting in that city. Returning to Washington, he found the Administration and their friends in Congress casting about for some mode of escape from the struggle, with safety to themselves. Negotiation, armistice, mediation, peace, were no longer treasonable words. At this time he introduced a series of resolutions in favor of peace and reconstruction, and in con- demnation of the doctrine of "State suicide or extinguishment," and also of all attempts, direct or indirect, to supersede the existing consti- 40 BIOGRAPHICAL tutional government, by a dictatorship. One of these resolutions w.is an almost literal transcript of a motion concerning the American war, made in the British House of Commons, by the Marquis of Granby, in November, 1777, and rejected by a vote of 243 to 86, in the third year of that war. The Christmas recess of 1862 soon after occurred, and members sepa- rated. Reassembling in January, the drawn battle at MurtYeesboro and the costly but total failure before Yicksburg had been added to the long list of disasters. About this time Mr. V. was approached by letter and personal interview, on the part of one of the most eminent and influ- ential supporters of the Administration, to ascertain whether some means could not be devised to bring about a cessation of hostilities through foreign mediation, leaving the terms of adjustment to foreign arbitration. Whatever the design of this proposition, the effect and issue were palpable final peaceable separation. Mr. V. was ready and anxious for any thing which would stop the war, and believing that me- diation would at that time be "the speediest, easiest, most graceful mode'' of effecting his object, he agreed to support it, but rejected " arbitration" as both impracticable and dangerous, insisting that "the people of the several States here, at home, must be the final arbitrators of the great quarrel in America; and the people and States of the North- west, the mediators who should stand, like the prophet, betwixt the living and tbo don-1 *W the ' plr~"." ff clUumon mi"-Lt U; stayua." ' A O O / Pending this correspondence aud conference, he addressed the House on the 14th of January, reviewing the great Civil War from the begin- ning to that date, and maintaining the practicability and necessity of re- construction through peace and compromise. The speech was listened to by the llousq and crowded galleries with the profoundest attention ; and when published, found millions of readers and admirers. A polit- ical enemy describing the delivery of it, wrote: "He waxes more earnest as he approaches the key note of his harangue, 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 \ is utterance, he hurls the climax of his threatening argument again upon the Republican side of the House : ' Believe me, and accept it as you did not the solemn warnings of years past, the day which divides the North from f he South, that self-same day decrees eternal divorce between the West a?id the East? " But that part of the speech which he himself, no doubt, preferred to any other, was the following : "I had rather my right arm were plucked from its socket and cast into eternal burnings than, with my convictions, to have thus defiled BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 41 my soul with the guilt of moral perjury. Sir, I was 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 en- dure a single generation whose public men practise it. "Whoever teaches it is a comiptcr 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 tiling ; and some- times 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. Cer- tainly, sir, I could not doubt what he must suffer who dare defy the opinions and passions, not to say the madness, of twenty millions of people. Had I not read history? Did I not know human nature? But I appealed to TIME ; and right nobly hath the Avenger answered me." He rejected utterly at that time, both in private letters and inter- views, and in his speech, the idea of final separation as the object of a cessation of hostilities ; and in this he uttered but the almost universal sentiment of the Democratic party, lie believed that the Administra- tion was then willing to make peace upon the basis of such separation, and only desired to have their opponents commit themselves to the same policy, thereby sharing the odium and relieving them, in part, from the responsibility of the act. Failing in this, they rallied late in January, and resolving upon a more "vigorous prosecution of the war" than ever before, resorted, at last, to a formal suspension of the habeas corpus, an indemnity to the President and all under him, and the Conscription. At the same time a formidable effort was made to revive the scheme of a new "conservative" party to supersede the Democratic organization and oppose radicalism, but support the war. This time the movement was to comprehend a portion of the Abolition or " Republican" party ; and chief among its leaders were to be Tliurlow Weed and William II. Seward. Mr. V. could, at that time, obtain no opportunity to address a public meeting in New York ; but being invited to speak in Newark, New Jersey, very near to the former city, lie gladly availed himself of the occasion to denounce, in the severest terms, the proposed arrange- ment. Whatever may have been the effect of the speech, it is certain that the movement utterly failed. Meantime, in Congress, all the various war measures were pushed to the utmost. The Conscription bill called forth a vehement debate. By accident it had passed the Senate without opposition, while in the House it was announced that no debate would be allowed, and the " previous question" was moved, to force an immediate vote upon it. But the minority were resolved to be heard, and by parliamentary manoeuvre 42 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. called, in cant phrase, " filibustering," compelled the majority to yield the point of discussion and amendment One of ihe ablest debates ever heard in the House of Representatives followed. Grit-tendon, Pen- dleton, Voorhees, Biddle, and others, put forth their whole strength Mr. VALLANDIGHAM addressed the House at night on tire 23d of Febru. ary,5n a speech, unprepared and without a single note except the paging of the extracts which he read, but which, in the language of Mr. Voor- hecs, " held the House spell-bound ;" many upon both sides regarding it as his ablest Congressional effort, surpassing in argumentative force and concise vehemence, his speech of the 14th of January. His rebuke of an Administration member, for an offensive interruption soon after lie took the floor, called forth applause, for the first time for him in that Congress, from the galleries. The bill, unconstitutional and odious as it still is as an act of Congress, was stripped of some of its worst features. Thus much, at least, was gained by the debate ; though at last " the dumb eloquence of numbers" prevailed against the vehement oratory of Truth. During the session he had occasion to defend his speech of the 20th of February, 1861, and the constitutional amendments in support of which it was delivered, from the gross perversions of. a colleague ; and just at the close of the session, to reply to a personal assault and refute a petty falsehood repeated in the House by another colleague. The day after the adjournment of Congress he arrived at Philadelphia, and was there first entertained at dinner at the Girard House ; then in the evening' he briefly addressed an immense concourse of people in front of the hotel, and finally, later at night, partook of the elegant hos- pitalities of the " Philadelphia Club." Visiting New York city next, he addressed a large and enthusiastic assemblage at the rooms of the Young Men's Democratic Union Association, in a speech devoted to a review of the legislation of the session which had just closed (especially of the Conscription act), and a fuller development of his theory or plan of reconstruction through peace and negotiation. The next day he visited Albany on invitation for political conference, and a day or two later spoke at a Democratic meeting in Stamford, Connecticut, in support of Thomas II. Seymour, then a candidate for Governor of that State. Returning home on the 13th of March, he was met at the depot by thousands of his constituents, and borne amid great cheering to the court-house, where lie was honored with an enthusiastic reception, which he duly acknowledged in a brief address, in the course of which he said : " 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." Soon after, at a very large meeting in Hamilton, he BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 43 vindicated the right of the people to keop and bear arms, and denounced, in just and indignant terms, a recent military order, " Number 1 o," for- bidding citizens to purchase arms or ammunition, lie declared it to be in direct conflict with "General Order Number One,' the Constitution of the United States, George Washington commanding," and concluded thus: "Sir, I repeat no\v what I believe to be the true programme for these times : try every question of law in your courts, and every ques- tion 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." During the iiionth of April lie addressed large public meetings iu various parts of the State ; and in a bold and candid letter to a gentle- man of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, urged that antagonism was the great element of party enthusiasm and strength ; and that as the Administra- tion were now contending solely for unity and a strong government through war, and failing in that, then disunion, both policy and duty required that the Democratic party should put itself in direct antago- nism by declaring at once for Union and constitutional liberty through an honorable peace. Meantime the renewed conspiracy of the Administration to suppress freedom of speecli and of the press, and to break down all party oppo- sition, and thereby to perpetuate their power by force, became, every day, more and more palpable. For obvious reasons, it was resolved that the Democratic party in the Northwest should be first crushed, and the Northwestern States reduced to the subjugated condition of the Border Slave States. A fit instrument for this execrable work was speedily found. Ambrose E. Burnside, " a name infamous forever in the ears of all lovers of constitutional liberty," was sent out from Washington, reeking with the blood of his own men massacred at Fredericksburg, as commander or military satrap of the Department of the Ohio, com- prising the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Indian^, and Illinois. A native of Indiana, but of New England parentage, and "raised" in Rhode Island ; weak in intellect and with an hereditary taint of hypochondriac insanity ; a renegado from the Democratic party ; ignorant of the first principles of civil liberty, and servile in his sycophancy to power, he entered upon his task with the violence of a military fanatic, and at the same time, the superserviccable zeal of a minion eager to anticipate the secret desires of his master, and earn the approving 11 Hubert, I love thee ; Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee." Incapable of public speaking, his first appearance, nevertheless, was 44 BIO GRAPHICAL MKMOIK. as an onitor at an Abolition meeting at Hamilton ; his next, as author of " Order Thirty-Eight," with which his name will forever remain as- sociated. It was a comprehensive ami sweeping edict, under which every act of atrocity and outrage, including murder itself, could be and was perpetrated. For the first time a permanent "military commis- sion" for the trial of citizens, men and women, was established in a State not in insurrection, and where the process of the courts never for a moment had been interrupted. One of the earliest victims was a deli- cate and elegant lady from Kentucky, and soon the military prisons were crowded. Full of the insolence of his satrapy, Burnside resolved to arrest Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. The State Convention had been fixed for the llth of June. Aware of the purpose and plan to subjugate the Northwest, that gentleman had, along with others, labored earnestly to anticipate the movement, by bringing the convention forward to April, and making nominations before the conspiracy was ready for development. He expected to be nominated for Governor, and was satisfied, that if the Democratic party should place its candidates before the people, and open the political campaign first, neither himself nor any one else would be molested. Unfortunately, the proposition failed by a tie-vote in the committee. In the last week in April, a third " General Order" was announced at Indianapolis, expressly forbidding, in so many words, any criticism of the policy or conduct of the Admin- istration. Mr. VALLAXMOHAM wn* at tho time i'i rV)!nmbn, nnd im- mediately held a consultation with a number of his* friends, declaring to them that the crisis had now arrived, and that some one must take the responsibility of meeting it at once, and endure the consequences. It was material to ascertain whether the spirit of the people was utterly broken, and ready for unlimited and slavish submission. Accordingly, it was agreed that a meeting for Thursday evening, the 30th of April, should be held in front of the State House ; and here, in a calm and well-considered speech, he announced his firm purpose to criticise and condemn any and all acts and policies of the party and men in power, whenever, in his judgment, they deserved censure, and in precisely the same manner and with the same freedom as in times past. "If it be really the design of the Administration," said he, "to force this issue, then come rarest, come imprisonment, come exile, come death itself, " I am ready here to-night to meet it." But it was not for this speech that he was to be molested. Burnside had made other arrangements, better suited to his narrow intellect and crooked propensities. Mr. V. ha. r ^ M r> "* ^ n oofi^^ fT.f,-\mvT tion of the war and peace. And this position he consistently maintained throughout the canvass ; alluding again, and only casually, to that question, in -the letter of July 31st, to the Toledo meeting, in this language : " Continual war and strife are the forbidden fruit of our political Eden, and bear still the primal curse, uttered in tones louder than the voice of the mighty cataract in whose presence I now write In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die." Soon after Mr. VALLANDIGHAM'S arrest, a large and potential indigna- tion meeting had been held at Albany, New York, to which Governor Horatio Seymour had addressed a remarkable letter, very decided and even revolutionary in its tone and language. Strong resolutions were adopted, and a committee appointed to transmit them to Mr. Lincoln, 'calling upon him, at the same time, to discharge Mr. V. from imprison- ment. The Ohio State Convention also selected a committee of nine- teen, one from each Congressional district, composed of some of the very first men of the State, to present to him the resolution requesting, Dot as a favor but a right, the revocation of the order of banishment. These gentlemen repaired to Washington, and in person discharged their duty. To both committees, Mr. Lincoln returned separate replies in writing, justifying the outrage, and insisting gravely and without a "joke," upon his constitutional right to commit and repeat it. In these extraordinary letters he maintained the whole doctrine of "military necessity," insisting that the Constitution in time of war, varied " in its application," from the Constitution in time of peace, so that its limita- tions upon power, and the rights secured by it to the States and the people ceased, in cases of rebellion and invasion involving the public safety, to be applicable, and that " the man whom, for the time, the people had, under the Constitution, made the commander-in-chicf of the army and navy, was the man" who was to decide when the public safety was involved, and what in that case ought to be done. He went BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 53 further, and forgetting his high position as President, resorted to delib- erate falsehood, subterfuge, and prevarication, in order to justify the particular act of which the committees complained. Wholly ignoring the " charge and specification" upon which alone Mr. VALLANDIGHAM had been arrested and subjected to trial by the military commission, and conceding in so many words, that if the arrest were made fur lan- guage addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the Administration, or in condemnation of the military order of the General, " it was wrong," he did not scruple to assert that Mr. V. was arrested " because he was laboring with some effect, to prevent the raising of troops, to encourage desertions from the army, and to leave the rebellion without an adequate military force td suppress it." No such charge had been >x referred against him, and it was without the slightest foundation in truth. He repeated, also, the false statement that the Judge who refused the habeas corpus, was a member of the Democratic party; and in his re- ply to the Ohio committee, with mingled falsehood and hypocrisy, and in the form of solemn adjuration, charged the man who, under his own edict, executed by force, was absent where his voice in self-defence could not be heard, with complicity with armed combinations to resist the conscription and the arrest of deserters, and with numerous acts of assassination which he declared had been committed. These were his words: "And now, under a sense of responsibility more weighty and enduring than any which is merely official, I solemnly declare my belief that this hindrance of the military, including maiming mid mur- der, is due to the course in which Mr. VALLANDIGHAM has been engaged, in a greater degree than to any other cause ; and is due to him person- ally in a greater degree than to any other one man. These things have been notorious, known to all." And yet, while they constituted distinct and overt acts of crime, easy of proof if true, they formed no part of the " charge and specification" before Bumsidc's military commission, to prove which he had stripped two of his officers of their uniform, and sent them as spies to Mt. Vernon. Did ever official insolence and m,en dacity go further ? Nor was this. all : with a full knowledge that Mr. VAL- LANDIGHAM' s speeches, including the very one for which ostensibly he was arrested, were full of. injunctions to obey all laws and to respect all right- ful authority, Mr. Lincoln did not hesitate to add that with all these acts of violence and resistance " staring him in the face, he (Mr. V.) had never uttered a word of rebuke or counsel against them." Yet after all these assertions, he declared in his reply to the Albany committee, and re- peated it in his letter to the committee from Ohio, that Mr. YALLAX- DIGIIAM'S arrest "had been for preve ntion, and not for punishment ; not so much for what had been done, a* for what probably would be done." He concluded his letter to the Ohio committee, with an offer to revoke 54 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. the order of banishment, upon the condition that the several me of the committee should bind themselves to certain propositions in writing submitted by him, which implied nothing less than support of the \var, and indorsement of the Administration ; but he added, -with despotic insolence, that "in regard to Mr. VALLANDIGHAM and all others, he would thereafter as theretofore, do so much as the public safety might seem to require." To the propositions thus made, the committee re- plied that they " were not authorized to enter into any bargains, terms, contracts, or conditions, with the President of the United States to pro- cure the release of Mr. VALLAXDIGHAM." The entire correspondence was conducted, on the part of both "committees, with great dignity and consummate ability ; arid but for the stirring military events at that time transpiring in Pennsylvania and the Mississippi Valley, would have produced a powerful effect upon the public mind. But delusive and un- substantial successes in the field had revived, to a large extent, the popular delirium of war; and again, amid arms, as well reason as laws were silent. In August, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM, after a brief tour down the lakes and the Kivcr St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec, selected Windsor, in Canada West, opposite Detroit, Michigan, as his place of sojourn. It was easy of access and convenient for communication with Ohio and the Northwest ; while the beautiful Detroit River and Lakes Erie and St. Chair, full of fish and fowl, and,the thick forests around abounding in g,o,LijU, CUU.K**. i.tii.iii.vi IlCUltlliUi cXoi'isioC toi' \,i*\, Ov/vl , itiiVA piOiiom'U .<5 tiiO mind. He arrived on the 24th, and the next day was visited by a large delegation of his fellow-citizens from Detroit, who gave him a cordial welcome. "How priceless is this exile," said the gentleman selected to speak on behalf of the delegation, " since it has caused the usurpers of power to pause in their mad career, and has nerved the arm and aroused the vigilance of freemen to defend the great corner-stone of free institutions free speech and a free press P Mr. V. replied in appropri- ate, terms, but, with rare delicacy and forbearance, declined to speak in personal denunciation, in a foreign country, of those by whom he had been so deeply wronged. "Claiming the fullest right at home,'' .he said, "to criticise and condemn the men and acts.of the Administra- tion, and meaning there and at the proper time to aga'.r. exercise it to the utmost, I yet, on foreign soil, have no word of bitterness to speak. I only remember now that they represent my country, and forbear." At this time the political canvass in Ohio had become intensely ex- cited. Nothing equal to it had previously been witnessed not even in 1840. The meetings of Mr. V ALLAN- DIGHAM'S friends numbered from ten thousand to thirty thousand, and in some instances even fifty thousand, in attendance. For weeks, all except political agitation and BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 55 discussion, was laid aside and forgotten. A body of public speakers second to none in any State, and including several of the highest national reputation, addressed the people day and night. Gallantly and with matchless eloquence, Mr. Pugh, as candidate for Lieutenant- Governor, bore the Democratic standard in the light, It had been Mr. V.'s earnest desire and purpose to return home early in September to aid in the canvass; but the judgment of his friends was decidedly against it, because of political Considerations, and he felt obliged re- luctantly to acquiesce. But from Windsor during the canvass, he ad- dressed two earnest letters to his party in the State one in reply to the threat that civil war in Ohio should follow his election, and the other in warning and denunciation of the formal suspension, on the loth of Sep- tember, of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in every State. At this time many of his friends believed that his triumph was certain. The Administration were greatly alarmed. " Don't ask me to do any thing," said Lincoln to Wendell Phillips, "till after the Ohio election.' 7 It was his design, at one time, to attempt to control the election by force, as in Kentucky ; and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was the first step in that direction. But the firm front shown by the Democratic party, and their fixed purpose to resist by arms, if neces- sary, compelled him to change the scheme from force to fraud, and through the joiut^iid of secret " Union Leagues" and the War Depart- ment, his success was complete. F<^r although Mr. VALLANDIGHAM received a larger vote by many thousands, than was ever before given to a Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio, yet the vote of the State was recorded against him, by a majority of sixty-one thousand, exclusive of thirty-nine thousand returned from the army. The friends of the Administration had repeatedly declared that they could better sustain the loss of a battle, or even of a whole campaign, in the field, than to lose the political control of Ohio, by his election. But success attended them everywhere ; and in every State, except New Jersey, the Democratic party, no matter upon what platform or with what candi- dates, whether for peace or the war, suffered a decisive defeat. Even in the army, the Democratic vote of Ohio was no less than that re- ceived by the candh^itc of that party in Iowa, though he held a briga- dier's command at the time, in actual military service in the South- west. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM had well known that his election was impossible, and therefore could have been surprised only by the majority against him. But lie calmly heard the announcement of his defeat, and the same day published an Address to the Democrats of Ohio, saying: "You arc beaten; but a nobler battle for constitutional liberty and free popular government, never was fought by any people. And your un- 56 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. conquerable firmness and courage, even in the miM of armed military force, secured you those first of freemen's rights free speech and a free ballot. The conspiracy of the fifth of May, fell before you. Be not discouraged; despair not of the Republic. Maintain your rights: stand firm to your position; never yield up your principles or your organization." In November, a large delegation of the students of the .University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, called upon Ijim at Windsor. To tin? sincere and glowing speech of the young gentleman who presented the delega- tion, Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM replied in an address which by men of all parties, was regarded as a rare example of wise and moral counsel and scholarly eloquence. He appreciated the tribute thus paid to one who had no rewards to bestow, saying: "The applause of the young is the highest praise. They speak the language of the coming generation, and anticipate the judgment of posterity." But he preferred to change the visit of ceremony into one of profit ; and besides sound advice in regard to study and the pursuits of after-life, enjoined the highest morality. " Remember," said he, " that ability, however eminent, and intellectual discipline, however exact, are not enough. Without pure morals, correct habits, and fixed integrity, you cannot endure the trial. Be virtuous. Be pious. I use the word in no narrow, sectarian, or theological sense ; but in that which Virgil means wl$n he calls ./Eneas, "phis' a piety which belongs tc^ no one sect, nor clime, nor time, nor country, but which everywhere and at all times, renders to God, and self, and man, whatever is due, and does in the very spirit of the Sermon on the Mount." But that which most nearly disclosed one of the chief traits of his own character, was the injunction: "Have faith ab&lute, unquestioning, immovable that faith which, speaking to itself in the silence and calm of the heart's own beating, says, ' If not to-day, or this time, then to-morrow, or next, or some other day, at some other time, in some other way, all will be well.' Without this, no one ever achieved greatness." Such were the sentiments, amid persecution, in exile, and after defeat, of the man whom his competitor for gubernatorial honors graciously consigned, after the election, to oblivion. At Niagara Falls Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM was daity overwhelmed with visitors from every State, and the throng was but Httk diminished at Windsor. Spies, too, beset him at every step ; but to no purpose. The Administration seemed to fear him somewhat as Chateaubriand said the gray coat and cocked hat of the First Napoleon was feared by the Legitimists of Europe. The United States gun-boat Michigan, with loaded cannon and steam up, lay opposite his bed-room window for four weeks, lest he should, perchance, land in Detroit, and, possibly, capture and destroy the city; while a score of detectives, provided with BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 67 his photograph, Kept watch iu every public place. At all this he could smile in calm contempt. Since the election, Mr. VALLANDIOIIAM has lived in great quietude and seclusion in Windsor. Like the Master of Ravenswood, he has chosen for his motto, " I bide my time." In a letter to a friend, writ- ten in November, he thus describes his daily way of life: "I am here as calm, as determined, as steadfast, and as hopeful as ever, and as busy too. I am reviewing history and political philosophy ; dipping a little into the ancient classics again ; making notes and memoranda of the times; writing letters; and closely, day by day, watching the course of events at home and abroad ; ready for any fortune, and, I hope, equal to it. I see many visitors also, and spend not an idle moment- for my recreations, riding, walking, fishing, hunting, &c., I do not count idle- ness." In February, 1864, Mr. Pugh applied in the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, for a writ of certiorari to review and annul the proceedings and sentence of the military commission be'fore which Mr. V. had been tried. But that tribunal, having under the Constitution no appellate jurisdiction of any kind, except in cases first ascertained by law, and Congress not having given such jurisdiction in any proceeding before courts-martial or military commissions, Was obliged, and upcxi this ground expressly and alone, to deny the writ. No American legislator had ever before imagined that any mere citi- zen would, under any circumstances, be subjected to trial by military law, in a State where judicial process and courts had never been inter- rupted; and, therefore, no mode of redress had ever been provided. In'1846, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM was married to Miss Louisa A. McMahon, a sister of the Hon. John V. L. McMahon, of Baltimore, Maryland, and daughter of William McMahon, one of the purest and best of men, who lived and died a pious and honored citizen of Cumberland in the same State. He has but one child living, a bright, noble boy of ten years of ao-e. He has only two brothers one the Rev. James L. Vallandigham. t* *- *^ of Newark, Delaware ; and the other, Dr. George S. Vallandigham, resi- ding iu New Lisbon, Ohio. A younger brother died many years ago. His own personal appearance is thus Described by an Englishman writing from Niagara Falls : " A more thorough gentleman in manner, appear- ance, and language, it would not be easy to find; certainly it would be difficult to get many such among those who assail him so bitterly. He is a man of medium height and build, fresh in complexion that fresh- ness which betokens health and exceedingly intelligent-looking, with- out that massivcncss of brain which frequently, though not always, accompanies great intellectual power. Exceedingly amiable in disposi- tion, he is respected by all who know him. . Refined in manner and 58 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. language, he impresses you on the instant .TS few American politicians impress you. Were I to describe him in a word, not knowing his native country, I would say he was an English gentleman of good educa- tion and training-, of great probity, and much more than an average share of ability and political acquirements. A schemer, even in politics, I could not conceive him to be." But, perhaps, the most concise and accurate personal description of him, is the following, from a Southern paper, written in May, 1863 : "Whilst in Shelbyville, I seized the opportunity of seeing Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Without impertinently intruding upon that distinguished man, I heard him converse for an hour or so, upon one topic and another. His manner has nothing studied or affected ; he speaks without effort or hesitation, and his face bears a permanent expression of good humor and friendship. Ilis eyes are blue, full, and look right into yours ; and whilst they beam with vivacity and intelligence, there is an earnest honesty in them which has won your regard and admiration before you know it. His complexion is florid, his nose rather hooked (Roman), chin and lips wgll chiselled- and firm, teeth strong and white, hair and whiskers dark chestnut and close trimmed, height about five feet ten. His frame is robust, compact, and graceful. Altogether he is certainly a man of extraordinary mental and physical vigor ; of great natural abilities improved by cultivation, combining impulse with deliberation, and enthusiasm with remorseless determination of purpose." As a speaker, Mr. VALLANDIOHAM is thus described by a correspond- ent of the Boston Herald, an Administration paper: "Hi* method of speaking is very attractive. Added to fine appearance of person, he has a good voice and gesture, and always speaks without notes. I might add, also, that his great coolness amid the most heated discussions, is one of his peculiarities, and gives him decided advantages over moro impassioned antagonists." Another hostile correspondent, referring to the delivery of a particular passage in one of his speeches, says : " With flashing eye and livid features, and extended hand trembling with the passion of his utterance, he hurls the climax of his threatening argument upon the Republican side of the House." Since the foregoing was written, Mr. VALLANDIGHAM has returned to his home in Dayton, Ohio. He came of his own act and pleasure, appearing, unknown to all, before the Democratic District Convention at Hamilton, Ohio, on the 15th of June. He 'was received with the most extraordinary demonstrations of enthusiasm and joy, and having fini been appointed a delegate to the Democratic Presidential Convention, at Chicago, addressed the people ; soon after which he took the tram BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 59 for Dayton, where he arrived late in the afternoon, and drove im- mediately to his own home, which he had not seen for thirteen months. In the evening hundreds called, and day and night ever since, his house has been thronged with cordial and determined friends. The evening after his return he was serenaded, and addressed from his own portico an assemblage of sonic tvro thousand persons, called together upon- a few hours' notice. So far no attempt has been made to rearrest or in any way to interfere with him. July, 18G4. From Mr. VALLANDIG HAM'S private note-book we arc permittted to copy the following, dated in August, 1843. How closely he has adhered to these resolutions of his early youth, his subsequent public and private life abundantly attest, lie pursued them faithfully till, just twenty years later, they led him into exile, and yet he clings to them still : "FIXED RULES Of political conduct to guide me as a statesman ; in no instance and under no circumstances whatever to be relaxed or violated ; and this by the blessing of Almighty God : " 1. Always to pursue what is honest, right, and just, though adverse to the apparent and present interests of the country ; well assured that what is not right, cannot, in the long run, be expedient. " 2. Always to prefer MY COUNTRY, and the whole country, before any and all considerations of mere party. " 3. In all things coolly to ascertain, and, with stern independence, to pursue the dictates of my judgment and my conscience, regardless of the consequences to party or self. " 4. As far as consistent with the national honor and safety, and with justice to the country, to seek PEACE with all nations and to pursue it; persuaded that a pacific policy is the true wisdom of a State, and war its folly; yet as resolved to demand nothing but what is right, so to submit to nothing that is wrong. " 5. Sedulously, at all times and in every place, to calm and to harmo- nize the conflicting interests and sectional jealousies of the different divisions of the Republic, and especially of the North and South ; and with steady perseverance, under all circumstances, to uphold and cement the Union of the States as "the palladium of our political safety and prosperity" except at the sacrifice of the just constitutional liberties and inalienable rights of oppressed minorities. CO BIOGKRAPHICAL MEMOIR. " 6. Without infringing the rights of conscience, always to countenance and support religion, morality, and education, as essential to the well- being of a free Government; and in all things to acknowledge the superintending Providence of ah All- Wise, Most Just, and Beneficeut God, in the affairs of the Republic." SPEECHES. I appealed to Time; and right nobly hath the Avenger answered me." tcli of January 14, 1863. SPEECHES, ETC. THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWER OF THE LEGISLATURE TO ALTER LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS.* THE minority of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, to winch was referred the memorial of Daniel Chandler, contesting the right of Jordan Bctts, the sitting member from the county of Morgan, to the scat which he at present holds in this House, respectfully report: That they have bestowed upon the case, submitted to them, all that at- tention which its importance demanded. They regret the necessity which compels them to differ wholly with the majority of the com- mittee. But since a difference a wide, though an honest difference separates them, in their conclusions, from that majority, it remains only for them to present, for the consideration of the House, the reasonings by which they have been governed, in their judgment upon the papers referred to the committee. It has been a matter, also, of surprise and regret, that, in a case par- taking so much of the nature of a judicial proceeding, efforts should have been made, out of doors, to prejudge the rights of the parties to this contested election : still more, that such efforts should have been countenanced within the House. This, in the opinion of the under- signed, is not a matter in which the deference or the allegiance which every man ought, and can honorably owe to party habitudes, or to the wishes and opinions of his fellows of a kindred political faith, ought to be allowed the smallest influence. Upon the facts, the law, and the Constitution, it behooves every member to decide in his own individual judgment, since the Constitution of the State, by the eighth section of the first article, has made him a "judge" of the qualifications and the election of his fellow-members. * Report submitted by Mr. TALL AXDIG HAM, from the minority of the Election Committee, in the Ohio House of Representatives, December 18, 1845, iu the- Mor- gan county contested election, Daniel Chandler against Jordan Bttts. 64 VALLAITDIGILOl's SPEECHES. Tlic papers and other documents referred to, or in possession of the committee, present the following state of facts : An act of the General Assembly, passed December 20, 1 17, erected certain portions of the counties of Washington, Guernsey, and Mns- kingum, into a new county, called by the name of Morgan, comprising within its territory, as prescribed in the act, the townships of Bloom, Bristol, Brookfield, Centre, Deerfield, Jackson, Malta, Manchester, Mor- gan, Mcigsvillc, Noble, Olive, Penn, Union, York, and Windsor, together with two other townships, subsequently attached to an adjoining county. In the year 1843, in pursuance of section 2, article 1, of the Consti- tution of Ohio, an enumeration was made of all the white male inhabi- tants above twenty-one years of age, residing within the State. On the 12th day of March, 1844, the Legislature passed " an act to fix and apportion the representation of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio," the first clause of which act is in the words following : " Be it enacted, &c., that the General Assembly of this State shall be com- posed of thirty-six Senators, and seventy-two Representatives, to be ap- portioned as follows 1 ': The 19th clause, section 1st, of that act, fixes and apportions "to the counties of Perry, Morgan, and Washington, one Senator, to be elected in the years 1845 and 1847 ; to each of said counties one Representative, and an additional Representative to the county of Morgan, in the year 1847." Morgan county, which, by this act, was thus organized into an electoral district, and declared entitled to one Representative hi thr- ycr-n 1! ', '!.", *.:.! 'IJ, ^.,J ^^ ~u addi- tional one in the year 1847, was composed, at the time said act was passed, of the territory including the townships before named. No other territory, and no white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age, other than such as were living at that time, constituted the territory, and the white male inhabitants, above twenty-one years of age, of the county called Morgan, at the date of the act before recited. By a local law, passed March llth, 1845, the townships of Homer and Marion, being parts, of the territory within the county of Athens, together with seven sections of the township of Roxbury, in Washing- ton county, were attached to the county of Morgan. Four and a half of these sections were subsequently incorporated, by the commissioners of Morgan county, with Windsor township, in that county, and the re- maining two sections and a half, with the township of Marion. The act made no provision requiring the votes of the electors within the town- ships *and sections annexed by it, to be polled or counted for Repre- sentative, in Morgan county. It is silent, altogether, upon that subject. On the 14th of October, 1845, in pursuance of the Constitution, and of the laws of the State, an election was held in Morgan, as in other MORGAN COUNTY CONTESTED ELECTION. 65 counties, for certain officers, and among these, for Representative in the General Assembly. Two candidates fur the office were presented to the people Jordan Betts and Daniel Chandler. Of the votes cast in the townships of Morgan county, before enumerated, together with the townships and sections attached by the act of llth March, 1845, Mr. Chandler .received two thousand one hundred and eighty-seven, Mr. Bctts two thousand one hundred and fourteen, exhibiting a majority of seventy-three votes for Mr. Chandler. But of the votes polled in the townships, comprising that county, at the peritfd of the fixing and ap- portionment of the representation, by the act of March 12th, 1844, two thousand and fourteen were cast for Betts, and one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight for Chandler, showing a majority for Mr. Betts, of one hundred and fifty-six votes. Assuming that the votes polled in the townships of Homer and Marion could not, in conformity with the Constitution, and with law, be deemed votes legally cast for Representative, in the county of Mor- gan as an electoral district, the clerk of the Common Pleas, and the justices whom, in pursuance of the statute, he had called to his assist- ance, refused to count the votes so polled; and accordingly, Mr. Betts, having a majority of all other votes, received from the clerk a certificate of election to the seat which he now holds in the House. Mr. Chandler contests the right of Mr. Betts to that scat, and presents his memorial, which has been read by the clerk. Upon this statement of facts, two questions are presented for the judgment of the House 1. Was it the intent of the act of llth March, 1845, or did it so operate, as to make the townships and sections enumerated in it, so far apart of the county of M 'organ, as to entitle the white male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one, residing in those townships and sections, to vote for Representative in ilMt county. 2. If such were the intent or the operation of the act, is it, so far, an act which the Legislature has constitutional power to pass ? Preliminary to the consideration of these questions, and for the pur- pose of disembarrassing the subject of all matters either not contro- verted, or not necessarily connected with the issue joined upon the case, and' of ascertaining the precise points of controversy, the under- signed here state what is or might bo safely, and with truth, admitted. It is admitted, that if the votes polled for Representative in the townships of Homer and Marion, be counted as votes legally cast in the county of Morgan, Mr. Chandler is entitled to the scat which lie claims in his memorial ; otherwise, Mr. Bctts is entitled to that scat. It is admitted that the Legislature may constitutionally establish new counties, or alter the boundaries of old ones, incorporating parts of the 5 (56 VALLANDIGHAM S SPEECHES. territory of one county into the territory of another. With all this, we have nothing do. It might be admitted that the votes polled in the townships and sections annexed by the act of '45, for county officers, ought to have been, and were, rightfully received and counted as votes given in Mor- gan county : it might equally be admitted that they were illegally and improperly so received and counted ; and yet, Mr. Belts be entitled to his seat. t It might be admitted that the votes of the sections above referred to, were improperly counted among the votes polled in Morgan county for Representative. Four and a half of these sections were incorporated, as before stated, with Windsor township, in that county. It was, and is, impossible to distinguish between the votes legally and those ille- gally so polled in that township. But the dilemma is readily solved. In Windsor township, Mr. Betts received 116 votes ; Mr. Chandler, 125. Now let all the votes cast in that township for Mr. Betts be rejected, and all the votes received in it by Mr. Chandler be counted ; still, Mr. Betts has a clear majority of forty votes ; and therefore, so far, is entitled to his seat. It might be admitted that the act of March, '45. was pass.ed at the instance of the people, without distinction of party, residing in the terri- tory annexed by it to Morgan county that it was passed for their con- venience that said territory and its inhabitants were received and treated as part ol Uiai county, tor county purposes that- the property within that territory was placed for taxation upon the duplicate of the county of Morgan all this may be admitted, and still, Mr. Betts be en- titled to his seat. It might be admitted that the former distribution of Representatives was unjust and unequal, so far as to the counties named in the act of 1845 ; that the act only so altered that distribution, as to remove the inequality; and still, Mr. Betts be entitled to his seat It might be admitted that the electors of township number four, which, by an act passed January 29, 1827, was incorporated with the county of Lorain, voted with that county for its Representative in the General Assembly, though of that fact there was no evidence presented to the Committee. . But since no question was rais-;J in the case, it cannot be regarded as a precedent of any great value. So that, still, Mr. Betts may be entitled to his seat And finally, as a matter to which the undersigned entreat the very earnest and candid consideration o the House it mi^ht even be con- ceded that the clerk of the Common Pleas of Morgan county had violated the most solemn responsibilities of his office trifled with the obligation of his oath trampled upon the Constitution, and set at defi- 1IOEGJ.N (JO U STY CONTESTED ELECTION. 67 ance the laws, the whole statute-book, violating flagrantly every page of it, from the first syllable to the last nay, he might even have done what he did do, for a pecuniary recompense -for money, thus superad- ding the crime of bribery to the accumulated guilt of a violation of all other moral, constitutional, and legal responsibilities; and yet, under the laws and the Constitution, Mr. Betts be entitled to his seat. With the action of the justices and the clerk, the House has just nothing to do. For had Mr. Chandler received the certificate of elec- tion, beyond a doubt, Mr. Betts might have appeared at the bar of the House as contestor. And in such event, it is plain as the sun at broad noon, that the question would have been precisely what it now is. The question is not, who ought to have had the certificate from the clerk, but, who is now entitled by the law and the Constitution, to a seat as the Representative from the county of Morgan ? In respect to the action of the justices and the clerk, the minority have this only now to say : that if the townships of Homer and Marion constituted no part, under the Constitution or the law, of the county of Morgan, for the purposes of the election of a Representative for *_.'.. county, the clerk and the justices whom he called to his assistance, had no more right, and were under no greater obligation to receive the poll-books from those town ships, than from any other township in any other county in the State; and were bound to refuse them BO far as to the votes cast for Repre- sentative. The undersigned ask now the attention of the House to the first point before submitted. Nothing can be clearer, than that there is no express intent declared in the act of March 11, 1845, to the effect that the electors of the territory annexed to the county of Morgan, should vote for Representative, with that county. .Neither is there in any part of it, any provision whatsoever, from which such intent can rationally and fairly be inferred. All the known and settled rules for ascertaining the intent of statutes, fail wholly, when applied to that act, to establish an intent such as above supposed. The words do not de- clare it; it cannot be presumed from the context, nor from the subject matter, nor the reason or spirit, nor yet even from the title of the act. But, though such be not the intent of the law, does it so operate as to entitle the electors of the several townships and sections attached by it to the county of Morgan, to vote for a Representative from that county? The apportionment act of March 12, 1844, 19th clause, sec- tion 1st, organized the counties of Athens and Meigs into an electoral district, and assigned to them one Representative in the General Assem- bly: At the date of that act, the townships of Homer and Marion were parts of that electoral district, and the inhabitants of those townships were, by that law, and the general election laws f the State, entitled to 68 VALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. vote, in common with the other white male inhabitants of the district, for OHO Representative /or the counties of Athens and Mciys. Now, it will hardly be pretended that the law of March 11, 184 5, undertakes expressly, to repeal, in whole or part, the act of March 12, 1844. Such pretence would be in broad contradiction of the evidence of every man's senses. Does it, then, so operate as to repeal the latter, by tvay of implication ? This it might effect in two ways either by requiring, expressly, something contradictory to the provisions of the former law, or by being, in its nature, repugnant to, and irreconcilable with, that law. But, as already has been shown, the act of '45 contains no clause in any part of it, pointing out in what county or electoral district the electors of the territory annexed shall vote. Total silence, in every respect, on a subject so important as the right of suffrage, cannot, by any torture of interpretation, be construed into a contradiction, either express or implied, of the requirements of former laws upon that sub- ject ; laws, also, which were known to be in force at the time. And further : the journals of the last session show that, while the law of March llth was pending before the Legislature, amendments were pro- posed, pointing out the effect which the law should have upon the elec- toral rights of the inhabitants of the townships and sections annexed to Morgan county; but these amendments were rejected by decisive majorities. So that not even was this silence accidental. It may also not be amiss, here to observe, that the language of the act of last ses- sion differs, very widely, from the language ot the act oi lb^<", oeiuiu referred to in this report. But neither is there any thing in the nature of the act of 1845 repug- nant to the apportionment law of 1844. The former act does not affect to deal at all with the electoral rights of the inhabitants in the territory annexed by it ; it is a local act, passed for local purposes, by local in- fluences, perhaps, and for the convenience of those inhabitants, in ordi- nary county and township affairs. The latter deals wholly with the inhabitants of the State as electors, and it deals with them in no other capacity. It treats of the distribution of political power, and it does not pretend to treat of any thing else. And further, the electors of the townships and sections attached to Morgan county, had hitherto voted for Repiesentative with the electors of the county of Athens. Nothing in the act of 1845, prohibited them from continuing so to vote, or re- quired them to vote elsewhere. They might, in all other respects, have become citizens of the county of Morgan. They might have voted even for county officers with that county, and for Representative, have voted with Athens. Nothing could have been easier. The 22d section of the general election law of 1831, points out the mode of so voting in the case of new counties, organized between the regular periods of ap- MORGAN COUNTY CONTESTED ELECTION. G9 portionment. The like has been done repeatedly. And the law made no change in their township officers, or in the time, manner, or place of holding elections. Here was no burden; no hardship; no dis- franchisemcnt To sum up all in a few words: the act of the last session declares no express intent to alter, in any manner, the apportionment or election laws in force at that time, or to change, lessen, or extend the bound- aries of electoral districts, as fixed by those laws. Neither is there any thing in its requirements contradictory to those laws. And, finally, nothing in the nature or character of that act, can be pointed out, re- pugnant to the rights conferred, or the obligations imposed, by the laws first named. So conclusive docs this view of the case seem to the minority, that they might well here rest, and confidently demand the judgment of the House i.n favor of the right of Mr. Betts. But considerations, graver far, and, if possible, still more satisfactory, remain yet to be presented. By the second section, article 1st, of the Constitution of Ohio, it is ordained that " within one year after the first meeting of the General Assembly, and within every subsequent term of four years, an enumera- tion of all the white male inhabitants, above twenty-one years of age, shall be made in such manner as shall be directed by law. The num- ber of Representatives shall, at the several periods of making such enumeration, be fixed by the Legislature, arid apportioned among the several counties, according to the number of white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age in each, and shall never be less than twenty-four, nor greater than thirty-six, until the 'number of white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age, shall be twenty-two thou sand ; and after that event, at such ratio, that the whole number of Representatives shall never be less than thirty-six, nor exceed seventy two." Upon this part of the Constitution, the minority, with all be coming deference to the honest opinions' of others, claim with very great confidence, and in perfect assurance of being sustained in the con- struction they set up, that it is not within the constitutional power of a subsequent Legislature to alter or repeal a law fixing and apportioning representation in the General Assembly, passed, in good faith, in pur- suance of the section above quoted, except at the several periods of making the enumeration in the section provided for. An examination of the section, applying to it the known and common-sense rules of inter- pretation, will enable every man to decide, in his own judgment, upon its true meaning. And, first, it provides for " an enumeration of all the white male inhabitants (of the State) above twenty-one years of age," within one year after the first meeting of the General Assembly. That enumeration was made in 1803, the Assembly having first met in the fO YALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. spring of that year. The same section farther provides, that such emi' meration shall be made "within every subsequent term of four years." It is then further provided, that "the number of Representatives shall be fixed and apportioned among the several counties" of the State. But -when so fixed and apportioned ? " At the several periods of making such enumeration ;" that is, once in every term of four years. And how fixed and apportioned among the several counties? "According to the number of white male inhabitants above twenty-one years of age in each." How is that number to be ascertained ? By an enumeration. When is that enumeration to be made ? Once in every term of four years. Is it the number of inhabitants throughout the whole State which is to determine the apportionment? No; but the number in each county. Thus it will be perceived that the Legislature has the power expressly given, to take once in four years, at regular periods, the census of certain inhabitants of the State ; and according to that census, to fix and apportion the Representatives among the several counties, ac- cording to the number of such inhabitants in each. But it may be argued that the Legislature is not prohibited from taking an enumera- tion and apportioning Representatives at periods other than those fixed ; and that, if so, it may alter or amend, at any time, the periodical ap- portionment acts. True, it is not prohibited by express words but is such the intent of the Constitution ? Is it the theory of that instru- ment ? Far from it. The bill of rights, section 28, in words pointed and emphatic, ordain", tlir.t "to guard a^.'.^l Luc liuiio^i^olvii 01 Ue high powers which we have delegated, we declare that ALL powers not hereby delegated, remain with the people." Such powers only, there- fore, as are, by the Constitution, delegated to the Legislature, can be exercised by it. No part of that instrument, except the 2d section of article 1st, provides for the enumerating of the white male inhabitants of the State, above the age of twenty -one ; or for fixing and apportion- ing the representation of such inhabitants in the General Assembly. By this section, therefore, the extent of that power must be judged. Unless from the fair interpretation of its terms, the power claimed for the Legislature can be ' inferred, such power does not exist. Keeping steadily in view the express and solemn reservation in the Bill of Rights, together ith that rational strictness of construction, without which Constitutions are of little value, we may safely lay down as principles which commend themselves to the common sense of every man, that < 1. Where a power is conferred by our Constitution, and the manner of its exercise is, at the same time, expressly pointed out and limited, such power cannot be exerted in any other manner. 2. Where a power conferred, is .expressly defined in'ooint of the MORGAN COUNTY CONTESTED ELECTION. fl time when it shall be exercised, such power cannot be exerted at any time other than that so defined. 3. Where a power is delegated to be exercised at certain periods pointed out, the exercise of the power so delegated, at the time specified, exhausts such power, and leaves it, until the period prescribed shall again come round, without any present existence in the Constitution. Tested by these principles, nothing can be clearer than that the power claimed for the Legislature, to alter the limits fixed for electoral districts by the periodical apportionment law, at other times than those expressly prescribed, has no shadow of existence in the Constitution. The power to apportion, conferred by the second section, article 1, of that instrument, is it; so many words, circumscribed as to the manner of its exercise. The apportionment must be made according to the number of the white male inhabitants, above the age of twenty-one in each county. fThetime when it may be exercised, is with equal exactitude pointed out. The apportionment is to be fixed once in every term of four years. And, by a natural corollary, the power, when so exerted as prescribed, is exhausted and gone, until the case contemplated by the Constitution shall again arise. All this may, in like manner, be affirmed of the power to enumerate, as conferred in the section before quoted ; for, al- though the minority do not mean to deny, for other purposes, an enu meration of the inhabitants of the State may be made at any time, yet, it secrns to them free from all doubt, that for the purpose of apportion- ing representation in the General Assembly, the Legislature can neither take nor recognize any enumeration of the electors of the State, or of any county within it, except at the several periods ordained by the Constitution. And the undersigned state here, as a proposition not to be disputed, that if it is not competent for the Legislature to alter the boundaries of electoral districts, by direct legislation, such power can- not, in any way, be exerted by legislation indirect. Let the facts of the case, before stated, be now applied to the Con- stitution. In 1843, being at the regular period prescribed by that instrument, an enumeration was had of all the white male inhabitants of the State above twenty-one years of age. In the year following, and so soon as the census was returned to the General Assembly, a law was passed, fixing and apportioning the representation of the State. That law assigned to the county of Morgan, one Representative in the years '44, '45, and '46, with an additional Representative in 1847 thereby erecting that county into an electoral district. And the law thus, by its very terms, professed to fix the representation of the county till the year 1848. It also assigned to the counties of Athens and Meigs one Representative for the same period, and to Washington county one also. It has before been shown what the limits were at that time, of the 72 V ALL ANDIG HAM'S SPEECHES. territory embraced within the county of Morgan. Now, b-y the num- ber of white male inhabitants above the age of twenty -one, within those limits as they then were defined, the Legislature was governed iu ap- portioning the representation of that county. Any alteration, there- fore, of those limits, by taking from or adding to the number of such inhabitants, would derange wholly and set aside the rule of apportion- ment by which the express words of the Constitution declare that the Legislature shall proceed in such apportionment. But it might be urged that the law of March 12, 1844, gave to the county of Morgan one Representative in the year 1845, and that on the day of election, the townships of Homer and Marion were parts of that county. He who would nrge such an argument, mistakes wholly the law and the Constitution. He forgets the distinction between a county so called, and an electoral district. He forgets, too, that " county" is a name, not a thing a name affixed, for sake of convenience, to describe certain* territory, and that it is the territory the thing, not the name, which the Constitution and law mean. The rule or basis of representation places this beyond controversy, for assuredly, the electors of the terri- tory annexed to the county of Morgan, formed no part, at the period of enumeration in 1843, of the electors of that county, to whom, and to whom alone, a Representative was apportioned. The same is true, also, of the county of Athens, from which the townships of Homer and Marion were taken. Those townshin \vorw portionment law of 1844, parts of the county last named. The in- habitants residing within them at that time, were a portion of the inhabitants of Athens, and under the law were, together with its other inhabitants, entitled to a Representative from that county, and from no other, and had a right to vote for such Representative, and for no other. If it be the mere name " county," and not the territory, which the law and Constitution mean, then it would follow that the Legislature ' O might, at any time, constitutionally consolidate a half dozen of counties into one called Morgan, for example, and then, by an appeal to the letter of the Constitution, and of the apportionment law, decide that such county was entitled to but one Representative. And why not ? Wash- ington, Athens, Perry, Meigs, Monroe, and Belmont, have all been incorporated with or annexed, or, if the word be better liked, attached to Morgan ; and the white male inhabitants above the age of twenty- one, formerly residing in those counties, have now become, by operation of law, inhabitants of Morgan county, entitled to vote in that county, and that only for its Representative. For if the Legislature may attach townships to electoral districts, for electoral purposes, it may in like manner, and for a like purpose, attach whole counties. But this reason- ing may legitimately, and without violence, be run a step further. Sup- MORGAN COUNTY CONTESTED ELECTION. 73 pose the General Assembly change the name of a county, or consolidate a number together, and give them a new name, Middlesex, for example ; now, there being no such county or name found in the apportionment law, no representation whatever could be allowed to the electors who might reside within its limits. Is not this absurd ? The undersigned here farther observe, that a very wide distinction is to be drawn between the power to alter county lines, or change territory or townships from one county to another, and a power to effect such changes in representative districts, and for purposes of representation. The existence of the one by no means involves the existence of the other. Certainly, the Legislature, instead of employing the term "county" alone, in the apj ortionment law, might describe the territory embraced within such county, in the words of the statute defining the limits of the county, and erect that territory, so described, into an electoral district. But, for the sake of convenience and brevity, the simple term county, with its name annexed, as implying that territory, is employed ; and thus^ the same territory is both a county so called, and an electoral dis- trict, according to the capacity in which it is considered. And from the different capacities or functions assigned to them, arises the plain difference in the power which the Legislature may exert over them. The one may be altered at any time the other, only at the periods or- dained by the Constitution. If any doubt yet remained as to the unalterable nature, for four years, of the limits of electoral districts when once established, such doubt ought, in the opinion of the undersigned, at once to be yielded up, in view of the unambiguous and emphatic words of the Constitu- tion. "The number of representatives shall, at the several periods of making such enumeration, be FIXED by the Legislature, and apportioned among the several counties" of the State. Now, if there be any signifi- cancy in language if words mean one thing, and not another, nay, if they mean any thing at all, to fix cannot, by any refinement of con- struction, signify to loosen, to set afloat, and to fix for four years, cannot mean to leave open for change, at the caprice of legislators, at any time within the period so prescribed. But it may be argued that it is only the number of representatives which is to be fixed, and that the term does not apply, in grammatical construction, to the appor- tioning of representation among the several counties. Be it so. Yet both the number of the representatives and their apportionment, arc provided for in the same section the same clause, the same member of the same sentence; and if the apportionment may be altered at a time other than the regular period of enumeration, then, by a like process of reasoning, and by the fair rules of constitutional construc- tion, the number, also, of representatives, may be altered, though that 74 VALLAJTDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. nmnbor, by a word, than which there is none more significant within the whole compass of the Anglo-Saxon tongue, be declared FIXED for the term of four years. There remains, yet, one point further to be considered. By the latter clause of the 3d section, article 7th, of the Constitution, it is ordained, that " every new county, as to the right of suffrage and representation shall be considered as a part of, the county or counties from winch it was taken, until entitled by numbers, to the right of representation." The attention of the House is here directed to this part of the Constitu- tion, with the design of affording, if possible, by way of analogy, some light upon the question which the House is called upon to decide. The undersigned had presumed that there could be but one opinion as to its meaning. In this they erred, and are now compelled to differ totally with the majority in the construction which they put upon it. The clause itself, in no dubious language, expressly points out where the 'electors of a new county shall vote for representative, until entitled to representation themselves. True, the words are, ** until entitled by numbers." But how are their numbers to be constitutionally ascer- tained ? By enumeration. And when is such enumeration to be made ? At the several periods provided for by section 2d, article 1st, of the Constitution namely, once in every term of four years, and at no other period. Such, also, the minority here add, appears to have been the uniform construction hitherto put upon the clause above set forth. The ?9rl coition of the general election hw of 1831, L^ullo.i^ l/y i-Lw Legislature of that year, and by subsequent concurrence, and by prac- tice, provides, " that at all elections for State and county officers in any county laid off or organized between the periods at which the ratio of representation is fixed by law, and before the next subsequent period for apportionment shall arrive, two set of poll books shall be provi- ded, etc., and one of the poll books of such set shall be sealed up by one of the judges of election, and be carried to the old county from which such part of the new county was taken, etc.'