Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1862-10-02

the battle field by the blood and treasure
of the people, is undone by Senator'S
Half Of the time is spent in factouS mea-
sures designed to destroy all confidence
in the Government at the South, and the
rest in annoying our army, in meddling
with its Operations, embarrassing our
Generals, and in publishing undigested
and unlounded scandal. One party is
seeking to bring about peace, the other to
keep alive hatred and bitterness by inter
ierences. They prove the wisdom of Sol
omon, when he said
"Ttis an honor to man to cease from strife, but
every fool will be m ddling.'
This war cannot be brought to sue
cesslul conclusion or our country restored
to an honorable peace under the Repub
lican leaders for another reason. Our
disasters are mainly due to the fact that
they have not dared to tell the truth to
the community. A system Of misrepre-
scntaton had been practiscI so long and
so successfully that when the war burst
upon us they feared to let the people know
its full proportions, and they persisted in
assuring their friends it was but a pass.
ing excitement. They still assorted that
the South was unable to maintain and
carry on war. They denounced as a
traitor every man who tried to tell the
truth and to warn ourpeople of the mag
nitude of the contest.
Now, my Republican friends, you
know that the misapprehensions OF the
North with regard to the South has
drenched the land with blood. Was this
ignorance accidental ? l appeal to you,
Republicans, il for years past. through the
press and in publications which have been
urged upon your attention by the leaders
ofyour party, you have not been taught
to despise the power and resources OF the
South ? | Iappeal to you to say if this
teaching has not been part of the ma
ehinery by which power has been gained?
appeal to you to answer if those who
tried to teach truths now admitted have
not been denounced? | appeal to you if
book, beyond all others false, bloody
and reasonable, was rot sent out with
the endorsement Of all your managers :?
and is it not true that now, when men
blush to own that they believed its state
ments, that its author is honored by an
official station 1t is now freely confess
ed by you all that you have been deceived
with respect to the South. Who deceiv-
ed you? Who, by false teachings, in
stilled contempt and hate into the minds
OF our people? Who stained our land
with blood? Who caused ruin and dis
tress? All these things are within your
own knowledge. Are their authors the
leaders to rescue us from our calamities?
They shrink back appalled, from the mis-
chief they have wrought, and tell you i
is an irrep:essible contest. That reason
is as good for Jefferson Davis as for them.
They attempt to drown reflections by
new excitements and new appeals to our
passions. Having already in legislation,
gone far beyond the limits at which, by
their resolutions, they were p edged to
stop, they now ask us to adopt measures
which they have heretofore denounced as
unjust and unconstitutional. For this
reason they cannot save our country.
AS our national calamities thicken up
on us, an attempt is made by their au-
thors to avoid their responsibilities by in
sisting that our failures are due to the
.act that their measures were not carried
out, although the Government has gone
far beyond its pledges. The demands Of
cause they hope to save themselves from
condemnation by having unsati,fied de-
mands. At the last session Congress
not only abolished slavery in the District
of Columbia, but, to quiet clamorous men,
an act of contiscation, and emancipation
was passed, which, in the opinion of lead
ing Republl aus, was unconstitutional
an unjust. By this act the rebels have
no property, not even their own lives !;
and they own no slavesa But tc the as
tonishment and disgust of those who be-
lieve in the policy of statutes and proc
lamations, these rebels still live, and fight
and hold their slaves. These measures
seem to have terminated them. They
have a careless and reckless way of APP
propriating their lives and property,
which, by act of Congress, belong to us,
in support Of their cause.
But these ianatcal men have learned
that it is necessary to win a victory be-
fore they divide the spoil-and what do
they now propose ? AS they cannot take
the property of the rebels beyond their
reach, they will take the property of the
loyal men of the Border States. The vi
olcnt men Of this patty, as You know
from experience, my conservative Repub-
lican friends, in the end have their way,
They now demand thst the president shall
issue proclamation of Immediate and
universal emancipation Against hom
is this to be directed? Not against those in
rcbellion-for they came within the scope
of the act of Congress. 1t can only be
applied to those who have been true to our
Union and our flag. They are to be pun
ishcd for their loyalty. When we con.
slider their suH' rings and their cruel
wrongs at the hands of the seccsSlonists,
and their reliance upon our faith, is not
this proposal black with ingratilude
The scheme for an immediate enamel
patton and general arming OF the slaves
throughout the South is a proposal OF the
butchery of women and children, for
scenes of lust and rapine, of arson and
murder, unparalleled in the history of the
world. The horrors of tho French kev-
olution wonld become tame in comparl-
son. Its eff ct would not be confined to
the walls of cities, but there would be
a wide spread scene Of horror over the
vast eynause of great States, involving