tends to perpetuate power by making and unmaking States, as the interests of factions may dictate. It will be a source of internal disorder and disquietude, and national weakness in our external relations. It will give dangerous allies to invaders of our soil. If this war is to make a social revolution and structural changes in great states, we have seen only its beginning. Such changes are the work of time. If they are to be made by military power, it must be exerted through long periods. Whether white or black troops are used, the diversion from labor and the cost of war will be equally prolonged, and we have just entered upon a course of certain cost and uncertain results. No such changes as are now urged have ever, in the world's history, been without struggles lasting through more than one generation of men. What has government accomplished in the territories wrested from reber'in by the valor of our armies? Has it pacified them? Has it revived the arts of peace? Has quiet and confidence been restored? Is commerce renewed? Are they not held as they were conquered, at the expense of northern blood and treasure? Are not our armies wasted by holding under armed control those who, under a wise and generous spirit, would have been friends? The spirit which prompts the harsh measure of subjugation has driven off many in the border states, who, at the crisis of our country's fate, broke away from their ancient sympathies with the seceding states and clung to the Union. States which, by the elections of the people, ranged themselves upon the side of the constitution, are not allowed the free exercise of the elective franchise. In some quarters discontent has been increased; in no place has the wisdom of government gained us allies. There is but one course which will save us from national ruin. We must adhere to the solemn pledges made by our government at the outset of the war. We must seek to restore the Union and to uphold the Constitution. To this end, while we beat down armed rebellion, we must use every influence of wise statesmanship to bring back the states which now reject their constitutional obligations. We must hold forth every honorable inducement to the people of the South to assume again the rights and duties of American citizenship. We have reached that point in the progress of the war, for which all have struggled and all have put forth united exertions. Our armies and navies have won signal victories; they have done their part with courage, skill and success. By the usage of the civilized world, statesmanship must now exert its influence. If our cause fails, in the judgment of the world, it will be charged to the lack of wisdom in the Cabinet, and not to the want of bravery or patriotism in the army. The great object of victories is to bring back peace; we can now with dignity and magnanimity proclaim to the world our wish that states, which have long been identified with our history, should resume their positions in the Union. We now stand before the world a great and successful military power. No one can foresee the latent victories or defeats which lie in our course if force and force alone is to be exerted. The past has taught us the certain cost of war and the uncertainties of its results. In this contest belligerent rights are necessarily conceded to the South. The usages of international warfare are practiced in the recognition of flags and the exchanges of prisoners. Is it wise to put off the end of the war and thereby continue a recognition which tends to familiarize the public mind in our own country, and in the world at large with the idea that we are disunited into two distinct nationalities? A needlessly protracted war becomes disunion. Wise statesmanship can now bring this war to a close, upon the terms solemnly avowed at the outset of the contest. Good faith to the public creditors; to all classes of citizens of our country; to the world, demands that this be done. The triumph won by the soldiers in the field should be followed up and secured by the peacemaking policy of the statesmen of the Cabinet. In no other way can we save our Union. The fearful struggle which has taught the North and the South the courage, the endurance and the resources of our people, have made a basis of mutual respect upon which a generous and magnanimous policy can build lasting relationships of union, intercourse and fraternal regard. If our course is to be shaped by narrow and vindictive passions, by venal purposes, or by partisan objects, then a patriotic people have poured out their blood and treasure in vain and the future is full of disaster and ruin. We should seek not the disorganization, but the pacification of that section of our country devastated by civil war. In this hour of triumph appeals should be made to States, which are indentified with the growth and greatness of our country, and with some of which are associated the patriotic memories of our revolutionary struggle. Every generous mind revolts at the thought of destroying all those memories that cling about the better days of the Republic, that are connected with the sacrifices of the men who have made our history glorious by their services in the Cabinet, in the forum, and in the field. The victories which have given our government its present commanding position were won by men who rallied around and fought beneath the folds of a flag whose stars represent each State in our Union. If we strike out of existence a single State, we make that flag a falsehood. When we