* Such language needs no commentary. The undersigned have, with great labor and research, examined sixty-two acts of Assembly, laying off or organizing sixty new counties, beginning with the first General Assem- bly of the State, in March, 1803, and ending in De. Briber, 1832, a period of thirty years, and find not one case in all this mass of legisla- tion, in which the Legislature has undertaken to grant representation in the General Assembly, to any one of the sixty new counties above re- ferred to, as distinct counties, except at the constitutional periods, and by the general periodical apportionment acts. Such a uniformity of precedent, upon a construction really doubtful, could not, perhaps, bo found in the legislation of any State. * MORGAN COUNTY CONTESTED ELECTION. ^5 As to precedents or practice, in regard to the constitutional provi- sion, more directly touched by the question which the Ilouse is to decide; the minority have examined twenty-nine acts, beginning with the year 1804, and ending in 1828, altering the boundaries of coun- ties, or attaching portions of one county to another, in like manner as done by the law of last session ; and have found no one instance in which any of those acts assume to change the general apportionment law, or to interfere, in any way, with the electoral districts defined by it, or make any enactment as to the county or district in which the electors of the territory annexed shall vote for representatives in the General Assembly. These acts differ little, in substance, from the law of March, 1845. The minority further report that they have found no case where, by contested election or otherwise, the question now presented to the House, has, at any time, before arisen. So far as they are advised, it is a question entirely novel, and which must be adjudged upon its own merits, as they appear in the facts, the law, and the Constitution. The undersigned have all along argued as though the Constitution were the supreme law of the State, and beyond the power of the Legis- lature to supersede.' This is a doctrine which will not, either here or elsewhere, be openly denied. An attempt to elevate the occasional will of the legislator exercising a vicarious and delegated function, above the permanent and exactly defined will of the people in their primordial and sovereign capacity, will, in this generation, find no foothold in America ; still less will efforts be now made to over- throw constitutions .by tumultuary violence. But it is not by the sword, nor by any open and physical force, that constitutions, in a comparatively virtuous and healthy age, are most likely to be sub- verted. A more slow, but equally dangerous and certain, engine of attack has been devised the insidious sap and mine of construction. If constitutions are to be rasped, and frittered, and pared down into nothingness, by the constructive process, they had far better be abol- ished at once. If, through such process, they cease to be a barrier to the occasional and rampant impulses of majorities, let not our public records be, henceforth, encumbered with such instruments. The under- signed can present in no stronger light the necessity of preserving, unimpaired, the exact boundaries of the Constitution, than by setting before the Ilouse the dangers of the interpretation claimed by the majority of the committee. Grant to the Legislature but the power to alter, at any time, the electoral districts, and, still more, to establish new counties, and provide them at once with a separate representation in the Assembly, and where shall be the end? The whole political power of the State is at the command of a temporary, and it may be, 76 VALLAOTIGII AM S S PE KCHES. a reckless And unprincipled, majority. From all this, nothing can deliver us but a resort to tb& ultima rath popnli t the inalienable though formidable right of Revolution. The minority will pursue those conse- quences no farther. Confident, therefore, that the right of the sitting member, from the county of Morgan, to the seat which he now holds, is clear and unques- tionable, the undersigned report accordingly. The following notice of the foregoing Report, was from the pen of C. C. KAZEWELL, now of the Boston Traveler, and was published in the Ohio Statesman, of December 25, 1845, of which paper he was then editor: This Report is from the pen of Mr. VALLAXDIGHAM, the young but most able member from Columbiana. It is one of the most clear, logical, and convincing arguments that it has ever fallen to our lot to read, and should be circulated in all parts of the State. It cannot fail to carry conviction to every impartial mind, and to raise the reputation of its author to a very high point indeed. Columbiana may well be proud of her young member, who has already achieved for himself an en- viable name as a debater, for skill and fairness, and as a writer at once powerful and dignitied. He is of that class of men whom the Ohio Democracy need, to place them in the position which they occupied a few years ago. and which has been lost, not through any dislike of the people to Democratic principles, but be- cause the party has been unhappily identified with the names and character of two or three detestable individuals, whoso utter worthlessness was enough to sink any party. In Mr. VALLAN'DIGIIAM we have snob a. m;n IQ H-.O r^,^~~~^- -< r\\ -- can rely upon, one who does not think it necessary to disgrace great talents by buffoonery and immorality, in order to achieve a sudden notoriety. A gentleman and a scholar, and thoroughly attached to the principles of Democracy, we can always rely upon him for good services, especially when grave and important mat- ters come up, requiring the action of the highest order of mind, to have them properly discussed and settled. ON CONSTITUTIONAL EEFOE3I. SPEECH OX CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM, In the Ohio House of Representatives, January 16, 1847.* Tins bill, -Mr. Speaker, proposes the initiatory step towards a change in the Constitution of the State. It provides a way for resolving again into its original elements the machinery of our State government, for the purpose of its reorganization by those from whose hands it came, and whose creature it is. With that object in view, and in pursuance of the mode pointed out in the existing constitution, it proposes to sub- mit to THE PEOIIE whether they desire any amendment or change in that instrument. \ It is now forty-four years, Mr. Speaker, since our present constitution was established. At that p'eriod of our history, the State of Ohio, stretching from Pennsylvania to the Indiana line, and from the Ohio River to the northern lakes, Avith an area of^thirty-nine thousand square miles, was an almost unbroken wilderness, with a population of but forty-eight thousand inhabitants, settled at intervals, in the openings, where " the arm of the frontier-man had levelled the forest and let in the sun." Few in numbers, these inhabitants were simple also in thoir habits, and fewer still in their wants. The hardy pioneers, who, pene- trating this wilderness, had expelled its native savage occupants, and built a few log cabins in its solitudes, till then undisturbed by the reforming axe of the European race, made few contracts, committed not many crimes, and needed but the simplest forms of government. Courts of justice were held, at that early period, at not above nine or ten different points within the whole territory of Ohio ; and the lawyers of the Cincinnati bar of that day practised regularly in the courts of Detroit (then within our limits), traversing for that purpose the whole distance on horseback, and sleeping often in mid-winter upon the bare snow of the forest, because in many places, for forty miles together, m * This speech was made in support of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM'S bill for calling a Convention to amend the Constitution of Ohio. The bill received a majority, but not two-thirds, and therefore failed. At a subsequent session, a similar bill was passed. To the people of Ohio this will bo a document of permanent value and interest, as having indicated certain important and necessary changes in the organic law of the State, which, having been made, have done much toward securing the more prompt and ellicient administration of justice. To the general reader this speech will show that Mr. Vallandigham early discovered and ap- preciated the important truth that all genuine progress is the outgrowth of a wise and judicious conservatism which gathers up, appropriates, and improves upon the lessons of wisdom and experience. ^8 VALLANDIG HAM'S SPEECHES' neither cabin nor other dwelling of white man or savage, cheered with its friendly smoke the inhospitable quietude of that unbroken wilder- ness.* It was for such a people, living in such a territory, and with habits such as I have described, that the convention, assembled at Chillicothe on the first day of November, 1802, ordained a constitution. The men who sat in that convention were men of great singleness of purpose, great native intelligence, and earnest, for the most part, in their attach- ment to the true principles of republican government. But, assembling at a period when written constitutions were comparatively an untried experiment ; destitute of that political science, the amazing progress of which is one of the characteristics of the age, and of that experience which enlightens and directs the more fortunate- generation of this day, it is not to be expected that a perfect system of government should have been ordained by them. And, more than this, circumstanced as they were, and without that foresight and amplitude of mind which a pro- found and comprehensive survey of the wants and necessities, as well prospective as present, of mankind in organized society can alone give to the statesman, it is still less to be expected that, framing a constitu- tion adapted to the government of fifty thousand pioneers in the midst of a wilderness, they should have looked forward half a century, and so moulded it as to be fitted to the condition of two millions of people of every diversity of habit and education, and following pvore oprnnntinn and pursuit known in a highly civilized State. The most sagacious among them could not have foreseen it was not within the limits of human foresight, for history had then furnished no example that within little more than the ordinary lifetime of a generation, a change so pro- digious should mark the social and political condition of the common- wealth which they were about to establish. Not foreseeing it, they could not provide for its occurrence ; and, not having provided, the evil is upon us. They were ordaining a written constitution, and written constitutions, unlike those which are the slow growth of centuries of 'usage, cannot adapt themselves to the ever-varying wants and circum- stances of a young and growing people. But they did know that their work was not perfect, and foresaw the necessity for a change which might at some future day exist ; and accordingly provided that way for securing such change or amendment, in pursuance of which this bill has been introduced. I have meant no disparagement, Mr. Speaker, to the wisdom and ability of those who sat in the convention of 1802. They framed a constitution full of much that is valuable, and well suited to the neces- sities of the people in their day. But we have outgrown it. The * Buract's letters, 183T. ON CONSTITUTIONAL KEFORM. ' swaddling-bands of the infant have become badly fitting to the stalwart limbs of the grown-up giant. The convention adjourned on the twenty- ninth of November, 1802. Forty-four years of continued and rapid progress in all that belongs to man as an individual or a citizen, have obliterated almost every vestige of that condition of, things to which the result of their labors was adapted. The forty-eight thousand inhab- itants have grown to two millions, spread over the entire extent of the territory now comprised within the limits of Ohio. In agriculture, in commerce, in manufactures, in the arts and sciences of all kinds, in liter- ature, merchandise, litigation, in all the wants and all the luxuries of civilized life from nothing in that day, we have risen to place ourselves in the front rank among the States of this Confederacy. Ha\ ing thus outgrown long since the institutions prepared for us in the infancy of our State, efforts repeated and persevering have been made for years past to secure a change in those institutions, conformable to the great and multiplied changes in our necessities and condition as a people. I claim no originality for this measure. Scarce a session has passed in many years, at which it has not been proposed. Repeatedly and earn- estly the executives of our State have urged upon the legislature the propriety, and necessity even, of providing for a change in the constitu- tion; but without success. Once only in 1819 the proposition was submitted to the people. Even then the necessity for amendment was felt to be great. The subject was pressed upon the attention of the legislature by Ethan A. Brown, then Governor of the State, and passed with but little opposition. Tins, however, was but seventeen years from the formation of the constitution ; that event was then too recent, and accordingly the people rejected the proposition. But I need only remind gentlemen that twenty-eight years have passed since that rejec- tion. A new generation has grown up. Our population has doubled within that period. Changes in all that go to make up the varied condition of a populous and civilized State, greater far than within the seventeen }-ears preceding, have since marked the progress of the State. Every year has added to the necessity for a radical change in many parts of the constitution. That necessity is at last everywhere admitted. Conviction has forced itself upon the minds of the people.. And now, sir, as yet another effort, in behalf of peaceable reform, and deeply im- pressed with the responsibility which I have taken upon myself, perhaps too lightly, I have brought forward this measure, with a hope and anxi- ety for its success in this house, which I cannot find language to express. I would, if I could but embody and unbosom the deep feelings of my heart, speak to this house in words which, like the Egyptian darkness, might be felt as with the hand, aud implore the passage of this bill. I have said that this measure is but the initiatory step towards the SO VALLAKDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES great reform to which I have referred. That step is discretionary with the Legislature ; and although such discretion, operating us a control upon the people, ought to be employed with a liberal hand, approaching to facility, yet there ought to exist also, both some propriety or neces- sity for its exercise, and a fitness in the time proposed, before the people are called upon to decide a question of such great importance. And if I do not succeed in establishing both these requisites to the entire satis- faction of the House, I will consent to abandon this bill, earnest as my desire is that it may become a law. The defects of the present constitution defects most of which might readily be inferred, and which arose chiefly from the time and circum- stances of its formation are so freely and generally admitted, that I need spend little time in argument, and may content myself for the most part with but briefly pointing them out. I begin with THE JUDICIARY. And first, as to the SUPREME COURT, the highest judicial tribunal of the State. This court consists of but four judges, any two of whom constitute a quorum, and are empowered to hold courts. By consequence of this strange anomaly, no decision, in case of their disagreeing, can be had upon the circuit. But, besides this, it is manifest that four judges, though more than enough in the early times of the State, when there was not a thousandth part of the litigation which presses now, in enor- mous mass, upon our courts indeed, prior to 1808, three only were appoint^" 1 - "-^ quite t^ f^v ^ rli^no^ ) rv~~ '^ +Vr> ^-r 1 r haste, of a tithe of the business brought before them. Nor is this all. These self-same judges, by a provision growing out of local jealousies in the convention of 1802, are required to hold the Supreme Court once a year in every county in the State. Now the number of these counties and they are rapidly increasing is eighty- two : so that these four judges are required to hold no less than eighty- two several courts, in each and every year ; flying for that purpose over the whole of the vast territory of Ohio. The Supreme Court usually begins it sittings about the first of March, and closes about the first of December, so that nine months only are allowed within which to deter- mine upon the innumerable judgments and decrees which are, or rather ought to be, given in the immense mass of business depending before this court. Within those nine months also, these judges are compelled to traverse the entire eighty-two counties of the State, passing over some two thousand or more miles of territory, holding eighty-two courts, hearing, or pretending to hear, and deciding upon still oftener continuing the thousands of cases upon the docket, every one of which touches the property, the liberty, or the life even, of the citizen. To accomplish all this, requires powers of action and endurance not vouch- ON CONSTITUTIONAL EEFOEM. 81 safcd to mortal man. This is positively the very worst part of the system. Only think, sir, of your Supreme Court, the hist depositary of the tre- mendous powers and responsibilities of the judiciary, turned into a flying express, and running a tilt against the wind on a trial of speed ; to-day at Cleveland, on the lake, hanging a man by the neck till dead ; to-morrow at Cincinnati, consigning some hapless wretch to the igno- miny and horrors of the penitentiary, or ejecting 'an unlucky suitor in that great city from a homestead worth millions perhaps, on which he has spent the most valuable part of a lifetime! Nothing is equal to it except it may be the military exploits of the great Frederick, of whom it has been said : " Yesterday he was in the south, giving battle to the Austrian ; to-day, in Saxony or Silesia instantly he was found to have traversed the electorate, and was facing the Russian and the Swede, on his northern frontier. If you looked for his place on the map, before you had found it he had quitted it. He was always marching, flying, falling back, wheeling, attacking, defending, surprising, fighting every- where, and fighting all the time." But I have not done yet with the defects. To avoid the consequences of a division among the judges upon the circuit, and to secure some- thing like uniformity and weight to their decisions, the Legislature some years ago devised an. annual session of all the judges, to wit,/o?w, at Columbus, to compose what is called a COURT IN BANK. Nothing could illustrate and enforce one-half so well the utter inefficiency of the sys- tem, as so paltry an expedient. The very evils to be remedied are but made more apparent and worse. Four judges composing the court, the same equality of division may arise, with this superadded evil, that two upon a side instead of one stand arrayed against each other, while the unfortunate litigants, meantime, after years of litigation, at the cost, per- haps, of half their fortunes, arc compelled at last either to arbitrate their disputes, or to wait till the expiration of the term of service of one of the judges, or perchance his death, or, what is still less probable, his resignation for " few die and none resign" may afford a chance for a rehearing of the cause, and another division of opinion, to be terminated, or protracted it may be, after the same fashion. Again: this court convenes in the month of December. So that these same judges, after nine long months of session as a Supreme Court, and of fatigue and travel and mental harassment, "in journeyings often, in weariness and paiufulncss and in watchings often," arc hurried away in a whirlwind of judicial activity, to find themselves transformed sud- denly into a Court in Bank, with one hundred and half as many cases more, to sit just four weeks, for the purpose of revising their own deci- sions, made in the hurry of their blood-stirring gallop through eighty- two counties in the course of nine months. Thus, sir, after this long 6 82 VALLASfDIOHAMS SPEECHES. period of judicial reconnoitring by tins corps of flying artillery, the grand attack is ordered, and the whole citadel, outworks and alj, of ac- cumulated litigation, is to oe carried by assault, in the space of four weeks. But seriously, Mr. Speaker, fatigued and exhausted by their labors beyond endurance, the judges of the Supreme Court are convened at the very close of these labors, and without a moment's respite, to begin the investigation of a hundred and fifty cases, enveloped amid a mass of written or printed arguments whose number and bulk would al- most put the blush of inferiority upon the ponderous tomes of Thomas Aquinas, or any of the schoolmen. Now, I beg to know, sir, if it be within the limits of possibility to obtain, in such a condition of things, such decisions as alone become the oracles in the last resort of the law? Who that has spent a moment in reflecting upon the nature and effect of judicial adjudications but must know that they ought to be the work of leisure and deliberation, and pronounced upon a full knowledge only of the law and the facts ; since, if by an unjust decision my property, my liberty, or my life is taken away, the consequences are none the less calamitous to me than if they had been brought about by the arm of despotism or the power of the sword. But upon the circuit there is neither time nor opportunity for the acquisition of this knowledge, and in Bank the case is perhaps worse. But the evil is two-fold. Tke " law's delay" has long since passed into a byword and a roproaoh nnon ronrts of in<5tW in of-Vior timo ^r^ countries. Here it is a matter of necessity, ordained in effect by the very constitution of the State. Hitherto, sir, I have spoken as though the dispatch of business by the Supreme Court, even without a becom- ing consideration, were physically possible. But what is the fact? Be- tween March and December sometimes between April and December, as in the pres.ent year this court sits in eighty-two different counties extending throughout the entire State. The number of cases on the docket in these counties is estimated at about three thousand. Now, the number of weeks the court is usually in session upon the circuit is thirty -six; so that an average of just abo'ut two and a half days, Sundays included, is allowed to each county. Hamilton alone requires four weeks thirty-two only remain to be distributed among the other eighty- one counties, and from these is to be deducted the time necessarily spent in travelling over so many hundred miles of territory. Now, sir, I ask in all earnestness, if it be in the nature of things that the one-twentieth part of the business before the court should be disposed of, even with the most headlong haste, in so short a space of time ? That man never lived the Almighty never put powers of action and endurance into breathing human clay equal to the task. And now, sir, what is the result of all this, and how does it accord OX' CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM. 83 with the rights of the citizen arid the intent of the constitution itself? That instrument never meant to interpose such a barrier between the citizen and his rights. Its preamble declares it to be ordained, " in order to ESTABLISH JUSTICE." Again says the Bill of Rights, " That the general, great, and essential principles of liberty and free government may be re- cognized, and forever unalterably established, we declare : "Sec. 7. That all courts shall be open, and every person, for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy by duo course of law, and right and justice administered WITHOUT DENIAL OR DELAY." Such was the design of the constitution, and such the earnest and em- phatic language in which that design was expressed. But how is it now earned out ? u All courts shall be open." True, there is no literal in- fringement of this injunction. Your courts are open. The docket is there, and the clerk to issue, and the sheriff to serve your process. But the mockery is only the more galling. Open! ay, too open. But be- ware, unfortunate suitor, beware ; there is no regress from this worse than Cretan labyrinth. The footprints around this den of the lion all point towards its entrance. "And every />mow., for an injury done him, SHALL HAVE REMEDY." Could words more significant be marshalled together in any language ? But what is the effect of a practically contradictory provision of the same instrument ? Every person shall have remedy. Now, does not every lawyer know that none but the more wealthy and influential can afford the "expensive luxury" of protracted litigation? Take but a single example of daily occurrence. You commence suit in the Common Pleas at its April term. Your cause is just, but your adversary's lawyer thinks he detects a flaw in the declaration. A demurrer is put in. The June term comes ; business presses ; law arguments can be heard only at the end of the term, and then in the hurry and confusion you cither deem it unsafe to hazard your case, or the court are unable to hear it. You suffer a continuance. November term arrives, and the demurrer is argued and overruled. Surely you will now have justice and remedy without further denial or delay. But stop ; that remedy is to be by " due course of law," and the courts will not dispose of two several issues in' the same cause at the same term. Again continued, is the mandate of the judge. It is now April term, and the issue is made up, when, lo, a material witness is suddenly found absent by the defendant, beyond the process of the court. What then ? an affidavit, and yet another contin- uance. Or worse ; after waiting, perhaps, a whole fortnight with your witnesses, expecting the trial every hour, the court is compelled to ad- journ without, reaching your case. A whole year is now already gone since you began suit, confident behind the constitutional shield against delay. But skilful legal tacticians have turned the flank of the consti- 84 VALLANDIGHAJl'g SPEECHES tntion. Disheartened and vexed almost beyond endurance, you yet make another effort, and the June term brings the consummation of your hopes. Trial is had, and you have obtained a verdict. But a, new trial is moved for ; the court hear the argument, and coolly pocket the motion, telling you in vulgar law Latin, Curia vult advisarc. In Novem- ber the motion is overruled. Butlo, a bill of exceptions has been pro- vided by your adversary and you are transported to the Supreme Court, that lazar-house of litigation, where " hope never comes that comes to all." Well, sir, some time between the next March and December, the "angel visit" of that august flying squadron is announced, and you re- pair to the court-room just in time to find the court adjourned and on horseback for the next county. Another year revolves the third since you applied for that remedy which you thought to obtain without " denial or delay" and your case is heard. But behold, the judges disagree, and the case is reserved to Bank. The scales now fall from your eyes, and you find yourself involved in what you deem intermina- ble litigation. It is too late, however, to retreat, and after one or two years more, or three it may be, you again obtain a tardy decision in your favor, and enter upon the enjoyment of your rights. But the end is not yet. Yours may have been a chancery suit, and just at the mo- ment you begin to sit down in repose from the fatigues of litigation, a bill of review is filed by your indomitable adversary. And after passing again through the same courts, and the same tedious process ot procras- tination, after five or six years more, an adverse decision is obtained against you ; and stripped at last of every thing, worried, exhausted, indignant, you give up in despair. Now I appeal to every lawyer to say whether the process I have described may not be passed through in almost every case, and whether it is not passed through in every fiercely litigated case brought into court. Such, Mr. Speaker, is the " due course of law" by which " every person" shall obtain remedy for an injury done to person, property, or reputation. Sir, I will not stop to gauge the dimensions of a purse long enough and wide enough to support the enormous expense of such litigation to say nothing of the mental fatigue and harassment worse than any pecuniary consideration. But, again : " Right and justice are to be administered WITHOUT DENIAL OR DELAY." Sir, I have said enough already to satisfy every man that the practice of our courts is but a solemn mockery of the constitution, though the fault is in that instrument itself. Without denial or delay ! Not so ; a mockery, mere mockery, every word of it What, no delay, when one, two, five, eight, twelve years even are ex- hausted in insupportably protracted litigation, the miserable litigant stretched, meantime, upon the rack of a mental torture, enough to ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM. 85 divide soul and body ? Call you that administering right and justice without delay ? But is there not a practical denial also ? If the delay, and expense, and mental harassment of a heavy and protracted lawsuit, arc such as to drive suitors from our courts, and compel them to forego the sub- mission of their controversies to the constitutional tribunals of the land, acquiescing rather in every species of injustice and oppression, how much better is their condition than if you were to wall up the doors of your court-rooms, or to forbid entrance except to the favored few who are rich? The denial, the practical denial, is just the same, and the ruinous results upon public faith and to private right just as aggravated. Why, sir, it is of no moment to the suitor, so far as it affects his life, or person, or property, or reputation, whether the injury be done him by open despotism, or, though forbidden by the letter of the constitution, yet compelled by the force of circumstances. The end alike of both is death, death to his rights. Rather, then, let us abolish the mere form of government, and go back to the first law of might, since, escaping thus the pretended benefits of political organization, we shall escape its burdens also. Having now pointed out briefly the two great opposite evils of our system, namely, haste and delay, as exhibited in the Supreme Court, I pass to the Common Pleas. And here it need hardly be remarked, that not a few of the evils spoken of flow necessarily from the organization of these courts also. But I shall not weary the House with repetition, adding only that to them, in the first resort, is committed almost the entire mass of judicial business in the State, both at law and in chan- cery ; requiring, therefore, in the judges of these courts, an extent of ability and learning, and of aptitude for the ofh*ce,of judge, which it is given chiefly to the Mansfields, the Eldous, and the Marshall* of the profession, to possess. The great fault, then, of the Common Pleas consists in the constitutional necessity for having not less than two asso- ciate judges for each court. Usually there arc three, and these are almost always men of no legal knowledge or education whatever fre- quently of no knowledge or education at all, and who are rarely con- sulted upon law points, or if consulted (and then only for form's sake) acquiesce readily in the opinion of the presiding judge. I speak in general terms, for I have seen associates now and then, wliose natural dignity and good sense made them, in all but the forms and niceties of the law, an overmatch for the lawyer who had been elevated, unhappily, to a scat upon the bench. But these are exceptions, and even if they were found in every court, they could not make the system much the less defective. For of what use are these men, not learned in the law ? except, indeed, in the mere formal business of probate and administra- 86 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPKECHKS. tion, or in the ojanting of licenses to keep tavern. At best they are but an unnecessary encumbrance, and if erected into an Orphan's Court, \vith the powers now exercised chieily by them in the Common Picas, apart from the president-judge, might very easily and to much advan- tage be dispensed with. I come now to the mode of election and tenure of office. That elec- tion is by the Legislature on joint ballot, and for the term of seven years. To all this I am opposed. If you do not come back to the ancient method of Executive nominations to be confirmed by the Senate, with a tenure for life, or during good behavior, a mode arid tenure alto- gether adverse to the genius of our institutions, and tolerated in the federal constitution only because it is better to tolerate some evils there, than to run the hazard of evils far worse, by too frequent and great changes in an instrument founded upon so tender and delicate a com- pact, and embracing so many and such varied conflicting interests if, I say, you cannot come back to this, I see nothing to be gained by with- holding the election of Judges from the people. The present system has no one advantage over the mode I speak of a mode adopted long ago, without pollution to justice, or prejudice to the sacred and elevated character of the judiciary, in Mississippi, and more recently, by the new constitutions of Louisiana, Texas, Iowa, and Xew York. I admit that once I entertained and expressed apprehension for the purity and safety of the judiciary, in the event of popular flections. "Hi-if ^T- ittfT* - perience and my observation of judicial appointments within a few years past (I may add very recently), have satisfied me that as good and bet- ter selections will be made by the people, than by this or by any Legisla- ture. Political connection with the party in the majority, is now and always has been made a prerequisite in the candidate : for when, I beg to know, did a whig Legislature elect democrats to judgeships, or a demo- crat Legislature elect whigs ? In elections by the people it could be no worse. And Ambos's saloon would find fewer patrons then. The general principle surely is that all elections ought to be by the people direct ; and the case should be a strong one to justify a departure from the rule. I admit that the judiciary is by far the strongest; and that there are reasons peculiar to it, and not applicable to the other departments, in favor of the exception. But I repeat and insist that unless you can secure the full benefit to be derived from adiiferent method of appoint- ment, it is both wrong and vain to abandon a general principle so vital, and so consonant with the spirit of our institutions. Give but a suf- ficient term of years to the tenure, and above all, fixing a minimum com- pensation liberal enough to secure the best virtues and talent of the bar, thus place the salary of the Judge beyond the tampering of vulgar dema- gogues, and you have nothing to fear from a popular election. In these ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM. 87 opinions and in the conviction which forced them upon me, I am both honest and sincere. I do not know, indeed, that the mode of electing Judges just pointed out, would at this time meet the approbation of the people of this State, or even of a majority of this House. I think the people arc with us. I know they will be, and that right speedily. But I entreat most earnestly that no man here vote against .this bill because there might arise a diversity of opinion as to the particular provisions of the constitution to be framed, and because he is afraid his views of political organization might not prevail in the convention. Such diver- sity must of necessity exist; but the majority should govern ; and if the people to whom the constitution would be submitted, approved, whose voice should be lifted up in complaint ? I turn now from the judiciary, to point out defects in other parts of the constitution. And first, THE WANT OF A CHECK UPON THE LEGISLA- TIVE POWEK TO INCUR PUBLIC DEBTS. Made wise by a whole- some but severe experience, in nearly every constitution adopted with- in the last ten years, the people have provided some such restriction : and surely we in Ohio have had good cause to lament the want of it in ours. The principle of the check is plain. The property of the whole people is confiscated in the shape of taxes, to provide for the liquidation of the debt. Foremost indeed, it is mortgaged, " pledged," and then the alternative is either payment or repudiation : the first is onerous ; the last iniquitous and disgraceful. Now assuredly it is but fair that they who must pay, should first give express consent to the debt ; and the especial reason why express consent should, in this case, first be obtained, by direct vote of the people, is to be sought for in the fact, that every citizen is compelled to bear his proportion of a burden from which, except in hopeless poverty, there is no escape. I desire to be understood; the penalty of the law against murder may readily be avoided by refraining from the perpetration of the murder. Xot so with tax laws. Now to unlimited power in the Legislature over this subject, I object Combinations and local influences and interests, have too powerful a control in legislative assemblies, to make them the safe de- positaries of so tremendous a power. Providently, therefore, and wisely did the constitution recently submitted to the people of Missouri (though rejected) provide that, 11 The General Assembly shall have no power to pass any law whereby any debt shall be created, that shall cause the entire indebtedness of the State, con- tracted under this Constitution, to exceed at any one time twenty-five thousand dollars, except in cases of war, insurrection, or invasion. " But the General Assembly may propose by a vote of a majority of all the mem- bers elected to both branches thereof, the creation of a debt for any specified pur- pose, which shall be submitted to tho direct vote of tho people at the next general election thereafter, and if approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting on 88 YALLANDIG1IAMS SPEECHES. such question, shall be of full force and effect; provided that each proposition shall be for one object alone, and shall propose the ways and means by taxation for the payment of the. debt and interest, aa they become due; and provided further, that no more than one proposition shall bo submitted by any one session -of the General Assembly, and that the debt proposed shall not have a longer time to ruu than twenty years." Somewhat similar also is the restriction in the recent constitution of New York. Now, whether such provision were adopted in so many words or not, some restriction certainly ought to be imposed upon the legislative exercise of a power so delicate and momentous. The requirement of AN ANNUAL SESSION OP THE LEGISLATURE is the defect in the present constitution to which I next advert ; and the remedy proposed will, I know, meet the almost unanimous concurrence of the House. I mean BIENNIAL SESSIONS, with a provision for extra- ordinary sessions in great emergencies. This also is A modern and highly popular improvement in constitutional science. Into most of the constitutions recently organized it has been freely admitted, and at the late general election in Maryland it was ordered by a large majority to be incorporated into the constitution of that State by special amend- ment. Though by no means persuaded that it is the all-healing remedy for the many ills of legislation, I need not argue long to satisfy this. House that those worst and most costly of all the evils of a representa- tive system of government, hasty, excessive, and unstable legislation, must, of necessity, be greatly diminished were the Legislature to assemble but once in two or three years. Most also of this legislation is special and private. Here, sir, is the volume of local laws for the session of 1844-'4o, numbering in all, together with the resolutions, four hun- dred and seventy, while the number of laws of a general character passed at the same session, reached, to but eighty-nine. The former embrace almost every variety of subject from the incorporation of a bank down to the changing of a mail's name, or the laying out of a back alley in a paltry village. The assembling annually of the Legislature would scern to remind the citizens of this State that they may now find a ready instrument wherewith to have that done which nobody and nothing else will do. A thousand schemes of crude, or absurd, or useless, per- haps iniquitous legislation, are thus projected, which otherwise would never have been devised. Self-reliance is forgotten. The individual man, living, breathing, God-created, exulting in the might and majesty of an immortal and almost omnipotent nature the man God made in his own image, and into whose nostrils lie breathed the breath of life man, conquering the elements, making the lightnings his mes- sengers, and thrusting the storms under his feet, is lost sight of, and the graven images, the base gods of legislative creation, which, " having eyes see not, and ears hear not," are bowed down to and worshipped, till ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM. 89 none other arc deemed able to save. To the government all eyes are directed ; by it all the ills of life are to be dispelled, and from it all bless- ings to flow. Not a bridge can be erected, not a highway laid out, nor a turnpike graded, without the 'intervention of the Legislature. Her- cnles is always invoked, and a god brought upon the stage even when there is no " nodus'' worthy of such agency. The " let alone policy," that first and most ennobling of all political maxims, which teaches man to rely mainly upon the powers and attributes of his own nature, and to distrust the omnipotence of government to dispel evils and create bless- ings, is cast aside, and soul-debasing prostration before political and corporate organization, substituted in its stead. I say nothing of the cost to the people. The evil strikes deeper : tl* corruption reaches that which is more delicate than the purse; and there is no medicine nor surgery equal to the cure. But besides the excess of legislation, much of it is necessarily hasty, and, worst of all, unstable. The law of yesterday is annulled to-day ; and one Legislature meets only to set aside the acts of its predecessor. The sound of the hammers, tinkering perpetually at the laws, is heard at all hours in the halls of the Legislature. Acts amendatory, supple- mentary, constructive, declaratory, repealing, explanatory, are piled upon acts, till not unfrcquently the parts in force have to be traced back through ten successive volumes, and meantime every thing like uniformity and certainty is lost, and courts, lawyers, and litigants, floundering in "a sea of conflicting and contradictory legislation, are alike driven to despair. No man, not even the legal profession, can keep up with the striding progress of law-making. Cases are begun under one statute, heard upon a second, and decided upon a third. Is not all this an evil and an oppression not to be endured ? But it is fastened upon you by the constitution : it is ordained and established as part of the fundamental law of the State ; and the remedy is through that measure only, which with as earnest entreaty as ever came from human lips, I. now urge upon the house to adopt. There is no other remedy for evils which are corrupting the people, and poisoning the fountain of legislation. Here, in this remedy alone, is there enough, amply enough to compensate for all the cost and hazard of a reorgani- zation of our political system. And I implore gentlemen as they love liberty, a* they reverence, and would hand down our free institutions to their children unimpaired, not to defeat this bill. [Mr. V. then said that there were many other evils and defects in substance in the constitution, which would need a remedy, but lie would pass to the consider- ation of those which, though in matter of form, arrangement, and style, were yet, not to be disregarded. Ho then took up the constitution, reading and commenting at some length upon sections two, four, seven, nine, nineteen, and twenty-six, of 90 VALLANDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. the first article ; and upon article four, article seven section five ; and sections six and twenty-seven of article eight more minutely and earnestly upon tho seventh section of the first article, showing that so carelessly was this as \vcll as other sections? drawn up, that it literally extkukd every person from the Senate "who is a citizen of the United States," or who "shall have resided two years in the county or district immediately preceding the election;" or who " shall havo paid a state or county tax," unless such person " shall havo been absent on tbo public business of the United States or of this State," in which event he might, if not a citizen of the United Stabs, be eligible to the Senate, though he had resided the two years preceding his election in the county or district.* Mr. V. then pro- ceeded:] The necessity and propriety of a change in the constitution of this State are so readily aftd universally admitted, that I have spent too much time, perhaps, in speaking to this point of my argument. But I desired to present them the more vividly before the members of thi% House, because no mere cold conviction or assent of judgment, I feared, could command their support to this measure, without an accompanying im- pulse from the will. Scarce a man who has spent one moment's reflec- tion upon this great question but will tell you, " I admit the necessity of amendment, but the time is not favorable." Sir, when will the time be favorable, if not now ] "Within forty-four years since the formation of the present constitution not less than five-and-twenty, perhaps thirty, constitutions have been either reorganized or* adopted anew. Scarce one State of the " old thirteen" but has changed its fundamental law, auJ ferine among LJuem twice or three times. Massachusetts, old, sober, conservative Massachusetts, where change and progress in politics are feared as the breath of the pestilence, has amended hers. Virginia and Pennsylvania, also, have done likewise, and Virginia is convulsed now again, by the efforts of her reformers, toward yet another change. Rhode Island, slumbering as she did, for nearly two centuries, under the char- ter of a British King, has waked up at length, and framed anew her organic law. New Jersey, Louisiana, Texas, and, more recently still, New York, have each reorganized their constitutions. And shall Ohio, YOUXG OHIO, fair behind? Sir, the progress of constitutional science (the great bulwark of liberty), within half a century, has amazed the civilized world. Nothing in any other department of politics has equal- led it. T'le capacity, once doubted, even in this country, of the people for self-government, in its most expanded limits, has been demonstrated ; * Tho section is in these words : " SEC. 7. No person shall be a Senator who has not arrived at the age of thirty and is a citizen of the United States shall have resided two years in the county or district, immediately preceding the election, unless he shall have been absent on the public business of the United States, or of this State ; or shall moreover have paid a state or county taoc." ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM. 91 while, meantime, llie tyrants and legitimists of the old world have looked on with blanched cheek and cowering eye at the progress of the democratic principle, which, scorning to tread the beaten track of ordi- nary politics, has stricken out a new path, crushing to the ground be- fore its giant strides, all the sluggard opposition of that false conser- vatism which sits- like the unhappy Triton on its fast-bound rock, and weeps in envy and malevolence at the Genius of Improvement going forth as the strong man rejoicing in his strength. This spirit of pro- gress, let me admonish gentlemen, it is vain to resist. You may retard, but you cannot arrest it. I know it will be opposed, and that all the might and skill of that conservatism will conspire for its fall. Men are slow to give up what they delight to call "the wisdom of their ancestors." Sir, there is a wisdom which sometimes becomes madness. But we do not teach, forgetfulness of the lessons of the past. We would go back to that fountain,, but we would desire, also, to grow 'wise from experience, and to correct the errors which that experience points out. Experiment is the great laboratory of politics; but its results must be carried into practice by reforms, or they are of no value. True, sir, in the midst of all this soul-gladdening inarch of improvement, we should rejoice to look back also to the instructions of those who have gone before us. I belong, indeed, to what is sometimes snecringly called the " progressive" school of politics. I am proud to belong to it. It teaches faith in man as God made him. Progression, too, is a law of our race. But not that progression which forgets all the teachings of the past, and spurns all the dangers of the future. The true law of progress, if I understand it, demands not so much the originating of new principles in politics, as the varied application of the old and established principles to the ever and rapidly changing circumstances which distinguish every year in our history from the years which have preceded it, altering our policy and conduct of affairs, and even oiir institutions) accordingly as these changes demand it, directed throughout, however, by the same great leading principles which reason and prescription alike combine to make authoritative and venerable. On just such principles would I desire that the great reform here proposed, should be conducted. And now, too,* we have all that wisdom can devise, or the experience of our own or other States can teach, to guide us. The times are propitious. "Why then delay? Do your fear the introduction of party into this great question of reform ? Never will there be a time less exposed to its in- fluences. This proposition will be submitted to the people at the fall election of '47, at a season when there will be neither president, gov- ernor, nor members of Congress to elect, and when no disturbing causes, therefore, will combine, to trouble the pool of politics, National or State. Nothing of so generally an agitating character, as to arouse even the 92 VALLA:NT>IGHAM'S SPEECHES. ordinary political excitement throughout the State, will or can be brought before the people. I know of nothing to break the calm of that elec- tion. And if the people should decide for a convention, the election of its members, and the commencement of its sessions, must both take place before the presidential canvass of '48. When will a time so auspicious come again? Do you mean to wait till parties shall no more exist? Sir, such vain imaginings arc the very worst sort of political " Millcrism." That day will never come. You must first alter man's nature, or, striking down the spirit of liberty, must compel the uniformity of inexorable despotism. Parties will always exist ia i\ free country, and it is the business of wise men not to attempt to eradicate, but to regulate and control them. But why shall party enter at all into this question ? It is a question for the whole people of the State, and concerns them, not as whigs, or as democrats, but as citizens. Other States have met as one people in this great matter of constitutional reform. In Louisiana, where parties are nearly balanced, but three thousand votes were cast against the new constitution of '44. In Iowa and Missouri the new constitutions proposed were rejected in the former twice rejected though the party whose friends had submitted them, was largely in the majority. Even in New York, where, if in any State, partisan influence was most to have been expected in New York, where the despotism and corruption of party arc carried as far surely as in Ohio, the call for a convention was sustained by a vote of two hundred and thirteen thousand to thirty-three thousand, or a majority ol not less man one hundred and eighty thousand votes, while the constitution which that convention submitted received a majority of fifty thousand at an election where a whig Governor and a democratic Lieutenant -Governor were each elected by about ten thousand majority. "Why, sir, even in the convention of Pennsylvania too old democratic Pennsylvania I mean the Pennsylvania of '38, not '46 John Sergeant was chosen President. And is it in Ohio alone that the thraldom of party is so monstrous that a convention is not to be called, and not even the people consulted whether they desire it, for fear that the influence of partisan politics will corrupt its deliberations ? Sir, I was born in Ohio, and I will never consent to brand upon her brow the infamy of such an imputation. Your be.v and purest men will find seats in this convention, and they will vote and speak as honest men and as patriots. But if the fear of party is to defeat this measure, when will it pass ? Now I submit it to gentlemen as to members earnest in their desire to vote for the best interests of the people ; if this bill is never to pass if the constitution needs no amending, and is never to be amended this objection is at least consistent. But if you look forward to a time when the constitution of this Stare is to undergo the process of revision, OX CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM. 93 then let us hear no more of party, for its corrupting influence will be far greater and more perilous half a century hence, than in this com- paratively healthy age of the commonwealth certainly as great in live years or ten as at this day. Sir, I protest earnestly against the defeat of this measure by the votes of those who, admitting the neces- sity of a change in our constitution, desire and expect to sec it carried out at some future day. What ! object to this bill now, and vote against it because you are afraid that party corruption will steal into the con- vention and fasten upon the State a constitution worse than the present, and yet think to call just such convention, for just the same purpose, at some other time as if party spirit and party distinctions wore at their last gasp and never more to be heard of ! Sir, I repeat it : that day will never dawn. I have no faith, not the slightest, in the coming of a political millenium when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together. Such visions are just " the stuff that dreams are made of." The " moon- shine's watery beams" have ten times the substance of such shadows. But why fear a worse constitution ? The people are first to resolve whether they will have a convention. They arc then to elect the mem- bers of that convention, and finally the constitution itself is to be sub- mitted to them for their approval or rejection. The people are to decide that question also. And how and whence comes this fear of a worse constitution, but from secret distrust in their virtue and intelligence ? Again: I have heard it said, "New York has just adopted a new constitution ; let us wait till we see how it works." What kind of an argument is this ? This bill does not propose to adopt the New York constitution, or any other already formed. What has it or what have they to do with the question of a convention in Ohio, that we shall wait till they have been tried ? Their principles are not new.; and if they were, how know you that they would be introduced into ours ; or if they were introduced with the sanction of the people, who should say aught against it ? Wait ? And how long ? One, two, five years ? How long shall the test be ? Why, sir, by that time Virginia shall have reorganized her constitution, and then we shall be told, " wait till she has tried how it works." Every year some new constitution is framed, and thus this objection may be forever applied. When the proposition similar to this, Mr. Speaker, was under debate, at the last session, the argument most urged against it, and that which I feel and know will go farther toward the defeat of this bill than all others put together, was the fear of untried and dangerous innovations. The dire spirit of radicalism, they told us, and some now will tell us, is abroad in its rage, and threatens, like the Apostles of old, to turn the world upside down. Sir, this fear of innovation, or rather of progress, is a morbid affection to be dealt with as other hypochondriac diseases. 94 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. And I would lament beyond the power of words to express, that its in- fluence should be allowed to defeat this measure. But how comes such an objection to be urged by those among the majority of this House ? Have not the whig party sworn upon the horns of the altar, eternal hos- tility to all such innovations as are thus feared and abhorred, and does not that party boast of a permanent majority in this State reckoned by thousands? Have we not heard it proclaimed times out of number, that Ohio is unalterably a whig State ? Now, sir, this question must first be submitted to the people ; and upon the new constitution also they must decide. And think you, sir, the people, a large majority of whom are claimed to be whigs conservative wliigs, and opposed to all innovations and radicalism, to hard money and legislative supremacy over " vested rights," so called will first demand such convention, thus exposed to such dangers, then elect a majority of members to serve in it, who will propose a radical, impracticable constitution : and finally, support that constitution by their free suffrages ? No, sir, let gentle- men be consistent. If in truth you have confidence in your majority, vote for this bill. It is we, we who should fear, if any. But we are not afraid to trust this question to the people of Ohio. Ours is a living faith in their virtue and intelligence. We believe, and mean this day to prove the sincerity of that belief by our votes, that they will choose just such a convention and such a constitution as will best promote the true principles of free government, and the real interests of the State. AfraiJ ! aiiJ ui wlioiii and wiiaU Sir, this bill proposes no more and I desire to write it upon the hearts of the members of this House, as with a pen of iron no more than simply to submit to the people, whether they desire a convention to amend or change the constitution. It calls no such convention. We have no authority to call it And if the peo- ple of this State do not desire it, they will vote this proposition down, and that, too, with little trouble and at no expense. If they mean to demand a convention, they will signify that demand through the ballot- box that " weapon surer set, and better than the bayonet." And who shall interpose between them and their will ? Shall the agent become greater than his principal, or the creature dictate control to the creator ? I repeat it, this bill does not propose to call a convention. Look at its title " * ' bill to provide for ascertaining the will of the people of this State, upon the question of calling a convention to amend or change the Constitution of the same" That, sir, is its object its sole object. And who shall dare rise up and say, " We care not to know the will of the people upon this question ? We are opposed to a convention : that is enough. We are afraid of it, and their .voice shall not be heard." Yet such, in effect, will be the language of him who shall this day record his vote against the measure. OX CONSTITUTIONAL KEFOKM. 95 But there arc those who, admitting in all their force the defects of the present constitution, the necessity of amendment} the fitness of the time, the nature of this proposition, the right of the people to decide upon it, the propriety of submitting it to .their decision, and all the other great considerations, in view of which I have plead with this House for the passage of this bill, yet folding their hands to sleep, tell us in sluggard accent, " better wait a little longer." Wait ! Why, and for what ? Sir, I abhor the word. " Ilowlings attend it." It is a bad word, and sounds dismally of the ruin of great enterprises. It smacks of death, all over of death. It has the hollow moan of the sepulchre of all good, about it. There is ruin in its accent, " Wait a H^e," said the First Charles when the Commons of England knocked loud at the palace, and demanded reform of abuses and redress of grievances and the storm of civil uproar bore him headlong to the scaffold. " Wait a little," said the Second James, to the enraged Protestants of his king- dom, crying out for security to their religious rights and form of wor- ship and the throne rotted away from under him, and he died miser- ably an exiled King. " Wait a little," said Louis of France, as the cloud of popular discontent arose no bigger than a man's hand ; and it began to blacken the horizon. " Give us our rights and protect us against the monstrous wrongs perpetrated upon us," said the people, as . they thundered at the gates of the Bastile. " Wait a little," murmured the King ; and the storms came, and hail-stones, and coals of fiery in- dignation from the people, swept over France ; and throne, and king, and government, and nobles, all went down in blood, before the whirl- wind of revolution. " Wait a little !" There is danger in the words. Sir, the people of this State demand this reform, and will ere long come thundering about this capitol, also, if denied. The present constitution was never submitted to them for their approval, arid exists only by con- nivance. True, it points out a mode of amendment, and provides for submitting that question to the people, as we now demand at the hands of this House, and in their name, that it may be done. But I warn gentlemen not to cany refusal and delay too far. Look to Rhode Island. Though her cause fell into unsafe hands who betrayed it, yet, reckon not, I beg you, too largely upon its failure. The people of Ohio will not be hurried rashly into a mode of reform other than that pre- scribed by even the present constitution, to which they have yielded no more than a tacit assent. Nor yet, be assured, will they slumber forever upon those rights which constitutions can neither give nor take away. But this constitution has declared in so many words, the rights of the people to be above the authority of their representatives, and recognized their inalienable and full power at all times over their forms of govcrn- racnt. And though we should forget, yet they will remember it. Let 96 VALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. me remind gentlemen of this provision of our bill of rights there is fearful significance in it. I read from the constitution : "That the general, great, and essential principle of liberty and freo government may bo recognized and forever unalterably established, we declare, "SEC. 1. That all men are born equally frco and independent, and have certain natural, inherent, and inalienable rights?, amongst which are the enjoying and de- fending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursu- ing and obtaining happiness and safety; and every free republican government, being founded on their (THE PEOPLE'S) sole authority, and organized for the great purpose of protecting their rights and liberties, and securing their independence ; to effect these ends THEY HAVE AT ALL TIMES A COMPLETE POWER TO ALTER, RE- FORM, $5D ABOLISH T1IEIR GOVERNMENT WHENEVER THEY MAY DKEM IT KECES- SARY." Now, sir, I do not undertake to say that this provision, comprehen- sive and emphatic as its purport and language are, authorizes a change of the constitution, by the people of this State in their unorganized ca- pacity, and in a mode other than that pointed out by the instrument itself. But with this provision in it, and with the fact palpable, that the constitution never received the direct approval of the people, and is not their constitution except by acquiescence, I will not answer for doc- trines which may be taught, and movements which may be made, if this Assembly shall persist in obstinate refusal to carry out the intent of that constitution, and the will of the people. It is the part of wisdom not to press measures like this to extremes. Sir, this bill must and will some time or other become a law. You may vote it down now. You may look the people in the face and say to them, " We care not to know your will upon this question, for we are adverse to it." But be assured, be assured, that sooner or later, and in a day perhaps when you think not of, this bill will pass. If passed now, your constitution will be framed in the midst of calm, by the sober second thought of a con- vention of cool-headed men and patriots, and passed upon by a people undisturbed by agitation. But if this Legislature shall wait, and wait, and wait, till with safety they can wait no longer till forced by the thunderings and knockings of the people, which will not be denied ; know well, your constitution will be " born in bitterness and nurtured in convulsion." For let me admonish this House, in the crooked but significant Anglo-Saxon tongue of Carlyle, that here, too, as in France, if rulers and representatives refuse the timely correction of the abuses, errors, and defects of Government, "SOMETHING WILL SOME DAY DO ITSELF IN A WAY TO PLEASE NOBODY." If, then, in truth, you are afraid of the spirit of an impracticable radicalism if really you fear a consti- tution worse than the present, wait not, I beseech you, till the whirl- wind and the storm of popular commotion shall sweep over the State ; but pass this bill now to-day, and claim to yourselves the honor and HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 07 gratitude of other times, and make this session memorable, and this day long to be venerated in the State of Ohio. Let no man ask us to wait longer. IVs this bill ; be not afraid of the people. Trust to them the decision of this question, and proclaim by your votes this day, the sin- cerity of your faith in their virtue and intelligence to frame a constitu- tion worthy of this great commonwealth. HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. Speech delivered at a Democratic Meeting held in Dayton, Ohio, Octo- ber 29, 1855. Fait Jicec sapientia quondam, Pubiica 'privates sccemcre, sacra profanis. HORACE. dZternas opes esse Horn anas nisi inter semet ipsi sedit'onibus nwiant. Id unum venenum, earn Libcm civ Until us opulentis repertam, ut majna impena morlaLa extent. LIVY. Tlicn only botli Commonwealth and Religion will at length, if ever, flourish in Christendom, when cither they who govern, discern between eivil and religious (religion and politics): or they only who so discefri, shall be admitted to govern. Till then nothing but troubles, persecutions, commotions, can bu expected, the in- ward decay of true religion among ourselves, and the utter overthrow, at l.'.st. by a common enemy. MILTOX.* 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 185G, and to organize preparatory there- to, Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM said that he proposed as the text or " rubric" of what he had to say to-night, the following inquiries : WHY HAS THE DEMOCRATIC PAKTY SUFFERED DEFEAT IN OHIO ? WHY IS IT SO GREATLY DISORGANIZED? WlIAT WILL RESTORE IT TO SOUND DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE, AND, THEREFORE, TO TOWER AND USEFUL- NESS ?. 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, and, if it be not presumption, to save, while to be saved is yet possible. The time for plain Anglo- Saxon out-speaking is come. Let us hear no more the lullaby of peace, * These mottoes were prefixed to the pamphlet edition of tlxc Speech, when first published in 1855. 7 98 VALLANDIG HAM'S SPEECHES. when there is no peace ; but rather the sharp clang of the trumpet stir- ring to battle ; at least, the alarm-bell in the night, when the house is ou fire over our heads. Or, better still, give us warning while the incen- diary 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 not, 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 pun- ishment for its infraction. I. speak of the Democratic party of Ohio, because AVC are our own masters, and have a work of our own to per- form. 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, remem- bering that concerning Carthage it is better to be silent, than speak too little. Yet we, as members, must partake of the weakness and cnerva- tiou of other. parts of tlio syiem ; and atrophy is quite &* muu, muugu it may not be so speedy, as corruption and gangrene. The inquiries, gentlemen, which I have proposed, assume the truth of the facts which they imply. Are they not true ? That we have been defeated, is now become history. But defeat did not disorganize us. Had not discipline first been, lost, we could not have been over- powered. 