The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1862-12-13


American people that incompetency reign.
ed supreme In the Cabinet at Washington.
it remained for the Presidents message to
complete their amazement and moftifca.
ton.
The people are aware that the blockade
OF our own ports, has resulted in distress
to foreign manufacturers. and complicated
our relations with England and France. -
lations with those powers really were, and
they have right to .hat Information
Yet all the President vouchsafed to say
was, that our foreign relations were not so
good as they used to be, but as good as
could be expected.
The country Is engaged in domestic
hostilities that have called to the field
more than a million Of its citizens to de-
vote their lives to the maintenance of their
government. The treasure of the country
without stint or limit, has been poured
out for the same purpose. 1t was. it is,
the right of the country to know how
these vast resources have been employed
by those whom it appointed to administer
them. Some explanation was due for the
failure Of these vast means to accomplish
their just and proper results. Silence can
not be accepted as an answer. Silence is
an insult to the intelligence of the people.
The administration are in a position where
they are bound to explain, defend, or
confess. Silence may be confessional is
nothing else-but is not the sort of con-
fess on that the people demand. IF the
administration are determined to measure
their power against that of the people, re.
gardless o. the warning they have already
received, they can persist in the experiment
The country has already advanced beyond
the point of being injured by the struggle
the disaster will fall on their heads
alone. Deeply as the country is mortified
by this message, it is nevertheless well
that it should be so. 1t no longer remains
doubtful az 10 where the cause5 Of our
disasters lie
An annual message Of the President of
the United States, delivered to the nation,
without any recognition of the fact that
we are struggling for existence; that the
is maintained by million of men
in arms that they are a soldiery as brave
as any who ever faced a foe, in this or any
that they have won noble, perhaps useless
victories, and sustained defeats inglorious
But not to them without any recognition
of the relation which the resources of the
bear to those of the traitors
who are seeking to subvert it, or of the
principles upon which it Is proposed to
make those resources whether moral or
material, available, reveals to the under
standings of all mankind, why it is that
the government, with abundant means to
have crushed the rebellion before it
became anything but local insurrec-
ton, have not done so-why the insur,
gents rose to the dignity Of bclligerents,
and why the bellIgerents seem about 10
exchange that character for one Of recog.
the nation nov does, the causes that have
made the post twenty months so inglo-
rious, 1t has before it the plain duty, and
the ample means of restoring it to the re-
spect of mankind. 1t has commenced to
do so, and will proceed to complete its
work with all convenient speed After
this, it is not strange, that upon inspecting
this message, it should be found to be
principally composed of an argument upon
a question of doubtful craftsmanship, re-
mote from the exigencies now before US,
and paradoxical in the mouth Of him, who
uttered it. Paradoxical because the Pre-
sident has said that He has the power by
his military fat to free all the slaves in the
nation, and that on New Years day he is
going to do it. And yet the nation are
told that it is absolutely necessary for
them to hire the several States where sla-
very exists, to abolish it by paying so much
per head for all the slaves they had IN
1860! Yes, the nation must do il, the
President repeats, in order to insure a
successful result to the war! Where such
ideas as these pass FOR statesmanship. it is
not difficult TO tell what road the nation
are travelling
War can be declared by Congress alone
Are we at war? Instruction can be sur.
pressed by the President without the &C
ton of Congress. Are the present hostil
ties war or Instruction The legal powers
and rights resulting from the one and the
other are different 1t is the right Of the
people to know what the legal character
Of these vast hostilites are
The ports Of the nation are blockaded
Who authorized the blockade? Has Con-
gre.s done so? Has any other tribunal
the powers to do so? IF the blockade has
not been established by legal authority,
and is therefore legally void, what answer
can the nation give to foreign reclamations
for confscatIons of their vessels and car.
goes in running n void blockade? The
people know, if the government do not,
that this is quest,on::that will hereafter
have to be answered-and at their cost
and charges Was the blockade necessary
Then why did not Congress authorize it ?
Necessary or unnecessary, where is the
Presidents power to establish it's =
question that will directly have to be ans.
wcred-and our own judicial tribunals will
decide at whose cost.
Upon all these weighty questions the
President is silent But in regard to them
the nation will not be silent It will make
its voice heard by those whose duty it is
to hear, and it will take care that ODE.
dience shall follow hearing.