extinguish the name of any one of the original thirteen States, we dishonor the historic stripes of our national banner. Let the treasonable task of defacing our flag be left to those who war upon our government, and who would destroy the unity of our country. Faith in our armies and to our citizens demands that we keep sacred the solemn pledge made to our people and to the civilized world THE PURSE AND THE SWORD. The chief objection of PATRICK HENRY to the ratification of the Constitution, was what he feared would be the yielding of the purse and sword to the President. In a speech in the Virginia Convention he thus replied to a member who attempted to show that the President could never obtain control of the purse and sword under our constitution: "Let him tell me candidly, where and when did freemen exist when the purse and the sword were given up from the people? Unless a miracle in human affairs interposed, no nation ever retained its liberty after the loss of the purse and the sword. Can you prove by any argumentative deduction that it is possible to be safe without one of them? If you give them up, you are gone."-[See Elliott's De bates. Mr. CLAY, in a debate in the Senate, said: "The two most important powers of civil government are those of the purse and the sword. If they are seperate, and exercised by different responsibe Departments, civil liberty is safe, but if they are united in the hands of one individual, they are gone." FREE SPEECH ABOLISHED. We have seen, as another link in the chain of despotism now forging for the people, that free speech is no longer tolerated, except as it may suit the pleasure or whim of the President or some of his appointees. Senator T. O. Howe in his celebrated Ripon (Wis.) speech said: "I reply that if free speech be stifled upon any one subject the Union is already absolutely and inevitably lost!" This is none the less true because Senator Howe now upholds a dynasty that has stricken down free speech-mobbed and destroyed a free press, and claims the right to annihilate both at pleasure. PETTY DESPOTISM. The Abolitionists gave to the Democrats the vile nickname of "Copperheads." Finding that such nickname might be typical of "Liberty," they began to wear badges made of the old copper cent, with the profile of WASHINGTON on one side and the word "Liberty" on the other. This badge had nothing to do with the Southern cause-it represented no idea in connection with it, nor did it manifest the least sympathy for that cause, but the radicals, ever ready to summon an excuse for their despotic conduct, chose to say that the Copperhead badge was an emblem of disloyalty." The "Government," as in other small matters, joined in with the low grade of cheap politicians and gave orders to arrest all who should be found wearing one of the liberty heads. The following, as a sample, we clip from the Chicago Tribune of April, 1863: "At Cairo, several wearers of Copperhead badges have been arrested, to be dealt with. It has passed beyond a pleasantry, and those who so mark themselves, will find that they are marked for examination!' The following was telegraphed to the Associated Press: "CAIRO, April 16, 1963. "Nine persons were arrested here this evening for wearing the Copperhead badge." Thus did the head officers of a great and magnanimous nation, professing the Christian faith, and boasting of intelligence, league with the miniature politicians to hunt down all who should wear any device to distinguish them from their vile persecutors. We may search every lane and alley of history for a parallel of this small greatness. THE EVIDENCES OF APPROACHING DESPOTISM. comes necessary for the people to dissolve the official bands that have bound them to an unjust, unwise and tyranical Administration, and to assume to change that Administration, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all citizens of the loyal states, are, by the fundamental law, free and equal, and endowed by their Creator and the Magna Charta with cer When COLUMBUS was on his first voyage to America, his faith in the existence of land to the west of him was confirmed by various float-tain inalienable rights, that among these are ing weeds, logs, &c., and the appearance of the liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and birds, for he knew those things could not exthe liberty to properly criticise the acts of all clusively exist without land. So, in our voy-public officers. That to secure these rights, our age towards the unknown coast of the future, we know that despotism of some kind lies in our way, for we have seen so many floating evidences of it. As one of those evidences, we cite the following from the New York Tribune: In times of war every blow struck at the measures of the Government [the Administration] though designed only to affect a change of Administration, really affords aid and comfort to the enemy." These extravagant claims of unlimited acquiescence in everything the Administration may do or propose, are sure and certain evidences of approaching despotism, for the claim would not be set up, unless it was thought proper to enforce it. If it be true that any opposition to the measures of the Administration is "aid and comfort to the enemy," then it is treason as defined by the Constitution, and no matter what the President may do or propose, the least opposition is treason. Such a doctrine would land us in the lowest depths of despotism. Again says the Tribune: "To doubt the infallibilty of the royal or ministerial good