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. Disso- lution and disorganization are wholly 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 flit- ting exigency, as it arises in the State ; moulding itself to the form of every popular humor, and seeking to fill 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 ; the Democratic party is founded upon PRINCIPLES which never die: hence it is itself immortal. It may alter its forms ; it must change its measures for, as in principle it is essentially conservative, so in policy HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 99 it is the party of trite progress its individual members and its leading spirits, its representative men, cannot 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 x is at all times equally pure and true to principle and its mission. And whenever the Democratic party forgets these, it loses its cementing and power-bestowing clement ; it waxes weak, is disorganized, is defeated till, purging itself of its impurities, and falling back and rallying within its impregnable intrcnchmcnts of original and eternal principles, it re- turns, like "eagle lately bathed," with irresistible might and majesty, to the conflict, full of hope, and confident in victory. Sir, it is tlr.s recu- perative power this vis mcdicatrix which distinguishes the Democratic party from every other ; and it owes this wholly to its cojiservative ele- ment, FIXED POLITICAL PRINCIPLES. I say political principles principles peculiarly belonging to 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 re- ligion and morality upon its members, and also that, in its aggregate being, it dare not violate the principles of either, it is yet neither a Church nor a lyceinn. 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 philanthro- pic 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 its mission to be the depositary of immutable political principles, and steps aside after the dreams and visions of a false and fanatical progress some- times political, commonly philanthropic or moral that it ceases to be powerful and victorious ; for Gocl has ordained that truth shall ever, in the 'end, be vindicated, and error chastised. 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 control 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 a too lofty flight into upper air, it has melted like wax before the sun. Indirecily indeed, government will always, sir, affect more or less, all these rela- tions for good or evil. But departing from its appointed orbit, con- fusion, 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 Democ- 100 VALLANDIGIIAM S SPEECHES. racy everywhere, are to be traced directly to neglect or infraction of tho fundamental principle of its constitution that man is to be considered and "dealt with by government strictly in reference to his relations as a political being. These reflections, Mr. president, naturally lead me to the first inquiry : Personal dissension; a turning aside after mere temporary and mis- called expediency ; a faith ia and following after weak, or uncertain, or selfish, or heretical men ; neglect of party tone and discipline as essen- tial 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 arc incident to all parties, and, although never to be too lightly estimated, yet rarely occasion lasting or very se- rious 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 surface of the body show that the system is tainted and distempered within. Neither do I pause, gentlemen, to consider how for the final inauguration of the grand scheme of domestic policy, which the .Democratic party so many years struggled for, and the conse- quent prostration 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 auJ keep puio ai;u ^icu^'i^i, iL t vvhicL. lu has established. And this, along with the new political 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 lyccum, 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 hypocrisies, the persecuting spirit, and whatever else of unmixed evil has crept, through corruption, into the outer or the inner courts of the sanctuary. I know, indeed, gentlemen, that every political party is more or less directly affected, as by a sort of magnetism, by all great public move- ments upon any subject; and it is one of the peculiar evils of a democ- racy, 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 par- ties in the United States. The memorable controversies which pre- ceded the American Revolution, and which developed and disciplined HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 101 the great abilities of the giants of those days founded, indeed, as all must be, upon abstract principles drawn from the nature of man con- sidered in his relation to government were yet strictly legal and politi- cal. The men of that day were not cold metaphysicians, nor wicked or mischievous enthusiasts 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 usurpa- tions wholly jwtiticat, as impelling to the separation, and struck out of the original draught of the Declaration of Independence the eloquent, but then mistimed, declamation of Jefferson against the Africar slave- trade. Sir, it did not occur to even the Hancocks and the Adamses of the New England of that day that the national ain-s and immoralities of Great Britain could form the appropriate theme of a great state paper, and supply to a legislative assembly the most potent arguments wherewith to justify and defend before the world a momentous political revolution. Discoveries such as these are, belong to the patriots and wise men the Sewards, the Simmers, the Hales, and the Chases of A later and more enlightened age. Our ancestors went to war, indeefl, 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 1 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 POLITICAL UNION, so as to establish jus- tice and to secure domestic tranquillity, the common defence, the gene- ral welfare, and the blessings of liberty to themselves and posterity. And the Catholic of Maryland 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 sinner of Savannah Washington and Adams, Puitledgc and Sherman, Madison and Franklin, Pinckney and Ellsworth, all joined hands in holy brotherhood to ordain a Constitution which, silent about temperance, forbade religions tests and establishments, and provided 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. * Both these provisions were carried unanimously, without debate and without vote. 3 Had. Pap., 136G, 1447, 1456, 1468. 102 VALLA^DIGHAM'S SPEECHES. " WJiiskey" 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 administration re- nascent now by a sort of Pythagorean metempsychosis^ \\\ 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, abstrac- tions, though of infinite practical value but they were constitutional and political abstractions. Equally is it true that all the capital meas- ures, in every administration, from '98 to 1828, were of a kindred char- acter, 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, not 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 Rc?;okitiei:--., the Spc-jlo C::\. ;:!..., ILcc^hu 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 remem- bered, 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 de- voted 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 or succeeding which, that pestilent and execrable sectional controversy, HISTOKY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 103 RespuUiccc portcntiun ac pccne fun us, 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 im- paired, more or less seriously, the strength and discipline of the Demo- cratic 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 Sale?n, was chairman, to draught a constitution for the first " Temperance Society" in the Uni- ted States. The committee reported in 1813, arid 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 "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 temper- ance in the use of ardent spirits ; their successors forbade, wholly, all spirituous, but allowed vinous and fermented liquors. The \Vashing- tonians enjoined total abstinence from every beverage which, by possi- bility, might intoxicate, and so, also, did the Sons of Temperance. But all these organizations, gentlemen in the outset, at least pro- fessed 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 results for good re- warded their labors. The public was interested, everywhere. The cause became popular became powerful. Designing men, not honest, were not slow to discover that it might be turned into a potent politi- cal engine for the advancement of personal or party interests. Weak men, very honest, were dazzled and deluded by the bright dream of in- temperance expelled, and man restored to his original purity, by the power of human legislation. And lo, in 1855, in this, the freest coun- try upon the globe, fourteen States, by statute bristling all over with fines, the jail, and the penitentiary 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 association, is now become a controlling element at tho VALLANDIGIIAM3 SPEECHES. polls and in legislation. Political parties arc perverted into great temperance sock-tics ; and the fitness of the citizen tor cilice ganged 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 bo but parched, he is competent. 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 all 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 de- partures from original and wholesome political principle, Kxow- NOTHIXGISM as barbarous in name, as, in my judgment, it is danger- ous in essence. The extraordinary success, gentlemen, which had attended political temperance and abolition, revealed a mine of wealth, richer than Cali- fornia placc.r, to the office-hunting demagogue. Ordinary political topics were become stale certainly unprofitable. But he, it now ap- peared, 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 lan- guage, all religious tests and establishments : and every State, in terms more or less emphatic, has ordained a similar prohibition. The Con- stitution 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 con- science be permitted ; and no religious test shall be required as a quali- fication for office" By prohibitions, positive and stringent as these are, gentlemen, our fathers, in their weakness, thought to stay the flood of religious in- tolerance. 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 ecclesiastic" eould 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 IIISTOKY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 105 sagacity, therefore, to foresee that the prejudices of race and sect must prove a still more powerful and wieldy engine. The Pope of Pilgrim's Progress grinned still at the mouth of the cave full of dead men's bones ; and Fox's Book of Martyrs lay shuddering 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 Imjuisition. Add to this, that a majority of Catho- lics are foreigners obnoxious, therefore, 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, 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 light.ning 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 candi- dates 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 mys- tery is perplexing the country is on fire and lo, in October, nine months after this Salem epiphany, from Maine to California, the mythic "SAM" lias 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. 1 rejoice, sir, that there arc 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 move- ments, party invaded the territory of the Church. The Church has 106 YALLAXDIGHAM'S now avenged the aggression, and gone into party not with the might and majesty of holiness not to purify and elevate but \\ith dis- torted 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 lias become to the Church as " dead flics in the ointment of the apothecary." Church and State, each abandoning its peculiar prov- ince, and meeting upon the common ground of fanaticism and pro- scription, have joined hands in polluting and incestuous wedlock. 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 circumstances, 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 other- wise, purified and strengthened. In all these, too, the Democracy, 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 "TCnrw-Xo tiling" c \\uioacciiL. 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 and the South, and to mould it into a permanent national party. But circumstances are stronger than men and already throughout the North it has become thorough- ly abolitionizcd. 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 De- mocratic party must, sooner or later, inevitably terminate THE ABOLI- TION HORDE OF THE NORTH ; for, however tortuous may be its chan- nel, or remote its fountain, into this turbid and devouring flood will every brook and rivulet find its way at last. The consideration of this great question, Mr. President, I have natu- rally 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 Democratic 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 pro- gress of this movement, and to explore, and lay open at length, its re- HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 107 lations, present and prospective, to tlic Democratic party and to the Union. SLAVERY, gentlemen older in other countries also than the records of human society existed in America at the date of its discovery. The first slaves of the European were natives of the soil ; and a Puritan governor of Massachusetts founder of the family of Winthrop be- queathed his soul to God, and his Indian slaves to the lawful heirs of Iiis body. Negro slavery was introduced into llispaniola in 1501, more than a century before the colonization of America by the English. Massachusetts, by express enactment, in 1G41, 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," foreiyncrs, as should be acquired by pur- chase ; 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 Amer- ica.* White slaves convicts and paupers some of them ; others, at a later day, prisoners taken at the battles of Dunbar, and Worcester, and of Sedgcmoor 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 1G20, 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 colonists was fitted out, in 1645, by a member of the Puritan Church, of Boston. Foster- ed 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 Colonies, the traffic increased ; * 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 tw." Massachu- setts Jiody of Liberties, 1641, 91. " It is, also, by these confederates agreed, that, etc and that according to the different charge of each jurisdiction and plantation, the wholo advantage of the war (if it please God so to bless their endeavors) whether it be in lands, goods, or persons, shall bo proportiouably divided among said confederates." Articles of Co.ifeleration, etc,, .1% 19, 1613; 4; and Bancroft's United States, vol. l,p. 168. THE NEW ENGLAND FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. " It is also agreed that if any servant run away from Jus master into any of these confederate jurisdictions, that, in such case, upon certificate of one magistrate 5u the jurisdiction out of which the said servant fled, or upon due proof, the said servant shall be delivered up cither to his master or any other tfiat pursue and brings such certificate or proof." ftid. t 8. 108 VALLANDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. slaves multiplied, and, on the Fourth of July, 1770, every Colony wns 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 aet of that day, emancipated. Eleven years afterward, delegates, assembling at Philadelphia, from every State except Rhode Island, ignoring, the question of the sinfulness and immorality of slavery, as a subject with which they, as the represent- atives of separate and independent States, had no concern, 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 representation of slaves, gave no right to Congress to debate or to legislate concerning slavery in the States or Territories, except for the interdiction of the slave-trade and the extra- dition 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 ab- solutely or conditionally. But the number of slaves north of Maryland, never ix rca t, w;ls 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 uuvcrtook firm root.''" Nature waned against ilia ujuiiuiiumc, oiiier- wise every State in the Union would have been a slavcliolding 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 resist^: 1 the introduction of African slaves; and, at the very outset of the revolution, Virginia and North Carolina interdicted the slave- trade. The Continental Congress soon after, on the 6th of April, 1776, * THE XORTU AND THE SLAVE TRADE. Tho 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 30,075. 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. HISTORY OF TJIE ABOIJTTOX MOVEMENT. 109 three months earlier than the Declaration 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 encouraging the slave-trade, and for fomenting servile insurrection, in the provinces. Ten years later, he boldly attacked slavery, in his "Notes on Virginia;" and in the Congress of the Con- federation, prior to the adoption of the Constitution, with its solemn com- pacts and compromises upon the subject of slavery, proposed to exclude it from the territory northwest of the river Ohio. Colonel Mason, of Vir- ginia, vehemently condemned it, in the Convention of 1787. Never- theless, it had already become manifest that slavery must soon die away in the Northj but in the South continue and harden into, perhaps, a permanent, uneradicablc 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 Suin- ners, no Greeleys, no Parkers, no Chases, in that Convention. There was a Wilson, but he rejoiced not in the name of Henry ; and he was a Scotchman. There was a clergyman no, not in the Convention of '87, but in the Congress of '70 ; but 'it was the devout, the learned, the pious, the patriotic Witherspoon ; 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. Thej* 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, accordingly, to this Union and Constitution, based upon these compromises execrated now as " covenants with death and leagues with hell" every State acceded ; and upon these foundations, thus broad and deep and stable, a political superstructure has, as if by magic, arisen, which, in symmetry and pro- portion, and, if we would but be true to our trust, in strength and dura- bility, finds no parallel in the world's history. Patriotic, sentiments, sir, such, as marked the era of '80, continued to guide the statesmen and people of the country, f>r more than thirty years, full of prosperity: till, in a dead political calm, consequent upon 110 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. 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, except in half a score of instances, the question had not been obtruded upon Congress. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 had been passed without opposition, and without a division in the Senate ; and by a vote of forty-eight to seven in the Ilouse. The slave-trade had been declared piracy, punish- able 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 matter at rest. Other petitions, afterward, were quietly rejected, and, in one instance, returned to the petitioner. Louisiana and Florida, both slaveholdiug countries, had, without agitation, been added to our territory. Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, slave States each one of them, had been admitted into the Union, without a murmur. No Missouri Re- striction, no AVilmot Proviso, had as yet reared its discordant front to terrify and confound. NON-INTERVENTION was then both the practice and the doctrine of the statesmen and people of that period : though, as yet, no 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 sliown, by a formal assault upon the compromises of the Constitution, to array the preju- dices of geographical sections upon the question of slavery. But, orig- inating within the secret counsels of the Hartford Convention, it partook of the odium which touched every thing connected with that treasonable assembly,* till, set on fire by a live coal from the altar of jealousy and fanaticism, it burst into a conflagration, six years later. And now, sir, * TUB HARTFORD CONVENTION. " Resolved, That it is expedient *o recommend 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, be restricted. That it is expedient to attempt to make provision for restraining Congress ia the exercise of an unlimited power tojnake New States, and admit them into the Union. That an amendment be proposed respecting SLAVE REPRESENTATION AND SLAVE TAXATION." Tlit. third rtsolutivn of the Hartford Convention, reported Dec. 24, IS 14, 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." HI3TOP.Y OF THE ABOLmOX MOVEMENT. HI for the first-time in our history under the Constitution, a strenuous and most embittered struggle ensued, on the part of the North the Feder- alists 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 slaveholding, which the Missouri Constitution sanc- tioned, was affirmed 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 vindi- cated THE NORTH was the aggressor ; and that, too, without the slightest provocation. Vermont, in New England, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, out of territory oner- 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 per- mitted, by vote of Congress, to separate from Massachusetts, and become a distinct State. But now Missouri knocked for admission, with a con- stitution 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 resisted, 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 liis 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 them- selves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and happi- ness 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 hopes of the world."* *THE MISSOURI QUESTION A FEDERAL MOVEMENT THE NORTH THE AGGRESSOR. "The slavery agitation took its rise during this time (1819-'20), in the form of at- tempted 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 far tin', balance cf jxwer, as frankly declared by Mr. Kufus King, who disdained dissimulation Tho resistance made to the admission of the Stutc, on account of the clause in relation to free-people of color, was only a mask to the real causu of opposition Far a while thit formidable Mi*wuri question threatened the total overthrow of all political parties upon principle, and the substitution of geographical parties, distinguished by th* slave line, and, of course, destroying the just and proper 112 VALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. But the incantations of hate and fanaticism had evoked the hideous spectre, and it ought to have been quelled, never to reappear. The appalling question was now stirred; and it should have been met and resettled 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 Ilinnom. Setting aside the compromises of the Constitution, and usurping power not granted to Congress, they undertook to compromise about that which had already been definitely and permanently settled by that in- strument. This was the beginning, sir, of that line of paltry and halt- ing 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 aa before. .But it was " a reprieve onlv, 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 ob- literated, but rather, by every irritation, marked deeper and deeper. And, after fifteen years' truce, it reappeared in a new and far more dangerous form ; and, enduring already for more than half the average lifetime of m.n, has attained a position aud ma^iilluJv; .Llv,L ..uiL^ 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 action of the Federal Government, and leading eventually to a separation of the Slates. 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 -upremacy to their adversaries. When this effect was perceived, the Northern Democracy became alarmed, and only wanted a turn or abatement in pop- ular feeling at home, to take the first opportunity to yd rid of the question, by admitting the State, and re-establishing p'trty linef upon the ba*is 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, tho North was the undisputed aggressor." Bcntorfs Thirty Years, pp. 5, 10, and 136, of volume Jir si. HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 113 realities remain to this day; for although, in that very humane and most enlightened Island, there he no involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime, yet in England poverty is a crime, punishable with the worst form of slavery, or by starvation and death. Three hundred years ago, she began to traffic in negro slaves. Queen Eliza- beth .was a sharer in its gains. A hundred and fifty years later, at the peace of Utrecht, England undertook, by compact with Spain, to im- port into the West Indies, within the space of thirty years, one hun- dred and forty-four thousand negroes, demanding, 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 cannot 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, 1776, the American Congress resolved against the importation of any more slaves. But England continued the traffic, with all its ac- cumulated 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 rcnowcd 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. ITer philanthropy found room now to develop and expand in all its wonderful proportions.. And accordingly, 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 Ireland, 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; and with these, the wages of iniquity, in the outraged name of God and humanity, mocked the handful^ of her black bondsmen in the "West 8 114 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECH ?:s. Indies with the false ami deluding shadow of liberty. Exeter If:;!! resounded with acclamation; bontm's and illuminations proclaimed the exultant jov 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 manufactories 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 cruelties, 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 thousand pits and mines, deep under earth, horrid in darkness, and reeking 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 becamo now the great apostle of African liberty. Ignor- ing, sir, or putting under, at the point of the bayonet, the political rights of millions of her own white subjects, she yet prepared to convict the world of the sinfulncss of negro slavery. Exeter Hall sent out its emis- saries, full of zeal, and greedy for martyrdom. The British government took up the crusade not from motives of religion 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 Sepulchre, had learned many lessons; and none know better now their true prov- ince and mission, than English statesmen. But the American experi- ment 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 threatening 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 Mace- don. The Missouri Question had revealed the weak point of the Ameri- can Confederacy. Achilles was found vulnerable in the heel. In spem ventum crat, ISTESTIXA DISCORDIA dissolvi rein Romanam 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 agitation began here, in 1S35 ; 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 work- ing up the cast-off rags of the British societies, poured forth a multitude HISTORY OF TlfE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. H5 of incendiary prints and publications, which wore 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 Abo- lition societies, treading again in the footsteps of the emancipationists in England, had prepared, and now poured in a flood of petitions, pray- ing 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 could be accom- plished, even in the North. But no appliances were left untried. Agi- tators, their breath was agitation ; quiescence would have been a sen- tence of obscurity and dissolution. And accordingly, in May, 1835, the American Anti-Slavery Society was established in New York, its object being the immediate and unconditional abolition of negro slavery in the United States. It was a permanent organization, to be dissolved only upon the consummation of its purpose. 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 accountable before heaven. Slaveholders were to be made odious in the eyes of Northern men and foreign nations, as cruel tyrants and task-masters, 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 slaveholder, was to partake of all their sins and enor- mities ; 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 revolution 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 116 VALLANDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. sometimes angry controversy in Congress, and elsewhere. But a pow- erful and permanent organization, founded for sueh a purpose, and working by such appliances, had never yet existed. Coming thus in sueh 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 destroyed, its assemblies broken up, its pub- lications burned, and its lecturers mobbed everywhere, and more than one among them murdered in the midst of popular tumult and indigna- tion. The churches, the school-houses, the court-houses, and the pub- lic halls were alike closed against them. Misguided men, fanatics, emissaries of England, traitors these were among the mildest 'of epi- thets which, in every place, and almost from every tongue, saluted their ears. The very name of "Abolitionist" became a byword and a hiss- ing. 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 reluctance ; and, as late as the twenty-eighth of December, 1837, Mr. Calhoim rejoiced that "every senator, without exception," had confessed himself opposed to the agitation. A bill to punish, by severe penalties, any postmaster who should knowingly put into the mail any incendiary publication directed to the South, had, by the casting vote of Vice-President Van Bnren, been ordered to a third reading. The Senate declined to refer, or in any way act upon, the numerous petitions presented, \vhile the House, refusing to rc-.-.l, prlht, or refer, .laid them forthwith upon the table. In January, 1838, the Senate, by a majority of four to one, adopted a series of resolutions de- nouncing the Abolition movement "on whatever ground or pretext urged forward, political, moral, or religious," as insulting to the South, and dangerous to her domestic peace and tranquillity ; and further, con- demning all efforts toward the abolition of slavery 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 mis- chievous tendency. At the following session, the House of Representa- tives, by a majority of more than one hundred and fifty, 1 passed resolu- tions, stronger, if possible, than these, and, some time later, censured, and almost expelled, John Quincy Adams, for presenting 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 periodi- cals of the day, did it find either 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 HISTOKY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 11 7 unconstitutional attempts of tho misguided men, and especially the emissaries from foreign parts," 1 who had originated the Abolition move- ment. President Van Buren, in his inaugural address, had volunteered a pledge to veto any bill looking to the abolition of slavery in the Dis- trict 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, 1840, planted itself firmly upon the rock of the Constitution, and 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 spirit of the. Constitution, and destructive to tlie harmony of the Union :" and resolving that, " We, as citizens c r a free State, had no right to interfere" with slavery elsewhere, denounced the Abolition movement and Abolition societies, declaring, that while they " ought to be discountenanced by every lover of peace and concord, no sound Democrat 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 but ancient Federalism, under a new gulf of disunion. Assuming now the specious name of "Free Soil," and disguising its odious principles and its tme purposes, under the 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 tho Constitution. But the united patriotism, talent, and worth of the North and South rallied to the rescue of this the last grand experiment 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 contro- versy. It was designed to be a covenant of peace forever scaled and attested by the self-sacrifice of Webster, Clay, and Calhonn, the most illustrious triumvirate of great men and patriots, 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 government. 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 trie Con- stitution, yet, by some " higher law" of conscience, had a right, and, as they would escape that tire which is not quenched, were bound to inicr- meddle, 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 fire by these pas- sions, applied now to that case which, coming Highest 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 compromise 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 Democratic ranks, a-iJ by almost the entire Whig force of the North, disbanded finally by the overthrow of 1852, but reorganized in part under the banner of Know-Nothingism, the Abolition handful of 1835, swelled now to a mighty host, rallied in defence of the Missouri Restriction, and shook the whole land with a rooking 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 ? HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 121 In January, 183S, Mr. Calhonn 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, uncountcractcd 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, wVre 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 sanction 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 hate 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 journals, 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 arc 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 and the compeer of Scward in his traitorous pur- pose to 'make himself a name in history the antithesis of Washington by the subversion of this Republic 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, a* a faithful witness of the true and general state of Southern 122 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. society, and the legitimate fruit of slavcholdiug. In the public lecture and anmvcixirv address; at the concert hail, and upon the boards of the theatre ; 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. Ilere, 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 ninetcen-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 reli- gious sects, three only cxccpted. Outside of these and sometimes within them, too the religion of the Bible is but too often superseded by the gospel of Abolition, and 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 pretence of Opposition to the Extension of Slavery a pretence 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, F-ir, v/lio may care uulLI;^ fur (JiO^iiUiuuu&ti or immorality oi 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 ;" 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 offence, on the floor of Congress, the insolence of some " slave- dealing" member from Virginia, who is, perhaps, at the moment, a hun- dred miles from the capitol. Tims the claim of the South to participa- tion in the common territory purchased by the common blood and trea- sure 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 "slave-driving" assaults and aggressions upon the rights of the North, Others, again, arc 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 magnanimity of New England. As if no Henry, no Lee, no Jefferson, no Pinckney, no Sumpter, no Ilayne, no Laurens, no Carroll, no George Washington had HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 123 * 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 rose pale and corpse-like from the bed of death, to lead the Palmetto regiment to battle at Churubnsco, foremost in the ranks and " nearest the Hashing 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, bargaining 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 voxtex. The spirit of Anti-Masonry transmigrated, some years ago, into the opaque body of Abolitionism. Fouricrism, Anti-Rentism, the party devoted to Women's Rights, and all the other isms of the day, born of the same generating principle, are already fully assimilated to their common parent: for all these isms, sir, like the nerves of sense, run in pairs. Even the Demo- cratic 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 spectre. Just such, too, as public feeling in the North is, so is its legislation. Vermont has passed a law repealing, iu effect, within her limits, the Fugitive Slave Act of 18oO, and abrogating so much of the Constitu- tion as requires the rendition of fugitives from service. Connecticut, enacting a similar statute, has gone a step farther, and outraged every dictate of justice, in the effort to make it effectual. Massachusetts, 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 ig- nominiously be stricken from her court rolls, and forbidden to practise 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 northwest 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 mob of negroes, white and black,' at Salem, in Ohio, entered a railroad train, and by violence 124 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. tore from the family of a slaveholder, passing through the State from neces^iiv, and at forty miles an hour, the nurse of his ir.fhnt child. A Massachusetts legislature has demanded of her Executive the removal of an able, meritorious, and upright judge, for the conscientious dis- charge, within her limits, of the duties of an office which he held under authority of the United States ; and a Massachusetts ecclesiastical con- clave, three hundred in number, rose as one man on the announcement of the outrage, and shouted till the house rang again with their plaudits. And a Massachusetts university rejected, also, the same judge, for the same cause, when proposed for a professorship 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 exhausted in defending the Union and holding the Commonwealth of his adoption up to the full measure of her Revolutionary patriotism and greatness lias 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 foresight can scan, or human imagina- tion 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 supplanted Winthrop ; and a Wilson crawled up into ihe seat which A\ ebster 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 Plat- form, 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 consolidated in our midst. Add farther, that, to the Thirty-Fourth Congress, fourteen Senators and a majority of Representatives have been chosen, who in name or in facf, arc Abolitionists ; Ohio contributing to this dark host her entire dele- gation in House and Senate, one only excepted ; and thus, for the first time, als,,, since the organization of our Government, lias the House of Representatives been converted into a vast Abolition conventicle, full of men picked out for their hatred of the South, and who cannot be true to the Constitution and the Union without treachery to the ex- pectations and the purposes of those who elected them. And then reflect yet further, that this vast and terrible magazine of explosive elements is gathered together just upon the eve of a Presidential elec- tion, with all its multiplied and convulsing interests ; and that soon mSTOKY OF THE ABOLITION .MOVEMENT. 125 Kansas will knock for admission into the Union, thus surely precipita- ting the crisis; and who, tell me, I pray you, may foresee what shall be the history of this llcpublic 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 all that time, not one convert has it made in the South ; not one slave emancipated, except by larceny, and in fraud of the solemn com- pacts of the Constitution. Meantime, public opinion lias wholly, radi- cally 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 brought forth its natural and legitimate fruit in the South. Exasperation, hate, and revenge, are -every day ripening into fullest maturity and strength; and, throughout her entire extent, she awaits now but the 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 Ter- ritories, upon the pretext that these institutions are sinful and im- moral. She lias 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 " higher law" of conscience, no right of property exists in the thing stolen. Neither sir, has any Southern State, no, not even " fire-eating" South Carolina, sought as yet to compensate herself for the fugitives which we have abducted, by enacting laws to encourage the slave-trade, by pun- ishing with fine and imprisonment in her penitentiary for years any one of her citizens who should aid in enforcing the laws of the United States against the traffic, striking from her court rolls any attorney within her limits, who should appear in behalf of the prosecution, and excluding ah 1 who hold the office of United States Commissioner or Judge, from any office or appointment 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 and discord, nourished and educated into mat u rest development; and, one by one, the real and strong cords which bind us together as a Con- federacy snapped asunder, or stretched to their utmost tension. It needs no spirit of prophecy, not even a human sagacity above the 126 VALLAjSTDIGHAM 8 SPEECHES. m ordinary level, to foretell just how long the habits, forms, and paper parchments of a union can last when its life-giving principle and nourishing and sustaining virtue are wasted and gone. Sir, he is yet but in the swaddling bands of infancy, who does not already sec 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. I 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 voice 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 ourselves. 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, vice, corruption, and enervation for five hundred years more, to our final fall as an empire. No. The history of Greece is the true study for the American states- man. 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 protmtf> ? ctoto \^ ti f^ v :~^ r - H, 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 1*28 'VALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECH K?. 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 distinc- tions with which our ancestors set out at the commencement of this government. We must learn a wise and wholesome conservatism ; 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 and our legislation by mere abstract, theoretical, and math- ematically exact, but impracticable truths. We must remember, also, our true mission as a political party, and retrace our steps from outside the territories of the lyccum 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 Cccsar the things that are dcsar's, and unto God the things that are Goo"*" We must set out again to pronounce .upon political questions, without 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 dan- gerous and mo. : t presumptuous self-delusion, that we arc lo gi>c ..cooiiui, each one as citizens, for the sins or immoralities of our fellow-men. Slavery, 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 ethical or religious question. For, disguise and falsify it as you will ; marshal and array your figures and your facts to lie never so grossly, it is the sinfulness and immoralitv of slavcholdino- as viewed bv the Northern / O v mind, and this alone, which has stirred the people of the North to such a height of folly and madness. And yet, if immoral, it concerns only the people of the States and Territories where it exists ; if sinful, they only arc the offenders, and even if a political evil, it is they alone who feel the nrsc. 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. Presi- dent, 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 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 129 colonies, as perfectly independent, one of the other, as any foreign states. A common subjection to the crown 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 1789 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 States, as sovereign and independent communities. State conventions ratified it; and it was binding only as between those States which acceded 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, distinct, 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 intermeddle, 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 sirifulness and immorality of the one, they are in nowise more responsible than for the other. Or to select the same subject-matter they have no more right to interfere with, nor are they in any degree more accountable for, the continuance 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 1787, would have made the States wholly subordinate to the General Government mere adjuncts "cor- porations for local purposes." The reasons, sir, arc 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 pos- sible, the exclusive regulation of their more immediate and local affairs. Tn 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 "repub- lican" or representative form of government Now, it is too late to 130 v ALL ANDIG HAM'S SPEECHES. 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. therefore, 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 com- mon 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 in their use in common, in every respect, is arrogant and unfounded assumption of superiority; and fifty -fold more offensive, when the pharisaic pretence 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 wicked- ness upon its soil ; assuming thus to be keeper of the conscience and custodian of the morals of the people of the territory, putting on the robes, and ascending into the judgment-seat of the Almighty. Sir, if the inhabitants of Cape Cod are not satisfied with the coparcenary, let them seek, by partition, to hold in severalty; and, obtaining thus the very small and almost infinitesimal portion which is their sliase, 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 dir*vt nnd emphntip (ond<*Vrntt'ftn, >n tV><* Constitution. That part of the instrument which apportions the repre- sentation 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 dis- turb 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 legislation, or public odium, rendered nugatory the act. of 1793, and were laboring for its direct repeal by Congress. They openly repudiated that part of the Constitution upon which it was founded; and, as early as 1843, a gen- eral 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 in it as utterly null and void, and forming no part of the instrument.* Nevertheless, sir, in the ad- * Trus BUFFALO RESOLUTION, 1843, offered by a committee of u-ln'ch SALMON P.CHASE, of Ohio, was a member. " Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly under- HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 131 justmont 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 England 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 pretence 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 defence of slavery itself. Be it so ; be it so. But I have not discussed 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, 1 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 slaveling, stood, by this nation and the -world, that, as Abolitionists, considering that the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hopes for it in our conform- ity to the laws of God, and our support for the rights of man, we o\ve to the sov- ereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our allegiance 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 tho case of a fugitive slave, A3 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 SUPPORT IT." 132 VALLAXDIGHAM S SPEECHES. drivelling, idiot epithet o{ "doughface." Again; be it so. These, Abolitionist, are your only weapons of warfare ; and I hurl thorn back defi- antly into your teeth. I speak thus boldly, because I speak iu 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, fibre, 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 alto- gether 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 dcsumiii'r demarroomes. iust 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 oppres- sors of your fatherland, and seeking for it as exiles in America, you had the right, nevertheless, to intermeddle 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 freedom, to require of us to give away our public lands to all alike, naturalized or alien, white or black, 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 with, as you alleged, and perhaps by virtue of power derived from, the Dccla- , ration 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 HISTORY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 133 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 practised 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 tne slareholding State of Virginia, through the Democratic party of Virginia, followed up by every Southern State, Kentucky alone cxccpted, retrace your steps now into the ranks of that party, stand fast to your true interests and true 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 whatsoever 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 princi- ples must as well take shape and color, as reflect them, from the funda- mental institutions of the country ; and those principles which belong to Democracy, universal and theoretical, are to bo modified and adjudged by the Constitution. It has always been your boast, that you are pe- culiarly the party of the Constitution and of that Union which result? from, and exists only, by the Constitution. And just in proportion as you value these, will you mould 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 personal 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 dis- astrous, 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 availability ; above all, be not deceived by the false and senseless outcry against that most just, most Constitutional, and most necessary measure the Kansas-Nebraska Act.* The true and only question * See post, page 282. 134 VALLAXDIGIIA.M'S SPEECHES. now before you is: Whether you \vill have a Union, with all its numberless blessings iu 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, tor 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 responses at your State conventions. No ; fling your banner to the breeze, and boldly meet the issue. PATRIOTISM ABOVE MOCK PHILANTHROPY; THE CONSTI- TUTION BEFORE ANY MISCALLED HIGHER LAW OF MORALS OR RELIGION J AND THE UNION OF MORE VALUE 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 ancestors, 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 ya v.ilto the last sad chapter in the history of the American Republic. ABSTRACT OF ARGUMENT IN THE OHIO "FUGITIVE SLATE RESCUE CASE," In ike Circuit Court of the United States for Southern Ohio, at Cin- cinnati, June 25, 1857 ; on Habeas Corpus* AFTER a few introductory remarks, and a reply, at some length, to some technical objections made by the Attorney-General in the morn- ing, to the writ and proceedings in the case, and also a brief discussion * This case was argued for the United States, by Hong. GEORGE E. PUGIF, and C. L. VALLANDIGIIAM, and Judge STANLEY MATTHEWS; and for the State by At- torney-General C. P. WOLCOTT, sent down for that purpose by SALMON P CHASE then Governor of Ohio. ON THE o]iio "FUGITIVE SLAVE RESCUE CASE." 135 of several minor points claimed for the United States, Mr. VALLAXDIO- HAM, proceeded as follows : The question of excess and abuse of authority, by the marshals, is the only one of real importance lying in advance of the great ques- tion of power and jurisdiction, iu this controversy between the State and the United States. If the marshals used no more force or violence than was necessary, to prevent the execution by the shcrift' of the habeas corpus, and a rescue of their prisoners, they are clearly entitled to protection in this proceeding under the seventh section of the act of March 2, 1833; otherwise not. Up to that piont, they were acting plainly "in pursuance of a law of the United States, and the process of a judge thereof." I will not discuss the testimony in the case ; it is before the court ; but will affirm that the weight of the evidence distinctly establishes that no more was done by the deputies than was necessary, or certainly at the moment and under the circumstances, appeared necessary, to prevent the rescue of the prisoners, and to defend themselves against violence, if not loss of life. It is proper, however, to advert to the point made, and, with some earnestness, pressed by the Attorney-General, that the return by the sheriff to the writ is conclusive as to the facts in the case, and that the courts cannot look to any testimony outside of it. True, in the ab- sence of any statute of Congress regulating the writ and proceedings oil habeas corpus, or any rule of court adopting the statutes of the State, the court here is bound by the principles of the common law as they are recognized in such cases. But it is not merely these principles as received and interpreted in Westminster Hall, but as modified and ac- cepted in the United States. The books are full of cases where' the 'courts of the States and of the Union, exercising a' common law jurisdic- tion, have gone behind the return where the party was held in custody under judicial process, and inquired, by affidavit or otherwise, into the true facts of the capture and detention of the party in custody. Judge McLean allowed it in Nelson vs. Cutter, 3 McLean, 326(1845), so also in ex parte Robinson (the Rosetta case) 6 McLean R., 355. Judges Grier and Kane permitted it in ex parte Jenkins, 2 Wall. Jr. R., 525 ; and so also Judge Leavitt, in ex parte Robinson, 4 Law Reg., 617 (the Gaincs case). These arc but a few of the numerous prece- dents which, if need were, I might produce. Upon principle also, and the reason and necessity of the case, it is assuredly proper ; and in ad- dition to many other examples, I will put the case of a member of the Federal Senate or House, who, except for treason, felony or breach of the peace, is by the constitution protected from arrest during the sit- ting of Congress and in going and returning. Suppose that neverthe- less, while on' his way to the capital of the Union, li is arrested for 136 V^LLANDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. debt, bow, without proof outside of the return, is he to secure his dis- charge ? If the law be, indeed, as claimed by the Attorney -General, it would subject the whole proceeding to the control of the officer, with no redress for the prisoner except the poor privilege of an action for false return. c Having thus disposed of these preliminary points made in the case, I now proceed to the GREAT QUESTION to be discussed, first assuming that the Fugitive-slave Act of 1850 is constitutional, and the process in the hands of the marshals regular, and issued!* by proper authority. These facts I believe are not controverted. I. If this were an ordinary habeas corpus, which issued from the Probate Court of Champaign County to the Sheri/ if it were the true, constitutional, old-fashioned writ of habeas corpus, would the Deputies have been bound to obey it ? I will not put the question in the usual form Had the State Judge or Court, power to issue it? The two are, no doubt, in fact, equiva- lent; but I prefer the form in which I state it, as presenting the true issue more fairly. If it nowhere appears to the State Judge that the party claiming custody of the prisoner, detains him by virtue of law or process of the Unit.cd States, of course he has a right, and is bound to grant the writ ; it is so said by Judge McLean in Norris vs. Newton, 5 McLean R., 99. No one doubts it. But whenever the sheriff hold- ir the -writ ascertains and it is his duU to a^c.-iii.iii ii uun, me prisoners are held by United States marshals, under process of the Fed- eral Courts, he should desist at once from all attempt to execute it, if issued under the act of 1847, and return the facts. Such a return would be good and valid. No writ can issue to the sheriff, except under the act of 1856, without fraud, perjury, or concealment of the facts, because the copy of the wan-ant or commitment required to be furnished to the judge will disclose on its face that it is United States process under which the petitioner is held in custody. It has been said that the right of the State Courts to issue writs of this sort is well settled by usage on part of the State Courts, and ac- quiescence on part of the United States. I deny jt. As to authority, there is "'o case, I believe, till the present, where a prisoner has been charged with a crime under the penal laws of the United States, and jurisdiction assumed by a State Court or Judge to interfere, except the notorious " Booth Case," in Wisconsin, which no respectable lawyer will condescend to cite as authority, and the case of The Common- wealth vs. Ifolloway, 5 Binney's R., 512. This last was a charge of misprision of treason in 18.13, and a commitment thereon by a Jus- tice of the Peace of Pennsylvania, under the thirty -third section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 ; and the court in taking jurisdiction of the case, ON THE OHIO " FUGITIVE SLAVE BE3CUE CASE." 137 which they did with mucli hesitation, put it expressly upon the ground that the officer committing, was an officer of the State. So, too, Clark's case (9 Wend. It., 212), arose upon a requisition addressed to the Governor of New York. But flic usual case is that of minors enlisting in the army or navy of the United States. These cases are numerous, but there are only two or three where the question of jurisdiction has heen discussed or considered at all. In the first three cases reported (HusteiVs case, 1 John. Cases, 126; Roberts, 2 nail's L. Journal, 192, and Ferguson's, 9 J. R., 229,) the application was denied or the pro- ceeding dismissed. It has indeed been said or supposed that the latter case was overruled in 10 J. R., 328, Stacy's case. This is a mistake. The Court did rot refer to 9 Johnson at all ; nor was the principle of the case in any respect similar. It expressly appeared in the applica- tion and upon the return, that Stacy was not held under any law or process of the United States, but against all law. There never was a case more strongly demanding the interference of a Court. In the matter of Carlfon, 7 Cowen, 471, the only question was, whether the State process could run into West Point, So in the United States vs. Wynyals, 5 Hill, 1G, the sole matter raised and decided was a point in the law of evidence. Many cases have occurred. in Massachusetts; but in one only has the question of jurisdiction been raised in argument, and in none has it been considered by the court. (11 Mass. R., 63, 67, 83; 24 Pick. R., 227.) Several cases also have arisen in Pennsyl- vania, but in one only has the question been suggested and briefly con- sidered. (Commonwealth vs. Fox, 7 Pa. St. R., 336.) And here the Court adopt the distinction made by the Virginia Court of Appeals; that they have jurisdiction where the, custody is not claimed under pro- cm of the Courts of the United States; impliedly, therefore, denying jurisdiction where it is under process of a Federal Judge or Court. It is difficult indeed to distinguish between these two classes of cases. The same legislative authority which requires the marshal or officer of a Court to keep safely his prisoner on civil or criminal process, com- mands the officers of the Army and Navy to hold under their author- ity and control, the soldiers, seamen and marines of the United States. If the Courts of the State have no power to discharge from imprisonment under process of the United States Courts, and the mar- shal, as repeatedly has been adjudged, may disobey the order of dis- charge, equally may a military or naval officer disobey and be protected. Once, also, in a case of extradition under a United States treaty, a Judge of the Supreme Court of New York, assumed jurisdiction on habeas corpus. (In the Matter of Mctzycr, 1 Barb., S. C. Rep., 248.) But, this case is very much in the same spirit and style as the Booth case in Wis- consin. A United States Judge had, under the treaty with France, 138 VALLAiS'DIGHAM's SPEECHES. examined into the charge and cotnnfitted the prisoner. The President issued his mandate under the treaty ; a habeas corpus was applied lor in the Supreme Court of the United States and refused. Met/ger then took out a writ of habeas corpus, retu&uble before Judge Edmonds, who reversed Judge Betts, overruled the Supreme Court, ftbukcd the Presi- dent and discharged the prisoner. This is the third time Judge Ed- monds, before he became lo'st in the occult mysteries of Spiritualism^ has overruled the Supreme Court ; but he stands alone, except in Wiscon- sin, and before his Honor, Burgoyne, of the Probate Court of this city. State Courts, in other cases, have uniformly denied even the appli- cation, when it appeared that the custody was under color of process from the United States Courts. It was so in the matter of Sims, before all the Judges of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts ; 7 Gush. R., 285 : so, also, in Pennsylvania, in ex parte Williamson, before Lewis, Ch. J., 3 Law Reg., 741 ; and, again, in ex parte Williamson, 26 Pa. State Rep., 1, by all the Judges of the Supreme Court, one only (Knox) dissenting. So in Georgia, in The State vs. Plime, the direct question was decided against the jurisdiction. (T. U. P. Charlton's Rep., 142.) The N. Y. Revised Statutes also forbid it. (Jol. 2, p. 563, sec. 22.) No case is reported in Ohio ; but Judge Swan, now of the Supreme Bench, questioned the right soon after the act of 1847. (2 Swan's PI. and Prac., 1245.) So, then, even upon the authority of the State Courts, the question re- mains still open and doubtful, at least, in any case ; though the weight of authority aud. the respectability of Courts is decidedly against the jurisdiction where it appears that the party was held under claim or color of process or authority from the United States. How, then, stands the case in the Federal Courts? There is no decis- ion by the Supreme Court directly upon the question : but the case of Duncan vs. Darst, 1 How. R., 301, in effect decides it. -It was there held that a person in custody under a capias ad satisfacicndum, issued under the authority of the Circuit Court of the United States, could not be legally discharged from imprisonment by a State officer, acting under a State insolvent law. Mr. Justice Nelson seems, indeed, in 1 Blatchford, 642, to concede the right to the State Judges or Courts ; but this was not in a case arisen, and after argument and upon consideration, but obiter in a charge to the grand jury. Pope, J., in ex parte Joe Smith (the Mormon Prophet), 3 McLean, 121 (1843), doubts the power, even in the case of a requisi- tion upon the Executive of a State. McLean, J., considers the question in Norris vs. Newton, 5 McLean, 92, 98 ; but as he qualifies and explains it, the point is not decided at all. He admits the right where the State Judge or Court, does not know that the confinement is under color of process or authority of the United States. This is not denied. But he ON TIIE OHIO "FUGITIVE SLAVE KESCUE CASE." 139 says : "These facts being stated, as the cause of detention, would have terminated the jurisdiction of the judge under the writ." Surely, then, if these facts appear in the first instance, the jurisdiction never attaches; otherwise the whole proceeding is a farce. To the same point may again- be cited the Sims and ^Williamson cases, in 7 Gushing and 26 Pennsylvania State Reports. So the Ohio statute of 1811 ex- pressly excepts from the benefit of the writ persons convicted, &c. In such case the Court or Judge has no jurisdiction to issue the writ. But suppose it is not disclosed to the Judge that the party applying is a convict, but only generally that he is "illegally imprisoned" (and such is the showing in this case), he is bound to issue; but the Warden of the Penitentiary is not bound to obey. Again, Judson, J., of the South ern District of New York, in the matter of Vcretemaitre, 1 3 Law Rep., 608 (1850), expressly denies the jurisdiction of the State Courts, even in cases of enlistment (p. 616-618). The decisions of Judges McLean, and Leavitt, in the Rosetta and Gaines cases (6 McLean, 355 ; 4 Law, Reg., 617) surely, are conclusive of this question, in its real form. In both these cases thp marshal was justified in disobeying the order of a State Court or Judge made in the proceeding on habeas corpus, upon the ground of his paramount duty to obey the laws and process of the United States. Now, if a State Judge or Court cannot enforce obedience to any order made in such a proceeding, why allow that there is any jurisdiction in the case at all ? What is the writ of habeas corpus worth, if, after the prisoner is brought before him, and he is satisfied that the party is illegally confined, he has yet no right to deliver him. Is it not a mockery ? Is not the majesty of the State insulted and trifled with far more by allowing the party to be brought into Court and then to defy its power? Far better that the jurisdiction be denied altogether. If, then, the real question be, is the marshal bound to obey the writ, it is surely settled and settled in the negative a denial, therefore, of the right to issue, since that right and the right to enforce obedience ought always to be coextensive. The doctrine here contended for is the only doctrine consistent with our complex system of government. I agree heartily and throughout, with the States-Rights doctrines, which the Attorney-General with so much ability has advocated. I yield to no man in devotion to those doctrines. Perhaps I even cany them farther than many others. But this is not a question of State rights. We live under two governments, which are only parts of one great whole. Neither government possesses all the attributes of sovereignty. Every citizen of Ohio and especially because of a peculiarity of our State Constitution is a citizen of the United States. As citizens of Ohio we do not exercise the right to declare war and make peace, to maintain ail army and navy, or other 140 VALLAXDIGII All's SPEECHES. similar acts of sovereignty. In the quality of citizens of the United States we do exercise these powers, though as such citizens we are want in in others which belong to us in our character as citizens of the State. Sovereignty is, therefore, divided among the governments of the States and the Union. The boundaries are defined and marked out in the Constitution of the United States. Each is supreme within its own limits. Neither can be interfered with by the other while each keeps within its own proper orbit. The Constitution of the United States, and all laws in pursuance of it, are, indeed, the supreme law of the land, and where constitutional, bind the Judges of the State Courts, in case of conflict. All State officers are sworn to support it. Thus the Constitution of the Union is a part of the Constitution of Ohio; the laws in pursuance of it arc a part of the legislation of the State, and the decisions of its courts within their sphere, a part of the jurisprudence of the State ; and all are to be construed together. So long as each government keeps within its constitutional and legitimate sphere, such is the admirable beauty and the perfection of the system, that there never can be a collision. Wherever, then, the courts or authorities of the United States have constitutional power to act, their process and action ought to be wholly free from all control, temporary or permanent, in any way or to any extent, by State action or State process. It is of no moment what the purpose is, or now long the intermeddling, whether Kyi an ljuur, ci day, or six mouths. And, in tnis point of view, a writ of habeas corpus is no more sacred, and has no more power or authority to control, or delay, or affect in any way, or for any purpose, or any time, the process of the United States, than a capias, an execution, or an attachment. I now proceed to apply these principles to the argument of the Attorney-General this morning. Assuming the wry point in controversy, Mr. Attorney has selected his ground and built up a most able and inge- nious, and, I will say, unanswerable argument. I give him the whole benefit of it in its utmost strength. . lie finds the collision which con- fessedly exists in this case between the .State and the United States, in an, attempt by this proceeding on habeas corpus, under the act of Con- gress, in 1833, to obstruct and render useless and powerless the penal laws and jurisprudence of the State, and to protect hereby the marshals of the United States from punishment for an infraction of those laws the laws against assault and battery and the attempt to murder. lie has argued, and most conclusively and it is his whole argument that the Government of the United States cannot interfere with the penal laws or process of a State, and rescue offenders from the penalty for offences against those laws. But does not Mr. Attorney see, I ask, that the very question to be argued is, whether the acts done by the marshals ON. THE onio "FUGITIVE SLAVE RESCUE CASE. 141 were, under the circumstances, an offence against the laws of the State ! If they were, then this Court has no power, by habeas corpus or other- wise, to shield them from punishment. But let that question be tested. Prima facie every homicide is murder. (Wright's Kep., 75.) The statute against murder is general ; it contains no excepted cases. How, then, does the sheriff, who hangs a man by the neck till dead, escape? Because the same statute book commands that he shall do it, and the different statutes and sections being construed together, it appears to be lawful. Again, the statute