Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-03-18
RRpLYOV if0N, J0HN A. HTN0HAhi,

the Tax bill being under discussion. Mr..
Morrill,, Of Vermont had made speech, set
tinq iorth the features Of the bill and its inn
portanoe. Mr.. WsdsWOrth, Of Kentucky, re-
piled 70 him in speech which would have
become secessionist. he started out with
the assertion that be could not give his conf
dence to the party In power, could not give
his confidence to the Administration, nor his |
full confidence to any part Of it. BE then
rEmbled Of into discussion Of the general |
policy OF the Government and opposed It
throughout he claimed that Kentucky was
loyal, and II the inhabitants Of Northern
Ohio, who were sending petitions for the
abolition Of slavery, would look upon their
own soil, they would sec the whitened bones
of Kentucky soldiers who sacrificed their
lives for the protection of Ohio honors.
Mr. Riddle reminded the gentleman that
Ohio had sent forty thousand armed soldiers
10 defend Kentucky, and they are there now.
Mr.. Wadsworth then bitterly opposed the
Presidents Border State Emancipation resO-
luton, and said that Kentucky would never
submit to it BE said, 81 utterly spit at and
despise IL" he then, in his closing remarks,
made the fatal admission thatif the people of
the Free States ever let the cotton States go,
1--WE win not stay with you"
To this opposition and eminently pro-sla-
very speech, Hon. John A. Bingham, of
Ohio, made q most scathing response. We
have not space for his remarks in full, but
give portions Of them below, and trust that
every one of our readers will give them
careful peruaal. They are well worth read
ing. he pressed home upon Mr.. Wadsworth
the positions which ne had taken in his
speech, until he was glad to back down from
many Of the most obnoxious.
With this introduction we quote the fol-
lowing paragraphs nom Mr.. Binghams
speech:
Mr. BINGHAM. The gentleman said that
before he voted for this bill he wanted to
know what was going to be done with the
money. supposed him to say it in good
faith, and that the bill could not have his
support nor the Government be provided
with support by means Of this general reve-
nue. bill, unless with express limitations an
nexed that this suspected Administration
should only use the money in a certain way.
What limitation upon the uses of this reve-
nue. would the gentleman haveP Would he
I have its use so restricted that in supporting
the Government the Pstriarchial institution
Of slavery should suffer no detTiment2 The
thought which rau through the gentleman's g
speech Wss that if this revenue be raised, or
Il this bill be passed, its uses should be re-
stricted to the purpose, the sublime purpose
Of bringing the cotton States back into the
/ Union, and keeping them in the Union, with
their ancient social system Of chattel slavery,
L Il YOU please intact. What else, sir, can
YOU infer, or can the House infer, from the
significant utterance of the gentleman, that
unless the cotton States shall be brought
back into the Union, or, to use his words, 'fi
You let the cotton States 90, Kentucky viii
not stay with your" What do these strange
words signify; what do they impertf " ny,
that the gentleman Is willing to raise 500,
900, 900 Of revenue, to be collected for the
time being, from the loyal citizens of the
United States, for the purpose of getting the
cotton States back into the Union upon their
former Status, with their slaves and slavery;
and not otherwise. This idea pervsded the
gentleman's speech from beginning to end,
whether he was conscious of it or not. He
said, in substance, that if you attempt
through the instrumentality of your army
supported and sustained, in part, at least by
means of this immense revenue that you are
TO collect and put into the Treasury by this
bill, in the preservation Of the Constitution
/ and the Union, and in defense of the good
men and true who dwell under the shield Of
/ the Constitution, and sEe entitled to Its pro-
lection, and TO be made secure in their per-
sons, their property, and their hOmes-to
touch the divine institution Of slavery, that
civilizer of the children of the kingdom Of
Dahomey, the gentleman and his State viii
depart from You. Touch not the civiliIer,
says the gentleman, or Kentucky leaves you,
This divinity of civilization, chattel slavery,
is sacred; for the way to ciVilize men is to
enslave them and convert them into brutesl
Mr.. Chairman, am tired of the supercil-
ious air with which gentlemen sssail as vio-
lators of the constitution and enemies Of the
Union the friends Of every measure which is
exclusively for the common defense, or which
proposes to condemn the property and liber-
ate the slaves of armed rebels. Wherein do
we violate the Constitution, pray The gen.
tleman from Kentucky, mir. WadsWorth, J
when had the honor to address this House
before on these great questions, that tower
above all other questions to. day because they
touch the preservation Snd safety of the Re
public, seemed to bs filed with holy her
ror because Tentured to assert in my place
here that the four millions of slaves held by
half q million Of armed rebels, and by whose
unpaid toll their atrocicus rebellion Is sus-
tanned, ought to be Hbe rstsd, and protected,
too, if they would seek shelter under the flag
Of American liberty.
As the gentleman then and now has cho-
sen to sssail me e 7 this, msy be pardoned
for calling his attention to the inquiry, what
further did say in that connection on that
day and in the hearing of the gentleman2--
I said that every loyal citizen in this land
held his life, his property, his home, and the
children Of his house q sacred trnst for the
cOmnsn defense. Did that remark excite Sny
horror in the gentlemans mind Not ct
all. I undertook, in my humble way, to
demonstrate that, BY the very letter and spir-
1t Of the Constitution, you had right to lay
the lives and the property and the homes,
the very hearthstones Of the honest and the
Just and; the good, under contribution by law
that the Republic might live. Did that re-
mark excite any abhoFrence in the gentleman
or any threat that fifteen slave States would
be combined against us2 Not at all 1 sta
ted in my place just as plainly that by your
law you might for the common defense not
only take the father Of the house, but the
eldest born Of his house, to the tented field
by force Of your conScription, If need be, and
subject him to the necessary despotism of mil
itary rule, TO the pestilenee Of the camp, and
the destruction Of the battlefield And yet
4 - -Nr-E,I i'll. A.