judgment [of the President] is to doubt the greatness and glory of the country, and the smallest dissatisfaction becomes a kind of petty treason." We must be near the rocks and breakers of despotism, when we meet such arguments, floating on the tide of popular madness. DECLARATION CP INDEPENDENCE REVISED. The following was prepared by the author for a 4th of July occasion, and is here inserted as the most proper way to present the indictment against the radical policy: Government was instituted, deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed, and whenever the administration of this government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right and the duty of the people to change such Administration, basing their policy on such principles and organizing power in such form, under the fundamental law, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that an honorable Administration in times of great public danger, should not be changed for slight and transient causes, and accordingly our experience hath shown that our people are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by any other than constitutional means. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same objects, evince the design to reduce the people under absolute despotism, it is their right-it is their duty-to throw off such Administration, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient suffering of this people, and such is now the necessity which const rains them to change the administration. The history of the present Executive is s history of repeated wrongs, injuries and asurpations, all having a direct tendency to the establishment of an absolute tyranny and despotism over these states; to prove which, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by requiring his subordinates-creatures of his own will-to resist, vi et armis, the legal mandates of the loyal judiciary. He has arbitrarily usurped power to subject the liberties of our citizens, who acknowledge When, in the course of political events, it be- full allegiance to our laws, to the whim or ca price of military tribunals, wholly the offspring of his own choice. He has forcibly arrested and held in durance vile, judges on the bench, while in the exercise of their loyal and legal functions. [See the case of Judge CONSTABLE.] He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unknown to our laws, by instructing subalterns, subject to his own pleasure, to create by proclamation a criminal code, in direct antagonism to our laws. He has created a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power, in direct violation of the fundamental law. He has, in innumerable instances, deprived our citizens of the benefit of trial by jury. He has, arbitrarily, and without excuse suspended that great charter of civil liberty, the Writ of Habeas Corpus, in violation of the Constitution, as solemnly declared by the Supreme Court. He has endeavored to extinguish state sovereignty, by giving his assent to law obliterating state lines, without the assent of the people, thus striking down the last constitutional safeguard of a free people. He has practically annulled laws enacted over his own signature, providing against arbitrary arrests and illegal seizures. He has, for many months, pursued a line of policy which, if not arrested, will alter, fundamentally our form of Government. He has appointed men to fill the highest offices of trust, responsibility and honor, notoriously incompetent and corrupt, as a remuner. ation for political services. He has been, and now is, quartering among the loyal people of the North, large bodies of armed soldiery, without apparent necessity, but as it is believed, to sow the seeds of alarm among the people, to inaugurate a conflict, and to create a pretended necessity for a declaration of martil law, for purposes more safely imagined than described. He has encouraged unprovoked assaults on defenelessc citizens by soldiers, incited by officers amenable alone to his power, by neglecting or refusing to issue his proclamation against such abuses, and failing to bring the offenders to justice. He has invaded the sanctity of private dom-icils at the dead and criminal hour of nightdragged forth their occupants, guilty of no crime, as he himself publicly affirms-and then after a mock trial, before a picked military commission, that dare not offend their superiors, transported the victim beyond his civil jurisdiction. He has endeavored to suppress the liberty of speech, and only failed to suppress the liberty of the press through fear of the dreadful consequences. He has forced citizens into extradition beyond the limits of their own states, and without the pale of laws to which they owed fealty, without charges or legal trial, to be imprisoned in loathsome dungeons, for pretended offences. He and his radical advisers have endeavored to mould the popular branch of Congress to their own partizan purposes by a no less dishonorable scheme than a "rotten borough" system, so long the standing reproach to the British crown. This has been done by admitting members chosen by small fractions of the people in the seceded states, under military coercion, after first extorting pledges to give their votes for measures the most radical and destructive. He and his political confrers have rendered the elective franchise a mockery and the ballotbox a fraud, by counting a pretended army vote, given hundreds of miles beyond their state jurisdictions, managed, controlled and returned