against homicide is general. How, therefore, is the Warden of the Penitentiary justified, who takes the life of a, pris- oner while attempting to escape ? Because the law sanctions it. Or how comes the State Officer to stand acquit, who in executing process, is obliged from necessity to kill the party resisting ? Because the law allows it. It is, therefore, not every beating that is an assault and bat- tery, nor every killing that is murder, nor every shooting with intent to kill, that is an offence against the penal laws of the State. Now, the Constitution of the United States is a part of the Constitution of Ohio ; the law of 1850, under which the process was issued to the marshals in this case, is a part of the laws of Ohio, and must be taken and construed together with the^ statutes against assault and shooting with indent to kill. The Constitution authorized the law, and the law the process, and the process justified the officer in using all the force necessary to exe- cute if. If he used this force and no more, then what lie did, though there were beating and shooting, was no offence against the pen'al laws of Ohio. And all that the court proposes to do here, is to inquire into the truth. of these matters. But Mr. Attorney has argued that this Court or Judge has no con- stitutional power, on habeas corpus, to inquire into these facts, and that this inquiry can be made only by the Supreme Court of the United States, under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789, after the case has passed through the highest State Court. Not having denied the constitutionality of that section, I have only to remind him that the Constitution has not conferred the power specially upon the Supreme Court,- but left it to the discretion of Congress ; and that the same legislative authority which, in 1789, prescribed the mode by writ of error to the Supreme Court, did, in 1833, confer a like power in par- ticular cases, by habeas corpus, upon the Judges of the Supreme and District Courts of the United States. It -is, indeed, befitting the dignity of a State that, after a case lias gone through its highest tribunal, the judgment should be reviewed only by the Supreme Court, and upon error. But I see no disparagement of State pride in allowing an inquiry, on habeas corpus by a Circuit or District Court, or Judge of the United States, iuto the cause of imprisonment of a United States marshal an 142 VALLAXDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. officer of those courts by order of a State justice of the peace. The sovereignty of the State is not very deeply wounded. But the Attorney-General has contended, farther, that even if consti- tutional, the act of 1833 does not confer jurisdiction upon the court or judge in a case like this. He has argued and in arguing has drawn his proof from the peculiar exigencies which called for the act that it is only where it appears upon the face of the warrant or mittimus that the offence charged was the attempt to execute a law or writ of the United States, that jurisdiction attaches upon habeas corjms. But does not Mr. Attorney see here also, that so narrow a construction of the statute would render it nugatory? The language of the law is broad enough to include every case where the act done or omitted, by the reason of the doing or omitting to do which the party is imprisoned, was so done or omitted in the discharge of Jiny duty under authority of the United States ; but according to the argument urged this morning, only let the real offence be described by some other name, or concealed under some other charge, and there is no remedy by this summary pro- ceeding. To so construe the act, is to hold out a premium for fraud and subterfuge. I will venture to affirm that not once in a hundred instances, will the warrant or commitment disclose the true nature of the charge, or the circumstances attending it. In neither the Jenkins, the Rosetta, nor the Gaines cases did the facts, or the official character of the parties, appear in the papers returned by the State officer; and yet in all of them, the judges, under the act of 1833, and after objection urged, received testimony disclosing the true nature and circumstances of the accusation preferred; and upon that testimony discharged the prisoners. So, too, in the Williamson case (4 Law Reg., o), the court upon habeas corpus received even oral testimony at the hearing, to explain or contradict the return. The purpose of the Act of 1833 is to enable the judges and courts of the United States to protect themselves from encroachment by other authorities, and must be reasonably con- strued with reference to that purpose. And upon this point I will refer the court again to Williamson's case in 26 Penn. State Reports, 27, where Lowrie, J., speaking of this Act, said : " This is not a strange way of protecting one court against the encroachments of another, 1 Rolle, 315 ; 2 Chit, Gen. Pr., 3171 Madd. Ch. Pr., 135. And it is certainly most effectual, for it would protect the marshal in disobeying an order by us to discharge the prisoner ; and thus it very plainly forbids us to dis- charge him." But further : The Courts of the United States have very generally respected the doctrines which I have maintained. They have, in many instances, been even tender and delicate of the authority and process of the State Courts. The act of 1789 expressly excepts writs of habeas ON" THE OHIO "FUGITIVE SLAVE IIESCUE CASE." 143 corpus when the party was imprisoned under color of State process or authority. In ex parte Cabrera (1 Wash! C. C. R., 23_'), the Court refused to interfere in favor of a Foreign Secretary of Legation, who was charged with forgery, under the penal laws of Pennsylvania. So in ex parte Dorr t the Supreme Court refused a habeas corpus to bring Dor/ into court to obtain the benefit of a writ of error under the twenty-fifth section of the Act of 1789. (3 How. R., 624.) So in Massachusetts, where a man, indicted in the Circuit Court for a capital offence, was at the time imprisoned for debt under the authority of the State, Judge Story refused to interfere, and Judge McLean approves the refusal. (5 McLean, 100; 6 McLean, 3C3.) So where defendants, indicted in the Circuit Court of Ohio, for counterfeiting, were at the same time held in custody for an offence under the laws of the State, Judge McLean held that the United States Court had " no power to take them from such custody, nor a State Court power to remove, by habeas corpus, a defend- ant from the custody of a court of the United States." (5 McLean, 174.) So, also, Grier J. held in ex parte Jenkins, 2 Wall, Jr. R., 525. The seeming exceptions in the twelfth and twenty-fifth sections of the Judiciary Act of 1789, and the seventh section of the Act of March 2, 1833, are intended chiefly to protect the United States from aggression upon its powers. As to the " McLeod Act" of 1842, I think that rests upon a very different principle from the other acts. Upon authority and reason and analogy, then, I deny the right of a State Court or Judge, either by habeas corpus, or in any way, to interfero with the process or judicial proceedings of a Court or Judge, or other officer of the LInited States, when in the discharge of his legit- imate and constitutional duty. They have no jurisdiction, in any form, in such case, and neither is the officer of the State bound to execute, nor of the United States to obey, any such process. (10 Coke's R., 76, b; 5 Watts' R., 144; 1 How. R., 308.) Nor is there any danger of denial or delay of justice in such cases. The government of the Union is no alien within the territory of Ohio. It is no foreign tyrant or usurper, although in the region round about the head-waters of Mad River, it seems to be so regarded. Every citizen or inhabitant of the State is also an inhabitant or citizen of the United States and under their protection. Their courts, too, are open at all times ; and their judges and juries surely quite as learned, as just and as upright and impartial as the juries and judges of the State courts. If false and groundless or otherwise illegal detention or imprisonment shall in any case occur, relief by habeas corpus or upon the trial, may with certainty be obtained there, and without danger of collision and strife. II. So far I have argued the case as if the writ issued by the State Judge in tlu's case, was a writ of habeas corpus. But it was not; and 144 VALLASDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. th? principles I have already laid down, apply with fifty-fold force to this nondescript process issuing to the sheriff, commanding him to take the prisoners from the custody of the marshals. It was not a habeas corpus; not the high prerogative writ of old England; not the great writ secured by the Constitution, having none of its sanctity, and enti- tled to no part of its charities. It was not within the constitutional protection against suspension, and no court will so decide. It was not directed to the party who detained the prisoners in custody. This is of the very essence of a habeas corpus, it is descriptive of it, and enters into the definition of the writ. (1 Bouvier's Law Diet. "Hab. Corp.;" 3 Blackst,, 131; Ohio Act of 1811, Sec. 1, transcribing the 31st, Charles II., C. 2, 1679.) The writ of habeas corpus was borrowed from at least all authorities agree that it is the same in substance as the " In- terdict" of the Roman law. That, too, was addressed to the person having the custody of the prisoner. It ran thus: " Ait prrctor, quern liberum dolo malo retinens exhibeas" that you produce whom you de- tain. (Dig. 43, 20, 1.) So the very name of our writ imports : " habeas," that you have. But when a writ issues to the Sheriff, not having already the custody of prisoners, it is " capias," that you take ; and this is the very word of the writ in this case. The mode, too, of sen-ing a habeas corpus, is conclusive. The original is delivered to the party having the custody and to whom it is directed, and it is he who makes the return. It is in the nature of a rule to show cause. Not so witVi ofkr r "^'+^, Not so with the writ here. What, then, is it? In 1847 an act was passed by the Ohio Legislature purporting to be an amendment to the Habeas Corpus Act of 1811, requiring that the writ should, in the case of detention by private persons, be addressed to the sheriff, and require him to take the party detained into his custody, and summon the party detaining him. It is called a habeas corpus, but it is not. It is a per- sonal replevin ; the old common law writ, de homine repleyiando, revived and a little altered. But it requires no security, as at common law ; and although it makes the return a pica in the case, it does not provide, as at common law, for trial by jury, but leaves the matter to the Judge. This act also grew out of fugitive-slave cases (2 West. L. Jour., 279); but it had in ten years unhappily produced no collision. It was, there- fore, out of: date. The heat of the times demanded something of a higher mettle ; and the act of 1856 is produced from the same loins, and engendered in the same spirit, but an offspring of for lustier and more vigorous birth. This act requires the writ in certain cases to be addressed to the Sheriff or Coroner, even where the party is in custody of an officer by virtue of judicial process. It is therefore a hybrid a monstrosity in legislation and jurisprudence a sort of " cross" between habeas corpus and de homine rcpleglando a veritable mulatto among ox THE onio "FUGITIVE SLAVE RESCUE CASE." 145 wits. It is not a habeas corpus, because it is not addressed to the party who detains the prisoner; and it is not a persona'! replevin, because that issues only in the case of imprisonment or detention by a private per- son (3 Blackst, 129), and spc'cially exeepts the case of imprisonment under judicial process. (3 Reeves, Hist, of Com. Law, SS.jReplpr/iari facias, etc., not habeas corpus nisi captus sit per spcciale prwccptiim nostrum, vcl capitalis jmtitiarii nosfri, etc.) But it is called a writ of HABEAS CORPUS, because that is a holy name and embalmed in the hearts of the people. It has a wicked and treasonable purpose to subserve, and it must assume a sacred name and garb. Its author well understood the philosophy of Mirabcau, and, after him, Byron, lie knew that "Words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think." But the motives and the results expected from it cannot be thus con- cealed; and, in a court of law, it must be stripped of its disguises, and set forth in its true character a statute of sedition and discord. Very different was the spirit of the Act of 1839. That act provided for car- rying out the compacts of the. Constitution. Its preamble sounds strangely enough in this age of Higher-law fanaticism : "Whereas, the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, declares, that no person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in conse- quence of*any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such' sen-ice or labor may be due," and, " whereas, the laws now in force within the State of Ohio are wholly inadequate to the PROTECTION PLEDGED by this provision of the Constitution to the Southern States of this Union ; and, whereas, it is the duty of those who reap the largest measure of benefits conferred by the Constitution, to recognize, to their full extent, the obli- gations which that instrument imposes, and, whereas, it is the deliberate conviction of this General Assembly, that the Constitution can only be sustained, as it was framed, by a spirit of just compromise; therefore be it enacted,'' &c. Now, I most respectfully commend this preamble to the people of Clark, Greene, and Champaign, and to the learned counsel upon the other side. But before I pass from the subject of writs I will call the atten- tion of our legislators, who extend their researches back into the musty and murky realms of the dark ages for precedents, to the. writ de oaio ct atia a writ older than either personal replevin or habeas corpus a writ to which, possibly, the Government of the United States may yet be obliged 10 146 VALLA:* DIG HAMS SPEECH KB. to resort, iflier officers arc in* like manner again imprisoned within the " infected'' counties. To resume : The law of 1^56, so far as it was intended to affect or so executed as to ailect the process of the Courts of the United States, I maintain is unconstitutional and void. Its effect must be to subordinate the General to the State Government, to render the officers of the former amenable to the process and authority of the latter exactly to reverse the position of the two governments, where the former was by the Con- stitution supreme, and ultimately to subvert it altogether. It is opposed to the whole theory and practice of our system of government, and with- out repeating, I beg to remind the Court of the true nature of our system, as before described. But especially is it opposed to the rule admitted and recognized in civil suits, without a case to the contrary, by the courts of both the States and the Union, even in cases of concurrent jurisdiction. In disputes also between courts of law and equity, under the same sovereign, it has always been conceded that, in cases of concurrent jurisdiction, the court which first takes the matter in hand is to control it exclusively and to the end. (9 Wheat. It., 532.) In cases between the Federal and State Governments, this rule is well settled and universal. In Hayan vs. Lucas, 10 Pet. R., 400, the court said : "A most injurious conflict of jurisdiction would be likely often to arise between the Federal and State courts, if the final procps of the one could be levied on property \\hich had been taken by the other." And to the same point I cite, 9 Peters' R., 330 ; 12 Peters' R., 102, 13 Peters' It., 136151 ; 1 How. R,, 308; 4 How. R., 4 ; 8 How. It., 107 ; 10 How. R., 56, 14 How. R., 52, also 368 ; and Pulliam vs. Osborne, 17 How. R., 471 (1854), where the cases are col- lected and reviewed. Also 1 Gall. R., 168; 3 Ohio State Rep., 119; 17 J. R,, 4, and 1 Kent's Com., 401. I will add also the case cited by the Attorney-General from 11 Peters' R., 102, as directly in point. So too in criminal cases, the same rule obtains, and by the Federal Courts at least has been rigidly adhered to. 5 McLean, 100, 174; 2 Wall. Jr., 525. But the case is much stronger where the power is exclusive. Such is the case here, the warrant held by the marshals having been issued under die Fugitive slave Act of 1850. (Prvjg vs. Pennsylvania, 16 Pet. R., 530 ; affirmed 14 How. It., 13.) The Court in Slocum vs. Maylcrry, 2 Wheat. R., 1, speaking of the act giving exclusive jurisdiction to the Federal Courts over seizure?, say : " Any intervention of a State author- ity which by taking the thing seized out of the possession of the officer of the United States, might obstruct the exercise of the jurisdiction, would, unquestionably, be a violation of the act; and the Federal Court having cognizance of the seizure, might enforce a rcdelivery of the thing ox THE ouro "FUGITIVE SLAVE RESCUE CASE.'- 147 by attachment or other summary process, against the parties who should divest such a possession." Gchton vs. Hoyt is to the. same point, af- firming the foregoing case " after a very deliberate consideration." (3 "Wheat. R., 216.) And to the same effect also is the very able opinion of Ranney, J., in Keating vs. Spink, 3 0. St. Rep., 119. This rule results necessarily not only from the nature of our system, but the express provision of the Constitution, Art. VI., par. 2, declaring that instrument, and " all laws made in pursuance of it, the supreme law of the land," and binding upon all judges in every State, "any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstand- ing." That provision was moved in the convention of '87, by Luther Martin, as able i lawyer and sound a State Rights man as the coun- try ever produced. (2 Mad. Pap., 1119.) Nobody ever doubted or cavilled about it. (1 Calh. Works, 252.) If, then, the law be constitutional, and the authority conferred by it exclusive ; if it be, indeed, the supreme law of the land, then, when the process issued to enforce it is regular and valid and from a court of competent jurisdiction, it follows as an irresistible logical necessity, that that process is supreme over all process of the State, and the officer executing it, beyond all control of State authorities, Judges or Courts, or State officers or State writs of any kind. But there is an especial reason why, in the very -cases to obstruct which the act of 1856 was enacted, any interference by State process or authorities is peculiarly against both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. That class of cases is specially provided for in the com- pact, and in language of peculiar significance. It is not in the ordi- nary form. " No person held to labor or service in one State escaping to another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may. be due." The letter certainly the spirit of this section is violated by any State law, or any State process which delays, hinders, or obstructs the right of the master to reclaim his slave. It was so said by the Supreme Court in Prigg vs. Pennsylvania (16 Peters' Rep.) "Its true design," said Mr. Justice STORY and did lie not love liberty quite as ardently as the Duchesses of Sutherland, the Mrs. Jellabys and the whole tribe of humanitarian idolaters of the present day "its true design was to guard against the doctrines and principles prevalent in the non-slave- holding States, by preventing them from intermeddling with or ob- structing or abolishing the right of the owners of slaves. The clause manifestly contemplates the. existence of a positive, unqualified right on the part of the owner of the slave, which no State law or regulation can in any way qualify, regulate, control or restrain 148 V ALL AX DIG H Ail's SPEECHES. Any State law or State regulation which interrupt?, limits, delays, or postpones the right of the owner to the immediate possession of the slave and the immediate command of his service and labor, operates pro tanto a discharge of the slave therefrom. The question can never be how much the slave is discharged from, but whether he is discharged from any, by the natural or necessary operation of State laws or State regulations. The clause contains a positive and unqualified recogni- tion of the right of the owner in the slave, unaffected by any State law or regulation whatsoever." TANEY, Ch. J., said : " Every State law which proposes, either directly or indirectly, to authorize resistance or obstruction, is null and void, and affords no justification to the individ- ual or the officer of the State who acts under it Every State law which authorizes a State officer to interfere with him (the master) when he is peaceably removing his slave from the State, is unconstitutional and void," (626-7), To the same effect, also is the opinion of Judge Wayne (pp. 646, 647, 648) and of Judge McL-KAN, (pp. 661, 662); and I would ask the marked attention of the Court to what they have said ; especially to the declaration of Judge McLean, that " if the etfect of it (the clause before read) depended in any degree upon the con- struction of a State by legislation or otherwise, its spirit, if not its letter, would be disregarded." And yet this was in 1842 fifteen years ago. I next rpfrr the Court to two cases in which the writ De JFIomine Repleyiando has been resorted to in the case of fugitive slaves one in Pennsylvania, in 1819, Wright vs. Deacon, 6 Serg. and R., 62 ; and the other in New York, in 1804, Jack vs. Martin, 12 Wend. R., 311-324. In the former the writ was quashed, as having been issued " in viola- tion of the Constitution of the United States," (per Tilghman, Ch. J.) In the other^judgment was rendered for the defendant upon the same grounds. Nelson, J., delivering the opinion of the Court, said : " Here is a direct conflict between the powers. The very question in the case is, which shall give way? Shall the certificate of the magistrate, under the law of 1793, which declares it shall be a sufficient warrant ""for re- moving the fugitive from labor to the territory from which he fled, be permitted to perform its office, or shall the writ under the State law prevent it? They are antagonistic and irreconcilable powers," (324.) Both these cases met the strong approval, in 1851, of Shaw, Ch. J., and the whole Supreme Bench of Massachusetts in the Sims case, 7 Gush. It., 285; and I rely confidently on the principle upon which they were decided. I believe, also, that the principles settled in tho cases before cited in 7 Gush., 26 Pa, State, 5 McLean, 6 McLean, and 4 Law Reg., are conclusive upon this point too. The opinion of Judge Nelson, in 1 Blatchf., 643, is direct and most emphatic : fl>rr it is rmvillr hv ntlipr O ' i testimony,, ( 153.) Dying declarations also are receivable ; the solemnity of the occasion being deemed to stand in the place of an oath and cross-examination. Again : where other proof is made that a voter cast his ballot for a particular candidate, there is another technical but well settled rule under which his declarations are receivable as against that candidate. The office, in the point of view in which I am now treating it, being one of profit as well as trust hva legal sense, is an individual right ; it is, in some sense, individual property, but a right or property derived from those who voted at the election. The returned member claims under each and every one who voted for him ; and the contestant, in like manner, under those who voted for him. Hence the declarations of every voter are admissible against the party for whom he voted, since the right of the party to the office depends upon the right of the voter to confer it. (3 John. R, 449 ; 1 Greenl. Ev., 180.) There is yet another class of declarations those made by bankrupts which are admitted in favor of the assignees against creditors. A strong case is Ridley et al vs. Gyde, (9 Bing. Rep., 349,) where declara- tions made by White, the bankrupt, not a party to the record or in in- terest, a month after the act of bankruptcy, and without any intervening THE OHIO CONTESTED ELECTION. 165 circumstances to connect them with it, were yet received by the E.i^lish common picas in 1832, Chief Justice Tindal, Park, and Busanquet con- curring. The chief justice said : " To shut out this conversation, would be to shut out the best evidence in the cause ;" and Park, J. adhered to his decision in llawson vs. Haiyh, (~2 Bing., 104,) where he had said: ." I am satisfied that declarations made during departure and absence are admissible in evidence to show the inofive of the departure. It is impossible to tie down to time the rule as to declarations; we must judge from all the circumstances of the case." (Ajid sec 1 Bing., 585 1 Index to Eng. C. L. Reports, " Evidence.") So, also, in settlement cases, declarations by parishioners as to mat- ters of residence are held admissible in evidence, and that, too without calling the party, though within the reach of process. (1 M. and S., G37 ; and see especially the King vs. Inhabitants of Hardwick, 11 East Rep., 583.) Other examples, many in number, might be added ; but enough have been summed up to show how often and in what a variety of cases courts, even of common law, have set aside the rule excluding hearsay. It Avas to establish this proposition, and not because they are direct precedents or cases in point, for of such there are none in " the books," that I have cited these examples, reasoning from them by analogy. But the conditions of the exception, admitting declarations by third persons against their interest, do, in the reasoning upon which they are founded, clearly include the testimony objected to in this case. 1. The declarant must have competent knowledge of the facts, other- wise he has no right to speak. This condition is fulfilled here. 2. He must be dead. AVhy? Because, if alive, he ought to speak. But in this case he has a constitutional right to be silent, and cannot be com- pelled to speak, either, first, as to his vote, since it is by ballot; or sec- ond, as to his qualifications, since he might subject himself to a criminal prosecution. 3. The declarations must have been at variance with his interest. Now, it is true that ill courts, by analogy to the now gener- ally exploded rule disqualifying a witness because of interest in the suit, the interest in cases within this exception must usually be pecuniary, although Grcenleaf seems to recognize also that danger of punishment may be a fitting element in it. ( 150, note ; and see 24 E. C. L. Rep., 467.) But upon what principle of human nature is this condition of the rule founded ? That all men arc eager to increase, and slow to dimin- ish their estate. And yet how much more eager are they to retain their political rights and personal liberty. Now, in the testimony, here are two classes of declarations: first, :is to the qualifications; second, as to the person for whom the declarant voted. The latter arc not within the rule unless made at the same time as the former. The former are ICG VALLA:* DIGITALS SPEECHES. within it; and this for two reasons: 1. Whether made before or after the election, they equally are admissible against him in a criminal pros- ecution for illegal voting, which in Ohio, is a penitentiary offence. 2. If before the election, they also subject the declarant to danger of loss of his vote, since, by statute in Ohio, witnesses may be examined at the polls, and thus the declaration of the parly be there given, in evidence against his right to vote. Here, then, is the highest interest of the voter against the declaration loss of liberty, infamous punishment, loss of suffrage. Shall one pen- nyworth of pecuniary interest suflice to render the declaration admissi- ble ; and yet these momentous considerations, involving the most valuable rights of the citizen, be reckoned but as the small dust of the balance? But whether within the special conditions of the exception or not, these declarations, both as to qualifications and vote, but particularly the former, are emphatically within the broad princ'qrte upon which the exception itself is founded. \Vhat is it ? " The extreme improbabiity of their falsehood." (1 Greenleaf Ev., 148.) And this improbability, says the author, is strengthened by the circumstance that " it is always competent for the party against whom such declarations are adduced to point out any sinister motive for making them." "It is true," he adds, " that the ordinary and highest tests of the fidelity, accuracy and com- pleteness of judicial evidence are here wanting ; but their place is in some measure supplied by the circumstances of the declarant; and the inconveniencies resulting from the exclusion of the evidence having such guaranties for its accuracy in fact, and for its freedom from fraud, are deemed much greater, in .general, than any which would probably be experienced from its admission." For similar reasons, doubtless, it was that in Powell vs. Harter, (24 E. C. L. Rep., 467,) an action for libel upon a charge of receiving stolen goods, knowing them to have been stolen, upon justification pleaded, the court allowed the declarations of the alleged thief to be given in evidence by the defendant to prove that he (the thief) had stolen the goods received by the plaintiff. And see also Doe <& Davy vs. Haddon, (3 Doug. Hep., 310.) There is yet another principle recognized by the common law, upon which the declarations here objected to are admissible necessity. On this principle, in part, some of the hearsay which I have already con- sidered, is admitted to prevent a failure of justice. In like manner the testimony of the wife in proceedings to keep the peace, or for assault and battery upon herself, instituted by her against the husband, is re- ceived, and thus one of the earliest, firmest, and most sacred rules of evidence a rule not even yet swept away by the relentless hand of mod- ern reform is so far relaxed. So, also, the contents of a trunk lost by a THE OHIO CONTESTED ELECTION. common carrier may be proved by the owner. (1 Greenlcaf Hop., 27.) And in Ohio and Pennsylvania the wife of the owner is received as a competent witness for that purpose. (20 Ohio Rep., 318; 8 Serg. y siglit ; and to discard and cast aside whatsoever does not come to us under the ordinary sanctions of judicial investigation, is to banish all books, to dry up all the fountains of knowledge, to arrest all progress, to subvert all civilization, and to degrade mankind, and each particular man, to the lowest depths of ignorance and skepticism. "Why, sir, the very existence of that rule of the common law which excludes hearsay is proved or known only by that same kind of evidence itself. It is found in books not written or published under the usual sanctions <;{' forensic courts. It is traditionary lex non scripfa and, like a custom, it is of the very essence of its validity that, in theory at % least, it should have existed from a time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. But I pursue this inquiry no further. My purpose has been solely to meet and repel the notion that this testimony is to be treated only with contempt. I proceed now, Mr. Speaker, to what will, no doubt, be regarded by the lawyers of the House as of much more importance I mean the par- liamentary and congressional precedents upon this subject. Sir, this is no longer an open question in England. It was settled one hundred and fifty years ago, just as I claim it. It was the ancient practice it is the modern practice. On a single shelf in your library arc twenty-six volumes of reports and treatises 0:1 election cases decided in the Parlia- ment of Great Britain during that long period, from 1G99 to 1853, pre- senting an almost unbroken array of authorities in favor of the admissi- 176 VALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. bility of this evidence. By resolution of the House of Commons in the great Grimsby ease, in the former year, it was admitted ; and again in the Bedfordshire case in 1715, by a vote of ninety-eight to sixty-six ; and yet aijain in the Yorkshire case in 1735, by a vote of one hundred and eighty-one to one hundred and fifty-two, the petitioner was allowed to give evidence of what a, voter confessed of his having no freehold, who, at the election, had sworn that he had. Subsequent to these decisions a new mode of conducting contested elections was instituted by the Grcnville act of 1770 a mode continued substantially till to-day. By that act, election committees are made a soil of judicial tribunal, acting under special oath, and deciding the case in secret and by ballot; but before whom counsel, and oftentimes the ablest lawyers of the realm, are heard. Forty-nine members are selected by lot; and from this list, thus chosen, each party strikes a name alternately till thirteen remain. These constitute the committee, and a separate committee is selected in each case. Regular reports, as in courts of" common law, have been preserved t>f the decisions of these committees. I select cases from the earliest, the middle, and the latest of these reports. From the Worcester case, decided in 1776, I read the following: " The counsel for the sitting members objected, in the beginning of the cause, to the admission of evidence to prove the dcchiratiorift of voters that they had been bribed," [and, therefore, under the bribery act, forfeited the right of suffrage.] "The committee, however, admitted sn<-h oviderirc :n ogam ' llio vottia L.^L.U- selves, so as to annul thfir votes, but not as against the sitting members so as to dis- qualify them." 3 Dowjl. Elec. Casts, 276. Again, from the Leominster case, in 1796, I read the following: "Francis Weaver "was objected to by the sitting member as having received parish relief within the year (and thus, as being a pauper, not qualified to vote) ; and John Gethin was called to prove a confession of Weaver made after the election, that his wife had been relieved by the parish. This was objected to, as being subsequent to the election, [it being thus impliedly conceded that if made before, it would be adinis- Bible.] But the committee resolved, 'that the declaration of a voter which tends to destroy his vote, is admissible, whether made before or after the election, unless that declaration goes to affect the voter with penal consequences.' " 2 Feckw. Elec. Cases, 296. But as will presently appear, the distinction ' here taken by the com- mittee hiis since been overruled. Again: from the Ipswich borough case, in 1835, I read the follow- ing: "In this case (Brown's case) the voter was objected to by the petitioners, on the ground of bribery, and in the course of the investigation, a question was put to the witness who came to prove the <{frl.aratlous of the voter as to his being bribed, what was the purport of the certain conversations he had with the voter relative to a bill. The question having been objected to, and counsel heard on both sides, the com- mittee resolved, ' that evidence of declarations of voters in the admission of bribery, THE OHIO CONTESTED ELECTION. 177 whether b>iforc, during, or aflcr the election, is admissible.' The vote was ultimately struck oil' the poll." Knapp ut, gentle- men 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-t\v&' Representatives 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 per- vading and more deeply stirred up than at any former period, in one-half at least of these States, and upon the cvc of startling, and, it may be, disastrous events, yet without organization, without rules, without a Speaker to command, or a Sergcant-at-Arms to execute without gavel 206 VALLANDIGUAM'P SPEECHES. or mace the instinct of self-government peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race, and the habit of self-command 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 ex- hibited. I do not, then, regret this debate ; it is fit and proper in itsel 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 mem- ber of this House has indorsed and recommended a book full of senti- ments insurrectionary and hostile to the domestic peace and tranquillity of the country a book intended or tending to stir up discord or strife between the different sections of this Union, or servile or other insurrec- tion 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 Hpuse. Whether any one who has recom- mended such a book for wholesale circulation, not knowing, or caring to inquire into its character and contents who has indorsed insurrection r>nrl violent in blank, rind given ?. ."nrclial letter of c;\ :.!"t l>j ^^^U-jcvx* 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 Spcakership, 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 me to break the silence which I thus far have observed. Sentiments have been avowed and statements made upon this floor which demand notice and reply. [At 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 hero. (See Con- gressional Globe, page 139.) The House, after several 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 THERE IS A WEST. 207 legislature of my State, and to him I might with perfect confidence ap- peal to verify the assertion that no man ever was more exact in the ob- servance of every rule of courtesy and decorum, not only in debate, but in private intercourse with his fellows. I might appeal, also, to the mem- bers 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 re- fused, of an adjournment. If any gentleman, this morning, after a night's calm reflection, sees, in any thing that I 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 obser- vations of the proceedings of this House and of the Senate have taught me the truth of the declaration, that there was a marked difference be- tween the deportment of the anti-slavery men in Congress toward slave- holders, and their own Democratic colleagues from the free States. Sir, I want no better evidence of that fact than the occurrences 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 domestic peace and tranquillity of this country a book intended or tending to in- cite servile insurrection in one or more of the States of this Union, and refused still, either by himself or through another, to disavow all sym- pathy with such sentiments, he was not fit to be Speaker or member of this House. That judgment I, this morning, deliberately reaffirm in all its length and breadth and significance. The other day the gentleman from Virginia .(Mr. Millston), a slaveholder, distinctly 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, gentlemen, you sat in your seats, under that just but scathing denunciation, mute as fishes, and gentle as lambs. Even your candidate for Speaker started to his feet, and, with manifest trepidation, disavowed every purpose and senti- ment of the kind. Now, gentlemen of the Republican party, once for all and most respectfully, not in the language of menace, but as sober truth," receive this message from me, greeting : I ain your peer ; I repre- 208 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. sent 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, 1 tell you that just whatsoever 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 constituents at 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 and 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 re- spectfully, 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 dkcus.>. 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 tar 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 resistfince. 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 sympathy with the North, no very good feeling for, and I 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 object of all political spectacles " A Northern man with Southern principles ;" but, God be thanked, still a United States man with United States principles. When I emigrate to the South, take up my abode there, identify myself with her interests, holding slaves or holding none ; then, and 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. * See post, page 44 2. THERE IS A WEST. 209 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 \vith 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 South- ern rights merely because they are Southern rights. They arc yours, gentlemen not mine. Maintain them here, within the Union, firmly, fearlessly, boldly, quietly do it like men. Defend them here and every- where, and with all the means in your power, as I know you wi.i and as I know you can. Yorktown and New Orleans the end of the Revo- lution and 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 1 have no respect for Southern rights simply because they are Southern rights, I have a very tender and most profound and pene- trating regard for my own obligations. Your rights impose upon me 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 a^o, 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, gentle- men, 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 God 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 cannot be, and ought not to be any Union true to our own obligations ready and sedulous to fulfil every article of the compact which our fathers made, to the ex- tremest 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, not only as between foreign States, but among bretlfVcn demands at our hands, then I tell you, and I tell the gentleman 14 210 VALLAXDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. 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, arc now, and I trust ever will be, true to the South. 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 number in the South asks, whenever u 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 suppressing slavery, 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 ? and his vote is determined or insensibly influenced by this con.' sideration. 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 gentleman 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 iny own State, and of her constitution, I am neither pro-slavery nor anti-slavery ; but maintain, as was said upon a memorable occasion, "a serene indifference" on this subject between these two sections. And here T stnml upon the .indent, ^ ; ?> '*'..: tional, peaceable ground of our fathers. For many years after the foundations 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 partisan 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, w^.o, from eternity, has 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 THERE IS A WEST. 211 gentleman from the seventh district of Ohio (Mr. Corwin). Sir, I amo 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 val- ley, 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 circum- scribed by the limits of a street railroad ; seat yourselves upon the sum- mit of the Alleghamcs, and behold spread out before you a country stretching from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains from tne 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 ; no, 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 c all power clearly given 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 consist cncv, protesting the highest regard tor the Union, the Constitution, and the rights of all the States, that the Democracy of Ohio were of opinion that no power was con- ferred by the constitutional compact to institute any process of eradica- tion at all. Sir, I 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 these things are done, even in Republican conventions ; but I will not disingenuously pretend of course, I have no allusion to my colleague that these resolutions did not at that time express the sentiments 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 people 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 expression of opinion upon the question of slavery in any form. Like my colleague, I was overpowered ; like him, I endeavored to make the best of it, seeking consolation in the second nnd sound r^\>\ ^f t}jo resolution, and whiling away my idle hours in the delicate task of recon- ciling 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 rescission 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 guilty in times past " Let the dead past bury its dead." Ernst ivt dot Lcben. Our business is to grapple manfully with the liv- ing 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 THERE 13 A WEST. 21 7 any length upon tins subject. The. events arc recent, and no public man anywhere can have failed to observe tliein. It is folly to deny that, all through the Noith, and in many portions of the West, distinct and very earnest sympathy has been exhibited for John Brown in his recent in- surrectionary and murderous invasion of Virginia ; and that, too, not by the vulgar and low, but by men very high in political, social, and re- ligious positions. Funeral processions, halls draped in mourning, tolling of bells, sermons, eulogies, orations, public meetings, adjournment of courts of justice, attempted adjournment of Senates and Houses of Rep- resentatives, 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 the?e tributes, and more, have becy paid to the memory of a murderer and felon. Even in my own native State, and iu 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, J.ohu 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 as- semblages. When public meetings run along with public sentiment, they are powerful to mould 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 be- tween this and the 4th of March, 18G1. 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 arc 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 cor- dial and working assent to the doctrines of William II. Seward, the " irrepressible conflict" included, full as it is of insurrection, treason, and murder ; if he believes that, without the strong arm of the Federal Gov- ernment, 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 h car t most marvellous credulity. Sir, I entertain for that gentleman 218 VALLANDIOHAM'S SPEECHES. 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 sen- timent at the South, does more thus to keep alive the ilamcs of civil discord between the South and the North and West, than a hundred speeches, vehement and impassioned though they may be, of the gen- tleman from South Carolina (Mr. Keitt). Sir, when a member of this House, of fine personal appearance, of sonorous voice, of classic educa- tion, and approved rhetorical excellence, tells us, with a magnificence of rhythm which regurgitates through these aisles, peals along these gal- leries, pierces the ceiling, and loses itself amid the columns and scaffold- ing of the unfinished dome of the capitol, that he will shatter this Re- public " 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, ma- ture 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, and believes that no mischief is intended, we only understand that he invites aggression. Sir, I am this moment reminded, bv the appearance of the o-ontlomon before me (Mr. JJriggs), that I need no better illustration of the melan- choly change in public sentiment, at the North, within the past few years. Here he sits, upon the only national side of this chamber, sole exemplar of the " lost politics'' of the Whig party, faithful among the faithless, only he ; sole representative of the Hag of our country, solitary and alone, e pluribus unum. (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 cannot 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 to-day. This whole controversy has now become but one of mere sectionalism a w r ar 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 algebra of the day, only to THERE IS A WEST. 219 \vork out tlic problem of disunion. It was admitted, in 1820, in tho beginning, by Kufus King, who hurled the first thunderbolt in the Mis- souri 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 hns, the power and numbers and strength and wealth, and every other element which constitutes a State, superior to you of the South. Power has always been arrogant, domineering, wrathful, inexorable, fierce, denying that constitutions and laws were made for it. Power now, and here, is just what power has been every- where, and in every age. But, gentlemen of the North, you who ii hold together upon such condi- tions a day. On this floor we now have from tho 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 hero ? NOT FOE AN nouu. 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 Amer- 222 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. lean doctrine in 1856; and I aver here, upon my responsibility as a Representative, that it is good sound Democratic doctrine everywhere, and all the time. Then, sir, I am against disunion. I find no more pleasure in a Southern disuniontst than in a Northern or Western disunionist. Do not tell me that you of the South have an apology in the events and developments of the last few months. I know you have. War irre- pressible war, has been proclaimed against your institution of slavery; it has been carried into your own States ; arson and murder have been committed upfln 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 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 forever, in one promiscuous ruin, the columns and pillars of this magnificent temple of liberty, which our fathers reared at so croat cost of blood and of treasure? Wnit i littl*** Wait a little ! Let us try again the peaceful, the ordinary, the constitu- tional means for the redress of grievances. Let Us resort once more -to the ballot-box. Let us try once again that weapon^ surer set, and better than the bayonet. Mr. Clerk, I am not, perhaps, so hopeful of the final result as 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 superin- tending Providence, which governs in the affairs of men. I do believe that God, in his infinite goodness, has foreordained for this land a high- er, mightier, grander destiny than for any other country since the world began ; Time's noblest empire is the last. From the Arctic Ocean to the Isthmus of Darien ; 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, ONE tJxiox, ONE CONSTITUTION, ONE DESTINY. (Applause.) But this grand and magnificent destiny cannot be fulfilled by u?, except as a united people. Clouds and darkness, indeed, rest now over us ; we arc in the midst of perils ; rocks and quicksands are before us ; strife and discord arc all around us. How then, sir mighty THERE IS A WEST. 223 and momentous question, pregnant with the fate of an empire shall we bring peace to this divided arid distracted country? Sir, in my delibe- rate and most' solemn judgment, there is but one way of escape ; and that the immediate, absolute, unconditional disbandment of this sec- tional, anti-slavery, Republican party of yours. (Applause in the gal- leries.) 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 o'ne-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 party from fifteen States of this Union. What docs all this mean ? It never was so before in the history of this Republic. What docs 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 in history, lives in the public records, lives in his 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 Ihetwelres Whigs, who arc no Whigs at all ; and no better than dvsunionists. Any man who HESITATES in grant- ing and securing to every part of the country its just and Constitutional rigJits, is AN ENEMY TO THE WHOLE COUNTIiY." 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 interpreta- tion do you propose to ascertain these rights ? I appeal to your plat- forms, to your speeches, to your acts. Like the learned doctor of Padua, you confess the bond ; the Venetian law cannot impugn it ; but you would give the exact pound of flesh, shedding no blood, cutting nor more nor less, under penalty of death and confiscation, than the just pound, not to be made light or heavy iij the balance, or the division of the twentieth part of one poor scruple, nor in the estimation of a hair. You well know that rights thus yielded arc rights withheld ; and withheld, too, with every aggravation of insult and wrong. Is that the spirit of the Constitutional compact? Js that the spirit which animated tke great man and patriot whose ashes repose upon the bai>ks of the Potomac, or of that other hero and patriot who finds a resting-place, in his long deep, amid the shades of the Hermitage ? How long, think you, can such a Union last ? and what, above all, is it worth while it does last ? 224 VALLAXDIGHAM 3 SPEECHES. I have now finished what I desired to say upon the momentous sub- jcc-ts 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 West- ern 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 arc the only bands 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 ililng else can keep us together, ily iiervct, ~l L-..1, i^c w LLu hardest and the toughest. I am no more to be moved from my pro- priety 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 be- tween them. I have spoken freely and plainly, but have spoken justly and truly. I have not sought to conceal the evil which afllicts 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 pres- ent evil state of public sentiment in the North and the West ; in Ohio, my own native State. Yet, mother as she is, I. have sought rather to imitate, not 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, witli averted eye, to cover her nakedness with the mantle of silence. Yfet, as a Representative here in this Chamber, I have a duty to perform for the whole country, for the sake of the Con- stitution, 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 NEWSPAPERS. THE MAILS. 225 elsewhere, 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 who sent me h<5re. 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 a^cs 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, fibre, vein, bone, tendon, joint, and ligament, from the topmost hair of the hepcl 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.) NEWSPAPERS. THE MAILS.* / HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 5th, 1800. Hon. J. HOLT, Postmaster- General : SIR: The Ilev. John Lawrence, editor of the Religious Telescope, published in Dayton, Ohio, and within the district which I represent and the city where I reside, has advised me that the paper above named, a religious paper advocating the faith and practice of the United Brethren in Christ, is no longer delivered to its subscribers by the postmaster at Luncy's Creek, Hardy County, Virginia, but is committed to the flames. He asks me to solicit the interposition of the Department to redress what he complains of as a grievance. The Telescope, though anti-slavery in sentiment when the subject is alluded to, is not an anti-slavery paper, and is not, as I am informed and believe, " incendiary" in its character in any respect, nor directly or indirectly insurrectionary in its teachings. Certainly, every State has the right to protect itself, by all constitu- tional and just means, from insurrection and domestic violence. It has a right, by police laws and regulations, to secure the health and prop- erty, guard the morals, and insure the peace of its citizens. Congress and the courts of the United States have repeatedly recognized this right, * In December, 1S59, a postmaster in Hardy County, Virginia, having suppressed the Jldigimts 7Wr.sro?*, of Dayton, O., at his office, as an Abolition paper, Mr. VAL- LAXDIGHAM, tit the request of the editor, addressed the following letter to the Post- Oflice Department, remonstrating against the net. The Virginia postmaster was immediately commanded to obey the law, and the Tdtucojye had no further trouble. 15 226 VALLAXDIGH All's SPEECHES. Each State may also, in the exercise of this right, determine by la\r what are "incendiary" publications, tending to incite servile or other insurrections, and adopt such measures, not inconsistent with the Con- stitution, laws and treaties ot % the T/nited States, as it may think proper* to prevent their introduction or circulation. This was assumed, or conceded by Calhoun, Clay,Webster, and by every other Senator in the debate upon this question in 183G. But, admitting all this, I suggest that an abuse, in his official capacity, by an officer of the Federal Government, of authority derived from a State law acting upon him as a citizen of the State, though the law be strictly constitutional and necessary, is clearly remediable by the power whence he derives his appointment. If " under the respon- sibilities resting upon him as an officer and a citizen," he is to " determine whether the books, pamphlets, newspaper's, &c., received by him for distribution are of the incendiary character described in the Statute," does it not follow, that an appeal lies from the subordinate to his superior, to review the decision and, subject to final adjudication by the State and Federal courts, to interpret the State law under which he acts ? If not, then the most flagrant abuses and usurpations of authority may, with impunity, be committed by inferior, and it may be, irresponsi- ble officers, in the discharge of official duties under the General Govern- ment, and these usurpations and abuses not be confined to the mail sen-ice alone. "Under cover of executing State police regulations and State laws, guarding agaiiLst insurrection und mischief u" u, v Lv^i., would it not be in the power of any other Federal officers to disregard the laws of the United States in other respects ? If the Federal Executive cannot intervene to supervise or control the action of its own subordinate officials, may they not be used by the States as instruments whereby to nullify the laws and expel the authority of the Federal Government itself? If subject exclusively to State control in the delivery, by post- masters, of mail matter, why not also in the transportation of the mail by mail-carriers ? and if in both these particulars, or in either, why not also in the rendition of fugitive slaves, by controlling, under pretext of preventing kidnapping, the United States marshals in the several States? Is not this a doctrine fraught with danger to the peace and harmony of the Confederacy ? But surely the Government of the United States has a right and is bound to see that its officers, in the exercise of official powers conferred upon them by the Federal Constitution and laws, shall not in the least be permitted to abuse even the just and constitutional duties required of them as citizens of States, by State laws and regulations. By act of Congress in 1796, collectors and other revenue officers of the United States, masters and crews of revenue cutters, and military officers commanding upon the sea-coast, arc authorized and required to aid in executing the quarantine ON THE DEATH OF HOX. WILLIAM 0. GOODE. 227 and health laws of the several States ; but "as they shall be directed from time to time by tltt Secretary of i/te Treasury" Congress has passed no similar statute in the case of publications prohibited by any of the States ; but if postmasters act without such law, and under State regulations alone, still their action must, in my judgment, be sub- ject equally to the supervision and control of the Post-Oflice Department or of the President, The State authorities and officials are subject of course to no control by the Federal Government in this particular, except by due course of law through the State Courts and Courts of the United States. I ask, therefore, on behalf of the gentleman above referred to, who represents a large class of the most orderly, peace-loving, and law-ai/iding of my constituents, that such instructions may be issued to the Post- master at Luney's Creek, as in the discharge of his duties under tbc laws of Virginia, will nevertheless prevent " unreasonable searches and seiz- ures," and compel a wise and just discretion and discrimination on his part, as a Federal officer, in executing the laws and regulations which that State has found it necessary to enact, for protection against mur- derous and incendiary efforts and combinations in other States to stir up civil dissensions or excite servile insurrections in her midst. 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, cer- tainly, 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. REMARKS ON THE DEATH OF THE HON. WILLIAM 0. GOODE, OP VIRGINIA. In the House of Representatives^ February 20, I860. THE act which we perform to-day, in memory of the deceased Rep- resentative from Virginia, is an ancient and befitting observance. It docs honor to the dead ; it reminds us of our own mortality. No more impressive scene is ever witnessed in this Chamber. Envy holds her breath \ partisan bitterness is hushed for a moment, and even SILENCE, that rare visitant here, extends her tranquillizing wings for a little while over us. In this spirit let us approach this last solemn office of fellow- ship, and with the sobered earnestness which becomes these sad ceremonies, and the chastened moderation due to historic truth, let us 228 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. discharge it Exaggerated eulogy, however pardonable in mere partial friendship, has long since been exhausted upon these occasions, and we but too often repeat the folly of the barbarians, who, worshipping a lly, offered up an ox in sacrifice. Honoring the dead, let us who yet live, learn at the same time to be wiser and to do better for the rest of our lives, from the study of his character and example. My acquaintance with the deceased member from Virginia was but limited. I knew him personally as a Representative in the Thirty-fifth Congress ; but I had from boyhood known him by name as one among the most eminent of the public men of the Ancient Dominion. His life and public services I do not propose to rehearse. The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. MILES) has anticipated me in saying that they have already been exhibited in fitting terms by the eloquent gentleman (Mr. PKYOR) who succeeds to his seat. Although I may not say that Mr. GOODK was one of those great his- toric characters who mark the eras in a nation's annals, yet he unques- tionably possessed more than one of those high and rare qualities without which no man and no statesman can be truly great. Born in Virginia, and soon after the Revolution, reared in " the honestest and most virgin times" of the Republic, and among the great and good men of an age and a State full of great men and patriots, certainly with- out these qualities he could not have commanded the confidence of the people for nearly forty years, in so many aud suci* distinguished public stations. . WILLIAM O. GOODE was an honest man in public and in private life. Sincere in his convictions, earnest in his purposes, he meant always to be and to do right. He was neither a demagogue nor a mere partisan. While he had wisdom enough and consistency enough to respect party habitudes, he obeyed not blindly the behests of party. He scorned that vulgar and polluting partisan school of ethics which would lay down one rule of conduct for private, and another for public life, and which pro- claims in execrable cant that " all is fair in politics." Far higher and nobler were the political philosophy and morals which he had learned and which he practised. He recognized in theory and in action, that great modern fact, so slowly acknowledged and so continually ignored, that there is a code of ethics in political life, as well defined, as firmly settled, as pure and elevated, and as obligatory, upon the citizen and upon the public man alike, as the sublime doctrines of Socrates and of Cicero, or the holier and sublimer precepts still of the Sermon upon the Mount. But Mr. GOODS was something more than honest: he was JUST. Many an honest man is yet unjust ; and justice in public life and in the private political relation is rarer than honesty. Honesty springs from ON THE DEATH OF HOX. WILLIAM O. GOODE. 229 the heart, and is, in sonic degree, an impulse : justice belongs to the head, and is a fixed principle of conduct. It renders to every man his due. Honest himself, he was ju4 enough to concede honesty of pur- pose and rectitude in action to other men and parties in antagonism to him. He acted continually, too, under a sense of duty, and he acted, therefore, always well. A German writer has said, delicately, that there are two things supremely beautiful in this world the starry sky above our heads and the sense of duty in our hearts. This sense of duty seemed ever present in his heart to whom we pay now these honors. And he had, also, that firmness of purpose without which every virtue loses more than half its worth. Thus lie united in himself the Justus et tenax which filled the measure of poetic eulogy, even in the declining age of the Roman commonwealth. And to all this I may add that though not of brilliant genius, he was yet a wise, prudent, and sagacious public man. Mr. GOODK was also a pure man pure in private morals and in public morals ; pure in spirit and pure in speech. He was a quiet man, too, and did the business of this House quietly. lie was a pious man, in the ancient and nobler sense of the word pious in his relations to the Supreme Being, to his family, to his friends, his country, and the world at large. Moreover he was a man of honor, and a gentleman in his manners and in his instincts. Without all these, duly blended and com- bined into one, no man, however eminent his abilities, can be a truly great statesman. The ancient rhetoricians had a maxim that no one could be an orator except he were a good man. Far more strictly ought this rule to be 'applied to him who would mould the manners, habits, opinions, and the laws, and control the destinies of a whole people. Combining thus within himself these several excellencies, in a degree which I have not exaggerated, of WILLIAM 0. GOODE it may be justly said : In him was virtus Scipiadcc et mitts sapientia Lodi the virtue of the Scipios and the mild wisdom of Lrclius. 230 VALLAITDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. REM ARKS Otf HIS BILL FOR ARiflXG- THE MILITIA OP THE STATES. In the House of Representatives, March 13, 1860. I DO not know, Mr. Speaker, whether it is strictly in order here to discuss any thing but the issues of Democracy and Republicanism, or the vexed question of slavery j hut at the hazard of being deemed singular, if .not disorderly, I propose to depart now, for a little while, from the beaten pathway of debate. This motion, sir, to reconsider opens up the general merits of the proposed measure, and I ask the attention of the House for about fifteen minutes, while I explain it; I will not detain you longer, and, that I may not, I desire to speak without inter- ruption. Mr. Speaker, if there was any one sentiment more deeply fixed in the minds of those who founded this Republic than any other, it was jeal- ousy of standing armies. It passed into a maxim among them that large military establishments in time of peace, were dangerous to liberty. That maxim remains to this day in the bill of rights in many of our State con- stitutions. It has left its impress also upon the policy and legislation of this Government to the present time, when, with twelve thousand miles of land and Water frontier, encircling three millions of square miles t we have a standing army numbering less than twelve thousand effective men. And yet no statesmen were more sensitive to national honor, or more awake to the necessity of national defence. Hostile to standing armies, but zealous to provide for the public safety, they looked to the MILITIA of the several States for protection against foreign and domestic enemies ; and it stands a pail, though a forgotten part of the Constitu- tion of the United States, that "a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free State" Though that maxim, sir, was not a part originally of that instrument, yet it is impliedly acknowledged, in all its force, in the several clauses relating to that subject. Congress has power to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, to suppress insurrection, and repel invasion. Congress is also spe- cially empowered " to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the system prescribed by Congress." No subject, sir, engrossed the attention of the earlier Presidents of the Republic more than this very power, thus amply, but cautiously, conferred. General Washington, in every formal communication to Con- ON ARMING THE .MILITIA OF THE STATES. 