Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1862-08-09
ADDRES5
REPUBLICAN MEMBERS of CONGRESS,
To the Loyal People of the United states.

The Undersigned Senators and Representa-
tives in Congress, impel!ed by sense of duty
send these words to you from your Capitol:
The armed Rebellion against the ConSli-
tion and laws OF our country, organized and
begun during the late administration Of Mr.
Buchanan, aud by the assent and co opera
lion of several of bis constitutional advisers,
is uuhnppily not yet suppressed. The rebel
cOnspiratOrs continue to wage war with in.
tenSlfed cruelties upon your country aud
its free institutions. 1t would be unjust
alike to you and TO ourselves TO seek to
hide the fact that this rebellion, by reason
of the numbers and resources " hich it com
mands, the end at which it aims, and the
interests which it imperrlS, is without u
parallel in the history of the world.
A large majority of the people of eleven
states, embracing an area of 700 000Square
miles of fertile land and population Of
5000 600, are this day in the support Of
the rebellion. This cruel and unnatural war
is wuged against the people neither for the
redress Of wrongs nor the viudication OF
rights. The people who are assailed, have
done the assalaEts no wrong. The govern
ment Of the country they seek to Oyernlu urn
has neither denied nor violated any right Of
thei 5. The chiefs in this reasonable con
spiracy openly declare their purpose to over
turn by force the fabric of American Empire
aud build upon its ruins a despotism which
would withhold from honest toll its Just re-
ward, which would proclaim to the labor.
ing masses the maxim of tyrNnts-that the
great law of liberty and human progress
is not for them, and v hich would open and
perpetnate new markets in which "men are
to be bought and sold for merchandise" Ii
cannot be a matter of surprise that trea
sonable war levied for such purposes should
be prosecuted by those who wage i. will
"a cruelty and perfdy scarcely paralcleC
in the most baTbarous ages" These arm
ed conspirators, in prosecuting their work
of treason, have robed, imprisoned Danish
ed and murdered peacabIe citizens, solely
because OF their fidelity to their country anC
its laws.
They have deliberately assassinated you
maugled and defenceleSs soldiers on the bat
| tie field, aud have violated the sacred grave
of your dead. And that their acts of cru
city might be marked by every atrocity
they have even compelled four millions o
slaves to support them by their unpaid la
Dor, and thus 10 contribute to the perpetu
alton of the tyranny which forges fetter
for themselves and their children
Men moved by such purposes, and capa
BILE Of employing such means for their accom-
plishmeut, must be deaf alike to the dc
mauds of justice and humanity, and can on
ly be restrained by the strong arm of power
As neither the ties of a common kindred
nor the obligations OF common humanity
nor the claims OF q common country, are re
garded by these Rssalants of our free insti
tutons, it only remains for the loyal peopl
to "hold them as they hold the rest Of man
knd-enemies in war in peace, friends"
We cannot, If we would, shut out fron
our minds the conviction that upon the il
sue at this conflict of arms thus forced upo
you, depends not merely the success, but th
existence OF your great experiment of repre-
sentative government. In the light of ou
past history. judged by the rapid growt
aud development Of the Republic under ou
free Constitution, 1t is not an open questio
whether that Constitution is worth nreserv