Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-07-22
ADDRESS
OF the Republican Members Of Congress
TO THE LOYAL PEOPLE OF THE
UNITED STATES.

TO THE LO1 Al fEQfLE VI InB
UNITED STATES.
The undersigned Senators and Repre-
sentatives in Congress impelled by sense
Of duty, send these words to you from your
Capitol
The armed Rebellion against the COnsti-
tuition and laws of your country, organized
and begun during the late Administration
of Mr. Buchanan, and by the assent and
cooperation of several Of his Constitution
al advisers, is unhappily not yet suppress
ed. These Rebel conspirators continue to
wage war with intensified cruelties upon
your country and its free institutions. It
would be unjust alike to you and to our
selves to seek to hide the fact that this Re-
bellion, by reason Of the numbers and re-
sources which it commands, the end at
which it aims, and the interests which it
imperils, is without a parallel in the histo-
ry of the world.
A large majority of the people Of eleven
States, embracing an area Of 100000 square
miles of fertile land and population Of
100000 are this day in the support Of the
Rebellion. This cruel and unnatural war
is waged by these conspirators against the
People neither for the redress of q wrong
nor the vindication Of right. The people
whom they assail and seek to destroy have
done them no wrong; the Government Of
| the country which they seek to oVerturn
/ has neither denied nor violated any right
of theirs. The chiefs in this reasonable
conspiracy openly declare their purpose to
be to overturn by force the fabric of Amer
/ lean Empire, and build upon its ruins
despotism which would withhold from hon
est toll its Just reward, which would pro-
claim TO the laboring masses Of our coun-
trymen the maxim of tyrants-that the
great law of liberty and human progress is
not for them, and which would open and
/ perpetuate new markets in which "men
are to be bought and sold as merchandise"
Il cannot be 8 matter Of surprise that a
reasonable war levied for such purposes
should be prosecuted by those who wage it
with "a cruelty and perfdy scarcely par
\ alleled in the most barbarous ages" These
armed conspirators, in prosecuting their
work of treason, have robbed, imprisoned,
banished, and murdered peaceable citizens
solely because of their fidelity to their
country and its laws.
They have deliberately assassinRted your
mangled and defenseless soldiers on the
field Of battle, and have violated the sacred
graves of your buried dead. And that their
acts of cruelty might be marked by every
atrocity, they have even compelled four
millions of slaves to support them by their
unpaid labor, and thus to contribute to the
perpetuation of the tyranny which forges
letters for themselves and their children.
Men moved by such purposes, and caps-
BILE Of employing such means for their ac-
complishment, must be deaf alike to the de-
mands Of justice and humanity, and can
only be restrained by the strong arm of
power, As neither the ties of o common
kindred, nor the obligations of common
humanity, nor the claims of a common
country, are regarded by these assailants
Of your free institutions, it only remains
for the loyal people to "hold them as they
hold the rest Of mAnkind-enemies in war,
in peace, friends"
We cannot, if we would, shut out from
our minds the conviction that upon the is
sue Of this conflict Of arms thus forced up
on youSdepends not merely the success,
but the existence of your great experiment
Of representative government. In the
light Of our past history, judged by the
rapid growth and development of the Re
public under our free Constitution, it is not
an open question whether that Constitu-
ton is worth preserving. Every loyal
American citizen shrinks from the sugges-
ton that the unity Of government which
constitutes us one people can be destroyed.
The words Of Washington, always signif-
| force; "Thls Government the offspring OF
our own choice, uninhuenced and unawed
adopted upon full investigation and mu-
tual deliberation, AND COMPLETELY FREE IN
ITS PRINCIPLES, has Just claim
to your confidence and your support Re
spect for its authority, compliance with its
laws, acquiesence in its measures, are du-
ties enjoined by the fundamental maxims
Of true liberty" We cannot doubt that
you duly appreciate these great utterances
Of the Father Of your Country-that it is
with you a conviction that your Govern
ment, free in its principles" has just
claim to your support, and must at every
hazard be maintained Acting upon this
belief, and in perfect accord, as we believe,
with your will and with the Constitution,
| Congress, as your agent have, in order to
provide for the common defense for the
suppression of the rebellion, and for the
payment Of the public debts, enacted law
for the assessment and collection Of q Fed
eral tax, and also for the imposition of ad-
5itional duties on imports. That these nee
essary burdens may fall as lightly as pos
sible upon the loyal people Of the country,
and that the enemy in arms against you
may be weakened and stripped Of support,
and made, as far as may be, to indemnify
the Government against the expenses Of
suppressing this unjust rebellion, the Con-
gress have further provided br law for the
seizure and condemnation to the public
use of all the property Of these rebels in
arms, and of their aiders and abettors;
and also for the liberation and employment
by the government of their slaves. As q
further means Of defense Congress has pro-
vided by law that the President may sum-
mon to the support of the Government such
additional forces as he may deem necessa-
ry to insure the prompt suppression of the
rebellion, and the restoration of peace and
the national authority.
The President, faithful to the high trust
committed to him by your unpurchased
and unpurehasable suffrages, in obedience
to his official oath to stake care that the
eordance with the authority duly conferred
upon him, has called upon you, through
the Governors Of the several States, to fur
nish 100000 additional soldiers, for the de-
tense of the Constitution and Union.
Permit me to say to you that any citizen
who Withholds his "confdenee and sup
port from your Government-Who refuses
compliance" with these laws, and an
q aacquiesence" in these measures so essen
tial for its defense-in our judgment, not
only disregards the wise counsel of Wash
ington, but violates his dHty-that highest
word revealed by God to man.