231 * gross during his terra of office, earnestly invoked their attention to it; and, in his seventh annual message, or address, he refers to it as an ob- ject of so much moment, in his estimation, as to excite a constant solici- tude that the consideration of it might be renewed until the greatest attainable perfection should be accomplished. President John Adams also, in his special message, in 1797, again pressed the subject upon the attention of Congress ; and Mr. Jefferson was importunate, even, in urg- ing upon that body additional and more effective legislation in regard to the militia. In his first annual message, in 1801, he uses this strong language : ' These considerations render it important that we should at every sessic-n continue to amend the defects which from time to time show themselses in the laws for reg- ulating the militia, until they are sufficiently perfec t. Nor should we now, or at any time, separate until we can say that we have done every thing for the militia which we could do were an enemy at our door." And this recommendation he earnestly renewed in every annual mes- sage during his term of office. After him, Madison, speaking of the militia as " the great bulwark of public safety," and Monroe, and the younger Adams, and Jackson, and Van Buren, and later Presidents still, down to within the last eight or ten years, did, with pertinacious importunity, again and again press this subject upon the consideration of Congress. And, indeed, it is safe to say, that no question of public policy whatever has at any time called forth such united arid persistent recommendation from the Executive Department for fifty years together; and it is equally true, that no Secretary of War has failed during that period to bestow earnest attention upon it. Yet, strange to say, no subject has been more utterly neglected by Congress. The Constitution gives us the power exclusive, if we choose to exercise it of organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia. In 1792, an act was passed to organize and arm the whole body of white male citizens of the respec- tive States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. It was very imperfect in its details, and made no adequate provision for the disci- pline according to which they were to be trained by the several States. Though still nominally in force, it is now everywhere, for the most part, disregarded. Indeed, if it were to be strictly executed, every white male citizen of the United States, over the age of eighteen and under forty-five, would be required, within six months after enrolment and notification, to provide himself with a good musket or fire-lock, bayonet and belt, " two spare flints," and a knapsack ; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, powder-horn, " twenty balls, and a quarter pound of powder." Every commissioned officer would, in like manner, be re- quired to arm himself with a sword, or hanger, and " cspontoon ;" or, if a dragoon officer, to provide himself with a horse fourteen and a half 232 VALLANDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. luiiuls high, sword and pistols, and "holsters covered with bearskin caps ;" and every private among dragoons would bo required to find a serviceable horse, of the same height, with bridle, saddle, mailpillion, valise, holsters, breastplates, crupper, boots, spurs, pistols, sabre, and cartouch-box. That, sir, is literally what the law of 1792 exacts of every white man in the United States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, except members of Congress, ferrymen, stage-drivers, clergy- men, and a few others specially exempted from Jls operation ; and all this, let it be remembered, at the individual cost of each citizen enrolled under the law. And the Congress which passed it refused, by a vote of fifty to six, upon a motion specially made for that purpose, to strike out the provision. Some progress was, indeed, made a few years later, when, by the act of 1798, thirty thousand stand of arms were ordered to be purchased by the United States, and sold to the States, for the purpose of arming the militia. But it was not until 1808 that Congress recognized the duty, clearly imposed upon it by the Constitution, of providing arms at the expense of the United States for the militia of the several States. It was in that year that the act, which I propose now to amend and make more effective, was passed, appropriating the sum of $200,000 for that purpose. It has never been changed in this ' respect ; nor has there ever been any enactment to faithfully and suffi- ciently execute the other provisions of the Constitution empowering, and indoo-cl requiring, Congress to organize a;ul discipliuc *.".o uiiliua. We have, in these respects, virtually abdicated our power over the sub- ject. Sir, I do not ask or expect Congress to take action in either of these particulars. The States themselves have been compelled, by your negligence, to provide for them by their own legislation; and it is bet- ter, perhaps, that the subject should remain where it now is, in their hands, Congress having s.o totally abandoned all attention to it, that the vefy title " militia" has disappeared for years from the index to your Statutes at Large. Indeed, if any one will venture now to introduce the subject here, or speak the name, constitutional as it is, he is in great danger of being made the object of ridicule by valiant gentlemen, inside of this house and out of it, who, but for " vile guns and villan- ous saltpetre," would themselves have been soldiers. Judge Story, Sir, eminent chiefly as a civilian, but deeply imbued with the spirit of the revolutionary period of our history, and full of an enlarged patriotism, has warned us solemnly of the danger to be appre- hended from the growing indifference to this great bulwark of our pub- lic liberties. " Is there any escape," he asks, " from a large standing army, but in a well-regulated militia?" But, Mr. Speaker, while the citizen soldiery of the country, looked to in the beginning of this Republic as the very right arm of iU national ON ARMING THE MILITIA OF THE STATES. 233 defence, has been thus persistently neglected, and sometimes despised, not so the standing Army of the United States. It, sir, lias been the foster child of Congress. While you have passed but half a score of acts for the encouragement of the militia, since, the beginning of this Gov- ernment, you have enacted more than one hundred for tlie support, the increase, or the efficiency of the Army. While, in fifty-two years, from the 23d of April, 1808, you have appropriated just $10,400,000 for the militia, you have, within that same period, expended 8500,000,000 upon the Army. Sir, I am no enemy to your Army ; 1 am its friend. I am for its continuance ; for its increase ; for its efficiency every way. I am for the Military Academy, too, and for more of them, and for military academies established and fostered by the several States. I glory, sir, in the skill and discipline and valor and the achievements in times past of that gallant little Army, dotted, as it is now, all over the vast area of these States. But I remember that there are brave men and good soldiers outside of that Army, and in the various walks of civil life. I know, too, that for the purpose of national defence, or even for protection from domestic violence and insurrection, your Army is as nothing ; and that your main reliance is now, as it ever has been, and must ever continue to be, upon the militia and volunteers to swell the ranks of the Army and make it effective for victory. I will not detain the House to discuss this point at length now. But allow me, for a moment, to contrast the action of Congress in regard to these two great arms of the public defence, for the past fifty years. I take the date of the act of April, 1808, for a starting point ; because it was then that, through the most strenuous exertions of Mr. Jefferson, the first appropriation for arming the militia was made by Congress. I close with the year 1 858 ; thus including, within this brief review, a period of just half a century. In 1808 there were seventeen States in this Confederacy ;. now we have thirty-three, with others just at our doors. In 1808 the population of the United States numbered about seven millions ; now it exceeds thirty millions. Your Army, in 1808, mustered, all told, 3,204 ; on the 1st of July, 1858, it numbered 17,498. In 1808 the militia was returned at 630,386; in 1858 at 2,755,726, or seventeen times as great; and the actual number, no doubt, exceeds this return by nearly a million. In 1806 the militia of Ohio was returned at 15,351 ; in 1845, the date of the last return from that State, at 176,455, or eleven times greater. In 1808, under the act of that year, the appropriation equalled the sum of thirty-one cents to each militia-man in the United States; in 1858 it had fallen to less than seven cents. But the contrast is far more striking in the item of expenditures. Remember that the appropriation for arming the militia has remained stationary during all the wonderful 234 VALLAlO>raiIA3t's SPEECHES. mutations in numbers, wealth, territory, States, improvements, and what- ever else has made us a great people, at just 200,000, for half a cen- tury. Not so the standing Army. For the year ending September 30, 1808, the expenditures of the War Department, including Indian affairs, fortifications, and armories, and the expenses of the new army rendered necessary then by the impending hostilities between Great Britain and the United States and it was the year after the attack upon the Ches- apeake were just 3,023,759 55. For the year ending June 30, 1858, the expenditures of the War Department sum up thus : Army proper, 017,455,976 85; fortifications, $2,667,448 11; armories and arsenals, $1,443,235 74; in all, 821,566,660 70, or more than the entire expen- diture of this whole Government thirty years ago ; and that not inclu- ding the expenses of the Indian department. Thus, sir, while the militia have increased in fifty years from six hun- dred thousand to certainly three million, or more now, the appropriation for arming them has remained stationary at $200,000; while your Army, increasing within the same period from three thousand two hundred to seventeen thousand four hundred, has increased its expendi- tures from $3,000,000 to $21,500,000. Sir, these facts and figures need no commentary. Is it not time, then, I appeal to you, that some attention, at least, should be bestowed upon the militia of the country! I repeat, that I do not ask or expect Congress to provide at all for the diseharw of it high constitution^! duty of organizing and disciplining the citizen soldiery of the States; although General Washington said, some seventy years ago, that the " devising and establishing of a well-regulated militia would be a genu- ine source of legislative honor, and a perfect title to public gratitude." But I am too well aware of the many and most serious difficulties in the way of perfecting such a system, to hope to see it accomplished. No ; better leave it still with the States, and the more especially, inas- much as to discipline or even to organize efficiently the whole body of the militia of the United States, numbering now nearly four millions, is utterly impracticable. But some of the States have introduced the system, which they are slowly perfecting and, within the past eight years, Great Britain has followed their example of VOLUNTEERS, enlisted ci their own accord, for a term of years. These, sir, will, in time, become the NATIONAL GUARD of America. They are deserving of the utmost encouragement. But it is not right that Congress should abdicate its entire power, or rather its entire duty, iu regard to this subject. It is not just that the States which already have been com- pelled by your negligence to take upon themselves the burden of organ- izing and disciplining the militia, and the heavy cost attending it, should be required also to provide arms out of their own treasuries. It is still ON AEMING THE MILITIA OF THE STATES. 235 more grossly unjust to demand that the individual volunteers, \vho arc always young men, and usually workingmen of limited means, and who incur large expense in procuring uniforms, as also loss of wages and of time while upon duty, should furnish arms, and equipment!? for them- selves. You abdicate your high constitutional duty to organize and discipline the militia. Is it not, then, just as little as you can do to provide arms for these volunteers who are in a sort of actual service 1 Sir, it was for this very purpose that your armories were, in part, originally established, and afterwards greatly enlarged. Upon this point, Mr. Jefferson, in his annual message of November, 1808, said: "Under the nets of March 10 and April 23, respecting anus, the difficulty of pro- curing them from abroad during the present situation and disposition ->f Europe, induced us to direct our whole efforts to the means of internal supply. The public factories have, therefore, been enlarged, additipnal machinery erected, and in pro- portion as artificers can be fourid or formed, their effect, already more than doubled, may be increased so as to keep pace with the yearly increase of the militia. 11 And yet, sir, so far from carrying out the purpose for which your public factories, if not established, were at least enlarged, and even then more than doubled, Congress has permitted them to be used almost wholly to supply the demands of the regular Army ; and the annual appropriation, instead of being made to keep pace with the yearly increase of the militia, remains now in this, the. fifty-second year from the date of the act, still at the $200,000 at which it was first estab- lished. Sir, Congress has been utterly derelict in its duty, and in every par- ticular, in regard to the militia; and, by your neglect, you have forced the States to organize and discipline, and now, at last, to appropriate money out of their own treasuries for the purchase of arms. Virginia lias done it; and Maryland, the other day, appropriated $70,000 for that purpose. I repeat, that this is unjust, burdensome, and oppressive. But if you will abdicate your power and your duty in this particular, at least give your consent and the Constitution provides for it that each State may " keep troops and ships-of-war in time of peace," and thus may participate, to some extent, at least, in this the highest exercise of sovereignty known to independent States. 236 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. N. \ REMARKS ON THE "HOUR RULE." In the House of Representative*^ March 15, I860. I WILL detain the committee but a few minutes. I do not propose to discuss the subject at length. I am not ambitious of the character of a reformer. But I am sure that wise and wholesome reforms are needed in the rules of this House. I object to the report of the committee, that it is not sufficiently radical; it does not go far enough. In my deliberate judgment, he would be one of the greatest benefactors of the legislation of this Government, who would introduce and carry through a proposition to abolish the whole system of rules and of practice under them, and allow a return to the equitable and common-sense law and usages of Parliament. Our system, sir, is not half so democratic not half so republican, if you please as that which obtains in the House of Commons. There, every member who can catch the eye of the Speaker is at liberty to propose a measure, and address the House in support of it as long as the patience of the House will tolerate his speech, or his own good sense allow him to proceed. lie may move for leave to intro- duce a bill, and if the House look so far favorably upon the proposition as to grant that leave, he is then, by parliamentary usage, the chairman of the select committee appointed to bring it in, and is, by virtue of that chairmanship, invested with the same privileges which are extondod to chairmen of standing committees here. Thus, sir, is equality there accorded to every member, and an equal chance to participate in the business of legislation. But how is it here? Your Speaker, whatever his natural disposition may be, is, by the necessities of his office, a despot. Your rules make him a despot. And the chairmen of your twenty-eight committees are but twenty-eight sub-despots, acting tinder him. They arc entitled by the custom of the House to be recognized by the Speaker in preference to an} other member, whenever the measures which they have severally reported are pending. No proposition can be introduced here, unless by unanimous consent or a suspension of the rules, except from a com- mittee. The result is, that to the hands alone of the privileged few who are c! nirrnen of the committees, is consigned the whole tra.de and mystery of legislation here. Our business, sir, is to register the decrees of committees. And twenty-eight men, or rather, looking to the more important committees, eight or ten out of the twenty-eight, are the organs or mouth-pieces of this House. They are the engineers and con- ductors who run this train, and generally it is a " lightning express train," and we, the other members, are but passengers, with checks in our hats. I repeat, then, that it would be a wise and most wholesome ON THE "HOUR liTJLE." 23? reform to abolish all thcso rules, worse now than the early Roman forms of action or English special pleading, and return to the ancient and well-tried parliamentary law and usage, allowing every member to intro- duce whatever proposition he may please to introduce as Mr. Burke did his celebrated measure for economical reform and, at least, lay before the House arid the country his exposition of the principles upon which the measure is based, whether the House give its consent that he may bring in a bill or not. But I rose, Mr. Chairman, mainly to urge the adoption of the amend- ment which I have proposed. I would prefer if written speeches could be prohibited altogether that the hour rule should be entirely abro- gated. But apprehensive that the committee may not consent to go that far directly, I propose now only to mitigate the evil: No one, I think, who has observed and reflected upon the business of legislation here for some years past, will deny that very many of the evils of which, the country has so much and so justly complained, and which have contributed so much to bring this House into disrepute, have arisen from the operation of this very hour rule. I might, did time permit, go back to the history of the past, and demonstrate the uniform and inevitable mischief resulting from that rule wherever it has obtained. At Athens, in her legislative assembly, there was no limit to public de- bate, and hence those splendid remains of Grecian eloquence which challenge the admiration of the world to this day. But in the judicial courts of Athens the rule did prevail ; the " clepsydra" cut down the orator in the midst of his address, and, by consequence, forensic elo- quence attained but'small importance in Greece, and but little which is known or read remains of it to this day. The " hour rule" precluded advocates, and the want of advocates dwarfed the forum and the juris- prudence of Athens into comparative insignificance. Demosthenes, who " fulmincd" in the public assemblies of that renowned city, shrank at the bar into a mere writer of speeches for litigants to read. Limita- tion upon debate was not known in the Roman Senate or at the Roman, bar in the earlier days of the Republic ; but as she began to fall into decay, and wicked emperors succeeded to the seats of virtuous consuls, the "hour rule" was applied in judicial trials, and it is the testimony of Tacitus and Pliny, that from that moment forensic eloquence perished. Despotism thirsted for treasure or for blood, and free speech was no longer tolerated at her bar. Dispatch is the great weapon of tyranny. But I come down to our own times, and ask of the older members of the House, whether the effect of this nilchcre has not been unmixed evil ? I am well aware that the usual argument urged in support of the limitation is, that it diminishes the quantum of debate. Is that a con- sideration, I ask, fit to be urged in a deliberative assembly ? TV'hy 238 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. protect members from question for words spoken in debate, if no debate is to be allowed, or even if it be an object to suppress or to limit it? But I deny the foot. I allirm, on the contrary, that the aggregate amount of speaking has been vastly increased by it I shall say noth- ing myself of the quality of the speaking; but I have the authority of a predecessor of mine (Mr. Schenek), who served some eight years in this House, and who has been eight years now a citizen in private life, observing the course of debate and legislation here, for the statement, as the result of his sixteen years' observation, that the speaking in this House has very much increased in quantity, and very greatly deterio- rated in quality, since the adoption of the hour rule. Sir, the rule was assailed vehemently by Mr. Benton, in his Thirty Years' View, and I refer gentlemen to his observations upon it. Mr. Calhoun also denounced it as " destroying the liberties of the people by gagging their Representatives ;" and Mr. William R. King declared that he would resist it in the Senate " even unto the death." In the House it was op- posed persistently by many of the oldest and ablest members, and among them, by John Quincy Adams. I propose, Mr. Chairman, that the hour rule shall be limited in its application only to speeches which are read. According to the law of this House, as laid down in the Manual, no member has a right now to read a speech if it be objected to ; but courtesy will not tolerate an ob- jection. So lono mr^rr! and five pages [laughter] ; yet the next day it was telegraphed to a lead- ing paper in the city of New York, as one of the most thrilling speeches ever- delivered in the House ; remarkable, especially, for its fearlessness, and the boldness of its denunciation [renewed laughter], and perfectly electrifying every one present Now, is it not time that this evil was remedied ? I repeat again, that the quantum of speaking will not be increased by the abrogation of the hour rule ; the number of pages which make up your Congressional Globe will not be multiplied ; and what difference is it to us or to the country, whether one man shall speak for two hours, or two men shall speak for one hour each ? It may be of some moment to our particular con- stituc"cics ; but it is of none to the whole country. Let gentlemen who would discuss mere partisan or local topics, go back to the ancient usage which prevailed some forty years ago, of publishing addresses upon such questions to their constituents. Let us agree henceforth that what is said upon the floor here shall relate to the great measures of public policy and legislation which may come before us and not to mere fleeting and temporary subjects of controversy between parties. No reform which we can devise will tend sp far to bring the House back to its ancient dignity and decorum, and to that ON THE "HOUR RULE. 243 high repute which belonged to it in the earlier days of the Re- public. I desire to call the attention of the committee to the fact that for thirty years after the organization of this Government, the Senate was not the centre of attraction. It was the House upon which the eyes of the country were turned. It was here, sir, that in those days there were gathered an Ames, a Madison, an Ellsworth, a Randolph, a Sherman, and others of a like fame, who have made the history of our country illustrious. But, for thirty years now, and especially within the twenty years past, since the adoption of the hour rule, along with other evils, the importance and even the equality of the House has been lost ; and it is the Senate whose gal- leries the people throng now ; it is the Senate which has drawn upon it- self the chief attention of the country ; it is the debates in the Senate for which the public look; it is the speeches delivered in the Senate which circulate throughout the land ; and, finally, it is the Senate, as the gen- tleman from Virginia [Mr. GARXETT] suggested, which is not only absorbing all the legislation of the country, but is moulding that public opinion which controls the Government. Is it not apparent then, I ask, that there should be found, and right speedily, a remedy for the disre- pute into which this House has fallen ? What that remedy may be, I leave to your wisdom, gentlemen, to devise; but, I repeat, that the abrogation of the hour rule is, in my opinion, the first and a most important step in that direction. Mr. Cox. I wish to ask my colleague a single question. He seems to have taken the British House of Commons as his model of a parliamentary body. Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Not altogether, although this House was certainly modelled after it, Mr. Cox. My colleague has, no doubt, read in Ten Thousand a Year, of one Tittlebat Titmouse, who broke down a ministry by crow- ing at an inopportune time. [Laughter.] I suppose that, to carry our the system in this House, it should be the duty of the Speaker to appoint persons who are to perform that duty. But, as iny colleague refers to classic authorities, I ask him whether it was not true that the hour rule always prevailed in the Roman Senate ! Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Certainly not. Mr. Cox. I ask if it was not extraordinary that those great declamations of Demosthenes and yEschincs always came out in exactly sixty minutes? Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. My colleague is, as Titmouse would say, a most "respectable gent ;" and no doubt the incident to which he has referred in that gentleman's parliamentary career, illustrating his powers 244 VALLASDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. of crowing, was called to mind by the similarity between my colleague's name, and the barn-yard fowl called " Chanticleer, who wakes the mom." He is the very bird for the new office he proposes. [Laughter.] But I regret that he has exhibited such lamentable forgetful ness at least, in regard to the Roman and Grecian eloquence, to which I had made allusion by way of illustration. If he had recently read the speeches of Demosthenes and .zEschines, to which he refers, hewouhl not have asked whether they were not spoken in sixty minutes. Certainly they cannot now be read in two hours, and that without including the docu- ments quoted by the orators. Mr. Cox. That depends upon whether they arc read in the original. [Laughter.] Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I do not profess to be as familiar with Greece as my colleague. He has seen the " isles of Greece," visited the classic shores of Attica, walked the streets of Athens, and stood upon the Acropolis. I have not. He visited Rome, too ; though I may not speak of what he saw or heard in the Eternal City. He has written it in a book. [Laughter.] But I will not occupy the time of the. committee longer. By reason of the very. evil of interruptions of which I complained, I have been forced to speak at far greater length than I intended. I beg pardon, gentlemen.* * NOTE BY MB. YALLAXDIGDAM. Not awaro that the report on tho rules of tho House was made a special order for this day, and obliged to speak, therefore, without recent examination of the subject, I append now certain extracts to which I would otherwise have referred in my remarks : 1. Many of the extant orations written by Demosthenes for prosecutors or the accused, were in State trials or impeachments ; and some of them in support of the repeal of certain laws, as for example, the Leptinean oration, were read before " committees," as we would say at this day. A longer tune (if indeed there were any limit), it would seem, was allowed in such cases. 2. The first example of limitation of time for argument at the bar in Homo, was by Pompey, upon the trial of Milo, and for the purpose of securing his conviction ; but 'the limit then was fixed at three hours. Under the Emperors it became a settled usage, and sometimes two hours, sometimes one hour, or even half an hour, were allowed, at the discretion of the judge. Pliny assigns as the .?ason, that " the ad- vocates grew tired before the business was explained, and the judges were ready to decide before they understood tho question." And he asks, and the inquiry 13 just as pertinent now, " Are we wiser than our ancestors ? are the laws more just at present? Our ancestors allowed many hours, many days, many adjournments in every cause? and, for my part, as often as I sit in judgment, I allow as much time as the advocate requires; for would it not be rashness to guess what space of time is necessary in a cause which lias not been opened ? But some unnecessary things may be said, and is it not better that what is unnecessary should be spoken, than that what ia necessary should be omitted ? And who can tell what ia necessary FKANKIXG PRIVILEGE. 245 FKANKIXG PRIVILEGE. December 6, I860. Mr. VALLANPIGHAM, from (lie Select Committee of Five on the franking privilege (Mr. CHARLES F. ADAMS and Mr. A\ T ILLIAM KELLOGG con- curring), made the following REPORT. The Select Committee of the House of Rqyrcscntativcs,' to whom was referred Senate bill No. 35, entitled "An Act to abolish the Franking Privilege" have had the same under consideration, and report : Tins bill is at least equal and exact, inasmuch as it proposes to prohibit the transportation of any free matter through the mail, except to the widow of James K. Polk, late a President of the United States, cutting off congressional franks, and providing no means for the payment by government of postage on official communications of any kind. It requires every officer, civil, military, and naval, now entitled to frank, from the President of the United States to deputy postmasters, to pre- pay, out of his own money, postage on all matter transmitted upon official business. It forbids the free exchange of newspapers, which has been admitted by law or regulation since 1753, and proposes thus, by one annihilating act of six lines, full of manifest haste and want of con- sideration, to reverse the settled policy of the government from its beginning. A graver question is seldom submitted to Congress, and duly impressed with its importance, your committee has given anxious and patient attention to it. Though the post-office system, as it exists at this day, is essentially a modern institution, yet posts are of very ancient date, and in every instance have been either established or regulated by the State. In Arabia and Persia they existed long before the Christian era, and their till he has heard ? Patience in a judge ought to be considered as one of the chief branches of his duty, as it certainly is of justice." (Book G, Epistle 2.) These considerations apply still more strongly to debate in a deliberative assembly. 3. Cicero says in his "Brutus," that he never heard, of a Laceda?monian orator, and adds, " brevity, upon some occasions, is a real excellence ; but it is very far from being compatible with the general character of eloquence." 4. Referring to the adoption of the hour rule by the House, July 7, 1841, Mr. Benton says : "This session is remarkable for the institution of the hour rule in the House of Representatives the largest limitation upon the freedom of delate which any delibe- rative, assembly ever imposed upon iteelf, and presents an eminent instance of permanent injury done to free institutions in order to get rid of a temporary annoy- ance." 2 Benin's View, 247. 246 VALLATCDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. speed, in Oriental figure of speech, was outstripped only by the flight of time. Under the Roman emperors the postal system was, as to expedition at least, brought to great perfection, and Tiberius was accus- tomed to indignantly reject all dispatches which had been longer on the way than twenty days from the extrcmcst provinces of Asia. In the middle ages, also, posts were established in various countries of Europe, and in Peru, at its discovery in 1527, the orders of the Inca were regu- larly dispatched by couriers posted at convenient distances along the principal highways. In India also, and earlier still in Tartary, a portal system existed "which, in the latter country, was very extensive and com- plete. And at this day the post-office is an established institution of every State in Europe and America, and in all it is under the control of government. More than this, it has in almost every instance been first established by the State for its own exclusive service in the trans- mission of public dispatches and other official intelligence. The use of it by private persons has, for the most part, been an incident growing up under it, first from the necessities or conveniences of trade and com- merce or of social correspondence, and ultimately for the sake of income to the State ; and Blackstone treats of it in his Commentaries as a fixed and important part of the King's revenue. In no country is post- age paid on public dispatches or communications by government officers out of their own private means. Even in Great Britain the abolition of franks in 1830 extended only to parliamentary ni^ i^ot to oxecntivo franking. Within a few years after the first British settlements in America, posts were established by the legislatures of several of the colonies. In 1639, by authority of the general court of Massachusetts, a postmaster was appointed in Boston; and in 1657, Virginia provided for the transmis- sion by each planter, under the penalty of a hogshead of tobacco (the currency of that day), of government dispatches from one plantation to another, till they should reach the place of their destination. One of the earliest acts of William Penn was the establishment, in 1683, of a post-office in Pennsylvania; and a monthly post was appointed, in obedience to the King's command, between New York and Boston, in 1672. As early as 1692 a postmaster-general for all the colonies was appointed by letters patent, with power to erect post-offices, but no efficient system was established till 1710, when, by act of Parliament, the postmaster-general was authorized to set up a general letter office in New York and other chief offices in each of the colonies. Dr. Franklin served in the post-office department for nearly forty years, and from 1753 to 1774 was postmaster-general for all British America, during which period he reduced the service to a system, and for the first time made it to yield a revenue to the government. FKAJtfKIXG PRIVILEGE. Throughout the war of the revolution, by order of the Continental Congress, and under the direction of postmaster-generals appointed by them, postal arrangements, more or less imperfect, were continued, and the Articles of Confederation, ratified finally in 1781, gave to Congress "the sole and exclusive right and power of establishing and regulating post-offices from one State to another throughout the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as might be requisite to defray the expenses of the office." The convention of 1787 found the post-office an existing institution, and in five words empowered CongreSvS "to establish post-offices and post-roads." Under this express grant, and the power to make "all laws necessary and proper" for carrying it into execution, has g.own up that vast and stupendous system of postal arrangements by which intel- ligence of every kind, political, commercial, social, and intellectual, is transmitted with certainty, safety, and speed throughout the United States, over routes estimated at 260,000 miles in length, with an annual mail transportation of 82,000,000 of miles, and at a cost of nearly ten millions of dollars. Why was it, we may well inquire, that the Constitution conferred a power so peculiar and so immense ? How comes it that any government, above all that a republican government, founded upon the fundamental principle of committing nothing to government which the individual man can as well accomplish, is the sole carrier of mail matter, and yet carries nothing else ? Unquestionably the primary reason is that every State has the right to provide the necessary and proper means of com- municating to public officers, and in a popular government, to the people, its own dispatches and other public intelligence. The State lias just the same right to establish and control the machinery used for this purpose as to construct and own the arms and munitions of its army, or the ships and equipments of its navy, or the buildings necessary for executive and legislative purposes. But for public objects the power ought never to have been given ; and when the post-office is no longer used by government, except in the same way and upon the same terms as by the individual citizen, the whole of this costly and stupendous machinery, with all its vast political power and patronage, ought forth- with to be abolished. As well might the government be required to pay the market price for the arms and munitions of war fabricated at its public factories, and yet these factories be kept up for the purpose of meeting the wants of private citizens, and made "self-sustaining" by the means thus supplied. As well might government be required to pay passage money and board for its naval officers and seamen, in order that the navy may be made " self-sustaining" by the transportation of passengers, for fare, from one port to another. As well might govern- 248 v ALLAND IGHAM'S SPEECHES. ment pay rent for its own court-houses and custom-house* in order that the treasury and the judiciary might be made "self-sustaining" by letting these buildings to private persons for hire. The analogy will be complete if wo suppose the civil, naval, and military officers to be required, in each case, to pay out of their private funds or their- salaries the several expenses thus incurred. Your committee regard the post-office as strictly a department of the government to be used primarily for public purposes, and differing in no essential governmental principle from any other department. But private citizens, it may be said, do not use the other executive offices, including the army and the navy, for private purposes : how comes it, then, that the post-office is au exception ? The reason is this : any private use of the former would be inconsistent with the objects for which they were instituted and destructive of their efficiency ; but the post-office can well transport the mail matter of private persons at the same time as that of the government, without injury or inconvenience to the public service, and by exacting sufficient postage, without cost to the public treasury. Certainly the nature of the matter transmitted may afford some reason why its transportation should be under the supervision of government, and by machinery provided by it. Every postal system from the begin- ning has been established chiefly, if not solely, for the communication of intelligence. Under our own system nothing else is " mailable matter." JJut mis intelligence is in the form of written or printed packets, and to-day both letters and newspapers are transmitted, along with every other conceivable subject of transportation, by private express companies, with " due celerity, certainty, and security," from one end of the Union to the other. Another reason, perhaps, why the power to establish post-offices and post-roads was committed to the federal government was the necessity and importance of preventing vexatious restrictions and annoyances in the transmission of intelligence from one State to another. This has O ever been an evil causing no small mischief in the German confedera- tion. But it must be remembered that the same difficulty would equally exist in the transportation of goods, and of every other article usually intrusted to common carriers; and that in practice, no sort of incon- venience or vexation is experienced in the transmission of intelligence by telegraph, or the transportation of any article upon the railroad, by express or otherwise, from one State through another, to the remotest section of the United States. Your committee, therefore, are of opinion that, whereas thfc trans- mission of government dispatches and intelligence was the primary object of the establishment of the post-office system, so also, it is still, FRAMING PRIVILEGE. 249 and much more now than at first, the chief reason which justifies it.3 continuance; and that whenever it ceases to be a department of State, to be used in the exercise and execution of some legitimate and neces- sary function and power of republican government, it ou^ht to be abolished. Certainly the State might employ special messengers to bear a]l it", dispatches and public intelligence, at home, as it now does on important occasions, or to countries with which it has no postal arrangements abroad ; and these messengers would be paid out of the treasury, but the expense would, in that case, be an intolerable burden. Or the government might, except in regard to matters of too great or delicate concern, intrust its communications, if it were wise or economical so to do, to private carriers or express companies, just as it now does to the telegraph, the use of which for public purposes is every day augmenting. ' But here, again, the expense would be defrayed out of the public funds. No one, in either case, would ask that the several officers transmitting the dispatches or intelligence should be required to pay the expense out of their own means. Why, then, when the government has organized a permanent establishment for its own service, but which, for general convenience and greater security and speed, private citizens are allowed to employ, also, for their own individual purposes, shall it be required to pay for the transmission of its own intelligence by means of its own agen- cies and machinery ? And yet, after all, here is a mere dispute about words, or rather about the mode of payment. Rejecting the proposition that the private citizen shall be taxed a higher rate of postage in order to defray the expense of the transportation of government mail matter, the real question is, whether the State shall pay directly the excess of the expenditures of the Post-Office Department over the receipts at fair rates of postage from private persons using it, or shall pay just the same amount in the shape of postage, at such rates as will make up the deficiency ; in other words, shall government keep a postage account and pay it out of the general treasury, or shall it transmit its official dispatches and communications free, and pay, upon another form of account, the increased expenditures of the Post-Office Department incurred by reason of such free mail matter. In this point of view, your committee deem the controversy of but small moment, and to be determined as a question solely of convenience and economy; and they are clearly of opinion that upon the score of both economy and convenience the latter mode is far preferable. This is the question, unless it be insisted that the officers or agents of the State shall pay out of their own salaries or private fortunes, if any they may have, the postage accounts of their respective offices. But if out of their salaries, then' the payment is at last, though meanly and circuitously, out of the public 250 VALLANDIGHAXl's SPEECHES, treasury, and a general increase of salaries would be the final and inevi- table result, since the amount so put into the treasury, assuming the estimate of the Post-Office Department of $1,800,000 to be correct, if assessed upon officials, executive and legislative, who now enjoy the " franking privilege," would essentially diminish the compensation which they now severally receive. If the payment is to be made out of their own private means, then it is an infraction of the principles of republican government, the imposition of an unjust tax upon public servants, and an exaction without example in any other instance of governmental administration. No less reasonably might the officers of the navy, or the judiciary, or the treasury, be required also to provide from their own fortunes, ships and equipments, or court-houses and custom-houses, for the use of the government. And why, upon the same principle, should not the officers of the army be compelled to pay, in the same manner, for the cost of the transportation of troops and munitions of war from one post to another ? The true rule your com- mittee understand to be this : every expense of a public nature, neces- sary to the faithful and efficient discharge of public duty, the govern- ment ought to pay out of the common treasury, because the expenditure is for the common good. Unquestionably, the communication of orders and other public intelligence from one officer to another, whether a superior or subordinate, is not only a part, but a most important part, of official duty, and which, indeed, especially in a oonnfrv * m-f geographical extent as ours, is indispensable to the existence of the government itself. This would seem to be too clear for argument Although the bill referred to your committee prohibits all free mat- ter, as well executive as congressional, and as it stands now would require all postage on government communications to be paid by officials out of their own means, your committee are slow to believe that such an act of injustice and folly was seriously intended. They assume that the purpose of the friends of the measure is to abolish congressional franks altogether, and to pay official or executive postage, as in England, out of the public treasury. To pay for congressional free matter in the same way would be simply a proposed reform, and not an abolition of the privilege. And if both be placed upon the same footing, nothing would be gained to the common treasury, and only the mode of paying the general expenses of the postal system would be changed. One department of government would buy postage stamps from another department of government which had already appropriated for the former the very mo.ney with whicb these stamps had been purchased, and thus the old fable be realized of the two lads who, shut up in a dark room, amassed a fortune each by exchanging garments. It is only by requiring all private persons and officials who use the post-office to I FRANKING PRIVILEGE. 251 pay alike out of their own means the usual and necessary postage rates that any tlnng is to be really saved to the treasury. And this rule, youi committee understand, is to be applied only to members of the legisla- tive department, while the postage of the executive, though the more costly of the two, is to be defrayed out of the general fund. Congress, ^yitll marvellous excess of patriotism, is to efuict a self-denying ordi- nance, not applicable in its burdens to any but its own members. Assuming, then, that the abolition of franks is to be limited really to congressional communications or intelligence, while all other government mail matter is to be carried free or have the postage upon it paid out of the public treasury, your committee proceed to consider whether, in the nature of our system of government, or in any peculiar or Accidental circumstances, there exists any reason why a discrimination should in this respect be made against the legislative department and its members, and in favor of the executive and its officials. In a majority of countries where postal systems exist there is no legislature at all ; in others it is but a shadow; in some, merely an office wherein to register the decrees of royalty. If in any such the right to transmit through the King's mails any matter free is conceded to the semblance the legislature, it is strictly a privilege, or possibly a sort of badge of office or distinction. It is a matter of grace, like the license to kill deer in the royal forests " blowing a horn if the forester be absent, so that the King's venison may not seem to be taken by stealth." In all such states there is little need for sympathy or commu- nication between the representative and the constituent, since elections in some are but mere forms, and in others the executive is the real and sometimes, in whole or in part, the formal constituent of the legislature. In but one country besides our own has the legislative department any real and substantial portion of the power of the government, and even there the post-office system grew up under the auspices of royalty, and at a period when Parliaments were but the registers of the King's good will and pleasure. Postal couriers were employed by King John to convey government dispatches as early as the thirteenth century, and between that period and the reign of James L, when the first postmas- ter-general, having charge of as well private as public correspondence, was appointed, nothing probably but official letters and packets was transmitted by the King's post. From the beginning down to the time of the Long Parliament the entire system was under the control of the executive as a part of the royal prerogative, and posts were established by proclamation. When in the time of Cromwell, both King and Lords were abolished, and all power consolidated at first in the Ilouse of Commons, the post-office passed also under their control, and they succeeded, of course, to the rights and privileges of the executive, and 252 VALLANDI CHAM'S SPEECHES. used the mails for the conveyance of their own dispatches and intelligence. Blackstone dates the first legislative establishment and regulation of the post-office from this period. At the restoration, in 1000, the system, though then and ever afterwards subject to control by act of Parlia- ment instead of royal proclamation, passed again in its administration into the hands of the King. Pending a bill in the same year for the organization of the post-office, the Commons, u because that the letters of as well the King's council of state as his own and other executive officers passed free through the mails," added a proviso that their letters also should be entitled to the same privilege. The Lords threw out the proviso, and the Commons consented to drop it upon a private assurance from the crown that the exemption should be allowed to the members;, and accordingly a warrant was ever afterwards regularly issued from the King to the postmaster-general, directing the allowance to members of Parliament of free letters to the extent of two ounces. This was the origin of the "franking privilege;" for privilege it then really was, granted of royal grace, and so it continued fora century, when, in 1764, it was for the first time confirmed and regulated by act of Parliament. Why, your committee ask, shall the executive dispatches and corre- spondence pass free through the mails or be paid for out of the commbn treasury ? The reason is twofold : First, because they are official com- munications passing between snperiors and subordinates, between prin- cipals and agents upon public business. It is fit, thoro.forp. that tlio public should pay the expense. Second, the people have a right to know what the executive department is doing, and whether their public servants are fully and faithfully discharging their public duties, to the end that they may be hel3 to a due responsibility. And it is fit again that the people and not their servants should pay the expense. Do iwt both these considerations apply equally to congressional or legislative communications? The States and the 'people are the constituents; members of Congress are their representatives; the States and the people are principals ; we their agents. They are superiors, we subor- dinates. How shall responsibility be enforced without knowledge on the part of the States and .of the people of what their agents are doing and of how they discharge their trusts ? Is it unimportant to the public interests or not necessary for the maintenance, pure and incorrupt, of our institutions as they now exist, that the accountability of the legislative department to the States and the people should be preserved ? Is it not the more important and the more essential, inasmuch as it is the business and duty of the legislative to enforce responsibility upon the executive, and thus to stand as the sentinel or custodian of State and popular rights ? But quis custodial custodcs ipsos, if there shall be no communication between Congress and the people and States? And if FBAXKIXQ 1'RIVILEGE. 253 there be communication through the instrumentality of the Post-Office Department a part and parcel of government machinery why shall the legislative any more than the executive public servant be required to pay the expense out of his own private fortune I The very basis of our government is the responsibility of representatives to their constituents ; and free and frequent communication between the two is essential to the enforcement of this responsibility. It is not enough that they may communicate mutually through the newspaper press. The States and the people have a right to send and receive directly to and from their representatives, and to learn in an authentic and official form what has been said and done by these public servants. Your committee will not press the importance of this consideration further; it is too obvious. If it be urged that the right to frank extends also to merely private communications between individuals, your committee answer that tliis is at most an abuse and a small one which, if need be, it is easy to cut off. But according to the individual experience and observation of the members of your committee, the number of strictly private business or social letters passing free through the mails is very small. Letters or communications relating in any way to political affairs between repre sentative and constituent your committee do not deem mere private letters. In their judgment it is not necessary that the communication should relate solely to business formally before Congress in order to entitle it to the designation of a public or official letter. If a represen- tative has the right to print and address a communication directed to the whole body of his constituents relating to general politics and public affairs, or solely to the local politics of his own district, why may he not address the same in manuscript to any one of his constituents ? But if franking be really a mere privilege and not a right of the people and a duty of the representative, then your committee demand to know why it shall be conceded in a republican government to the executive department alone and denied to the legislature? Is there any thing in the nature of the government, of the offices, or of the communications that special privileges should be conferred upon the former and not also, or rather, indeed, upon the latter 1 Loud complaint is made that the treasury is impoverished by reason of the vast numbers of very costly books and public documents which, it is alleged, would not be printed but for the " franking privilege." Your committee answer that no book or document is printed except by general or special order of Congress or of the Senate or House ; and that it is only necessary to refuse to direct the printing of documents and none will be transmitted by mail, and thus the expense both of printing and transportation be saved. But what are these books and documents thus summarily condemned? They are the records of the 254 VALLANDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. government in 'its various departments; the reports of its general or special agents appointed by law. They are the official archives of State, the originals of which are accessible to those only, few in number, who may chance to visit the Federal capital, and which ought to be printed ; which the people have a right to see, and 'to have distributed at public expense either through the mails or by express. Certainly the printing of books, not coming strictly within the class above described, has been of late years carried to an excess which demands rebuke and retrench- ment. But let Congress apply the corrective directly, by refusing to print, and not circuitously by abolishing the right to transmit free through the mail. It is complained, also, as if it were a monstrous abuse, that immense quantities of speeches and pamphlets are franked from the Capitol,' especially during a presidential canvass; and tables have been prepared to show that they number millions. Your committee would have mil- lions more, in the same manner, sent out. Every one of them relates to the politics of the country. Every one of them finds its way into the hands of some one or more of the people of the constituent body to whom this House and every other department of the Government is responsible. They afford public instruction and mould public senti- ment They are printed at the private cost of the members of the Senate or House a heavy tax and a heavy burden in itself and it is lit that, meant for the people, they should at least be circulated through the people's mails, and at the people's expense. There is no " privi- lege" in all this to the member ; it is his duty and burden, and the privilege of the constituent The free exchange of newspapers is, perhaps, an anomaly in the post- office system, and includes, no doubt, a greater amount of matter than any other passing free through the mails. Yet your committee justify it upon the ground of long and uniform usage more than a hundred years in duration and for strong reasons of public policy. It would be not difficult to demonstrate that to cut off free exchanges would go far to break down the whole newspaper press of the country, except a few of the leading journals in the larger cities, and thus to concentrate in these journals all that tremendous power which belongs to this " fourth estate" of Government Cities would become still more the seats of political power; thither alone would ambitious eyes be directed, and public servants would be compelled to look for responsibility no longer to their own immediate constituents, but to the conductors of a powerful metropolitan press, which already exerts a controlling, though not always wholesome influence over public sentiment throughout the Union. It is the great problem in a Republican 'Government how to decentralize power, whose natural tendency is to gravitate towards a FRANKING PRIVILEGE. 255 common centre. Wide extent of country, separate State Governments, conflicting interests, local jealousy, pride and ambition, but, above all, the electric telegraph, have prevented or arrested hitherto in the United States that evil which, for the most part, is suppressed in Europe by a denial of liberty to the press. Still the great journals of our larger cities need no aid from Government Rejoicing in abundant capital, full of enterprise, commanding a high order of talent of every sort, laying every art, every science, and the whole circle of literature under contribution, and constituting thus a controlling, and certainly a most wonderful element of modern, civilization, they arc able to stand alone, and Govern- ment, indeed, itself is glad sometimes to look to them for support. Your committee would withdraw no privilege, therefore, from the country press an institution so essential to that equality which is the corner- stone of every truly Democratic State. For the same reasons, also, your committee propose to continue to the publishers of weekly newspapers the privilege of transmitting to sub- scribers one copy free of postage within the county of publication. So far your committee have discussed this question upon principle. We propose, now, briefly to meet and reply to some considerations urged in behalf of the measure on the score of policy. The clamor just now in favor of this alleged reform, so far as it is disinterested, is founded mainly upon the very great increase of late years in the expenditures of the Post-Office Department. To this your committee answer, that a large part of this increase accrues because of the extension of mail facilities by overland and water to the Pacific coast, and that the free mail matter transported over these routes bears as to the cost but an insignificant proportion to the whole. The evil lies not there. No ; the last annual report of the Postmaster-General discloses the secret of this inordinate increase. The six different routes to and from the Pacific, cost the Government $2,693,394 13, being an expenditure of $4 14 to each inhabitant of that section of the Union, 600,000 in number, while the cost cast of the Ptocky Mountains for thirty millions of people, is less than forty-one cents to each person. The annual receipts from these- six routes are $339,747 66, showing an excess of expenditures of $1,844,949 66 per annum. One route alone costs $600,000, and yields as revenue the exact sum of $27,229 94. Here, then, is ample room for reform. Will not the " non-franking patriots" of the Senate and House see to it? Your committee would not, indeed, diminish by one jot the necessary and reasonable mail facilities of that vast and opulent portion of our confederacy, which, lying at so great a distance from the centre, and separated by vast deserts and high mountains, bears yet its full propor- tion of the burdens of Government without a just measure of its bene- 250 VALL ASDIC. II AAl's : 1 j: F.CIIES. fits. But a provident and economical adjustment and equalization of these facilities is neither denial nor injustice to the people of the Pacific coast. Another and yet more important cause of this vast increase in the expenditures of the Post-Office Department is the great reduction, of late years, in the rates of postage. However unwise this too close imita- tion of the British postal reform may at first have been, your committee arc opposed to any return to the higher rates, at least till the experiment of cheap postage shall have been more fully and fairly tried, the Govern- ment itself meantime paying its just proportion out of the common treasury for the transportation of its own mail matter free. It is said that the abolition of franks will cut oft* millions by retrench- ing the amount of public printing. Your committee have already replied that not a dollar is expended for printing except by act or resolution of one or both houses of Congress. Let us lay the axe, then, at the root of the evil. But are these books aud public documents printed in excess solely because they may be transmitted free ? or, rather, is it not that the public printer may be enriched, or reimbursed, at least, what it has cost him to secure his election ? If so, the abolition of franks will in nowise tend to arrest the evil. But it is urged that the mails are loaded down by the weight multorum camelorum onus of books and public documents, and that thus the cost of mail transportation is greatly enhanced. Now, by far the greater part of tree matter is carried upon railroads or in steam- boats ; and 'what contractor, we ask, will carry for one dollar a mile less because of the abolition of franks ? The department furnishes, and must furnish, the route agents;, while the contractors provide, and must provide, the mail cars or apartments, whether there be free' mail matter or not ; and of what moment is it, in this regard, to either contractor or department, whether there be one bag to transport or twenty ? Again, it is said, and Postmasters-General have repeated it till it has become a sort of carmen necessarium to ofiicials, that this great reform is to gain millions to the department. " There is no reason," so it is written down in a late annual report, " why the Post-Office Department, through its contractors, should perform this service gratuitously for the Government than there- is that the steamboats and railroad companies ot the country should transport its troops, munitions of war, and stores without compensation." When, your committee beg to know, did the Post-Office Department become a separate Government? When did it " secede ?" Hitherto it has been a popular delusion that the General Post-Office was but a branch or department of the government a part of the machinery by which its constitutional powers and functions were to be executed. It has been supposed the creature of Congress and FBANKIXG- PRIVILEGE. 257 under their control ; and, further, that if Congress should command it to transport certain matter free of postage, it was its duty, as a branch of the executive, to "faithfully execute" soeh command, even "gratuitously;" leaving it to Congress to supply the means, in such manner as they might see fit. Steamboat arid railroad companies being made up of private individuals may, constitutionally, refuse to do that sort of service for the Government without "just compensation ;" but your committee cannot concede any such privilege to a mere creature of Congress a subordinate Department of Government. But $1, $00, 000 is to be saved in postages to the Government. How saved ? If that vast amount of mail matter, now free, which so greatly enhances, as is s:-id, the cost of transportation, is to be cut off by the abolition of franks, whence is to come the alleged increase of postage by reason of this same matter no longer transported ? If books and public documents are no more to be printed, they cannot be transmitted through the mails; and if not transmitted, they cannot be charged with postage. There must be a loss somewhere. But assume that this class of mail matter is still to be transported, or that upon another class, now free, 81,800,000 is to 1 e gained in postages, who is to pay this increased amount? If out of the treasury, Government saves nothing; if those only who receive, the people, pay, then it is but another form of taxa- tion or burden, and far cheaper and better every way would it be that they should pay to private express companies or other common carriers. If those who send, the public servants, are to pay these $1,800,000 into the treasury, no ollice in the gift of Government nt>ne requiring cor- respondence is worth a single year's purchase. If the abolition be confined to congressional franks alone, and that sum is, in this way, to be paid into the treasury, the average amount to each Senator, Repre- sentative, ami delegate will equal $5,844 15 nearly twice the compen- sation now allowed to them by law. Divide the burden between those who send and those who receive, and there still remains to each member of Congress nearly $2,500 as his proportion of the tax. Finally, it is urged that the system of franking is full of abuses. Your committee deny, as to much that is denounced as an abuse, that it deserves the condemnation. As to the residue, it springs from either a defect in the law or a wanton violation of it. If a member of Congress frank a letter not written by himself, or strictly by his order; above all, if lie frank envelopes, or packages of envelopes, in blank, to be used by those not entitled to the privilege, he breaks the law, and dishonors his office. If he undertake to frank that which is not mailable matter, or evasively to exceed the limit of two ounces, or mark that as a " public document 1 ' which is not, he is, in like manner, guilty of an offence against both law and good morals. It is-an act of unveracity which no 17 258 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. gentleman, npon reflection, will commit. Yet, strange to say, there arc no adequate penalties for any of these offences. Here, then, let the " amending hand" be applied. Franking by deputy, though, in the judgment of your committee, clearly legal, is a prolific source of abuse. Several times the Post-OtGce Department, assuming it to be contrary to law, has attempted to arrest it; yet so heavy is the burden of personal franking, especially of speeches and public documents, that the department has never long persisted in its efforts. And your committee are satisfied that a desire on the part of members to evade this burden, or otherwise the heavy tax for the hire of clerks, is the cause of some part, at least, of the oppo- sition to the franking privilege/ , To correct abuses, and at the same time to relieve members of Con- gress in this regard, your committee report a plan which they believe to be efficient, and at the same time secured from abuse, and which they trust may be approved by the House. This plan, along with a few other slight amendments or modifications of existing laws, not enlarging but rather restricting the franking privilege, they propose as a substitute for the Senate bill referred to them, and accordingly report the accom- panying bill as a digest or code of regulations for the transmission of free matter through the mails of the United States. * JUSTICE TO THE NORTH-WEST. REMARKS ON THE MOTION TO EXCUSE MR. HAWKINS, OF FLORIDA, FROM SERVING ON "THE COMMITTEE OF THIRTY^THREE." In the House of Representatives, December 10, 1860. COMPELLED, by the rules of the House, to vote upon the question, of excusing the gentleman from Florida from serving upon this committee, I desire, in a few words, to submit my own reasons for the vote which' I propose to give. With many of the reasons assigned by the gentle- man from Florida, I, as a Representative from one of the free States of this Union, have nothing to do ; but there are considerations which impel me, as such Representative, to vote for the me 'ion to excuse. It is idle, sir, to attempt to " coerce" any gentleman to serve npon this committee who assigns such reasons as the gentleman from Florida has given ; and in justice to him, and to his State, but above all, to the very purpose of the committee itself, I cannot so vote. You may decline to excuse him ; you cannot compel him to discharge, with good will or alacrity, the duties you impose upon hiin ; and what kind of concilia- tion and compromise is that which begins by forcing a man to serve JUSTICE TO THE SOUTH-WEST. 259 upon a committee raised for the very purpose of peace? What pros- pect, in God's name I speak it reverently is there of adjustment, when you are obliged to resort to compulsion to make up your com- mittee on compromise and adjustment? I pass by without comment the consideration so earnestly pressed by the gentleman from Florida, that this proposition might, with far more propriety and effect, have conic from the Republican party in this House ; that party which has just triumphed in the election which is the culminating point of all our controversies, and of all the dangers which, surround ns ; and that, with great honor to himself and great and sooth- ing good, it may have been, to the whole country, full of excitement and alarm, the gentleman now chairman of this committee (Mr. CORWIN), distinguished for his age, his experience, his eloquence, and his modera- tion not to speak of his position as the " leader" (so lie asserts) of that party might have assumed upon himself the responsibility of the initiative in that great work of reconciliation and reconstruction which alone can save us now, instead of allowing it to be devolved upon the Representative of that particular spot in Virginia selected by Abolition madness and wickedness as the weakest point of attack along the entire slaveh serve upon it. liie ciine is short ; the uatigci 1 muumuni j the malady deep-seated and of long standing. Whatever is to be done must be done at once, and it must be done thoroughly. Every remedy must go right straight home to the seat of the disease. Let there be no delays, no weak inventions, no temporizing expedients. Otherwise, not secession of a few States only, but total and absolute disruption of this whole Government is inevitable. Sir, we stand this day in the forum of history. We are acting in the eye of posterity. We have solemn duties to the whole country to perform ; and if we do not discharge them instantly and aright " Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy sirups of the world, Shall ever medicine us to that sweet sleep, Which yesterday we ow'd." In the name, then, of the Democracy of sixteen of the free States of this Union, I protest against the arrangement of this committee. My motives may be misinterpreted now. Be it so. Time in a little while will vindicate them. NO COERCION" COMPROMISE. 