Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1863-09-24
Dolhital.
s p Z Il Q Ell
HON. GEORGE E. PUGH,
Delivered before The Great Democratic Meeting al
81. Mary. o., on the 18th Of August, 1868.
tnep,r,ed for tho Cincinnati Gazette !

81. Mary. o., on The 18TH Of August, 1868.
Tnep,rt for tho Cincinnati Gazctte.l
Mr.. Pugh. on rising, was received with
cordial cheering. He said
Fellow. Dem mocrats.-In former times,
when it has been my pleasure to address
you. invited you to maintain the Con
stitution as it then was, and the Union
as it then existed in lis pristine integrity
come before you to-day to exhort you
to maintain the Constitution STILL and
by maintaining it, restore the Union,
which unhappily at present is broken.
No man can deny. at least no honest
man, that we have fallen upon evil and
unhappy times. If we look to merely
material questions; if we consider the
fact that we have to struggle under bur-
den of taxation so heavy as to pass our
comprehension in former times. and that
so far from there being any prospect Of
alleviation-so far from any hore of re-
duction, every day, and almost every
hour, brings new tax and new tax
gatherer. If we rise to higher consider.
ations, we see that not only Thousands,
but tens and hundre Is Of thousands ci the
best and bravest of our fellow citizens
have been given to death on the field of
battle, or returned to us disabled for life.
We are now on the eve Of another call, q,
an unwilling call, which shall take tens
and hundreds of thousands moro of us
to be sacrificed upon the bloody fields of
controversy and strife. All / have to
say to any honest man, in the possession
of his senses, is this: is it not, my friend
worth our while to pause for few mo-
ments and consider whether there be not
some better way to escape the difficult
ties which now surround us. In order
to find the way out, my fellow citizens,
it is first requisite we should find the way
we got into them; for until we look back
upon our own faults, till we repent of
our own sins. there is no hope of ame-
Iteration. ! know that preachers of the
abolition faction are in the habit of tel.
ling their congregations not to repent Of
their own, but to repent of the sins of
stockholders. ca laugh. But, my fell
low citizens. that will neither restore the
Union nor make good christians. Let us
know what we have done on our own
side, and if we are satisfied by the lights
of experience that it is wrong, let us
amend it. and amend it as quick as pos
sible, for until we amend what we have
done amiss, we cannot hope Others will
amend.
SECTIONAL PRESIDENT.
Now in the eventful year OF 1860, il
I,,tp h.t Tho infv of tb1
State Central Committee, to visit many
Of the counties of the State, in order to
exhort the people not to elect Mr.. Lin
coin to be President of tho United States;
not that had anything against him per-
sonally, but because believed that the
party he represented was purely of Sec
tional character, and that the predomi.
nance of such party would give rise to
disunion and civil war. And, fellow cit
izene. we were forewarned of this by the
Father of his Country in his Farewell
Address to the people whose liberties
he had SO largely contributed to
establish, he gave us this admonition;
'In contemplation of the causes which
may disturb our Unicn: it occurs as a
matter of serious concern that any
ground should have been furnished for
characterizing parties by geograp phical
Northumberland and southern,
Atlantic and western, since designing
men may endeavor to excite belief that
there is real difference of local opinions
and views. One of the expedients Of
party to acquire power and influence in
particular districts, is to misrepresent the
opinion and aims of the districts. You
cannot shield yourselves too much against
the difference and heart burnngs that
spring from these misrepresentation
they tend to the alienation of those who
ought to be bound by fraternal affection
And yet, from the year 1854. continual
ly, until the year 1860, and thence un'
til this time, we have had a party in the
non .slaveholding States whose very ex
istence, whose very organization, whose
plans of action we're directly in couhict
with the advice thus given by the Father
of his Country to the people of the
United States; party who was not only
confined to the non on-slaveholding States
but party whose whole capital in poll
tics and trade consisted in misrepresent
ing the opinions and views of the slave
holding States; whose whole object was
to excite animosity. jealousy. and i'll
blood between the people of the slav'
and the non -slaveholding States wh'
told us day after day that the people o
the Southern States sought to invade on
rights, sought to degrade us in the popu
lar estimation we should hold in tn
Union, and sought to intrude upon ou
domestic rights and domestic liberties.
The natural consequence of q part
like that was to provoke the formation
of a party Of the same character in tn
slaveholding States. AS the more vic
lent of the Northern people preache
enmity against the South. it was natura
that party should arise in the Soutl
preaching snimosity and enmity agains
the North. And so, nay fellow citizens
even If George Washington had neve
said it, or Andrew jackson never repeat
ed it as he did; if Henry Clay and Dan
iel Webster had never emphasized it
hundred times, it would be obvious t.
the meanest comprehension. Let ther
be any two townships in this county VIII
shall elect their township officers on tha
doctrine-Trustees, Treasurers, Asses