hy partizan zealots, without legal restraint and beyond the reach of sanitary laws— to set aside the known will of the people. He has sought to render the military-the joint sacrifice and pride of all parties—a political engine, by discharging from the service of their country, and affecting to dishonor and disgrace good and valiant officers, for no other offense than exercising the elective franchise as they deemed proper for the public weal. He has subjected loyal citizens to harsh and unusual punishment for no other offense than opinion's sake. He boldly claims the right to exercise summary authority over the personal liberty of every citizen, in defiance of courts and law; thus assuming an autocratic power that no prince or potentate on any other continent, would dare exercise, to render the tenure of personal freedom alone dependant on his will. He has also, through a subordinate officer, declared martial law on the eve of an important State election, with no other ostensible object than to control the will of the people by the force of bayonets. He has sought to intimidate the people in the lawful exercise of their political rights, and to prevent their counselling together, by masssing large bodies of armed troops in line of battle, to overawe a reaceful convention of loyal citizens, convened under the broad ægis of the constitution, to deliberate on matters of great public concern, and to petition for redress of grievances. He has, in one of these loyal states, dispersed by armed force, a political convention called in the usual and time-honored way, to nominate officers of state, thus wickedly and unlawfully employing the military for partizan purposes. He has also, by orders and edicts of his subordinates, annulled State laws, and prescribed new and unusual tests for exercising the elective franchise, thus rendering the tenure of office dependent on his pleasure. He has, by proclamation, established a rotten Borough system by which less than 70,000 persons in nine of the rebel states-and for aught that is known, a large portion of these may be enfranchised negroes,-may control over onehalf the entire population of all the states, and that 1,400 persons in Florida may have as much power in one branch of our government as the great state of New York, with three millions of people. He has done numerous and sundry other unlawful and despotic things, against the peace, the dignity, and the quietude of this sorely oppressed people. In every stage of these oppressions and usurpations, the people have remonstrated in the most humble terms. Their remonstrances have been answered only by repeated wrongs and injuries. An administration that is thus marked by every act that may define tyrants, is unfit to manage the affairs of a free people, and should be changed, in a peaceful and lawful manner, as soon as our charter will permit. Nor have the people-the whole people been wanting in duty to the Administration and the country. During every stage of oppression and insult, they have poured out their blood and their substance, free as the air of heaven; nearly three years of and notwithstanding war's fiery ordeal, that our adversary hovers as near our hearth-stones as ever before, the people are yet willing to bleed and be taxed, in the hope that the God of Battles will, ere it be too late, ordain a change of rulers, when a more enlightened policy shall infuse confidence and vigor into the war for the maintenance of the most liberal system of government on this planet. And for this purpose, and to break up the most wicked rebellion that ever reared its hydra head against a parent government, we pledge each to the other, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. CHAPTER XXXIV. MORE OF THE ROLE OF DESPOTISM. Abolition Schemes to Control Elections... Army Voting... Julius Cæsar the Originator of...Dr. Lieber on... Louis Napoleon and Army Voting...Army Vote for...General Tuttle and Vallandigham... Mr. V. Ahead...N. Y. World thereon...Tricks of the Administration to Saddle their Electioneering Expenses on the People...Governor Salomon of Wisconsin in the role... The Army Weakened ...Soldiers sent home to Vote... Proofs in Connecticut... Proofs in New York, &c...Stanton Boasts of tending more Soldiers than Curtin's majority...The Contractors perform their part... Martial Law in Kentucky to force the Election... How a "loyal" Paper Views it... From Louisville Journal...Statements of Clerk of the Election... How a Congressman was elected by an "overwhelming majority"... Further evidences... The Administration carries Maryland by the Bayonet...Gov. Bradford's Proclamation on the Subject...The Great Frauds Practiced on New York by the Enrollment and Quota process... New York Overdrawn as compared with other States... Frauds in the Pennsylvania and Ohio Elections... Punishing officers for Voting the Democratic Ticket... Case of Capt. Sells... Officers' Threats to control Elections ...Bribery at Elections... War on the "Copperheads"... Republican Organ Justifies Military Interference in Elections... The Politics of this War...Discharging disa bled and dying Soldiers from Office of Sutler for Voting the Democratic Ticket... Abolition claim of "Those who Vote must Fight"... Abolition Roorbacks to Effect Elections... The Union League Machinery... Forney on Their Purposes...Dr. Lieber on Soldiers Voting...Gen. Milroy on "Home Traitors"...John Brough's Appeal from the Ballot to the Bullet...More Threats... New York Independent Boasts of the Infamy, &c. |