263 RESPONSE, Ul'ON BEING CALLED OUT AT A SERENADE TO THE HoX. GEORGE E. PUGII, WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 22, 18GO.* FELLOW-CITIZENS : As a Western man, as a citizen of Ohio, as a long- time friend, and now the colleague and house-mate of the Senator from, my State, in whose honor you have assembled, I thank you cordially for this demonstration a personal compliment to him for the ability and courage which the other day he displayed in the Senate Chamber. No man has deserved it better, and he too, I am sure, thanks you heartily for it. But it is as a testimonial in behalf of the doctrine enforced and the policy pronounced by him on that occasion, that this demonstration has peculiar significance. 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 this 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 Constitution, and the constitutional rights, and above all, the perfect equality of every State and every section of this Confederacy. [Cheers.] That Constitution was made iu peace ; it has, for now more than seventy years, been preserved 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. This Union is not to be held together, this Constitution is not to be cemented by the blood of our citizens poured out in civil war ; and coercion is civil war, and it is folly to attempt to disguise its true charac- ter under the name and pretence of " enforcing the laws." The people will in the end demand a bloody reckoning upon the heads of those who may thus deceive them. [Loud cheers.] No ; let us negotiate, compromise, concede ; let us, if need be, give and receive new guaran- tees for our respective rights ; for this is wisdom and true statesman- ship ; and in this way only can the Government be preserved or restored. At all events let us have no civil war. [Applause.] And, as one living near the borders of what may be, unhappily, and in an evil hour, a divided Confederacy, I am resolved that by no vote, by no speech, by no act of mine shall any thing be done to plunge this my country, into the horrors of a war among brethren. I lament profoundly indeed the causes which have led to this most alarming crisis in the midst of which we now are. I have labored faith- * Speeches were also made, on this occasion, by lions. George E. Pugh, John J. Critteiiden, George A. Pendletou, Robert Mallory, and others. 204 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. fully and right manfuJJIy for years to correct aud to remove them. I regret also the results which naturally and inevitably have folio wo.l them. But if we must separate, let it, in God's name, be in peace. Then we shall be able to reconstruct this Government. If we cannot preserve, we can, and we will, restore it, aud become thus the second founders of the Republic, That is our mission, inferior 'only in glory and honor, and in good, to the mission of those who laid its foundation at first. [Applause]. Preserve peace and we shall yet save this Government ; we shall have time to correct public sentiment everywhere, and to agree upon . such terms of adjustment as will consolidate the union of these States and make it firmer and stronger than before. But the first drop of blood shed among us in the wicked and murderous insanity of coercion vrill be the beginning of a civil war, and of massacres and atrocities, the end of which neither you nor your children's children will sec, till wearied, impoverished, exhausted, the people of a generation or two hence shall seek for peace and security under the despotism of the two, three, or more military leaders who shall partition this magnificent country of ours between them, by the sword, llence, citizens of Washington, you are right to be here to-night to testify your approval of that great policy of peace and conciliation which alone can avert these horrors. [Great cheering.] The Republican party has come into power with the threat of hostility to the rights and institutions of ueuiiy one-iiaii ul lais Confederacy ; and it is just and fit, according to the course of the common law, but, above all, of the great law of self-presentation, that they should be put under bonds not to carry that threat into execution. [Applause.] This is the philosophy of new guarantees for old rights. It is the philosophy of that policy to which the gentleman in whose honor you have assembled, together with myself and others from the North and Northwest, are wholly and resolutely committed. 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, to 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.] From the Senate Cham- ber, then, from the Ilall of Representatives, and from this assemblage to-night, let the word go forth to the hearts of the people throughout the length and breadth of the land, that come what may of secession, disruption, and political discord and strife, the sword at least shall not T1IE GREAT AMERICAN" REVOLUTION OF 18G1. 265 be drawn by the rival sections, nor our quarrels ever be submitted to its Btern arbitrament. [Applause]. A voice Let South Carolina go to South Carolina is bound, I trust, upon no such mission [loud and deafening applause], travelling in no such direction. [Cheers.] But I hope and believe that if security but be given to her for the full and undisturbed enjoyment of the same rights and no more, she must ask no more [A Voice. She don't ask more] which she is entitled to now in the Union and under the Constitution ; if the new guarantees for old rights, proposed by Mr. Crittenden, or similar guarantees, ample enough to settle finally and forever this pestilent anti-slavery agitation, which, for a quarter of a century, having shaken the tcniplr- of this Union, is now about to topple it down in ruin upon our heads if these shall be given in the same spirit with which the Constitution itself was m-ade and agreed to, South Carolina will gladly return to that Con- federacy, in the founding of which, as in the war of the Devolution which preceded it, her heroes and patriots and statesmen bore so gallant and honorable and distinguished a part. [Cheers.] Fellow-citizens, I am all over, and altogether, a Union man. I would preserve it in all its integrity and worth. But, 1 repeat, that this cannot be done by coercion by the sword. lie who would resort to force military force, is a disunionist, call himself what he may, and disguise it though he may under the pretext of executing the laws and preserving the Union, lie is a "disunionist," whether he knows it and means it or not. Hence I am for peace and for compromise, fixed, irrepealable compromise, so that we may secure peace ; but I am for peace in any event peace upon both sides and upon all sides, now and forever. THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OP 1861. Speech delivered in the House of Representatives, Feb. 20, 1861.* The special order namely, the Report of the Committee of Thirty- Three being under consideration Mr. VALLANDIGHAM addressed the Jlouse as follows : MR. SPEAKER:. It was my purpose, some three months ago, to speak * This is that famous speech in which Mr. VALLAKDIGTIAM is said to have pro- posed to divide the Union iuto "Jour distinct nationalities." The whole speech is hero 266 VALLA2O)IGIIAM'S SPEECHES. 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, I assumed against the employ- ment of military force by the Federal Government to execute its laws and restore its authority within the States which might secede. Subse- quent events have rendered this unnecessary. Within the three months, or more, since the Presidential 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 Administration will at last be forced, in spite of their warlike purposes now to regard it as no longer a mere casual and temporary rebellion of discontented individuals, but a great and terrible REVOLU- TION, 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-day in the South, almost as one man, and by a very large majority, as I believe, in the North, and especially in the \\ T est, 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 AmerirnTi pormlp Kivo r^~ f ^ - 1 f1 ^ ~.~- : disguise of words without wisdom, which appealed to them to enforce the laws, collect the revenue, maintain the Union, and restore the Federal authority by the perilous edge of battle, and that thus early in the revolution they are resolved to compel us, their Representatives, belligerent as you of the .Republican 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 given : also, the proposed amendments to the Constitution. It is ru>t easy to imagine a greater perversion of the plain and obvious meaning of language than has been exhibited in this case. The reader will not be surprised to lind 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 proposition 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 becu paved 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. THE GREAT AMERICAN INVOLUTION OF 1861. 267 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 adjustment as will maintain that Union now and forever. This, then, is the question which to-day I propose to discuss : HOW SHALL THE UNION OF THESE STATES BE ItESTORED AND PilE- BKRVED ? 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 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. Jt 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, security to life, to person, to property material happiness, common defence, national renown, all that is implied in the " blessings of liberty" these, and more, have been its fruits from the beginning to this hour. These havo 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 ambassadors 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 lamentations over its decline and fall. These are for the poet and the historian, or for the exiled statesman whfl may chance to sit amid the ruins of deso- lated cities. Ours is a practical work, and it is the 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 peculiar nature of onr system of governments. Thirst for power and place, or pre-eminence in a word, ambition is one of the strongest and earliest developed passions of man. It is as discernible in the school-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 organization, also, it is equally mani- fested. It is the sin by which the angels fell. No form of government is exempt from it ; for even the absolute monarch is obliged to execute 268 VALLANDIG II All's SPEECHES. his power through the instrumentality of agents; and ambition hero courts one master instead of many masters. As between foreign States, it manifests itself in schemes of conquest and territorial aggrandize- ment. 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 interests of agriculture, trade, commerce, and the professions. In democracies it is seen everywhere, and in its highest development; for here all the avenues to political place and preferment, and emolument, too, arc open to every citizen ; and all movements., and all interests of society, and every great question moral, social, religious, scientific, no matter what assumes, at some time or other, a political complexion, and forms a art of the election issues and legislation of the day. Here, when com- bined with interest, and where the 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 propor- tions, 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 States are in the same interest, and sometimes where they are similar in institutions or modes of thought, or in habits and customs, of sectional jealousies and contro- versies, which end always, sooner or later, in either a dissolution of the union between them, or the destruction of the l\;Jci.il 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 and 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 remedy for the violation of them. And thus it is that the strong man oppresses the weak, and strong communities, States, and sections aggress upon the rights of wenker 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 com- plex machinery, are instituted among men ; though in their abuse, indeed, governments may themselves become the worst engines of op- pression. 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 THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 269 / secure the same great end. No men understood this, the philosophy and aim of all just government, better than the Cramers of our Federal Constitution. No men tried more faithfully to secure the Government 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 witli 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 Con- federacy still, or divided into many. And yet it is this very acquisition of territory which has given strength, though not birth, to that section- alism which already has broken in pieces this, the noblest Government ever devised by the wit of man. Not foreseeing the evil, or the neces- sity, they 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 authority delegated to the Federal Government, they defended it diligently 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 suffrage in the Senate. 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 impeachablc by the two Houses of Congress. Satisfied that the several State Governments were strong enough to protect themselves from Federal aggressions, if, indeed, not too strong for the efficiency of the General Government, they thus devised a system of internal checks and balances 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 io^di- viduals. 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 contemporaneous 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. Certainly, 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. 270 YALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. the General Government ; and hence tlie 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 central- izing 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 posi- tion, 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 SECTIONAL COMBINATIONS as against other sections, and to the injury and oppression of other sections, to secure possession of the several departments of the Federal Government, and of the vast powers and influence 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 Kinsf. Th^ vnt extent of thf pntroTi"^." of the Executive, and the immense power and influence which it exerts, 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, mischiefs, 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 has suddenly been stricken down by a revolution which it is powerless to control. Sir, if I could believe, aa the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Etheridge) would THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 271 seem to have me believe, that for more than half a century the South has had all that she ever asked, and more than she ever deserved, and that now, at last, a few discontented spirits have been able to precipitate already seven States into insurrection and rebellion, because they arc 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 of 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 t?'e 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. No; 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 accomplish that impossible mission but by checking or taking away the power with which these passions are armed for their work of evil and mischief. 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 increasing, 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 constitutional restriction, no party policy l and no statesmanship can control ; but much of it, nevertheless, from infringements of the Consti- tution, 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 department, 272 VALLANDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. was inaugurated by the Federal party ; and this led to the Litter and vehement struggle, in the very first decade of the system, between the Democratic-Republicans 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 Gov- ernment, a strict construction of the Constitution, no public debt, no protective tariff, no system of internal 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 some- times 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 purposely 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 It*? r*-roof 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 who have, for a century and a half, reduced the thing itself to a science and a system, and have made it an clement of very great strength in the British Government. Nor, sir, is this mischief, if mischief indeed it be, confined wholly to any one department of the General Government? The Federal judiciary to begin with it here and in the States, dazzles the imagination and invites the ambition of the lawyers, that not most numerous but yet most powerful class of citizens, by its superior honors, its great emolu- ments, its life-tenure, its faith in precedents, and its settled forms and ancient practice, untouched by codes and unshaken by crude and reck- less and hasty legislation. Here, in this venerable forum, where States at home and States and empires from abroad, and the Federal Govern- ment itself, are accustomed to contend for the judgment of the court, whatever there yet remains of ancient and black-letter law ; whatever of THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 18G1. 273 veneration and regard for the names and memories, and the volumes of Littleton, and Coke, and Crukc, and Plowden, and the year books; or for silk gowns, and for all else, too, that is valuable in le^al archeology, has taken refuse, and stands intrenched. All that there was of form and ceremony and dignity and decorum, in the beginning of the. Gov- ernment, is still to be found here, and only here; all but the bench and 4>ar of forty years ago the Marshall*, and the Storys, the Harpers, the Pinckneys, the Wirts, and the Websters of an age gone by. StilS, 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 importance 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 Republic, whose name and authority and majesty arc 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 punishment 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, innu- merable, 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 peculations, pensions, claims, the acquisition and government of Territories, and a long train of usurpa- tions and abuses, all tending legitimate powers and illegitimate assump- tions 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 ambition, 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 thing*, is far superior to it* Your President stands in the place of a king. There is a divinity that dotli hedge .him in ; it is the divinity of PATRONAGE. He is the god whose priests are a hundred and fifty thousand, and whose worshippers a host whom no man can number; and the sacrifices of these priests and worshippers arc literally ** a broken spirit." Sir, your President is commander-in-chicf 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, lie is A participant in the entire legislation of the Government, and it behooves -the Avkole army of speculators, 18 VALLANDIG HAM'S SPEECHES. jobbers, contractors, and claimants, to propitiate him as well as Sena- tors and Representatives, lie calls the Congress together on extra- ordinary occasions, and adjourns them in ca.se of disagreement. lie appoints and receives ambassadors and all other diplomatic rgcnts; appoints judges of the Supreme Court, ami of other judicial tribunals; cabinet ministers ; collectors of customs, and postmasters, and controls the appointment of a hundred and fifty thousand other officers, of cver^ 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" rts dettstabilis 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-election. 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 Constitu- tion 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 execu- tive office no department ha-, in other respects r.'so, so uU6i!j oui stripped the estimate of the founders of the Government, except, in- deed, of the few who, like Patrick Henry, were derided as ghost-seers and hypochondriacs. When the elder Adams was President, the great east-room of the White House where now, or lately, on gala days, are gathered the ambassadors and ministers of a hundred courts, from Mexico to Japan, and the assembled wit and fashion and beauty and distinction 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 H11 the capitol 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 THE GREAT AMEKICAX REVOLUTION OF 1861. that direction was to be tlic future Home 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 tins capitol. But he was to be kept fur the most part tram Tiberem 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 lias 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 centre 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 of the " taverns" for that was the name given them sixty years ago all clustered around this capitol, I observe that now the greatest, most nourishing, and best patronized " hotel'* has established itself within bow-shot of the White House. Sir, the power of executive gravitation has proved too strong for the f earners 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 much to the power and influ- ence 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 829,000,000, 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 : but government our government, at least would seem to abhor a plethoric treasury. There are alwavs surgeons, volunteers too, at that, if need be, of a very famous school of surgery, w|io are ready to re- 276 VALLAUTOIGHAM'S SPEECHES. sort, 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 nnd navies and the militia, is itself a tremendous power; and, from the signs around us, from all that everywhere meets the eye or falls upon the ear, at every stqp throughout this capital, I am afraid that now at length, and before the close of the last quarter of the first century of the Republic, it is about to assume a terrible significancy, 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 hungry expect- ants whose eyes arc fixed upon the Treasury, to say nothing of that other host of seekers of office, is mightier far than the commander of military legions. The gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Eiheridge) en- tertained us the other day with a glowing picture of the exodus of tho 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 fo.urth of March. Certainly, sir cer- tain 1 }' the donnrtnro of the ar^r <^fV. C V"V. //V*OT,*WI_ -oii-^ ~ r ^ well-clad .office-holders, 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. 33at 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 cettus of that practical sort of patriot- ism 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, cannot 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 in- THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1SG1. 277 tcrcoursc; no treaties, no post-office, no land-office, no great revenues to dihbnrse ; small salaries, and no patronage in short, sir, nothing to arouse ambition, or to excite avarice. The Legislatures of the States have a most valuable, but not the most dignified, field of labor. They declare no war, levy no imposts, regulate no external commerce, coin no money, establish no post-routes, oceanic or overland ;' make no land grants, emitno bills of credit of their own, publish no Glole, have no franking privilege, and their Senators and Representatives serve the State for a few hundred dollars a year. The State judiciaries, 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 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 1 must regard it has been steadily aggravated by the policy pur.-ued 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 contin- ually changing legislation, new constitutions every ten years, and what- ever 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 wan- ton 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 of which cer- tainly 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 govern- ments 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 278 VALLANDIOHAM'S SPEECHES. is the true idea of a strictly democratic form and administration of government; and 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 the 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 ask, that every thing, yes, even virtue, truth, justice, patriotism, and the Constitution itself, should be sacrificed to obtain possession of it? There is no such glittering prize to be contended for every fonr or two years anywhere throughout the whole earth ; and accordingly, from the beginning, and every year more and more, it has been the object of the highest and lowest, the purest, and the most corrupt ambition known among men. 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 orond many years parties were organized upon questions of finance or of po litical economy. Upon the subjects of a permanent public debt, a national bank, the public deposits, a protective tariff, internal improve- ments, 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 alojie. 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 primogeniture, no means of keeping up vast accumu- lations 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 THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 2*79 opponents of Democracy, known at different periods of the struggle by many different 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 de- serted it, or whom it had deserted, were obliged to resort 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 Government. And most unfortunately for the peace of the country, and for the pcrpetuitv, I fear, of the Union itself, they found the nucleus of such an organization ready fo;-ncd 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 and localized patriotism, and ANTI-SLAVERY, or love of freedom, which commonly is powerful just in proportion as it is very near coming home to one's own self, or very far oft', so that either interest, or the imagination can have full power to act. And here let me remark, that it had so happened that almost, if "not quite, from the beginning of the Government, the South, or slave- holding section of the Union partly because the people of the South are chiefly an agricultural and producing, a non-commercial and non- manufacturing people, and partly because there is no conflict, or little conflict among them between labor and capital, inasmuch as to a con- siderable extent, capital owns a large class of their laborers not of the white race ; and it may be also, because, as Mr. Burke 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 aristocracy 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 not a triumph of the Democratic 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 understood, however, as intimating that the South was ever slow to appropriate her full share of the spoils the oplma sjtolia of victory, or especially that the politicians of that great and noble old Commonwealth of Virginia God bless her were ever remarkable for the grace of self-denial in this regard not at all. But it was natural, 230 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. sir, that they who had been so many times, ami for so many years, baflled 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 pov/erful minority in the whole South, some- times 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 section- al, 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. Jeffer- son 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 ID 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 carious one; and I commend 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 Gov- ernment, 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 violence at the period of the admission of Missouri, and even then shook the Union to its foundation. And yet, how little a sectional controversy, based upon such a question, had been foreseen by the founders of the Govern-" ment, 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 night." Said he : " considered it, at once, as the death-knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment ; but this is a reprieve only, aot a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political," Sir, it is this very coincidence of geographical line with the marked principle, moral and political, of slavery, which I propose to reach and ' I THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 281 to obliterate in the only way possible ; by running other linos coinci- ding with other and less dangerous principles, none of thorn moral, and, above all, with other and conflicting interests 14 A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and po- litical, 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." .... . . . *' I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacriGee of themselves, by the generations of 1770, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, is to he thrown away by the unwise and unworthy pa.-??ions of their Boas; and that my only consolation is to be that I shall not live to weep over it." Fortunate man I lie 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 aiid 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 carnage ; or of that martial array which already has changed this once peaceful capital into a beleaguered city 1 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 dignity, and the revenues and disbursements the patronage and spoils of the Federal Government having grown to an enormous .size, was anv thing more natural than the organization, upon any basis peculiar to the stronger section of a sectional party, to secure so splendid and tempt- ing a prize 1 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 1 Unhappily, too, just about this time, 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 indorse- ment of every free State then in the Union it was proposed to cstab- 282 VALLANDIG HAM'S SPEECHES. lish over the whole territory thus acquired, as well south of 36 30' as north of tli.it latitude. The proposition, upon the other hand, to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, was rejected by the votes of almost the entire Whig party, and of a large majority, I believe, of the Democratic 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 centre, 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 afterwards, upon the bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, upon the principles of the legislation of 1850, the imprisoned winds Eurus, Notusque, creberque j)roccllis Africus were all ngain 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 con- cession to slavery, and which, some thirty years before, had consigned almost every free State Senator or Representative who supported it, to political oblivion, became now a most sacred compact, which it was sacrilege to touch. A distinguished Senator, late the Governor of O O * Ohio, who had entitled his great speech against the adjustment meas- ures of 1850, " Union and Freedom wither fQi-npromixr" now put forth his elaborate defence, four years later, of the Missouri restriction with the rubric or text, in ambitious characters, " Maintain Pliyhte Faith" But, right or wrong, wise or unwise, at the time, as t^ repeal of that restriction may have seemed, subsequent acts and event 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 anew and terrible vitality to the languishing element of. abolitionism, and which precipi- tated, at least, a crisis which, I fear, was, nevertheless, sooner or later, inevitable. 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 dis- honest, 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 new and captivating name, but very nearly upon the principles of the Buffalo THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 283 platform of that year, thus abandoning the extreme abolition senti- ments of the Liberty party, and bringing up the great majority of the "\Vhig party, and not a few of the Democratic party, also, to the Free Soil and non-slavery extension principle; and by this compromise, forming and consolidating that powerful party, which, for the first time in our history, by a mere sectional plurality in a mirority, 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 followed. But the DREAD SECRET once disclosed, that the immense powers and revenues and honors and spoils of this great and mighty republic may be easily won, by a mere sectional majority, upon a popular sectional issue, will never die ; and new aggressions and neV 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 amend- ment of the gentleman from Massachusetts (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 consolidated 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 fundamental 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 re- garded in the North, added to the still more enduring, persistent, and prudent passion of ambition, of thirst for power and place, for the hon- ors and emoluments of such a government as ours, with its half a mil- lion of dependents and expectants, and its eighty millions of revenues and disbursements, all, all to be secured by the Aladdin's lamp of a sec- tional majority, cannot 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 moderate of the people of the border slave States, and certainly without it there is not the slightest hope of the 284 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. return of the States upon the Gulf, and thus of a restoration of the Union as it existed but three month* ago. The statesmen and the people of all these States well know, also, that, bv the civil law of every country, among individuals, and by the law of nations, as be- tween sovereign and foreign States, the power to aggress, along with the threat and the preparation to aggress, is a good cause why an indi- vidual 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 proclaim now, not, indeed, as pres- ent doctrines or purposes of the Republican party, but as solemn ab- stract truths, as fixed, existing facts, that there is a, " higher law" tha;i the Constitution, and an "irrepressible conflict" of principle and inter- est, between the dominant 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 in- coming 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, adequate 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, tjiat some of these States have even gone so far as to throw off wholly the authority of the Federal Government, and withdraw 7 them- selves 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 cannot secede. Seven States have seceded ; they now refuse any longer to recognize the authority of this govern- THE GTIEAT AMEKICAN EEVOLUTIOX. 285 ment, and already have entered into a new confederacy, and set up a provisional government of their own. In three months their agents and commissioners will return from Europe with the recognition of Great Britain and France, and of the other great powers of the conti- nent. Other States at home are preparing to unite with this new con- federacy, if you do not grant to them their just and equitable demands. The question is no longer one of the 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 Committee of Thirty -three" debated and deliberated to gain time yes, to gain time for that was the insane and most unstatesraanlike cry in the beginning of the session, star after star shot madly "rom 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 missing 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 control 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 dismemberment 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? ^Vhy cannot this controversy be adjusted ? Has, indeed, the union of these States received the immedicable wound? I do not be- lieve 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 cer- tainly, 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 weakness. 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 institu- tions 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 prosperous, and more secure than any government on the globe. 286 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. Sir, no man had, for a longer time, or with a more inexorable firm- ness, opposed Catholic emancipation 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 conqueror at Waterloo, one of the greatest military commanders 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 memo- rable debate he spoke words of wisdom, moderation, and true cour- age, 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 : . '* "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 familiarity with Ecenes 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 havo seen, with the unutterable horrors of civil war, I would run any risk I would make any sacrifice I would freely lay doicn my life, Therd is nothing which destroys property and prosperity, and demoralizes character, to the extent which civil war docs. By it the hand of mnn is raised agp.ir!t his nc'ghbnr. nrpir^t 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 ice 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." , 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 existence 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 ri.sk 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 Parlia- THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 287 mcnt was dissolved, while each House was still in hijjh 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 Wel- lington, the Duke of Cumberland, and other noblemen were assaulted in the streets, and their houses broken into and mobbed ; when Lon- don 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, ami 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 Constitution 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 Chan- cellor, 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 havo forgotten, the lessons which our fathers taught them. Sir, it will be the opprobrium of American statesmanship forever, that this contro- versy of ours shall be permitted to end in final and perpetual dismem- berment 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 tempta- tion 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 Con- stitution 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, 288 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. every way, with debt, credit, moneyed influences, and jobs, and schemes of every sort, the longer peace can be maintained ; and the more the number of the employes and dependents on Government can be reduced, the less will be the patronage and the corruption of the system, and the less, therefore, the motive to sacrifice truth and justice, and to overleap the Constitution to secure the control of it. In other words, the more you diminish temptation, the more you will deliver ns from the evil. But I pass this point by without further remark, inasmuch as nono of the plans of adjustment proposed either here or in the Senate 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 pur- pose, 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 follow where others may lead. I shall vote for the amendment of the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Adams) though it does not go far enough- because it 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 comprehensive guaran- tee 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 preserv- ing 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. THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 18C1. 289 I shall vote to try tli c Crittcriden propositions, because, also, I believe that they are perhaps the least which even the more moderate of the slave States would, under any circu instances, 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 bo, the propositions of the Border State Committee, or of the Peace Congress; or any other fair, honor- able, 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 \\\*rf\\ one particular only proposes to give to the minority section any veto or self-protect- ing power against those aggressions, the temptation to which, and the danger from which, are the very ca'tise or reason for the demand for anv 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 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, aud 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 yourselves 19 290 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. nothing by these new guarantees. If you do mean to ngjrrcss, 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 mi- nority. Adeo 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 Femoral TTnion b<%f\v^n them. However sufficient any of these plans of adjustment might have been one year ago, or even in December last, when .proposed, 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 seces- sion ; 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 be- tween 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 within their limits. If fifteen slave States cannot 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 G-eor- THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 291 i gin back? And here let me 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, exccpted ; and that if the people of those States can be assured that they shall have the power to protect themselves, by their own action, within the Union y 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 per- sistent and obstinate refusal to enable them to guard against it, have de- livered the people of those States over into the hands, and under the con- trol, of the real secessionists 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 dan- ger, and common safety ; the recollections of the past, and of associa- tions 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 statesjnen and heroes of the dark days of the Revolution, will fill their souls yet again with de- sires and yearnings intense for the glories, the honors, and 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 re- joicing, 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 in- consistent 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 arc 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 fur to recognize the existence of sections as a fixed 292 VALLABDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. fact, which, lamentable as it is, can no longer be denied or suppressed ; but, for the reasons I have already stated, I propose to establish 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, cither by constitutional enactment, or by common consent, as hitherto, which, in my deliberate judgment and deepest conviction, it concerns the peace and stability of the Union, should be forever hereafter ig- nored. Till then, there cannot 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 stead- ily increasing majority, and enormously disproportion ed weight and in- fluence in the government; thus combining that which never can bo 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. Jef- ferson, in 1820; but the coincidence of that line with the marked principle, moral anJ political, of slavery. And no.,, L*r, to rcmu-.o this very mischief, which he predicted, and which has already happen- ed, it is essential tliat 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- not 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 concurrence of a majority of the Senators of each section in tV, 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 per- fectly consistent with the principles of the Constitution, as shown in the division of the legislative department into the two Houses of Con- gress ; 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 to the Constitution ; but especially in the equal representation and suffrage of each State in the Senate, whereby THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 293 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 framcrs of the Consti- tution, this peculiar, and, apparently, inequitable provision, why shall not the protection, by a similar power of veto, of the smaller and weaker sections against the aggressions of the larger and stronger sec- tions, not be now allowed, 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 sec- tions against the weak, they would have guarded jealously against that mischief, just as they did against the danger, to which they mistakenly believed the government 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 rights 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 Seriate; but necessity requires it, secession demands it, just as twice, in the history of the Roman Commonwealth, secession demand- ed, and received the power of the tribunitian veto, as .the price of a restoration of the Republic. The secession to the Sacred Mount se- cured, 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 1 have already spoken. And, indeed, the present revo- lutionary movements are the result of the apprehension of executive 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 protection and guarantee against sectional combinations and majorities, to secure the election of the President, and to control him when elected. 1 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-President ; and lest, by reason of this increased 204 VALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. complexity, there may be a failure of choice oftoncr than heretofore, 1 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 patron- age of the Federal Government ; and, if not to suppress totally, at least very greatly to diminish the evil results of national caucuses, con- ventions, and other similar party appliances. It will no longer be pos- sible to elect a President by the votes of a mere dominant and major- ity section. Sectional issues must cease, as the basis, at least, 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 country- men, 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 re- sult 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 was the objecticr., in *\; bc-^I'.ii/iug, to ilio wuolo Federal system, and to almost every part of it. It is the argument of the French Republicans against the division of the legislative depart- ment 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 legislation for a time, I an- swer the world is governed too much. If it cause delay, sometimes, in both legislation and the choice of President, 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 alliance-:, offensive and defensive, from henceforth forever. To the South I say : If you are afraid of free State aggressions bv Congress or the Executive, here is abundant protection for even the most timid. To the Republican party of the Xorth and West I say : If you really tremble, as, for years past you would have had us believe, over that terrible, but somewhat myth- ical monster the SLAVE POWER here, too, is the utmost security for you against the possibility of its aggressions. And, from first to last, allow me to say that, being wholly negative in its provisions, this plau THE GREAT AMERICAN EEVOLTJTION OF 18GK 295 can only prevent evil, and not work any positive evil itself. It is a shield for defence, not a sword for aggression. In one word, let me add, that the whole purpose and idea of this plan of adjustment, which I propose, is to give to the several sections imide of the Union that power of self-protection which they are resolved, or will some day or other be resolved, to secure for themselves outs/de of the Union. I propose further, sir, that neither Congress nor a Territorial Legisla- ture, 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 anv rights, of either per- son or property, in these Territories ; and, finally, that new States, either when annexed, or when formed out of any of the Territories, with the consent of Congress, shall he 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 cannot you accept it? The Federal Government has never yet, in any way, aggressed upon your rights. Hitherto, indeed, it has been in your own, or at least in friendly hands. You only fear, being in the minority, that it will ag- gress, 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 cannot 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 30', 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 30 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 section of the South. How- ever 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 Fede- ral Government shall not be used aggressively to prohibit the extension of slavery ; if she does not desire to use it herself, upon the other hand, positively to extend the institution, then she may well be satis- fied ; and if you of the Republican party do not really mean to aggress 296 VALLANDIGH Ail's SPEECHES. 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 satis- fied to allow it to take its natural course, according to the laws of in- terest 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 doctrines 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 dissolution of the Republican party, as a mere sectional and ami-slavery organization ; and this, too, will, in my judgment, be equally the result, whether we compromise at all, and the Union be thus re- stored, 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 de- stroyers 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, reor- ganize and nationalize your party, and keep the government 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 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 protect 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 ab- straction, has now become a practical question of tremendous import. As long, sir, as secession remained an untried and only menaced exper- iment, that confidence, without which no government 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 ingloii- ously fail. The popular faith, cherished for years, has been that the Union could not be dissolved. To that faith the Republican 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 affliction, 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 estab- lished. Sir, the experiment may readily be repeated it will be re- THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 297 peated. And is it not madness and folly, then, to call back, by adjust- mcnt, tbe 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? Gan for- eign nations have any confidence, hereafter, in the stability of a gov- ernment which may so readily, speedily, and quietly be dissolved ? Can we have any confidence among ourselves ? If it be said that it would have 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, 1 propose only to define and restrain, and to regulate this alleged right. But I deny that, if a particular mode of secession 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 sepa- rate 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 secession a doctrine recognized by few in the free States, but held to by a groat many, if not very gen- erally, all over the slave States which made secession so easy. It is hard to bring any considerable number 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 7 them into any act which seems to be only the exercise of one right for the purpose of se- curing and preserving the higher rights of life, liberty, person, and property for a whole State, or a whole section. Sir, it is because of this very idea or notion among the people of the Gulf States, that they were exercising a right reserved under the Constitution, that secession there, and the establishment of a new confederacy and provisional gov- ernment, have been marked by so much rapidity, order, and 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 characterized tbe progress of other revolutions. I would not prohibit totally the ri<^ht 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 cannot be resisted by the established authorities, except at the cost of civil war; while, if submitted to in silence, they tend to demoralize all government. It is of vital impor- tance, therefore, every way, in my judgment, that the exercise of this 208 VALLANDIGUAM'S SPEECHES. certainly ^wasi-revolutionary right should be defined, limited, and re- strained ; and, accordingly, I propose 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 preserva- tion of the Union which our fathers made. Like all human contri- vances, certainly, it is imperfect, and subject to objection. But some- thing searching, radical, extreme, going to the very foundations of government, and reaching the seat of the malady, must be done, and that right speedily, while the fracture is yet fresh and reunion is pos- sible. 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 sirup is of any value to ar- rest that revolution, in the midst of which we are to-day a revolution the grandest and the saddest of modern times. The following are the amendments to the Constitution, proposed by Mr. VALLANDIGIIAM, on the 7th of February, 1861, to the support of which the foregoing speech is devoted : JOINT RESOLUTION. WHEREAS the Constitution of the United States is a grant of specific powers, delegated to the Federal Government by the people of the several States, all pow- ers not delegated to it, nor prohibited to the States, being reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people; and whereas it is the tendency of stronger govern- ments to enlarge their powers and jurisdiction at the expense of weaker govern- ments, and of majorities to usurp and abuse power, and oppress minorities, to ar- rest and hold in cheek 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 protec- tion, 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 amend- ing the Constitution, not to enumerate other examples ; and whereas, unhappily, because of the vast extent and diversified interests and institutions of the several THE GREAT AMERICAN DEVOLUTION OF 1861. 299 States of the Union, sectional divisions can no longer bo suppressed; and whereas it concerns the peace and stability of the Federal Union and Government, that a division of the States into more slaveholding and non-slaveholdiug sections, caus- ing, hitherto and from tbe nature and necessity of the case inflammatory and disastrous controversies, upon the subject of shivery, ending, already, in present disruption of the Union should bo 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 bo strong enough to op- press or control the others, and each be vested with the power to protect itself from aggressions ; Therefore, Iti'jolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Amer- ica, in Congress assembled (two-thirds of both Houses concurring), That the fol- lowing Articles be, and are 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 tho several States: ARTICLE XIII. SEC. 1. The United States are divided into four sections, as follows: Tho States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and all new States an- nexed and admitted into the Union, or formed or erected within tho jurisdiction of any of said States, or by the junction of two or more of the same, or of parts. there- of, or out of territory acquired north of said States, shall constitute one section, to bo known as the NORTH. The States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas, and all new States annexed or admitted into the Union, or erected within the jurisdiction of airy 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 3G 30', and east of the crest of the Rocky Mountains, shall con- stitute another section, to be known as tho WEST. The States 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 section, to bo 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 and admitted into the Union, or formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any of said States, or by the junc- tion of two or more of the same, or of parts thereof, or out of territory acquired east of the Rio Grande, and south of latitude 3G' 30', shall constitute another section, to bo known as the SOUTH. SEC. 2. On demand of one-third of the Senators of any ono of the sections, on any bill, order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of tho^ House of Rep- resentatives may bo necessary, except on a question of adjournment, a voto shall. bo had by sections, and a majority of the Senators from each section voting, shall be necessary to the passage of such bill, order, or resolution, and to the validity of every such vote. 300 VALLAKDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. SEC. 3. Two of the electors for President and Vice-President shall be appointed by each Stato, 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 tho regular decennial period, have been divided, by the electors of each district, having the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the Stato Le- gislature. 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-Presideut; 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 Vico-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, de- claring what officer shall then act as President; and such officer shall act accord- ingly until a President shall be elected. The Congress shall also provide by law for a special election for President and Vice-President 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 Constituiiuu for regular eleclkms of llie same ofticer, except that ii ilio liou^o 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 sir years from the fourth day of March preceding such election. ARTICLB 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 the States within cither of the other sections to the Territories of the United States : nor shall either the Con- gress or a Territorial Legislature have power to destroy or -impair any rights of either person or property in the Territories. THE GREAT AMERICAN REVOLUTION OF 1861. 3d Now States annexed for admission into the Union, or formed or ero -l-'u 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 tho Congress, out of any terri- tory of the United States, shall be entitled to admission upon au equal footing with tho original States, under any constitution establishing ts government, repub- lican in form, which the people thereof may ordain, whenever such States, if formed out of any territory of the United States, shall contain, within au area of not less than sixty thousand square miles, a population equal to the then existing ratio of representation, for one member of tho llouse of Representatives. A card, from which the following is extracted, was published by Mr. Yallandigham in the Cincinnati Enquirer, on the 10th of Novem- ber, 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 'tire-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, 18GO that, 4 if an'y 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, / never would, as a Representative in the Con- gress of the United States, vole one dollar of money, whereby one drop of American blood should be shed i 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, no 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, cf courage, of will unconquerable, and, when set on fire by passion, the most belligerent and most ferocious on the globe M civil war, full of horrors, which no imagination can conceive and no pen portray. If Abraham Lincoln is wise, looking truth and danger full in the face, he will lake counsel of the 4 old men/ the moderates of his party, and advise peace, negotiation, concession; but if, like the foolish son of a wise king, lie reject these wholesome counsels, and hearken only to the madmen- who threaten chastisement with scorpions, 302 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. let him see to it, lest it be recorded at last that none remained to 'serve him, 'save the house of Judnh 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 proposi- tion, Mr. Vallandigham explained and defended it, in a card to the Cincinnati Enquirer, dated February 14, 1861, as follows: "My proposition looks solely to (he restoration and maintenance of the Union forever, by suggesting a mode of voting in the United States Senate, and the electoral colleges, by which the causes which have led to our present troubles may, in the future, be guarded against icithout secession and disunion j and, also, the agitation of the slavery question, as an element in our national politics, be for ever hereafter arrested. My object the sole motive by which I have been guided, from the begin- ning of this most fatal revolution is to MAINTAIN THE UNION, and not destroy it. When all possible hope is gone, and the Union irre- trievably broken, then, but not till then, I will be for a Western con- federacy." Referring to a statement in a leading Abolition paper, Mr. VALLAN- DIGHAM, in a communication to the Cincinnati Enquirer, under date of Washington, D. C., December 18, 1862, said: u Now, Mr. Vallandigham 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 so far as to name the probable capitals of three of those * nationalities.' My proposition, on the contrary, was to maintain the existing Union, or * nationality' forever, bv dividing or arranging the States into sections * v O O O within the Union, under the Constitution, for the purpose of voting in the Senate and electoral colleges." LETTER TO R. H. HENDRICKSON, AND OTHERS, OF MIDDLETOWff, OHIO. DAYTON, May 13, 1861. GENTLEMEN : Yours of the 9th instant, requesting ray opinion upon certain points, connected with what you justly style the present " in- glorious, and it may be, bloody war," has been received. That opinion was long since formed, and was repeatedly set forth through the press, or by speech and vote in the House of Representative?, last winter, and reaffirmed in a card, dated on the 17th of last month, a few days after "WAR IS DJSUXIOX. 303 the commencement of the war.* But inasmuch as I never had occa- sion to discuss this particular question at length, I beg leave to adopt the following admirable summary of the case, in an extract from a carefullv-prepared and exceedingly able speech of the lion. Stephen A. Douglas, in the Senate of the United States, March loth, 1SG1 : 44 1 prefer such an amicable settlement to peaceable disunion , and I prefer it a thousand times to civil war. If we can adopt such amend- ments as will be satisfactory to Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and the other border States, the plan of pacification which will satisfy them, will create a Union party in the Cotton States, which will soon embrace a large majority of the people in those Scates, and bring them back of their own free will and accord ; and thus restore, strengthen, and perpetuate the glorious old Union forever. I repeat, whatever guarantees will satisfy Maryland and the border States (the States now in the Union), will create a Union party in the seceded States, that will bring them back by the voluntary action of their own people. You can restore and preserve the government in that mode. You can do it in no other. " War is disunion, War is final, eternal separation. Hence, disguise it as you may, every Union man in America must advocate such amendments to the Constitution as will preserve peace and restore the Union ; while every disunionist, whether openly or secretly plotting its destruction, is the advocate of peaceful secession, or of war, as the surest means of rendering reunion and reconstruction impossible. I have too much respect for his intellect to believe, for one moment, that there is a man for war who is not a disunionist p n r se. Hence I do not mean, if I can prevent it, that the enemies of the Union men plotting to destroy it shall drag this country into war, under the pretext of protecting the public property, and enforcing the laws, and collecting revenue, when their object is disunion, and war the means of accom- plishing a cherished purpose. "The disunionists, therefore, are divided into two classes: the one open, the other secret disunionists. The one is in favor of peaceful secession, and a recoo-nition of independence ; the other is in favor of war, as the surest means of accomplishing the object, and making the separation final and eternal. I am a Union man, and hence against war; but if the Union must be temporarily broken by a revolution, and the establishment of a de facto government by some of the States, let no act be done that will prevent restoration and future preservation. Peace is the only policy that can lead to that result. " But we are told, and we hear it repeated everywhere, that we must * See Supplement, post, page 654. 304 V ALL ASDIC HAMS SPEECHES. find out whether wo have got a government. ' Have we a govern- ment ?* is the question, and we are told we must test that question by using the military power to put down all discontented spirits. Sir, .this question, 'Have we a government ?' has l>een propounded by every tyrant who has tried to keep his feet on the necks of the people, since the world began. When the barons demanded Matyna Charta from King John, at Rnnnymedc, he exclaimed, * Have we a govern- ment?' and called for his army to put down the discontented barons. When Charles I. attempted to collect the ship-money, in disregard of, the rights of the people, and was resisted by them, he exclaimed, * Have we a government? We cannot treat with rebels; put down the traitors; we must show that we have a government.' When James II. was driven from the throne of England, for trampling on the liberties of the people, he called for his army, and exclaimed, ' Let us show that we have a government!' When George III. called upon his army to put down the rebellion in America, Lord North cried lustily, *Xo compromise with traitors; let us demonstrate that we have a government.' When, in 1848, the people rose upon their tyrants all over Europe, and demanded guarantees for their rights, every crowned head exclaimed, ' Have we a government?' and appealed to the army to vindicate their authority, and enforce the law. "Sir, the history of the world does not fail to condemn the folly > weakness, and wickedness of that government which draws its sword upon its own people, when they demanded guarantees for their rights. This cry, that we must have a government, is merely following the ex- ample of the besotted Bourbons, who never learned any thing by mis- fortune, never forgave an injury, never forgot an affront. Must we de- monstrate thSt we have got a government, and coerce obedience without reference to the justice or injustice of the complaints? Sir, whenerer ten millions of people proclaim to you. with one unanimous voice, that they apprehend their rights, their firesides, and their family altars, are in danger, it becomes a wise government to listen to the appeal, and to remove the apprehension. History does not, record an example where any human government has been strong enough to crush ten millions of people into subjection, when they believed their rights and liberties were imperiled, without first converting the government itself into a despotism, and destroying the last vestige of freedom/' These were the sentiments of the Democratic party, of the Constitu tional Union party, and of a large majority of the Republican presses . and party, only six weeks ago. They are mine. I voted them repeat- edly, along with every Democrat and "Union man in the House. I have seen nothing to change, and much to confirm them since ; espe- cially in the secession, within the last thirty days, of Virginia, Arkan- WAE IS DISUNION. 305 sas, North Carolina, and Tennessee, taking with them four millions and a' half of people, immense wealth, inexhaustible resources, five hundred thousand fighting men, and the grave of Washington and Jackson. I shall vote them again. Waiving the question of the doubtful legality of the first proclama- tion of April loth, calling on the. militia for "three months," under the act of 1795, I will yet vote to pay them, because they had no mo- tive hut supposed duty, and patriotism, to move them ; and, moreover, they will have rendered almost the entire service required of them, be- fore Congress shall meet. But the audacious usurpation of President Lincoln, for which he deserves impeachment, in daring, against the very letter of the Constitution, and without a shadow of law, to u raise and support armies," and to "provide and maintain a navy," for three or five years, by mere executive proclamation, I will not v*ote to sustain or ratify never. Millions for defense : not a dollar or a man for aggres- sive and offensive civil war. The war has had many motives for its commencement ; it can have but one result, whether it last one year or fifty years final, eternal separation disunion. As for the conquest and subjugation of the South, I will not impeach the intelligence of any man among you, by assuming that you dream of it as at any time or in any way possible. Remember the warning of Lord Chatham to the British Parliament : "My Lords, you cannot conquer America." A public debt of hun- dreds of millions, weighing us and our posterity down for generations, we cannot escape. Fortunate shall we be if we escape with our liber- ties. Indeed, it is no longer so much a question of war with the South, as whether we ourselves are to have constitutions and a republican form of government hereafter in the North and West. In brief: I am for the Constitution first, and at all hazards- for whatever can now be saved of the Union next ; and for Peace always, as essential to the preservation of either. But whatever any one may think of the war, one thing, at least, every lover of liberty ought to demand inexorably : that it shall be carried on strictly subject to the Constitution. The peace policy was tried : it arrested secession, and promised a restoration of the Union. The policy of war is now upon trial : in twenty days it has driven four States and four millions and a half of people- out of the Union, and into the Confederacy of the South. In a little while longer it will drive out, also, two or four more States, and two millions or three millions of people. Wa: may, indeed, be the policy of the East; but peace is a necessity to the West. I would have volunteered nothing, gentlemen, at this time, in re- gard to this civil war; but, as constituents, you had a right to know 20 306 VALLANDIGHAll 3 SPEECHES. my opinions and position ; and briefly, but most frankly, you have them. My only answer to those who indulge in slander and vituperation, was given in the card of the 17th of April, herewith inclosed.* EXECUTIVE USURPATION, Speech delivered in the Ha&se of Representatives, July 10, 1861.f 11 After some time be past" , THE House was in Committee of the Whole, the subject under con- sideration, The State of the Union, when Mr. Vallandigham, obtaining 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 tho press." And, it is yet further written, in protection of ^Senators and Repre- * See Supplement, page 554. f This speech was delivered soon after tho 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 defence 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, de- clared 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 overwhelming majority upon the other side, Mr. Val landigham, 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 Las now been, by tho light of two years' experience. Some three hundred thousand copies of the speech, in various forms, were published and circulated in the United States. Ik was published, also, in England and on the Continent. EXECUTIVE USUKPATION. 307 sentatives, in that freedom of debate here, without which there can bo no liberty, that "For any speech or debate in cither 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 pro- pose to myself to-day, the ancient freedom of speech used within these walls, though with somewhat more, I trust, of decency and discretion, 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 reso- lutions and motions which I may submit. But there are many ques- tions incident to the war, and to its prosecution, about which I have somewhat to say 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 Revo- lution, in 1783, and four times as much as the total expenditures 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 President's de- mand ; 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 privi- leges, 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 308 VALLATOIGHAM'S SPEECHES. 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 prdscnt State of the Union, and supply, also, some few of the many omissions of the President in the message before us. Sir, he has undertaken to give us information of the state of the Union, as the Constitution re- quires him to do ; and it was his duty, as an honest Executive, to make that information full, impartial, and complete, instead of spread- ing 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 that, to-day, we are in the midst of a general civil war, not now a mere petty insurrection, to be suppressed in twenty days, by a proclamation and & 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 char- acter of the Revolution with which he had to deal, or surely he never would have ventured upon the wicked and hazardous experiment of call- ing thirty millions of people to arms among themselves, without the counsel and authority of Congress. But when, at last, he found him- self hemmed in by the revolution, and this city in danger, as he de- clares, and waked up thus, as the proclamation of ttie loth ot April proves him to have waked up, to the reality and significance of the movement, why did he not forthwith assemble Congress, and throw him- self 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 emphatically refused to exer- cise, 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. He 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 Uuioii. He EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 309 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 t.he time of the Missouri controversy, with some short in- tervals, down to the present hour. Sir, if his statement 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 ob- tained control of every free State in the Union, and elected himself, through 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 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 "ir- 310 VALLAOTHGHAM'S SPEECHES. rcpressible conflict" between the two sections of this Union ; that the Union could not endure part slave ami part free ; and that the whole power and influence of the Federal Government must henceforth be exerted to circumscribe and hem in slavery within its existing limits. And now, sir, how comes it that the President has forgotten to re- mind 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 "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 tremendous power and patronage and influence of the Federal Government, 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 adjust- ment and compromise, except that offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kellogg), 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 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), now 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 rirst hour of his manhood to the Union of these States ; and who, 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. Ethcridge), 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 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 311 Republican party in the Senate and the House. The Crittenden propositions, with which Mr. Davis, now President of the Confederate 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 Pennsylvania (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 laVvs, 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 some 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 Lin- coln 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 Northwest but with the forked tongue and crooked counsel of the New York politician, lewing thirty millions of people in doubt whether it meant peace or war. But, whatever may have been 312 VALLA:NT>IGIIA3t's SPEECHES. 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 spirit- less and harmless; secession in the future was arrested, and perished. By overwhelming majorities, Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri all declared for 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 de- termination, had resolved against all conciliation' and compromise. But, on the other hand, the whole Democratic party, and 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 do\ ii, ;.t llu f... !,!!,. .... 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 Sumter, 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 cannot pass by. And the first of these was PARTY NECESSITY, or the clamor of politicians, 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 Connecti- cut, 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 EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 313 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 conclave 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. And thus it was, sir, that the necessities of a party in the pangs of dissolution, in the very hour 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 ij before the peace and harmony and prosperity of the whole country. 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 "TfiE MORHILL TARIFF." Just about the same time, too, the' Confederate Congress, at Montgomery, 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 inexo- rable. Trade and commerce and especially the trade and 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 threat- ened 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. Threatened 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. The subjugation of the South ay, sir, the subjugation of the South ! I am not talking to children or fools; for there is not a man in this House fit to be a Representative here, who does not know that the South cannot be forced to yield obedience to 314 VALLA>TDIGIIAM'3 SPEECHES. 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 afterwards, by tariff-laws, in peace was de- liberately resolved upon by the East. And, sir, when once this policy was begun, these self-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 worshippers 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 "iusur- rection," as it was called, might be crushed out in a few weeks, if not by the display, certainly, at least, by the presence of an overwhelm- ing 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 for the act, it is certain that there was a change in the policy which the Adminis- tration meant to adopt, or which, at least, they led the country to be- lieve they intended to pursue. I will not venture, now, to assert, what may yet, some (lav, be made to appear, that the subsequent acts of the Administration, and its enormous and persistent infractions of the Con- stitution, its high-handed 'usurpations of power, formed any part of a deliberate conspiracy to overthrow the present form of Federal-republi- can 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, be- lieving 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, and, above all, in that exceedingly happy and original conceit of commanding the insurgent States to " disperse in twenty days," would not, on the one hand, precipitate a crisis ; while, upon th * 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 comilatus of three-months' militia. It may be, indeed, that, with wicked and most desperate cunning, the President meant all this as a mere entering-wedge to that which was to rive the oak asunder; or, possibly, as a test, to learn the public sentiment of EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 315 the North and AYcst. But however that may be, the rapid secession and movements of Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee, taking with them, as 1 have said elsewhere, four millions and a half of people, immense wealth, inexhaustible resources, five hundred thousand fighting men, and the graves of \Vashington and Jackson, and bringing up, too, in one single day, the frontier from the Gulf to the Ohio and the Potomac, together with the abandonment, by the one side, and the occupation, by the other, of Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk navy-yard ; and the tierce gust and whirlwind of passion in the North, compelled either a sudden waking-up of the President and his advisers to the frightful signih'cancy of the act which they had committed, in heedless- ly breaking the vase which imprisoned the slumbering derno : of civil >var, 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 Representative, that every principal act of the Administration since has been a glaring usurpation of power, and a palpable and dangerous vio- lation of that very Constitution which this civil war is professedly waged to support. Sir, 1 pass by the proclamation of the loth of April, sum- moning 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 oil' summoning, I say, the militia to sup- press 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 17 95, 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 assem- bling of Congress, were amply suflicieut 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 Administration might well have been postponed, and ought to have been postponed, until the meeting of Congress ; or, if the exigencies of the occasion demanded it^ Cougress should forthwith have beeu 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 Con- stitution should be repeatedly and flagrantly violated, and public liberty and private right trampled under foot. As for Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk navy-yard, they rather needed protection against the Ad- 316 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. ministration, 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 delib- erations. The representatives of the States and of the people were not allowed the slightest voice in this, the most momentous question ever presented to any government. The entire responsibility of the whole work was at once 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 cannot be exercised until war has been declared or recognized; and Congress alone can declare or recognize war. But Congress had not declared or recognized war. On the contrary, they had, but a little while before, expressly refused to declare it, or to arm the President with the power to make it. And thus the 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 den! with these Strips 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 preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another." Sir, 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 fleet to Charleston and blockade the port. But the bare suggestion called forth the indignant protest of Daniel Webster, himself the archenemy of nullification, and whose highest honors were won in the three years' conflict in the Senate Chamber, with its ablest champions. In an ad- dress, in October, 1832, at Worcester, Massachusetts, to a National Republican convention it was before the birth, or christening at least ? of the Whig party the great expounder of the Constitution said : EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 317 ""We nre told, sir, that the President will immediately employ the military force, and at once blockade Charleston. A military remedy a remedy by direct belli- gerent operation, lias 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. We cannot be altogether unmindful of the pa^t, and, therefore, we cannot be altogether unapprehensive for the future. For one, 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 pretence of putting down nullification. 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 the other end of the avenue, and the mimic Jacksons around him, do blockade, not only Charleston harbor, but the whole Southern coast, three thousand miles in extent, by a single stroke of the pen. " The President hns 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 Merryman case, forsooth ; but I shall recur to that here- after : "His duty is, if the laws be resisted, to employ the military force of the country, if necessary, for their support and execution ; but to do all this in compliance only with law and with decisions of the tribunate. If, by any ingenious devices, those who resist^ the laws escape from the reach of judicial authority, as it is now pro- vided to be exercised, it is entirely competent to Congress to make such new pro- visions as tho exigency of the case may demand." , Treason, sir, rank treason, all this to-day. And yet, thirty years ago, it was true Union patriotism and sound constitutional law ! Sir, I prefer the wisdom and stern fidelity to principle of the fathers. Such was the voice of Webster, and such, too, let me add, the voice, in his last great speech in the Seriate, 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 r but expressly provides that "Congress (not the President) shall have power to raise and support armies; 1 ' and to "provide and maintain a navy." In pur- 318 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. suance of this authority, Congress, years ago, had fixed the number of officers and of the regiments, of the different kinds of service ; and also, the number of ships, officers, marines, and seamen which should com- pose the navy. Not only that, but Congress has repeatedly, 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 authority, 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 services of, forty regiments of volun- teers 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 Constitution, and of his oath of office, of eighty- five thousand soldiers 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 cnro pot orly t^ c'lliiL the iiioi., ui^re assumed the ri^ht to sus- pend it. And, sir, that other pretence of necessity, I repeat, cannot be allowed. It had no existence in fact. The Constitution cannot be preserved by violating it. It is an offence to the intelligence of this Ilouse, and of the country, to pretend that all this, and the other gross and multiplied infractions of the Constitution and usurpations of power were done by the President and his advisers out of pure love and devo- tion to the Constitution. But if so, sir, then they have but one step further to take, and declare, in the language of Sir Boyle Iloche, in the Irish Ilouse 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 prcsc.rvc the remainder. And yet, if indeed this pretext of necessity be well founded, then let me say, thrtt a cause which demands the sacrifice of the Constitution atid of the dearest se- curities of property, liberty, and life, cannot be just ; certainly it is not worth the sacrifice. Sir, I am obliged to pass by, for want of time, other grave and dan- gerous 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, repeated- ly, in one or more of the States, of the right of the people to keep and to bear arms for their defence. But if all these things, I ask, have been done in the first two months after the commencement of this Avar, 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 and rights of the States and the people, and of their representatives, have been usurped; the sanctity of the private house and of private property lias been invaded ; and the liberty of the person wantonly and wickedly stricken down ; free speech, too, lias been repeatedly denied ; ?nd all this under the plea of necessity. Sir, the right of petition will follow next 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 reli- 21 322 YALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. gion 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 faith- less or fanatical clergy. Meantime national banks, bankrupt laws, a vast and permanent public debt, high tariffs, heavy direct taxation, enor- mous expenditure, gigantic and stupendous peculation, anarchy first, and a strong government afterwards no more State lines, no more State governments, but a consolidated monarchy or vast centralized mil- itary despotism must all follow in the history of the future, as in tho history of the past they have, centuries ago, been written. Sir, I have said nothing, and have time to say nothing now, of the immense indebt- edness 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 frands which have disgraced it in the State governments and the Federal Government from the beginning. The avenging hour 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; where 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. T am for peace, speedy, immediate, honorable PEACE, with all its blessings. Others may have changed I have 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 offence, and the approving judgment which shall fol- low "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 liberties, nor to surrender his own Constitutional rights in the vain effort to impose these lights and liberties upon ten millions of unwilling people. I have spoken earnestly, too, but yet not as one unmindful 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, I860, just seven months ago, the Senate was composed of sixty-six Senators, represent- ing the thirty-three States of the Union, and this House of two hundred and thirty -seven members every State being present. It was a grand and solemn spectacle the ambassadors of three-and-thirty sovereign- ties and thirty-one millions of people, the mightiest republic on earth, EXECUTIVE USURPATION. 323 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 destined 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 hundred 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 mould 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 birth-place of Clay, the mother of States and of Presidents ; the Carolina* of Pinckney and Sninter 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 DO longer here. The voices and 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 ]awns, and upon the broad avenues of this spacious city, seventy thousand soldiers have supplied their places; aud the morning drum-beat from a score of encampments, within sight of this beleaguered capitol, gives melancholy warning to the Represent- atives 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 I dare the present generation will demand to know the cause of all this ; and, some ages hereafter, the grand and impartial tribunal of history will make solemn and diligent inquest of the authors of this terrible revolution. \ ADDENDUM. In reply to a question by Mr. HOLM AN, of Indiana, in regard to sup- 324 VALLAIKDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. porting the Government, Mr. YALLANDIGIIAM said lie would answer in the words of the following resolution, which he had prepared, and pro- posed to oftor at a future time: Resolved, That the Federal Government is the agent of the people of the several States comprising the Union; that it consists of three dis- tinct departments the legislative, the executive, and the judicial each equally a part of the Government, and equally entitled to the con- fidence and support of the States and the people ; and that it is the duty of every patriot to sustain the several departments of the Govern- ment in the exercise of all the Constitutional powers of each which may be necessary and proper for the preservation of the Government in its principles and in its vigor and integrity, and to stand by and defend to the utmost the flag which represents the Government, the Union, and the country. REMARKS, ON HIS PROPOSITION TO APPOINT COMMISSIONERS TO ACCOMPANY THE ARMY. Li the House of Eepre&ehialives, July 12, 1SC1. THE Army Bill being under consideration, Mr. VALLANDIOHAM offered the following proviso : "Provided, further, That before the President shall have the right to call out any more volunteers than are already in the service, lie shall appoint seven commissioners, whose mission shall be to accompany the Army on its march, to receive and consider such propositions, if any, as may at any time be submitted from the Executive of the so-called Confederate States, or of any one of them, looking to a suspension of hostilities and the return of said States, or any one of them, to the Union, and to obedience to the Federal Constitution and authority." Mr. V. spoke in support of the amendment as follows: Mr. CHAIRMAN. I do not rise to debate this question at length the hour for that discussion has not yet come but simply to remind gentle- men on both sides of the House that when, four years ago, the obscure and far-distant Territory of Utah, with little less than one hundred thousand inhabitants, and insignificant in power and resources, was in armed rebellion against the Government of the United States, the Pres- ident appointed two commissioners to accompany the Army upon a like mission of generous forbearance and humanity. ON COMMISSIONERS TO ACCOMPANY THE ARMY. 325 Mr. LOVEJOY. I make the point of order that the amendment is irrelevant. The CHAIRMAN. The Chairman overrules the point of order. Mr. YALLANDIGIIAM. I rise simply to remind the House of that sig- nificant fact, and to inquire whether, if, in a case like that, where the lives and fortunes of a people so few, so insignificant, and so odious in their manneis and their institutions, were concerned, this great and powerful Government thought it becoming, in a spirit of justice and moderation, to send commissioners to accompany, and indeed to pre- cede, the Army on its march, for the purpose of receiving propositions of submission and of return to obedience to the authority of the Federal Government, we ought not now, in this great revolution this great re- bellion, if you prefer the word to exhibit somewhat also of the same spirit of moderation and forbearance; and while the legislative depart- ment is engaged in voting hundreds of thousands of men and hundreds of millions of dollars, we ought not, bearing the sword in one hand, to go forth with the olive-branch in the other? I offer the amendment in good faith, and for the purpose of ascer- taining whether there be such a disposition in the House. For my own part, sir, while 1 would not in the beginning have given a dollar or a man to commence this war, I am willing now that we are in the midst of it without any act of ours to vote just as many men and just as much money as may be necessary to protect and defend the Federal Govern- ment. It would be both treason and madness now to disarm the Gov- ernment in the presence of an enemy of two hundred thousand men in the field against it. But I will not vote millions of men and money blindly, for bills interpreted by the message, and in speeches on this floor, to mean bitter and relentless hostility to and subjugation of the South. It is against an aggressive and invasive warfare that I raise my vote and voice. I desire not to be misunderstood. 1 would suspend hostilities for present negotiation, to try the temper of the South the Union men, at least, of the South. But as the war is upon us, there must be an army in the field ; there must be money appropriated to maintain it; but I will give no more of men and no more of money than is necessary to keep that army in the position, and ready to strike, until it can be ascertained whether there is a Union sentiment in the South, and whether there be indeed any real and sober and well-founded disposition among the people of those States to return to the Union and to their obe- dience to the authority of this Government. I trust that this amend- ment will receive that consideration which I believe it justly deserves. [This proposition to appoint commissioners solely for the purpose of a restoration of the Union by the return of the seceded States, received only twenty-one votes.] 326 VALLA2n>IGlIAM ? S SPEECHES. TUB] TARIFF TEA, COFFEE, AND SUGAR. Remarks in the House of Representatives, December 23, 1861. MR. SPEAKER : I desire to say that, at the last session, I opposed, in common with all the gentlemen upon this side of the House, the tariff and tax bill; and in some brief remarks then submitted, I pre-. dieted that the result of increasing the duties would be a great and dis- astrous diminution of the importations, and by consequence of the revenue from customs. We have before us now the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury, four months later, admitting that his estimate of receipts from duties on articles imported, or to be imported, during the current fiscal year, must already be reduced by $25,000,000. Such has been the effect of the "Mori-ill tariff" of 1861, and the act of August, amending it. Yet, instead of pursuing a course of policy which every principle of political economy demands, and promoting an increase of the revenues by reducing duties and encouraging importations, we are about still further to diminish the revenues by increasing the duty to such an extent as will, in a little while, amount to prohibition. Why, ,. sir, in portions of the Northwest it already requires four bushels of corn to buy one pound of coffee. Corn, in Illinois is selling at seven cents a bushel, and in some places has been used as fuel, instead of wood, because it is how cheaper. Yet gentlemen of tiie IIi.->u.iii SluLuo are continually applying the same Sangradian panacea, holding fast to the absurd notion that an increase of duty will always and inevitably be followed by a corresponding increase of revenue. They still insist, whenever the receipts run low, on adding to the tariff of duties, with- out remembering that the natural effect of the increase, even in ordinary times, is to diminish importations, and that now, especially, the loss of , the cotton export, amounting last year to 8191,000,000, or, deducting the precious metals, to nearly two-thirds of our entire exportation, and the depressing influence every way of the present crisis, have already cut down the importations to nearly one-half, as compared with the last live or six years. In the port of New York alone the falling off amounts to about one hundred millions of dollars. How, I beg to know, are you to have revenue from imports when nothing is imported? Ex nihilo niliilfit. But not so think the wise men of the East. The more you fetter com- merce the more they believe it will flourish. The higher you make the duties the more will revenue flow into your Treasury. Do gentlemen forget that customs duty is a voluntary tax, and that beyond a certain point no one will tax himself of his own free will ? When times arc THE TARIFF. TEA, COFFEE, ASD SUGAR. 327 i prosperous and money plenty, and trade and commerce arc bii.sk, men will buy much, though the price be raised. But in times of depression, when wages arc low, money scarce, and employment diflicult to be had in just such times, in short, as are now upon us merchants will not import because consumers will not purchase if the price be high. The true policy, therefore, clearly is to lower the impost and encourage importation, and not to add to all the other causes which now combine to destroy this main source of revenue, the killing effect of increased duties. This is quackery, not statesmanship; and I predict to-day thai your high tariffs will not realize for the current year even the revised and amended estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury. Now, sir, I submit the question without going into the argument further, that at the least, this bill should be postponed until the entire tariff system can be digested and accommodated to the changed condi- tion of the country; until it can be made literally and strictly a revenue tariff a war tariff, if you please. As it now stands, it is an incon- gruous amalgam of three separate acts and two or three different systems of duties the ad valorem, the specific, and a compound of the two. I think, sir, that the bill should certainly go over for two or three weeks, until the whole subject can be arranged, collated and har- monized. This can be done without the slightest loss to the revenue. How much, sir, does the gentleman from Vermont expect to realize within the next three weeks from the passage of this act ? Will there be an extraordinary importation of tea from China and Japan within that time ? Will there be any such of coffee and sugar ? What is in the wind ? As to the latter article of sugar, let me say further, that the West has heretofore received its sugars mostly from the lower States on the Mississippi; but an embargo has been laid on the trade of that river ever since April or May last. You have shut up, blockaded, the Mississippi for us ; and more effectually, too, than any port on the southern coast. Since that time our sugars have been received from the East, and the price has of course been very greatly enhanced. In addition to thus cutting us off from our market, yon increased the duties upon sugars at the late session ; and now you propose, in hot haste, to raise that duty still higher, and thus to place the article wholly beyond the reach of most of those in the West who are accus- tomed to regard it as a necessary of life; and I believe, sir, that it is consumed perhaps to a uirger extent there than in the States of the East. It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that some other surer and wiser mode ought to be devised for increasing the waning revenues of the Gov- ernment. Your expenditures are $500,000,000; your income but $50,000,000, enough to last just one month. If the Constitution did 328 VALLAXDIG HA3l's SPEECHES. not forbid a tax upon export*, something might, in that wav, he added, because there has been a very large increase of exportation* within the last six months. But even in that case, I have not the sli_j, test doubt you would, upon eacli recurring pressure, raise the duties, iu- and thus break down your exports, as you have already your import.-* by the same folly. True, the country is benefited to a large extent, doubtless by this heavy exportation, ami the West receives a share of that bene- fit. But let it be remembered that this increased exportation from the West through the seaports of the East, arises from the fact that the navigation of the Mississippi has been closed to us, and thus the pro- ducts which heretofore we were accustomed to carry down that river have been forced to find a market in foreign countries. Cut oil' as we are from all other means of outlet except by way of the lakes, and thus, in part, through a foreign country, and with our railroads leading to the East, for the most part in the hands of Eastern directors or bondholders, the tariff of freights has 'at the same time been fully doubled, thus increasing the burdens upon our trade both ways, so largely as to amount in a little while longer to absolute prohibition ; while, to make the matter still worse, that great and natural channel of railroad communication, also, from the southern portions of the Northwest east- ward, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, has been closed for all purposes of travel and transportation for the last six months, and it seems almost impossible for some cause surely not " military necessity," but shall T say base selfishness on the part of more northern and eastern or rival roads ? to 'procure the opening of it upon any terms. Sir, I have spoken so far solely for the purpose of directing the attention of the House and the country to this subject, and not with any vain notion of being hearkened to now or here. The bill will pass forthwith, and just as you received it from the Treasury Department. It has been impossible to obtain even from this side of the House, the poor privilege of the yeas and navs upon the question of suspending the rules to .allow it to be reported ; and it is vain to offer opposition to the measure. Let it pass. But I am resolved that the record shall be made up for the GREAT HEREAFTER, and that the responsibility for this and other kindred measures shall be fixed just where it belongs. CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY REPELLED. 329 CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY: 18G2.* MR. SPEAKER : I was just waiting for an opportunity to call the at- tention 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 oi\n-r paper, or to any man south of Mason and Dixon's line, since this revolt be- gan never ; and I defy the production of it. The charge is false, in- famous, scandalous ; and, 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 irrespon- sible 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 defence, and shall enter into none, until some letter shall be produced here which I have written, or authorized to be written, referring to "bleeding Dixie," or making any suggestion "how the Yankees might be defeated." If any such are in existence, I pro- * During the Thirty-Seventh Congress there was a strong outside pressure against Mr; Yallandigham, and, on the part of man}- members of that body, a great willingness to yield to the pressure. And yet no successful attempt to im- peach, or even to cast reproach upon his loyally, has ever been made/ The efforts in that direction, made seven times in Congress, were only a reproach to the par- ties by whom they were made. On the 7th of January, 1S62, Mr. Yallandigham, in reply to Mr. Uutchins, of Ohio, said: "To-day the magnitude and true character o the war stand confessed, nnd its 'real purposes begin to be revealed; and I am justified, or soon will be justified by thousands, who, a little while ago, condemned me. But I appealed, in the be- ginning, as I appeal now, alike to the near and (he distant future; and by the judgment of that impartial tribunal, even in the present generation, I will abide , or, if ray inme and memory shall fade away out of the record of these times, then will those calumnies perish with them." But, of these? attacks, the most important and serious was that made in the House of Representatives on the 19th of February, 1862, by Mr. Hiekman, of Pennsylvania, who offered a resolution, " instructing the Committee on the Judi- ciary to inquire into the truth of certain charges of disloyalty, made in tho local columns of a Baltimore newspaper, against C. L. Vallandigham, of Ohio." . Mr. Yallandigham spoke iu reply, as above. 330 VALLAOTIOHAM'S SPEECHES. nouuco them, here and now, utter and impudent forgeries. I have said that I enter upon no defence. 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 Com- mittee on the Judiciary rose, and, in this formal manner, called the at- tention of the House to it himself the accuser and the judge. Sir, I have for five years been a member of this House, and I never rose to a persona*! explanation but once, and that to correct a report of the pro- ceedings of the House. I have always considered such mere personal explanations and controversies with the press, as unbecoming the dig- nity 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 trea- sonable, 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 mem- ber 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 lie is my judge, 1 will exercise it still in this House, and out of it, of vindicating the rights of the American 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 foresee- ing, more than a year ago, but especially in the early part of December, I860, the magnitude and true character of the revolution or rebellion into which this country was about to be plunged, 1 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 corne in any tangible or authentic shape ; had any editor of any respectable newspaper, even, indorsed the accnsation, 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* CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY REPELLED. 331 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 Repre- sentative 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 ^ 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 a^ other mem- bers upon this floor, knows that the suspicions which have existed against him I do not say whether justly or unjustly have been numerous, and in circulation for a long time past. It is the duty of this House to purge itself of unworthy members. 1 do not assert whether the gentleman from Ohio occupies, properly or improperly, his scat 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 sug- gested. But, sir, this charge does not come in a very questionable 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 332 VALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. is responsible in its origin, as far as we can jud^e. Now, sir, I refer the gentleman from Ohio, as my answer to the suggestion that I was not jusii.ied 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 famo is a good ground for the Houso to proceed to inquiry, and evoa 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 comes, 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. HjcKMAN. I do not understand what the gentleman means by saying that the author of the paragraph has not seen thein. 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. VALLANDTOH VA(. The author of tbnt p.ira n my answer to that, the only specification. And yet, the gentle- man dare> attempt to support that falsehood, which I here denounce as such, by alluding to suspicions which have been created and set afloat through* ut 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 bc^an. I tell the VALLAXDIliilAM's SPEECHES. ana, indeed, stands now upon tho 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 lias 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 toMay; 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. Con- sistency, firmness, and sanity, in the midst of general madness ihese made up my offence. But 'Time, tho avenger,' sets all things even; and I abide his leisure." ^ And arn I now to be told, that because of a speech made upon this floor, under the protection of the Constitution, in the exercise and dis- charge of my solemn right and duty, under the oath which T Lave taken, that I am to-day to be arraigned here, and the accusation sup- ported 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 afe 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 whatever 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 lias given birth or residence to so many patriots, to so many statesmen, 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 faltcivd 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 wor^ shipped 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, bar- monious old Union of every State once a part of it, and a hundred CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY REPELLED. 337 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 preserv- ing the Union, and of maintaining the Constitution and securing the true interests of my country ; and that is my offence, 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 mem- ber had seen fit to seize upon the denunciations, long-continued, bitter, and .persistent against that member (Mr. Ilickman) 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, peradvcnture 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 y^'t further suspicion upon him, by reference to language uttered here in debate, which lie had the right to utter, or by charges vague and false, nnd 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 gentle- man 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 uiy boyhood, at all times and in every place, I have never looked to any tiling 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 Com- mittee will find nothing, and th.it they will be obliged, therefore, to 22 338 VALLAXDIGIIAM S SPEECHES. report a majority of them cheerfully, I doubt not that nothing exists to justify anv charge or suspicion such as the member from Pennsyl- vania 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, yes, 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 shrill have been effected for the purpose of dragooning two-thirds of this House into an outrage upon the rights of one of the Representatives 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 Pennsyl- vania now proposes, had been pursued in many cases which I could name in years past ; suppose that his had been the standard of accusa- tion, 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 Me of some members of this House, or of certain Senators at the other end of the capitol, some years ago? What pun- ishment might not have been meted out to the predecessor (Mr. Gid- dings, of my colleague on the other side of the House? How long would he have occupied a seat here? Where would the Senator from Ma.ssa- chusctt 8 :- (Mr. Sumner) have been ? Whoro the other beimtor j'roin Massachusetts (Mr. Wilson) ? Where the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Hale) ? Where the three Senators Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, and Mr. Hale, two of them now in the Cabinet, and the other in the Senate still who, in 1850, twelve years ago, on the llth of February, voted to receive, refer, print, and consider a petition praying for the dissolu- tion 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, 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, some- thing written carelessly or rashly, some secret thought graven yet upon the lineaments of my face, which they might torture .-nto evidence ot disloyalty, seize now upon the foul and infectious gleanings of an anony- mous wretch who earns a precarious subsistence by feeding the local columns of a pestilent newspaper, and, while it is yet wot from the press, hurry it, reeking with falsehood, into this House, and seek to dignity 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 in- CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY IlEPELLED. 339 quiry, unworthy of notice as tlie charge is, but I scorn the spirit which lias provoked it. Let it go on. Mr. HICKMAX then replied briefly ; and, in the course of his remarks) said: "As the gentleman has called upon me, I will answer further. Docs he not know of a camp in Kentucky having hecn called hy his name that disloyal men there called their camp Camp Vallandigham ? 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 hy the name of Ilickman ? (Laughter.) Mr. HICKMAN. Thank God! disloyal men have never called one of their oamps by my name. There are a great many Ilickmans in Ken- tucky, 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. NOTE. On the 21st of AprO, 1862, Benjamin P. Wade, of Ohio, 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 else, and to overawe, intimidate, and tramplo under foot, if they can, the men who boldly stand forth in defence of their country, now imperilled 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 Resolu- tions a man who never had any sympathy with the Republic, but whose every breath is devoted. to its destruction, just as far as his heart dare permit him to go." Congressional Globe, page 1735. Quoting the foregoing extract, in the House, on the 24th of April, Mr. Yallan- digham 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." In June, 1802, Shellabarger and Gurley, of Ohio, presented printed petitions from citizens of their own districts none from Mr. Vallandigliam's asking for his ex- pulsion from the House as " a traitor and a disgrace to the State of Ohio." Tho 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. Divcn, James F. Wilson, George H. Pendleton, and Henry May all of them Republicans, except May and Peudleton. 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 340 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. accordingly, on the first day that tho Committee was called July 3, 18G2 Mr. Bingham reported them back, and, on his motion, they were laid on the table, no evidence whatever of either "treason" or "disgrace," having been produced to the Committee. ' SPEECH ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL, In ike House of Representatives, February 3, 1862. IT lias been my habit, Mr. Chairman, to premeditate, whenever pre- meditation was possible, whatever I have had to say in this House; for no man has a right, in my judgment, to obtrude his immature and undigested thoughts and opinions upon a deliberative assembly. From the laboratory of his mind and the store-house of his memory, it is his duty to bring forth, at all times, as the occasion may permit, whatever is most valuable ; and there is no such thing as inspiration in matters of cither law or legislation, and least of all, certainly, upon questions of finance. And just at this moment, especially, the country and the Government demand sound philosophy and stern facts ; not vain theo- ries, or what is worse still, delusive and hazardous experiments and contrivances. JVxperimentum in vili corpore ; and never was the maxim more applicable. If, therefore, sir, I have prepared myself now a little more elabo- rately than heretofore, the complexity, delicacy, and magnitude, not to say novelty, of the subject in late years, are my justification. And I do, from my heart, and with the deepest sincerity, lament that I am not now master of the whole science of political economy and finance; and am unable, therefore, and because that I have not that divine order of intellect, which is able to seize hold of it. and to comprehend and fathom it as if by intuition, to discuss it as its immeasurable importance demands. It happened to me, sir, to come into public life, and even to attain majority, after the great questions of currency and revenue, in the administrations of Jackson, Van Buren, and Tyer had, for the most part, been settled, and to be familiar, therefore, chiefly with a subject, the discussion of which I would to God had never been ob- truded upon Congress, or the country, and which, even now, I would forever banish from both. But at intervals, in years past, and with labor and diligence for some months past, I have sought to master the facts and principles, and to penetrate somewhat into the philosophical mysteries of these great questions, and to apply them firmly and faithfully OX THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 341 to the present and approaching condition of the country. Committed fully to any measure, and all measures of finance, necessary to sustain, as well the honor as the credit of the country in which I was born, and the integrity of the Government of which I am a part, and espe- cially to adequate and just taxation for that purpose, I propose to-day to discuss the subjects involved, in this bill to the best of my ability, and with becoming candor and freedom, and I may add earnestness, too ; for I have the profoundest conviction of their incalculable impor- tance to the interests, present and future, of the United States, and of the people of tlus whole continent. Nor am I to be deterred from a faithful discharge of mv duty, by the consciousness that my voice may not be hearkened to here, or in the country, because of- the continued, persistent, but most groundless and malignant assaults and misrepresentations to which, for months past, I have been subjected. Sir, I am not here to reply to them to- day. Neither am I to be driven from the line of duty by them. " Strike but hear/' Whatever a silenced or a mendacious press, out- side, of this House, may choose to withhold or to say, no man who is fit to be a member of this House, will allow his speech or his vctcs or his public conduct here to be controlled by his personal hates or preju- dices. Sir, I recant nothing, and would expunge nothing from the record of the past, so far as I am concerned. But my path of duty now, as a Representative, is as clear as the sun at broad noon. The Ship of State is upon the rocks. I was not the helmsman who drove her there ; nor had I part or lot in directing her course. But now, when the sole question is, how shall she be rescued ? I will not any longer, or, at least, not just now, inquire who lias done the mischief. So long as they who held control insisted that she was upon her true course, and in no danger, but prosperously upon her voyage, though in the midst of the storm, I had a right to resist, and did resist and denounce the madness which was driving her headlong to destruction. But now, that the shipwreck stands confessed, I recognize, and here declare, it to be as much my duty to labor for her preservation, as it is theirs who stranded her upon the beach. Within her sides she bears still all that I have or hope for, now or hereafter, in this life ; and he is a madman or a traitor, who would see her perish without an effort to save. Whoever shrinks now is responsible, also, for some part, at least, of the ruin which shall follow. In this spirit it is, sir, that I approach this great question ; and I thank the House kindly for the attention which they seem inclined to accord to me, and assure them that it shall not be abused. I do not agree, Mr. Chairman, with the gentleman who opened this debate [Mr. Spaulding], that this bill is a war measure. Certainly, sir, 342 VALLA^DIGHAM^S SPEECHES. it has been forced upon us by the war; but if peace \vcre restored to- morrow these $100,000,000 of Treasury notes uould be just as essential to the public credit as they are to-day. The argument of " military ne- cessity" has been carried quite far enough already, without being now urged in behalf of the proposition so unconstitutional, disastrous, and unjust to make paper-money a legal tender in discharge of all debts. I support this measure not, indeed, as reported impossible but as I would have it amended because it is absolutely essential to even the ordinary credit of the Government, and because, without it, I see noth- ing but bankruptcy to the Government in the midst of immense aggre- gate wealth among the people. The credit of the country is the honor and strength and support of the country, and it must be maintained at all hazards, and no matter who is President, or what party is in power. And I am not willing to hazard the entire credit, and honor, and good faith of the country, because the Administration may, perchance, use this recuperated credit, to continue a war which 1 have not approved. "War is disunion," said Mr. Douglas, and bankruptcy is disunion, and as a true Union man, I have opposed the first, as I shall labor now to avert the last. But to return. No scheme of loan, or taxation, or national bank, or currency, or other similar contrivance, can be devised and put into operation in time to avert the ruin. Therefore the Government must fall back upon Treasury notes, for its present support. But a single question is presented : what shall be their form, and how shall they be floated ? But inasmuch as the Government has no money, no gold and silver coin which is the only money in the world these notes, inca- pable, therefore, of being the representatives of money, must take its place as a substitute. They must become currency, and pass or " run" from hand to hand. But Treasury notes, bearing interest, and payable at a future day, are not fitted to run or pass as money. They are as mere ordinary promissory notes; and though often issued in this form and, indeed, never before in any other, except once, within the last fifty years they never, at any time, passed into general circulation, or even circulation at all. They are a particular form of loan or indebted- ness, or security, and fit subjects for speculation on the stock exchange, but are neither money, nor the representatives of, nor a substitute for money. If made payable on demand, they need bear no interest, since the great element of value in a paper currency is not profit but credit. Therefore, intending that Treasury notes should circulate and become a sort of currency, this bill proposes, as did also the act of July, 1861, that they shall bear no interest, and be payable in gold and silver. This, unquestionably, is the legal and inevitable inference from the language of the act and the bill, so far as appears upon their face. ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 343 But neither the act nor the bill, the present nor the original bill, pre- scribes expressly in what they shall be paid. But both are " payable." Payable in xvliat? Gold and silver, which is the only money that by law can be received for the public dues, or disbursed in payment of debts owing by the United States, except that the Treasury notes already authorized, are declared receivable also in payment of debts due to the Government. Sir, this bill is in two particulars modelled, though imperfectly, after the act of 1815 ; and, to that extent, I approve of the idea or theory upon which it. proceeds. The issue of notes without interest, and to circulate as currency between the Government and its creditors and debtors, is for temporary purposes, and to meet the immediate and pressing necessities of the government and this is the only justification for their issue and they arc to be funded or converted, at the will of the holder, into six per cent, stock, redeemable twenty years after date ; and so far they are, therefore, not mere government paper-money, like the Continental bills of the Revolution, or the French assignats, or the Austrian notes of 1809. Nevertheless, sir, there are capital objections to this bill, which. ought, in my judgment, to condemn it to unanimous reprobation and defeat. In the first place, sir, it precedes where it ought to follow. It assumes that the promise to tax will give credit before a dollar of tax has been laid ; much less collected. On the faith of this credit, it expects the free circulation of $50,000,000 already issued, and the $100,000,000 proposed to be issued under its own provisions. But, as if fearful and most justly, too that the promise may not be received for performance, and that, at last, no adequate tax may be assessed, or, if assessed, col- lected, it proceeds to declare these notes to be money actual, substan- tial, tangible, and veritable MONEY and to be a legal tender in satisfac- tion of all debts, public and private, corporate and individual, State and United States. The judgments of the State courts arc to be discharged in these notes, and State taxes to be paid in them. All debts owing by the United States are to be liquidated in them. They arc even to be received in payment of each other, and one promissory note of the Government is, by compulsion of law, and, of course, if need be, at last, by armed force, to be taken in full discharge of another promissory note issued by the same Government. These notes, sir, are declared " pay- able to bearer." Payable in what? Gold and silver and Treasury notes. But the Government is truly apostolic in its poverty. Silver and gold it lias none. Therefore one Treasury note is a full, authorized, compulsory discharge of another Treasury note. Peter is to be robbed to pay Paul; and Paul in turn is to pay Peter for a debt of his own out of the fruits of the robbery. In plain English, and without metaphor, 344 YALLAXDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. one promise to pay is to be made a legal tender in satisfaction of an- other promise to pay ; and the promise of the Government to pay in paper, is to discharge the obligation of the contract of the individual debtor to pay his creditor in gold and silver. And this is the grand financial contrivance of the Secretary of the Treasury, with the concur- rence of one half of the Ways and Means ! Sir, if it were fifty-fold as constitutional as, in my deliberate judgment, it is unconstitutional in letter, and abhorrent to the spirit and principles of that instrument, it could not command my support. I will not renew the discussion of the question of constitutional power to make Govern- ment paper, or any other paper, a legal tender in payment of any debts, public or private, present or prospective. My colleague from the first district [Mr. Pendleton] the other day, with a clearness and force never exceeded in this Hall, disposed of that question forever. His argument has not been answered; and, pardon me, sir, it never will be. I concur in it all, thoroughly and totally, upon this point. Sir, disguise it as you may, this bill is but a FORCED LOAN from the people. It is an abuse and a stretch of power which no Government, except one cither in the first throes of revolutionary madness and desperation, or in the last agonies of dissolution, or in the midst of the most imminent danger of cither bankruptcy or conquest and overthrow, and no king or poten- tate, except a usurper, ever ventured to exert. If voluntarily submitted to, or by fear or power enforced, it will corrupt, derange, and debase the currency, and afflict the country with financial and coiiaiiLicLl uL;u>U,t and ruin, and shake the foundations of public and private credit for half a century to come. But we shall be fortunate if it does not precipitate a revolution, sooner or later, in our own midst. In ordinary times, cer- tainly not ; but let us not forget that we are in the very crisis of a con- vulsion, equalled by but few in the history of the world, and where no man can reckon the course, or momentum, or extent of any movement according to any of the ordinary laws which govern human affairs. But independent of all this, tried by the plainest principles of finance, the commonest maxims of political economy, as exhibited and enforced in the experience of other nations, this bold, but ill-advised and most haz- ardous experiment of forcing a paper currency upon the people, ought to be met by the Representatives of the people with u. nnimous and emphatic condemnation. Otherwise, the experiment, if successful, will be followed by other enormous issues, till not a dollar of gold or silver will be seen again in your day or mine, and but little of ordinary bank paper. Exportation, hoarding, melting, and manufacture into articles of luxury of every kind, will follow as the legitimate and inevitable conse- quence of your irredeemable Government paper currency. The golden ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 345 age of America henceforth will belong only to the Saturnia reyna of poets and mythologists. Nor is this all, nor the worst. An immense inflation or bloat in this wonderful paper-money which our financial Midas by his touch is to convert into gold, must come next. Cheap in material, easy of issue, worked by steam, signed by machinery, there will be no end to the legions of paper devils which shall pour forth from the loins of the Sec- retary. Sir, let the army rejoice ; there will be no more " shod Jv," for there will be no more rags out of which to manufacture it. And now, sir, what must follow from all this ? First, that which never has failed in times of bloated currency high prices, extravagant speculation, enormous sudden fortunes, immense fictitious wealth, gen- eral insanity. These belong to all inordinate and excessive paper issues, and even to plethoras in the circulation of gold and silver, if such plethoras could occur. But the evil will not stop here. Every banker, every lender, every merchant, every business man, and every seller of real or personal estate, or of anv thing else, compelled to receive in payment for whatever he lends or sells, an irredeemable paper- money, dependent for its value solely upon force, and without the smallest credit, and himself having no confidence in the Government, and no special good-will to the borrower or buyer who forces him to take its paper, will demand a still higher price, by way of insurance, than if the currency were sound and safe, no matter how much inflated. And now, sir, what is to be the result of all this ? What else but the result from like causes in years past in foreign countries and in our own? It is written in the commercial convulsions and sufferings of France in 1720, and of England a century later, and of the United States in 1837. The collapse follows the inflation, and is terrible and disastrous just in proportion as the bubble has been magnificent. Your legal tender laws will avail nothing. They have been tried before ; tried in this country and tried abroad ; and have always failed in the end. The regent of France proclaimed them in Law's time, iu 1717 ; and what followed.? Let M. Thicrs answer : " Violent and vexatious as the measures were to sustain the credit of the notes, they were insufficient to give them a value which they diu not possess. Dishonest debtors alone used them to pay their debts. Coin was secretly used for daily pur- chases, and was coneealed with care. Many accumulated it clandestinely. The greater part buried it in the earth, and the rich realizers used every artifice to transfer it to foreign countries. Another portion of our coin left France; and although the exportation of specie is not necessarily injurious, it was so at this time, since it left behind only a false paper currency and an imaginary capital." But again, sir, this bill declares these notes to be " payable at the 346 VALLAXDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. pleasure of the United States" Was ever such, a proposition before this submitted by any legitimate, established Government? Did any of the multitudinous Mexican usurpers, in the midst of the direst convul- sions of that most distracted of all countries, even in his severest straits, ever "pronounce" any thing more unjust and monstrous? Sir, these notes are not to be the basis of a future loan ; they are not kites to raise the wind with. They are to be paid out in discharge of past liabilities for debts which already exist; for honest and fair indebtedness for past services rendered or value already received, as between the Government and the citizen. All these debts were payable in gold and silver only in the current coin and lawful money the hard money of the country. In the absence of any express stipulation or law to the contrary and not in one case out of a hundred probably has any such existed they are all payable by cash in hand or on demand. And yet payment at all of this very class of debts is, by the terms of this bill, to be postponed indefinitely, unless indeed the creditor will accept bonds at six per cent, depreciated, it may be, and if this bill pass in its present form, will be, to eighty or ninety cents on the dollar, and redeemable in twenty years. The Government proposes to settle with its creditors, and to execute its promissory notes payable whenever it is ready or finds it convenient to pay. In other words, the debtor dictates terms to the creditor, and declares that a debt payable in cash down or on de- mand holl bo rynif] of fho plfvisnro of ^.d ^oMorv ^ ofhr'vi A . *" p'*^^ case, shall be utterly extinguished. most wonderful, righteous, and equitable Secretary ! Sir, there is no subject so delicate as credit. What is it? Confi- dence, trust, faith. In its very nature it is voluntary, and you can no more coerce credit than you can compel belief in a particular creed or religion, or love between man and woman. It withers before suspicion, and languishes and dies at the sight of force. Sir, in the reign of Henry VIII., Parliament passed "an act for the abolishing of diversity of opinion in certain articles concerning the Christian religion." IIow much worse or more absurd, I ask, was that act than the bill before us ? Good faith is the foundation of all credit; but this bill proposes, not bold and out- right, but timid I will not say cowardly and indirect repudiation. More than this : it is an open confession of bankruptcy. If the Gov- ernment has solid means, it needs no notes. If it has credit, why de- clare its notes lawful money and a legal tender, equal with gold ? If it has neither means nor credit, it is exactly what is meant by a bankrupt. But yet, again, this bill styles the paper which it authorizes to be issued, " United States notes." Well, sir, words are things, and this change of name is for some purpose. What is it ? I have carefully ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 347 examined every Treasury note act and act referring to Treasury notes, public and private, from the first, in 1812, to the present time, eighty- two in number; and in not one, not one, are notes of this description called any thing but Treasury notes. Sometimes they have been issued as a convenient form of temporary loan ; at other times as evidence of indebtedness by the Treasury. But they were always, upon their face, limited to the Treasury department, and were never known in any act by any other name than "Treasury notes." They never were intended to furnish a permanent or even a general circulation as a commercial currency. They were thus maintained to be not "bills of credit," within the then well-understood meaning of that term, and, therefore, not unconstitutional. The act of 1815 styled them Treasury notes, though issued in sums of less than one hundred dollars, payable to bearer, without interest, transferable by delivery, and therefore capable of passing as currency. So did the act of July, 18G1 ; and more than that, so did both the title and the body of this same bill, as first reported on the 7th of January. Sir, who invented this new-fangled term, "United States notes," and why was it invented? What new light struck in upon the Secretary between the seventh and the twenty-second of the same month? And what are these United States notes but " bills of credit," the very bills BO abhorrent to the framers of the Constitution ? Most appropriately I may say with Mr. Webster, that " if the genius of the old Confed- eration were now to rise up in the midst of us, he could not furnish us from the abundant stores of his recollection with a more perfect model of paper-money ;" and I am forced to add, also, or a worse model, too. llere, sir, is one of the Continental bills of November, 177C. It bears small resemblance to the delicate paper issues and exquisite engravings of the present day in the United States. It smacks a little of the poverty of "Dixie" as is said. Instead of the effigies of Lincoln, it bears on its lace a veritable but rudely-carved woodcut of the wild boar of the forest. It was bad money, sir, but issued in a noble cause. It is redolent of liberty ; it smells of habeas corpus, free speech, a free press, free ballot, the right of petition, the consent of the governed, the right of the people to govern, public indictment, speedy public trial, trial by jury, and all the great rights of political and individual liberty for which martyrs have died and heroes contended for ages although I am not quite sure, sir, that even now it is altogether without some- what of the odor of rebellion lingering about it. But even this Conti- nental bill purports to be payable, though not paid, in specie. It re- cites that " this bill entitles the bearer to receive four Spanish milled dollars, or the value thereof in gold and silver, according to a resolution 348 VALLAXDIG HAM'S SPEECHES. of Congress, passed at Philadelphia, Nov. 2, 1776," and it is issued in the name of '* the United Colonies." But though in the midst of a revolution, and struggling for liberty and life, and in the darkest hour of that sore trial it was just previous to the victory at Trenton it never occurred to the just men and pa- triots of that day to usurp the power to make this paper-money a legal tender, and to force it, by this usurpation, into credit and circulation by the strong arm of the law ; and to that extent and it is great the United States notes proposed by this bill are fifty-fold worse and more to be abhorred than Continental money. But this paper of 1776 bears no interest, is payable to bearer, payable in gold and silver, payable at no particular time, intended to circulate permanently and generally as money, and without a dollar of tax or revenue to support it. The men of that day relied on patriotism to keep their bills in credit ; and yet we know that even then, in the purest and best times of the Republic, they sank in value till at the close of the war $1,000 in paper were worth but one dollar in specie. In short, sir, they so utterly depreciated that to this day, if a profane man would describe any thing as totally and hopelessly worthless, he would say of it that it was " not worth a Continental dollar" And here, sir, before I pass from this subject, allow me to say that a very grave error has been fallen into in this debate. The notes of the Bank of England were not made a legal tender during the suspension from 1797 to 1823. The bank was, by act of Parliament, prohibited from paying in specie. The taxes were then very heavy, the expendi- tures enormous, and the notes of the bank were received as cash in payment of the public dues. For this reason, mainly, and not because they were, either directly or in effect, a legal tender, the notes, until the issues of the bank became excessive, did not depreciate, at least until also gold had begun to disappear in spite of penal legislation. But in three years the depreciation began, and from 1800 to 1814, it varied from eight to twenty-five per cent In 1816, after the war, it was six- teen and three-fourths. And yet there were public men then, just as some are found now, to maintain that the value of paper-money had not fallen, but that the value of gold had risen. It was precisely the argu- ment over again, of the French National Assembly, nearly twenty years earlier it was not the assiynat which had lost, but the franc which had gained. But, sir, the act also of 1834 which, it is said, declared the notes of the bank a legal tender, has been totally misunderstood. They are not now and never were a legal tender as between the bank which issues them and its creditors, or the holders of its notes. Not at all, sir. A proposition so iniquitous and monstrous never was enacted into law by English legislators. It belongs to the present Secretary of the ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 349 Treasury of the United States, in the year of grace, 1802. Justly did Mr. Cunning boast, in 1811, that " Never did tho wildest and most hostile propliesior of ruin to the finances of England, venture to predict that a time should come when, by tho avowal of Parlia- ment, nominal amount in paper, without reference to any real standard value in gold, would be the payment of the public creditor." But neither are these notes a legal tender at all, except so long as the bank pays specie, and of course, while they are equivalent to, if not con- vertible at any moment all over England into gold : so that in fact the observation of Mr. Burke, seventy years ago, is equally just and true now : " Our paper is of value in commerce, because in law it is of none. It is powerful on 'Change, because in Westminster Hall it is impotent." And now, sir, what arc your United States notes? They, too, arc payable to bearer; payable not to be paid in gold and silver, payable "at the pleasure of the United States," and meant to circulate generally and permanently as currency, at least till the Secretary's grand fiscal machine, his magnificent NATIONAL PAPER-MILL, founded upon the very stocks provided for by this bill, can be put in operation, when this sort of bills of credit is to be supplanted by another sort of bills of credit, which are to become the sole currency of the country, and to drive all gold and silver, and ordinary bank paper, out of circula- tion. This, sir, is what is meant by the phrase in the third line of the bill, " for temporary purposes," and nothing else is meant. And now sir, how, meantime, are these United States notes to be floated ? By voluntary credit, founded on adequate taxation? Not at all, sir. Taxa- tion to nearly or perhaps two-thirds the same amount would, as I shall presently prove, float these notes at par with gold and silver indefinitely. But if taxation is meant, then no other means of credit are needed. How comes it, then, that force, coercion, is to be resorted to to compel these notes into circulation? The faith of the United States, supported by taxation, is to be abandoned, and this paper-money is to be floated in every commercial and business transaction of the country by main force of law, and not voluntary credit because of the solvency of the United States, till a year or two hence the Secretary shall have stocks enough to enable him to execute his financial schemes and contrivances in full. This, then, is the first step in the direction of his grand fiscal and monetary agent which is to maintain the credit of the Government and supply the sole paper currency of the country ; and in further proof, I refer to the fact that in his late annual report, the Secretary styles the notes to be "prepared for circulation under national direction," and issued by this monster FISCALITY, "United States notes." These, then, sir, are the reasons why the ancient, approved, constitutional term 350 V ALL ANDIG HAM'S SPEECHES. " Treasury note," sanctioned by eighty-two acts of Congress, and sus- tained by judicial decisions, is to be cast off and abandoned tor one just freshly coined for the new financial nomenclature of the Secretary of the Treasury. But I have yet another objection to this bill. Secreted innocently in the first section, I find the following: "And any holders of said United States notes depositing any sura not less than fifty dollars, or other than a multiple of fifty, with the Treasurer of the United States, or either of the Assistant Treasurers, or either of the designated depositaries at Cincinnati or Baltimore, shall receive in exchange therefor duplicate certificates of deposit, one of which may be transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall thereupon issue to the holder an equal amount in bonds of the United States, coupon or registered, as maybe desired, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent., and redeemable, at the pleasure of the Government, after twenty years from date; or in SUJHS not less than $2,500, for which, if requested, the Secretary, if he deem it ex- pedient, may i-ssue similar bonds, tiie principal and interest of which may be expressed in the currency of any foreign country, and payable there." So that whoever, though a citizen of the United States, can gather together $2,500 of these notes, may convert them into stocks expressed in the currency of a foreign country, with principal and interest payable there, and of course in gold and silver or its equivalent * while he who holds fifty dollars or upwards, but less than $2,500, is obliged to receive domestic bonds, payable at home, principal and interest, in "United States notes," or the continental Tnon^v of 186'?. And now, ir. wh^ is the effect of all this ? The bonds issued are to be of the same amount as the face value of the United States notes, no matter how much the latter may be depreciated, and they will depreciate in spite or because of your legal tender clause ; and not only this, but the face value of the bonds finally, and meantime of the interest, is to be increased by the rate of foreign exchange, whatever it may be at the time of the payment of either principal or interest. Nor is this all. The purpose of this provision, discriminating so palpably and unjustly between the great and the small creditors of the Government, and providing for specie pay- ments to one class, and paper payments to another, is to enable the Secretary to fund his United States notes in stocks of a higher value than those expressed in the home paper currency, so that a surer, specdici, and more profitable accumulation of stocks may be had for the darling object of the Secretary, his grand fiscal contrivance. A twofold purpose will thus be subserved : first, an earlier investment or funding of these notes ; second, a more valuable class of stocks for banking operations. To the banker also who shall invest in these bonds, pay- able in a foreign currency and country, there will accrue, not only the difference between the real value of the United States notes, and the par or face value of the bonds, and the premium upon foreign exchange, but ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 351 also. the profits to-be derived from the seven per cent interest on the notes to }>c circulated by the new banks, and sometimes, if not regularly, where the bank is distant from the city of New York, or perhaps Phila- delphia and Boston say in the Northwest the factitious exchange, equal to from six to eighteen per cent, per annum, amounting, with the other profits of banking, in all to from twenty to forty per cent, to the holder of these stocks who shall invest them in the Secretary's new banks. But the operation docs not stop here. The interest on these -will be paid, of course, in gold or its equivalent ; and other United States notes, issued or reissued under this bill, will be bought at their depreciated value as compared with gold, and converted into nov: stocks, payable in a foreign country and currency; and thus the circle ot' profits upon an increased capital will again be travelled round, till the untold millions of stocks provided for in the first section of this bill and the $500,000,000 authorized by the second section, shall have all been ex- hausted. Sir, there is no need for the amendment suggested the other day by the chairman of the \\ r ays and Means, providing for the payment of the interest on these stocks in gold and silver, lie is not in the secret. There will be no bonds issued, and none are intended or expected to be issued, except those payable in a foreign currency and country, and of course in specie. No wonder, sir, that every adventurer and stock- jobber and speculator and kite-flyer and contractor, too, outside of this House is pressing this monstrous scheme, worthy of John Law's most daring genius, gigantic in its proportions, corrupting in its success, and desolating as an earthquake in its final ruin. No wonder the Ways arid Means and the country are afflicted daily with " spouting wretches" and scribbling wretches, who raise the magic howl that whoever opposes this great American bubble of 1862, following close upon the great "national loan" bubble of 1861, is in sympathy with the rebellion, and giving aid to traitors. Let us see, now, who and how many will dare to stand up against this clamor, and to hold fast to the Constitution, and cling firmly to the real interests and final safety and preservation of the country. Sir, it is altogether aside from my present point of argument to urge in reply that this very demand for stocks, payable in the currency of a foreign country, will not only hasten the funding of the notes, and ex- tend the loan, and thus the resources of the Government, but will keep up the credit and par circulation of the notes themselves. Certainly, sir : that is part of the idea of the scheme ; and, to a certain extent, the result anticipated will follow in this last particular also. But the bulls and the bears will have something to do with that, too ; and the authors of the contrivance themselves have not confidence that this demand 352 VALLANDIGITAM'S SPEECHES. would of itself float these $150,000,000 of notes at their par" value, or any thing near it ; else why do they propose to^resort to that very element which above all others tends to destroy credit -force ? But I have not done with this section yet, sir. There is no end to the stocks which, payable in the home paper currency provided for by this bill, or a foreign specie currency, are to be issued. The United States notes arc to be reissued indefinitely as soon as funded, and funded indefinitely as fast as reissued. The wheel of fortune is to be perpet- ually in motion, and at every revolution is to throw out new notes and new stocks, till superseded by the grand machine for manufacturing a national currency suggested by the Secretary in his annual report. And now, sir, besides this emission of notes and bonds as multitudi- nous as the sands of the sea-shore, the second section provides for the issue of 500,000,000 more. It recites that it is " to enable the Secre- tary to fund the Treasury notes and floating debt of the United States." " Treasury" notes indeed ! What Treasury notes ? None are proposed to be issued by this bill ; and all issued under existing laws, including the acts of July and August, 1861, are to be funded in the same manner as provided for in this section ; unless, indeed, the object of the section be, after all, only to enable the Secretary to convert all the outstanding Treasury notes issued under existing laws, except the $50,000,000 demand notes, amounting, according to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Spaulding], to 8103,000,000, into bonds, expressed in a foreign currency and country, and payable there, so as to still further increase the amount of the more valuable and profitable class of stocks which are to constitute the basis of the new national bank. The " United States notes" not u Treasury" notes authorized by the first section of this bill, and the demand notes issued under the act of July last, are to be funded according to the provisions of the section itself. Then, sir, we have here some 8103,000,000 of old-fashioned Treasury notes payable at a future day and bearing interest. We have also the floating debt estimated by the gentleman from New York [Mr. Spaulding] at $100,000,000, though in my belief, it is more than double that sum. But why authorize $500,000,000 of stock wherewith to fund two or three hundred millions of dollars of Treasury notes aad floating debt ? The secret lurks quietly in the last sentence of the section : " And the Secretary of the Treasury may also exchange such bonds at any time for lawful money of the United States." Sir, what does all this mean ? What will be " lawful money" of the United States if this bill pass! The issue of bonds is expressly declared to be for the funding of Treasury notes and the floating debt of the United States ; and the Secretary is authorized to issue them to any ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 353 creditor of the United States who -will receive, them at their par value in satisfaction of his demands. lie may also exchange them for Treasury notes heretofore issued, or which may be issued, under the provisions of this bill, although this bill provides not at all for Treasury notes, either in its title or in the. body of it, but only f>r the. newly devised " United States note*." And yet this is the bill which the gentleman from New York [Mr. Spaulding] declared, without a .smile, to be "simple and perspicuous in its terms, and easy of execution!" Sir, I am very sure he never could have written it; nor, I apprehend, has he ever scrutinized its language or its provisions with critical accuracy. But not only are these stocks to be issued in lieu of Treasury notes or discharge of floating debt, but the Secretary may also " exchange" them for the lawful money of the United States. Sir, I pass by the singular inaccuracy of providing for the " exchange" of bonds for gold and silver, or money of any kind, as a mere verbal criticism. But are these bonds, too, to be issued for the United States notes of the first section ? These notes arc expressly declared to be " lawful money," and was it not enough to provide for the eternal circle, the endless chain of issue and funding and funding and reissue of the first section ? No doubt the real object of this provision is to enable the Secretary to sell these bonds for cash, and thus to create a new debt, instead of funding or transmitting a debt which may exist previous to and independent of the bonds. Why not, then, say so openly in the title and in the body of the bill ? But 1 oppose this provision, and prefer that the notes and bonds provided for in this bill shall both be issued, not for -the purpose of raising money, but to discharge debts otherwise incurred. In no other way, I fear, can you expect to float these United States notes or Treasury notes, whichever you may call then/, at par with gold and silver, or the notes of specie-paying banks. And now, sir, what, I beg to know, is the object of all this, if it be not to create an enormous and endless public debt, to be interwoven with every political, social, and business relation of life ; to subjugate the States and the people perpetually to the Federal Government, and therefore never to be extinguished ? The seven years of famine are upon us, and our modern Joseph is to buy in the property of the whole people, and lca.se it out to them again as tenants at a perpetual rent. Sir, I commend to him the ancient and significant Hebrew proverb: Quum latcrcs dtiplicantur vcnit Moses when the bricks are doubled, Moses comes, I propose, then, Mr. Chairman, a substitute for the bill, omitting so much of it as purports to make these notes a legal tender. But I go further. The Treasury notes authorized by the act of July last, and 23 354 VALLANDIGHAJl's SPEECHES. those provided for by this bill, are both declared to bo payable, the one on demand, and the other " at the pleasure of the United States." Paya- ble in what? You have no gold and silver. You can borrow none. You propose to collect $150,000,000 in taxes and impost?. But you issue at the same time 150,000,000 of Treasury notes, declared to be money, made a legal tender, receivable for the public dues, and to be circulated generally as currency ; and you thus drive gold and silver into vaults and hiding places, or under ground, and bank paper out of existence. What, then, can you, will you receive, except these self-same notes again into your Treasury t And if so, what but Treasury notes will you have to pay out 1 Sir, your bill is a delusion and a snare. These are not demand notes. They are not to be payable to bearer, nor to any one else, at any time, nor at any place. They are not to be u paid" at all. They arc to be funded or converted into six per cent, stocks, redeemable in twenty years. Sir, the public credit cannot be maintained by a public lie. Your notes are not money ; they will not circulate as currency ; they will not be taken as a legal tender, and in discharge of judgments and contracts and State debts, or private debts, though you should send them forth bearing ten times the image and superscription the fair face and form of Abraham Lincoln, now Presi- dent and Caesar of the American Republic. Sir, I propose to abandon this false pretence, and to change the form of the note itself. A Government note, payable on uemauu, or al tuo pleasure of the Government, to bearer, in gold and silver, is necessarily and inevitably a delusion and an absurdity. If the Government has gold and silver wherewith to pay, it need issue no Treasury notes. The necessity and the justification for their issue cannot exist till the Government is without gold and silver or its equivalent, obtained either by taxation or upon formal loan. And whenever it issues notes it confesses that it relies for the time, not upon funds in hand, but on credit because of funds to be had at a future day. And when the note is payable at a future day certain, there is no fraud and no deception. Not so when it purports to be payable On demand, or at no fixed time at all, and certainly not when payable at the pleasure of the debtor, the United States. Recall, then, as I propose, your outstanding demand notes, and conform those which you authorize now by this bill to what they really are, and do not send them forth seeking credit or to be forced upon the people by the strong arm, and yet branded with falsehood upon their face. Instead of this compound of delusion and force, I propose a form of Treasury note depending solely for its value and circulation upon the consent of the creditor or holder and the solvency and credit of the Government. And as without taxation there can be no credit, it is founded wholly upon the basis of a not far from equal, and at all times Otf TJIE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 355 certainly an adequate, taxation. It proceeds upon the assumption first, that the Government is indebted in the amount proposed, and must pro- vide for its creditors, in payment, that which is equivalent to currency or cash; and, secondly, upon the right of property which the Govern- ment has in so much of the wealth of the country as is necessary to carry on its legitimate and constitutional operations, and to maintain its credit. Upon these two corner-stones it rests. The Government is to issue in payment of its debts due to others that which it is to receive in satisfaction of the debts due from others to itself. It is to tax the peo- ple to the extent of a hundred or a hundred and fifty millions of dollars to maintain its good faith and its integrity every way ; and it is to fur- nish the people with the medium, not the means, of payment. If this scheme fail, if these notes have no credit and do not circulate as substi- tutes for so much money, always good in satisfaction of so much debt due by the people to their Government, it will be either because there is no sufficient taxation laid, or if laid, not collected, or because of direct and successful repudiation. And if any of these, then the Gov- ernment cannot be maintained any longer, and is not worth preserving. But we need apprehend none of these results, I trust. The country is full of wealth and resources; it is able, and, for the purpose of main- taining the honor and credit of the Government, which are the credit and honor of every citizen in it, willing, I doubt not, to pay any amount of taxation which may be demanded. We have full constitutional power to tax. Here is a coercion which I recognize and approve. True, as Mr. Burke said, it is no more possible to tax and to please, than to love and to be wise. But is it not wonderful that gentlemen who are so fearful of their popularity that they will not resort to the constitutional coercion of taxation, are yet willing and eager to force upon the people instead of taxes, the unconstitutional, despotic, and most disastrous coercion of a paper currency to be received in satisfac- tion of every debt, and to enter into, and derange every contract, and taint and degrade every commercial and every business transaction of every kind, under penalty of forfeiture or confiscation of the debt? Coerce taxes, sir, and you secure a firm credit, and a full and, what is better, a free and voluntary circulation of your Government paper, in- termingling naturally with the whole circle of the financial and com- mercial concerns of the States and of the people, without the violence, derangement, and convulsion of a forced and odious and abhorred paper currency. If you are afraid of the people, be afraid to do wrong, not to do right. Sir, instead of force, the substitute proposes to rely for the credit and circulation of these Treasury notes Treasury certificates they really are, but I prefer the long-established and accepted name first, 356 VALLANDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. upon their convertibility at the will of the holder into six per cent stock; and as they bear no interest at all, the hollers will naturally seek to fund them whenever United States stocks shall have be<-n re- stored to their par value. And this will happen whenever, and not before, its solid revenue shall have been made sufficient for its ordinary expenses, and the punctual and certain payment of the interest on the public debt, present and prospective, and the collection of that revenue made absolutely sure. Whenever doubt upon that question is removed, your stocks will go up to par, and will remain there or above it. Why does not this bill, instead of force, rely upon credit obtained by the right to fund these notes bearing no interest, in bonds with interest at six per cent. ? Because your stocks are already at ninety cents on the dollar, and of course no capitalist will invest par notes in bonds ten per cent, below par. And why are your stocks thus depreciated ? Because there is a doubt whether the interest will be paid punctually and surely at maturity. And, pardon me, sir, you never can remove that doubt by legislation or force, but only by revenue. Sir, I have not referred to-day to a sinking fund as an object of im- mediate importance; because if revenue enough can be secured just now to pay the very large interest on the public debt, we shall have done well enough at present, without attempting to find ways and means to discharge it, till the enormous drnin of millions a d;\v shall in some way or other have been arrested. Sufficient unto the day will that evil be. I concur, indeed, thoroughly in the principle which affirms that no debt ought to be created without at the same time pro- viding means wherewith to pay it finally. But that principle should have been remembered before, or at least at the time when, the pro- digious expenditures of the Government were commenced ; and it is impossible to act upon it just now, when there is scarce a dollar to J- had for the most pressing wants of the Treasury. Let us seize tl earliest moment for it when it shall have become practicable, and mean- time be content to find means for the current and most essential ex- penses of the Government. But, Mr. Chairman, the fundamental idea of this substitute is to sup- port and float these $150,000,000, by a nearly equal amount of taxa- tion and revenue, payable of course in these notes. The Government owes the people and the people owe the Government, each $150,000,- 000, and these notes are primarily to be used as a common medium of payment between them. Unquestionably so long as this relation of mutual debts and credits subsists in nearly the same proportion, these notes will float in general circulation and in payments, or exchanges, or other commercial and business transactions between citizen and citi- zen, even without the funding clause ; but this clause is essential inas- ox THE "UNITED STATES NOTE" BILL. 357 mnch a? tho expenditures of the. Government very greatly exceed the $150,000,000, and because tin- debt present and future is unhappily to last for ninny years to come. But these notes will have this advantage over bank paper, that they are receivable at par with gold and silver in payment of Government dues, while it is not. The refusal, therefore, of the banks to receive and circulate them will avail nothing to depre- ciate their value, since their credit and circulation will depend, not on bank favor, but on taxes of a nearly equal amount which must be paid, at all events, and may be paid in these same notes. They will thus be beyond the reach of bull, bear, or banker. Will they circulate as money, and answer its purposes as w r ell to the creditors as the cjbtors of the Government, sustained as they are by all these elements of credit? Sir, I do not depend solely on theory and deduction upon this point. We are not without examples at home and abroad. Xorth Carolina, after the Revolution, and previous to the adoption of the present Constitution, issued between four and five hun- dred thousand dollars, of paper, receivable in payment of her public dues. She declared it also a legal tender, but her ratification of the Constitution in November, 1789, of course abrogated that provision; and yet, supported by taxation sufficient to pay her debts and carry on her State government, this immense amount of paper-money remained in circulation for more than twenty years at par with gold and silver during the whole time, although her revenue was less than one-fourth of the whole amount of this currency. In like manner Russia, as late as 1827, had a fixed paper circulation of upward of $120,000,000, in the form of bank-bills, but having nothing to sustain it, except that it was receivable. in payment of her public dues; and yet it continued for years at par, although her revenue did not exceed 890,000,000 annu- ally. And in 1838 Mr. Clay declared that if the Government used only gold and silver, and its own credit, it could even with the then small revenue of some 830,000,000 keep 840,000,000 of Treasury drafts in circulation at par all over the Union, though they should bear not a cent of interest, and not be fundablc at last in interest-bearing stocks ; and I do not now doubt that one-third, possibly one-half more of these Treasury notes, than of any given amount of fixed, undoubted, and punctually paid revenue, could be floated at par to-day. I do not propose, Mr. Chairman, or pretend that these Treasury notes are to be convertible into gold and silver. They are not payable on demand ; they arc not payable to bearer, nor payable at all. They arc not to be paid, but to circulate as a currency receivable in Govern- ment dues, and finally to be funded in twenty years' stocks. They are not promises to pay, and therefore are not paper-money. They do not represent gold and silver, of which the Government has none ; and if it 358 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. had wherewith to pay notes on demand, it would be under no necessity and have no justification for issuing or circulating these notes at all. They represent only Government dues, and their value rests on the credit of the Government on its right and power to collect such an amount of taxes as may be needed to sustain that credit. The United States are to cease in part for a time to be a specie-paying, hard-money Government. I deplore it profoundly. But imperious necessity de- mands it. There is no alternative, no matter what evils may follow. It is the best possible that can be done under the circumstances; and that is the only apology for suspending, even to that extent, the Inde- pendent Treasury, as wise and beneficent a measure as ever was devised. And yet it is one thing for the Government to receive and pay out its own paper or notes in its own business, and quite another to receive and pay out the paper bills or promises of a bank as cash; and as to this last, the Independent Treasury system remains unchanged. But I utterly deny, sir, the right of the Federal Government to pro- vide a paper currency intended primarily to circulate as money, and meet the demands of business and commercial transactions, and to tho exclusion of all other paper. It is not the intent or object of the sub- stitute to furnish such a currency for the country. Its purpose is to provide a new but temporary medium, receivable for the public dues and sufficient only to meet the increased fiscal action of the Govern- ment. It is not to supersede either gold and silver or bank rmr>er in ordinary business and commercial affairs. The tendency of all paper, indeed, is to expel specie from circulation ; and it always will, to a greater or less extent, where it is a mere substitute for it, and the more so just in proportion as there is a want of confidence in it. But this bill proposes a paper in addition to the present currency of the coun- try, an addition made necessary by the immensely increased disburse- ments, and by and by, of the revenues of the Government. Sir, the whole amount of specie and bank paper actually in circulation in the United States, on the 1st of May, when this increase began, was about $400,000,000, of which amount some $300,000,000 were in the States still called loyal. Of the whole amount, the Government employed in various ways $87,000,000; leaving $313,000,000 for the ordinary commercial and business transactions of the country ; of which amount about $213,000,000 were circulated in the loyal States. Meantime in nine months, though one-third of the States have seceded, the expendi- tures and operations of the Government have gone up in the remaining two-thirds, from $87,000,000 to $600,000,000. To meet this im- mensely increased fiscal action, we have but $213,000,000 of currency, gold and silver and bank paper, not including the $50,000,000 of de- mand notes now in circulation. ON THE "UNITED STATES NOTE BILL. 359 It is true, sir, that in the generally deranged and embarrassed condi- tion of the country, a large part of the $213,000,000 has been with- drawn from ordinary and private business and commerce,, and used in aid of the transactions of Government. But with all this there remains some hundreds of millions needed still. It cannot, indeed, be all sup- plied in this way, because the limit to the credit of the Government, by virtue of which it can float Treasury notes, is not the amount of its expenditures and indebtedness, 'but of its solid revenues. There is, however, abundant room, as I have just shown, for the circulation of these notes, primarily, and therefore constitutionally, as a medium be- twcen the Government and its tax-payers and tax-consumers ; but, sec- ondarily, as a part of, and not a substitute for, the common currency of the country. And it is a consideration of no small value to the Govern- ment, and bringing no loss to the people, that as long as they circulate there will be a large saving of interest, equivalent in one year, at six per cent., to the sum of $900,000 ; a considerable item, in ordinary times at least. And they have this further advantage also over Treasury notes bear- ing interest and payable at a future day, that the latter bear interest from the day they are put out, but the former only from the time they cease to circulate and are funded another large item in the way of \ economy. Nor is there any danger, sir, that they will continue in cir- culation after the necessity which compels and justifies their issue shall Lave ceased. As soon as the credit of the Government is restored, and its bonds are at par or command a premium, and when its enormous receipts and disbursements. shall have been diminished, not only will it be the interest of all capitalists to fund them, but especially of the banks to drive them into stocks and thus out of circulation. That day, in- deed, may be far distant. Such, Mr. Chairman, is the substitute which I have submitted. It differs essentially from the bill. The one relies on force, the other upon credit; the one looks to the direct and despotic coercion of law and arms, the other to the indirect and ordinary coercion of taxation ; the- bill would override both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution ; the substitute follows and complies with both ; the former shocks every principle not only of justice between the Government and the citizen, but of sound political economy ; the latter recognizes the eternal and immutable rules of justice, and conforms itself strictly to the fixed and inexorable laws of commerce and trade ; and finally, the one would provide au unlimited, irredeemable, depreciated paper-money forced by fear of violence or confiscation, upon the whole people ; while the other proposes only a voluntary, limited, and temporary currency to circulate primarily between the creditors and the debtors of the Government. 360 VALLANDIGHAJl's SPEKCIIKS. The difference is radical. It is the difference between the bn-ad road and the narrow way. The Secretary has chosen the former aud death is at the end of it. , "Oh for that warning voice, which lie, who saw The Apocalypse, heard cry in Heaven aloud I" To my political friends let me now appeal for support, not only of this substitute, but of the taxation which must follow it as essential to the maintenance of the good faith and credit of the Government Forego the little paltry advantage which might be secured from oppo- sition to the taxes necessary for that purpose. Impair not the estate in order to injure or annoy the tenant. But I put it upon higher and nobler grounds. There is not a member of this House, I take it for granted, who does not desire and hope and look for an ultimate, if not a speedy restoration of the Union of these States just as onr fathers made it. If there be one who does not, no matter on which side of the House he sits, he has no business here. I have differed with the Ad- ministjration as to the means, and differ widely still, but never as to the end ; if, indeed, reunion, the old Union, be the end an-d purpose for which they arc contending. But, I repeat it, bankruptcy is disunion and dissolution in the worst form, and would instantly end the war, the Government, and the Union forever. Finally, sir, if the committee and the House shall proceed upon the principles 01 justice and souuu poiiueai economy wmcii nave been hitherto observed by every wise Government,. and above all by this Gov- ernment from the beginning, in the maintenance of its credit and good faith, I will lend a ready and an earnest support to every measure framed in conformity with these principles, and intended and calculated to build up and to sustain the public credit and good faith. Otherwise, I cannot and I will not vote to bring down upon the wretched people of this once happy and prosperous country, the triple ruin of a forced currency, enormous taxation, and a public debt never to be extinguished. * . APPENDIX. The following are the material sections of Mr. VALLANDIGHAM'S sub- stitute : That to meet the necessities of the Treasury of the United States, and to provide a currency receivable for the public dues, the Secretary of tho Treasury, with tho approbation of the President of the United States, is hereby authorized to issue, on the faith of the United States, Treasury notes in auy amount not exceeding $150,000,000, not bearing interest, transferable by delivery, and of such deno'mi- nations as he may deem expedient, not greater than $1,000, nor less than five dol- lars each : Provided, however, That $50,000,000 of said notes shall be in lieu of tho demand Treasury notes authorized to be issued by the act of July 17, 1861 ; which ox THE "UNITED STATES KOTE" BILL. 361 said demand notes, so far as issued, shall be taken up as rapidly as practicable, and the notes herein provided for substituted for them, and no more of said demand notes shall be issued or reissued after the passage of this act: And provided fur- ther, That the amount of the two kiuds of notes together shall at no time exceed the sum of $150.000,000; and the Treasury notes herein authorized shall be re- ceivable in payment of all taxes, duties, imposts, excises, debts, and demands of every kind due to the United States, and may bo paid out, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, by any disbursing officer of the United States to any creditor of the United States who will consent to receive the same, at the par value thereof, in discharge of the debt or claim of such creditor; and any holder thereof depositing any sum not less than $100, or some multiple of one hundredi with the Treasurer of the United States, or either of the Assistant Treasurers, or cither of the designated depositaries at Cincinnati or Baltimore, shall receive in exchange therefor duplicate certificates of deposit, one of which may Inc- transmit- ted to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall thereupon issue to the holder an equal amount of bonds of the United States, coupon or registered, as may by said holder be desired, bearing interest at the rate of six per centum per annum, pay- able semi-annually, and redeemable at the pleasure of the United States after twenty years from the date thereof; and any holder of said notes, being a citizen or subject and resident of any foreign country, depositing, as aforesaid, any sum therein not less than $2,500, shall, if he demand it, receive similar bonds at the above-named rate of interest, payable semi-annually, the principal and interest of which shall be expressed in the currency of any foreign country, and payable there. And said United States Treasury notes shall be received the same as coin, at their par value, in the sale or negotiation of any bonds that may be hereafter sold or negotiated by the Secretary of the Treasury, with tho approbation of tho President of the United States, to any person being a citizen and resident of the United States, and maybe reissued from time to time, as the exigencies of the pub- lic interests shall require : Provided, however, That this right to reissue shall not continue longer than two years from the passage of this act, unless Congress shall hereafter otherwise provkle. SEC. 2. And Is it further enacted. That the form of said Treasury notes shall be as follows : " The United States will receive this Treasury note in payment of all taxes, duties, imposts, excises, debts, and demands of every kind due to the United States, to the value of five dollars," or whatever sum or denomination may be ex- pressed thereon, as hereinbefore provided for. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That to enable tho Secretary of the Treasury to fund the floating debt of the United States, he is hereby authorized, with the ap- probation of the President of the United States, to issue on the credit of the United States, coupon bonds, or registered bonds, to an amount not exceeding $200,000,000, redeemable at the pleasure of the United States after twenty years from date, and bearing interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually. And said bonds shall be of such denominations, not less than fifty dollars, as tho Secretary of tho Treasury, with the approbation of the President of the United States, may determine upon ; or where any creditor of the floating debt of tho United States, in any sum of'not less than $2,500, being a citizen or subject and resident of any foreign country shall demand it, said bonds shah 1 be issued to such creditor, the principal and interest therein being expressed in tho currency of any foreign country, and payable there : Provided, however, That none of said bonds shall issue except at their par value ; and to such creditors of the floating debt of 362 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. the United States as shall elect to receive them in satisfaction of their demands : Provided further, ako, That the claims and demands of such creditors shall, in all cases, have been first audited and settled by tho proper accounting officers of the Treasury. ADDRESS OF DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF TUB UNITED STATES, TO THE DEMOCRACY OF THE UNITED STATES. WASHINGTON, D. C., May 8, 1862.* FELLOW-CITIZENS : The perilous condition of the country demands that we should counsel together. Party organization, restricted within proper limits, is a positive good, and indeed essential to the preserva- tion of public liberty. "Without it the best government would soon degenerate into the worst of tyrannies. In despotisms the chief use of power is in crushing out party opposition. In our own country the experience of the last twelve months proves, more than any lesson in history, the necessity of party organization. The present Administra- tion was chosen by a party, and in all civil acts and appointments has recognized, and still does, its fealty and obligations to that party. There must and will be an opposition. The public safety and good demand it. Shall it be a new organization or an old one? The .Dem- ocratic party was founded more than sixty years ago. It has never been disbanded. To-day it numbers one million five hundred thou- sand electors in the States still loyal to the Union. Its recent numer- ous victories in municipal elections in the Western and Middle States prove its vitality. Within the last ten months it has held State con- ventions and nominated full Democratic tickets in every free State in the Union. Of no other party opposed to the Republicans can the same be said. SHALL THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BE NOW DISBANDED? Why should it? Are its ancient PRINCIPLES wrong? What are they ? Let its platforms for thirty years speak : " Resolved, That the American Democracy place their trust in tho intelligence, the patriotism, and the discriminating justice of the American people. * This Address was signed by "William A. Richardson, Anthony L. Knapp, and James C. Robinson, of Illinois; John Law, and Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana; William Allen, Chilton A. "White, Warren P. Noble, George II. Pendleton, and Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio; Nehemiah Perry, of New Jersey; Philip John- son, and Sydenham E. Ancona, of Pennsylvania ; and George K. Shiel, of Oregon. ADDRESS TO THE DEMOCRACY. 3G3 " That we regard this as a distinctive feature in our political creed, which we are proud .to maintain before the world, as the great moral element in a form of Government springing from and upheld by the POPULAR WILL; and we contrast it with the creed and practice of Federalism, under whatever name or form, which seeks to palsy the will of the constituent, and which conceives no imposture too monstrous for the popular credulity. "That the Federal Government is one of limited power, derived soldy from the CONSTITUTION; and the grants of power made therein ought to be strictly con- strued by all the departments and agents of the Government; and that it is inex- pedient and dangerous to exercise doubtful constitutional powers." And as explanatory of these the following from Mr. Jefferson's first inaugural : " The support of the STATE GOVERNMENTS in all their rights as the most com- petent administrations of our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks againSt anti-republican tendencies. " The preservation of the GENERAL GOVERNMENT in its whole constitutional vigor as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad. " A jealous care of the right of election by the people. "THE SUPREMACY OF THE CIVIL OVER THE MILITARY AUTHORITY. "Economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened. " The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith. "FREEDOM OF RELIGION, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, AND FREEDOM OF PERSON UNDER PROTECTION OF THE HABEAS CORPUS, AND TRIAL BY JURIES IMPARTIALLY SELECTED." Such, Democrats, are the principles of your party, essential to pub- lic liberty and to the stability and wise administration of the Govern- ment, alike in peace and war. They are the principles upon which the Constitution and the Union were founded ; and under the control of a party which adheres to them, the Constitution would be maintained and the Union could not be dissolved. Is the POLICY of the Democratic party wrong tbat it should be dis- banded ? Its policy is consistent with its principles, and may be summed up, from the beginning, as follows : The support of liberty as against power ; of the people as against their agents and servants ; and of State rights as against consolidation and centralized despotism ; a sim- ple Government ; no public debt ; low taxes ; no high protective tariff; no general system of internal improvements by Federal authority ; no National Bank ; hard money for the Federal public dues ; no assump- tion of State debts ; expansion of territory ; self-government for the Territories, subject only to the Constitution ; the absolute compatibil- ity of a Union of the States, " part slave and part free;" the admis- sion of new States, with or witbout slavery, as they may elect ; non- interference by the Federal Government with slavery in State and Territory, or in the District of Columbia ; and, finally, as set forth in the Cincinnati Platform, in 1850, and reaffirmed in 1860, absolute and 364 VALLAKDIGIIAM'S SPEECHES. eternal " repudiation of ALL SECTIONAL PARTIES AND PLATFORMS con- cerning domestic slavery which seek to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to law in the Territories, and whose avowed purposes, if consummated, must end in CIVIL WAR AND DIS- Such was the ancient and the recent policy of the Democratic party, running through a period of sixty years a policy consistent with the principles of the Constitution, and absolutely essential to the preserva- tion of the Union. Does the HISTORY of the Democratic party prove that it ought to be abandoned? " By their fruits shall ye know them." Sectional par- ties do not achieve Union triumphs. For sixty years from the inaugu- ration of Jefferson on the 4th of March, 1801, the Democratic party, with short intervals, controlled the power and the policy of the Federal Government. For forty-eight years out of these sixty, Democratic men ruled the country ; for forty-four years and eight months the Dem- ocratic policy prevailed. During this period Louisiana, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and California were successively annexed to our territory, with an area more than twice as large as all the original Thirteen States together. Seventeen new States were admitted under strictly Demo- cratic administrations one under the Administration of Fillmore. From five millions, the population increased to thirty-one millions. The Revolutionary debt was extinguished. Two fm-oiom wir? WOTA successfully prosecuted, with a moderate outlay and a small army and navy, and without the suspension of the habeas corpus; without one infraction of the Constitution ; without one usurpation of power ; with- out suppressing a single newspaper ; without imprisoning a single edi- tor; without limit to the freedom of -press, or of speech in or out of Congress, but in the midst of the grossest abuse of both ; and without the arrest of a single " traitor," though the HARTFORD CONVENTION sat during one of the wars, and in the other Senators invited the enemy to " GREET OUR VOLUNTEERS WITH BLOODY HANDS AND WELCOME THEM TO HOSPITABLE GRAVES." During all this time wealth increased, business of all kinds multi- plied, prosperity smiled on every side ; taxes were low ; wages were high; the North and the South furnished a market for each other's products at good prices ; public liberty was secure ; private rights un- disturbed ; every man's houseVas his castle; the courts were open to all; no passports for travel; no secret police; no spies; no informers; no bastiles ; the right to assemble peaceably ; the right to petition ; freedom of religion, freedom of speech, a free ballot, and a free press; and all this time the Constitution maintained and the Union of the States preserved. ADDRESS TO THE DEMOCRACY. 365 Sucli were the choice fruits of Democratic principles and policy, carried out through the whole period during which the Democratic party held the power and administered the Federal Government. Such lias born the history of that party. It is a Union party, for it preserved the Union, by wisdom, pca?e, and compromise, for more than half a century. Then neither the ancient principles, the policy, nor the past history of the Democratic party require nor would justify its disbandmcnt. Is there any thing in the present crisis which demands it ? The more immediate issue is, TO MAINTAIN THE CONSTITUTION AS IT IS, AND TO RESTORE THE UNION AS IT WAS. To maintain the Constitution is to respect the rights of the States and the liberties of the citizen. It is to adhere faithfully to the very principles and policy which the Democratic party has professed for more than half a century. Let its history, and the results, from the beginning, prove whether it has practised them. We appeal proudly to the record. The first step towards a restoration of the Union as it was is to maintain the Constitution as it is. So long as it was maintained in fact, and not threatened with infraction in spirit and in letter, actual or imminent, the Union was unbroken. To restore the Union, it is essential, first, to give assurance to every State and to the people of cvcrv section that their rights and liberties and property will be secure within the Union under the Constitution. What assurance so doubly sure as the restoration to power of that ancient, organized, consolidated Democratic party which for sixty years did secure the property, rights, and liberties of the States and of the people; and thus did maintain the Constitution and preserve the Union, and with them the multiplied blessings which distinguished us above all other nations ? To restore the Union is to crush out sectionalism North and South. To begin the great work of restoration through the ballot is to KILL ABOLITION. The bitter waters of secession flowed first nnd arc fed still from the unclean fountain of abolition. That fountain must be dried up. Armies may break down the power of the Confederate Govern- ment in the South ; but the work of restoration can be carried on only through political organization arid the ballot in the North and West. In this great work we cordially invite the co-operation of all men of every party, who are opposed to the fell spirit of abolition, and who, in sincerity, desire the Constitution as it is, and the Union as it was. 366 VALLANDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. Let the dead past bury its dead. Rally, lovers of the Union, the Con- stitution, and of Liberty, to the standard of the Democratic party, already in the iield and confident of victory. That party is the natural and persistent enemy of abolition. Upon this question its record as a national organization, however it may have been at times with particu- lar men or in particular States, is clear and unquestionable. From the beginning of the anti-slavery agitation to the period of the last Demo- cratic National Convention it has held but one language in regard to it. Let the record speak : "Revoked, That Congress has no power under the Constitution to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of every thing appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, arc calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous con- sequences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions." Upon these principles alone, so far as relates to slavery, can the Union as it was be restored ; and no other Union, except the UNITY OF DESPOTISM, can be maintained in this country ; and this last we will resist, as our fathers did, with our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. But it is said that you must disband the Democratic party, "to sup- port the government." \Ve answer that the Democratic party has al- ways supported THE GOVERNMENT; and while it was in power preserved the government in all its vigor and integrity, not by force and arms, but by wisdom, sound policy, and peace. But it never did admit, and never will, that this Administration, or any Administration, is "the Government." It holds, and ever has held, 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 judi- cial 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 government, the Union, and the country. In this sense the Democratic party has always sustained, and will now sustain, the government against all foes, at home or abroad, in the North or the South, open or concealed, in office or out of office, in peace or in war. ADDRESS TO HIE DEMOCRACY. 367 If (his is what the Republican party mean by supporting the gov- ernment, it is an idle thing to abandon the old and tried Democratic party, which for so many years, and through so many trials, supported, preserved, and maintained the government of the Union. But if their real purpose be to aid the ancient enemies of the Democracy, in sub- verting our present Constitution and form of government, and, under pretence of saving the Union, to erect a strong centralized despotism on its ruins, the Democratic party will resist them as the worst enemy to the Constitution, and the Union, and to free government every- where. We do not propose to consider now the causes which led to the present unhappy civil war. A fitter time will come hereafter Tor such discussion. But we remind you now that Compromise made your Union, and Compromise fifteen months ago would have saved it. Re- peated efforts were made at the last session of the Thirty-Sixth Con- gress to this end. At every stage, the great mass of the South, with the whole Democratic party, and the whole Constitutional Union party, of the North and West, united in favor of certain amendments to the Constitution and chief among them, the well known " Crittcn- den Propositions," which would have averted civil war, and maintained the Union. At every stage, all proposed amendments inconsistent with the sectional doctrines of the Chicago Platform, were strenuously and unanimously resisted, and defeated, by the Republican party. The " Crittenden Propositions" never received a single Republican vote, in either House. For the proof we appeal to the Journals of Congress and to the Congressional Globe. We scorn to reply to the charge that the Democratic party is oppos- ed to grading aid and support to the Federal Government, in main- taining its safety, integrity, and constitutional supremacy, and in favor of disbanding our armies, and succumbing to the South. The charge is Hbelious and false. No man has advocated any such proposition. Democrats recognize it as their duty as patriots, to support the govern- ment in all constitutional, necessary, and proper efforts to maintain its safety, integrity, and constitutional authority; but at the same time they are inflexibly opposed to waging war against any of the States or people of this Union, in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of any State. Above all, the Demo- cratic party will not support the Administration in any thing which looks or tends to the loss of our political or personal rights and liber- tics, or a change of our present Democratic form of government. But no, Democrats, it is not the support of the government, in re- storing the Union, which the party in power require of you. You are 368 VALLATTDIGHAM'S SPEECHES. asked to give up your principles, your policy, and your party, and to stand by the Administration, in all its acts. Above all, it is demanded of you that you yield at least a silent support to their whole policy, and to withhold all scrutiny into their public conduct, of every kind, lest you should " embarrass the Administration." You are thus asked to renounce one of the first principles and the chief security of a Demo- cratic government the right to hold public servants responsible to their master, the people; to render the representative accountable to the constituent ; the ancient and undoubted prerogative of Americans to canvass public measures and public men. It is this " high consti- tutional privilege" which Daniel Webster declared he would a defend and exercise, within the House and out of the House, and in all places; in time of war, in time of peace, and at all times !" It is a right se- cured by the Constitution ; a right inestimable to the people, and for- midable to tyrants only. If ever there was a time when the existence and consolidation of the Democratic party, upon its principles and policy, was a vital necessity to public and private liberty, it is now. Unquestionably the Constitution gives ample power to the several departments of the government to carry on war, strictly subject to its provisions, and, in case of civil war, with perfect security to citizens of the loyal States. Every act necessary for the safety and efficiency of the government, and for a complete and most vigorous trial of its strength, is yet wholly consistent with the observance of every pro- vision of that instrument, and of the laws in pursuance of it, if the sole motives of those in power were the suppression of the " rebellion," and no more. And yet the history of the Administration for the twelve months past has been, and continues to be, a history of repeated usur- pations of power, and of violations of the Constitution, and of the public and private rights of the citizen. For the proof we appeal to facts, too recent to need recital here, and too flagrant and heinous for the calm narrative which we propose. Similar acts were done, and a like policy pursued in the threatened war with France in the time of John Adams, and with the same ultimate purpose. But in two or three years the people forced them into an honorable peace with France, rebuked the excesses and abuses of power, vindicated the Con- stitution, and turned over the Federal Government to the principles and policy of the Democratic party. To the " sober second thought" of the people, therefore, and to the ballot-box, we now appeal when again in like peril with our fathers. But if every Democrat concurred in the policy of prosecuting the war to the utter subjugation of the South, and for the subversion of her State Governments and her institutions, without a Convention of ON PUBLIC DEBT, ETC. 369 the States, and \vitliont an overture for peace, we should just as reso- lutely resist the disbanding of the Democratic party. It is the only party capable of carrying on a war; it is the only party which has ever conducted a war to a successful issue, and the only party which has done it without abuse of power, without molestation to the rights of any class of citizens, and with due regard to economy. All this it lias done : all this, if need be, it is able to do again. Jf success, then, in a military point of view be required, the Democratic party alone can command it. To conclude : Inviting all men, without distinction of State, section, or party, who are for the Constitution as it is, and the Union as it was, to unite with us in this great work upon terms of perfect equality, we insist that The restoration of the Union, whether through peace or by war, demands the continued organization and success of the Democratic party ; The preservation of the Constitution demands it ; The maintenance of liberty and free democratical government de- mands it ; t The restoration of a sound system of internal policy demands it ; Economy and honesty in the public expenditures, now at the rate of nearly four millions of dollars a day, demand it ; The rapid accumulation of an enormous and permanent public debt, demand it a public debt, or liability, already one thousand millions of dollars, and equal, at the present rate, in three years, to England's debt of a century and a half in growth ; The heavy taxation, direct and indirect, State and Federal, already more than two hundred millions of dollars a year, eating out the sub- stance of the people, and augmenting every year, demands it ; Reduced wages, low prices, depression of trade, decay of business, scarcity of work, and impending ruin on every side, demand it ; And, finally, the restoration of the concord, good feeling, and pros- perity of former years, demands that the Democratic party shall be maintained, and made victorious. SPEECH ON PUBLIC DEBT, LIABILITY, AND EXPENDITURES, In the House of Representatives^ Jane 30, 1802. MK. SPEAKER: Desiring on Friday last to leave for home at an early hour this morning, it would greatly have suited my convenience to have addressed the House on that day; but inasmuch as the chair. man of the Committee of the Whole [Mr. Dawes], after due delibera- 24 370 VALLATTDIG HAM'S SPEECHES. tion and upon solemn advice, decreed that it was not in order, pending a revenue measure, to discuss the general subject of revenue and expen- ditures, but only the particular items of the bill, I was obliged to re- main, in order that I might speak to-day. Of this I will not now complain. It is but a part of the sum of human disappointments to which we arc all subject. The bill before us appropriates $200,000, and pledges the faith of the United States to the extent of 810,000,000 more. While, as a Western man, I should gladly support any measure really and honestly for the interest of the West, I am constrained to oppose this bill. I am against it, first, because, in my deliberate judgment, it is wholly without constitutional warrant. I oppose it further, because the debt and expenditures of the Government to-day are too great to justify any such further assumption of liability as this measure contemplates. And it is upon this point alone that I now propose to address the House. My purpose is not to produce an electioneering document. At the instance of others, if at all, and not by any act of mine, shall my re- marks of to-day be published and distributed in pamphlet. My object is to vindicate the truth of financial history ; to ascertain, as nearly as may be possible, the actual and full amount of the debt, liability, and expenditures of the Government a debt, every dollar of which fairly and honestly incurred, must be paid; for REPUDIATION is but treason in another form. I desire also to vindicate gentlemen on this side of the Chamber who have so gratuitously, wantonly, and unjustly been censured and assailed even to the extent of insinuations against their loyalty, for but repeat- ing the statements of others as to the enormous expenditures and in- debtedness of the Government. I propose further to justify by the proof, those Republican members of the Senate and this House upon whose authority we of the Democratic party here and through the country have made the statements which have so alarmed the Secretary of the Treasury and his retainers. Official accuracy and veracity of any kind are rare virtues in this day, and wherever found, are worthy of special commemoration and praise. Sir, I see nothing to be gained, but much, very much to be lost by the vain effort to conceal the real extent of the public debt and expen- ditures. In private life, nothing so much indicates, and generally nothing so certainly precedes disastrous bankruptcy, as an attempt dis- honestly to cover up or withhold the true condition of a business man in embarrassed circumstances. And the same principle applies equally to a government. The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Voorhees], and the other Demo- cratic members of this House, who put forth recently a certain " ad- OX PUBLIC DEBT, ETC. 371 dress" to the people, have been unsparingly denounced here and else- where for asserting that the public debt to-day, the end of the present fiscal year, amounts to from seven hundred to one thousand million dollars, and that the expenditures average now from two to near four million dollars a day. Now, sir, upon what authority did we assert, and had we a right to assert, it ? No Democratic member of this House has access, or at least familiar access, to the Treasury Department: none certainly to its secrets. We have not the means of knowing, by the inspection of its records, what amount of indebtedness lias already been incurred, nor what the expenditures are. Such access and means of knovledge be- long alone to the Republican members of the Senate and House of Representatives, and above all to the members of that party which compose the Committee of Ways and Means in the House, and the Committee on Finance in the Senate, and whose business it is to deal with the Treasury. J A large, a generous charity, therefore, I say, ought to be extended to us who, after three and four months' repeated and specific state- ments officially from Senators and Representatives as to the amount of debt and expenditures, have but put upon record before the people that which we derived from their authority. I propose then, sir, in the first place, to review and collate what has been said upon this subject within the past eleven months in this House and the Senate. On the 25th of July, 1801, the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means said : " It must be recollected that the demand on the Treasury is well nigh a million dollars a day." Congressional Globe, extra session, 1S61, p. 2G7. Again, on the 5th of August, 1861, ten days later, he said: " I am alarmed at the expense we are incurring. This day. and every day for Bomo time, the nation has incurred an expense of some one million two hundred and fifty tfiousand dollars. I cannot see where the money is to come from." Ibid., p. 448. That, sir, was before the notion that the Constitution authorized the making of the promissory notes of the United States, or any thing else except gold and silver, a "legal tender,*' had ever entered the brain of any one, and before the Secretary of the Treasury had compassed and devised his extraordinary scheme of a grand national paper-mill for the manufacture of money by steam. Again, the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Dawcs], who was thrust forward here the other day as the advocate to defend, upon special retainer, and abet the Secretary of the Treasury in his deliber- ate effort to underestimate the true amount of the public debt and daily expenditures of the Government, and who, by some sort of finan- 3Y2 YALLATsDIG HA3i's SPEECHES. cial legerdemain, contrived to prove them to be somewhat less than one million dollars a day, himself, on the 13th of January last, said: "Mr. Speaker, it takes $2,000,000 every day to support the Array in the field." Mark you, not as he here subsequently suggested, that on that par- ticular 13th of January, or the day before or the day after, or any other one day, that was the expenditure, but " every day." And this, too, for the Army alone. But he proceeds : " One hundred millions have been expended since we mot hero in the beginning of December, upon an Army in repose." Ah ! indeed. Why, sir, that is at the rate of $2,380,000 a day for the preceding six weeks, with the Army " in repose." He adds : ""What they will be when that great day shall arrive if it shall ever arrive when our eyes shall be gladdened with the sight of the Army in motion, I do not know." Congressional Globe, 18G1-2, vol. 2, p. 209. Well, sir, our eyes were at length " gladdened with the sight of the Army in motion." The grand Army of the Potomac did actually move ; and yet then of all others precisely is the time which the gentleman selects for severe censure upon members on this side of the House for intimating the mere suspicion that the expenses which he could not even estimate, might be seven or eight hundred thousand dollars more