Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-04-13
Roa. Horotio Seymour:

DzAR SIR: As YOU requested, | will pencil down
some suggestions which | made to you orally a
few DAYS since in reference to Western sentiment
on the present condition of the country, with
some reflections upon the late elections
You are undoubtedly correct that the North
west will never consent to a separation OF the
Union. leaving the lower Mississippi in a foreign
jurisdiction. Our interests are agricultural, and
upon a market for our products depend: our well
being-I might almost say our existence. Be
fore the war we supplied the plantations Of the
South with their horses and mules. their corn
and bacon. This plantation market consumed
most of the products of the counties bordering
upon the Mississippi and its tri5utaries, and any
surplus found its way to the Atlantic cites and
foreign countries through that great river. BY
the war we have lost this market and this outlet,
and our products, which formerly went South,
have been thrown upon the Northern transports
and Northern markets, overlooking the former
and Cutting the latter. As an inevitable conse-
quence, while money has deprecated nearly one
third, the price of our great staples in the hands
of our farmers have remained stationary, or have
receded in some instances more than half. At
the last Presidential election, on the Ohio river,
mules we're worth from 1925 TO S225 per head
Now our graz;ers cannot realize more than 500
10 $50 per head, Notwithstanding the great con
sumption by the army; and horses have depre
ciated to nearly the same ratio. III other por
tons Of the country have found means to make
money by the war, TO the Western agriculturlst
it has proved an unmitigated burden, which can
only be relieved by a restoration of peace and of
the Union. The former without the latter would
render permanent that which we now look upon
as but temporary Hence has the West fought,
and so will she fight, not for the desolation of the
South. and the final destruction OF her plantations,
but for the restoration of the Union. Hence has
Illinois furnished more than ten thousand troops
A - Tc - 1..ff hoe Inon roaoe.aPV
in any portion of the West. it has not been where
the influence Of this plantation market has been
directly felt. repeat. we can never consent that
the lower Mississippi shall pass into a foreign
jurisdiction.
| also agree with you that radical Abolition
lists prefer a separation to a restoration OF the
Union as il was, with all tie rights of the States
as they existed under the Constitution, including
slavery: and Just rs soon as they are convinced
that a m.jority of the people of the North and
of Congress are determined to admit a peace
upon the old basis, they will labor for a separa-
ton. They seem determined to invent and prac
tice every provocative possible toward the South,
in order to produce and continue a degree of
alienation which shall prevent them from embra-
cling the tender which the conservative North is
ready to offer them. to return and enjoy the pro
lection Of the Constitution unimpaired. These
prorocatiOns. in connection with the known state
of feeling pervading the whole community South,
render any hope that they will embrace the Dem
Ocratic offer 10 return and resume the status quo
ante beilum. entirely futile at the present moment.
They will, with bitter contempt. spurn this offer
now, let. it come from whom il may. Such is the
present state of feeling in the Southwes as well
as in the Southeast.
If the South can be brought 10 believe that conserva-
tive principles have acquired such an ascendency in the
North as TO admit a peace on the old basis and protect
them in their fair constitutional rights, thea peace is
nOSSibIc after the 4h Of March. when the new CONGRESS
Will come into being. To render this pOssible-to excite
a rea enable hope that the South will return to the Union
on the old basis-it is Indispensable that they should be
diSabused Of the opinion that the Democratic party is a
peace party on the basis Of separation.
Its renown for steadiness of purpose-for pursuing its
OBJ et with a calm and determined energy which evinces
its faith in its principles, and which ever has, and ever
will. in the end, secure its triumph. While we must pros
ecute the war to the end proposed, we viii do il without
malice aud without vindictiveness, and upon those hui
n ane and Christian principles which should illustrate the
civilization Of this great Republic, aa especially when
warning with our own brethren for the sole purpose that
we may hereafter live with them in peace and amity.
The taunt Of those fanatics who are blinded by rage and
the ~imaginar, wrongs Of the negro, that we would con-
duct the war with hid gloves" and so as not to hurt
the enemy" shall not drive US back 60 the barbarism OF
the dark ages, or compel u to a war of determination
instead Of reconciliation. Every act of kindness aud
mercy opens a new avenue TO reconciliation and peace;
every act of brutality and barbarity closes a door leading
TO these results Acts Of b~rotherly love beget fratemal
feeling; acts Of cruelty and oppression and injustice lead
to alienation. retaliation and revenge
The readings or explanations Of the late Democratic
successes have been various and opposite. BY the Re-
publicans II is said that bv these elections the peopls
have condemned the tesder mode in which the war has
been prosecuted, although this is directly opposed to
their positions before the election. In Europe they were
a condemnation Of the war and a vote for separation
adopting the Republican theory during the canvass
The South is silent on the subject, awaiting event.. Now,
the true mode of understanding the meaning of these
elections is to read their antecedents. Not what the Re-
pubtcans or Aholitionists said OF us, for that would sus-
tain the foreign explanation. But what did our friends
say, What did our papers and our speakers sayl What
did the party proclaim as its principles, to the support II
which il invited and claimed the SURFACES of the peoplei
These were sustained by the popular vote, and these tell
with unerring certainty what these elections mean. Did
any representative speaker, or did any standard paper.
advocate a dissolution of the Union or a peace upon the
basis Of separation Our enemies said this Of u; but we
denied it vehemently, East and West, and everywhere.
They knew and we knew that a conviction Of these charges
was our certain defeat
We all insiSted-papers, orators and conventions-and
proved, too. that our enemies were prosecuting the wal
for unconstitutional purposes and by unconstitutional
m~eans-that the emancipation proclamation was uncon-
sttuiionai, and that arbitrary arrests and the suspen-
sion; or, rather, the suppression Of the writ Of hsbea.
corpus. by the Executive ard his subordinates wa.
equally a violation Of that instrument. Il was upor
thes- measures we took issue with our opponents, ans
not upon a prosecution OF the war.
Where, then, did we get our votes? There
were not enough old Democrats to give us the
victory. We must get, and did get. accession,
from the Experimentation those who voted foI
Mr.. Lincoln-who helped to place the present
Administration. including the Congress. in pow
er. How did we get these votesi Why did the,
ictNe the hepuDilCaiS anu cOH5 u U.s. III was
because the Republican party-the Administra
-tratiOn-ceased to represent their views. The,
disapproved. ii is true, but still tolerated, arbitra
~ and illegal arrests, perhaps because the Con
federate Government did the same thing 10
most arbitrary manner, with the Union men II
the South. But it was the proclamation which
produced the revolution in the North-a peace
ful and constitutional revolution The process o.
reasoning which brought to our ranks such acces
| efone of pnfrfnfip N end will brf,U ~. n r,.r,
times more in the future. was not uniform among
those who deserted the opposite party and came
to Us; while all were influenced substantially b,
the same causes. AS the human mind differs IN
different men, so will men reason apparent,
from the same facts while arriving at the same
result.
As for some. If not by far, the greatest proper
tion of our acceSsions during the late elections
they saw that in his Inaugural Address, Mr.
Lincoln had proclaimed that he would maintain
the Constitution and not violate it That h,
had approved mos ~cordislly of the Crittendei
resolutions passed at the special session in July
1861 That he had. in fact. Disappeared of It's,
coniseation law, and finally signed it with grea'
reluctance, ana virtually under protest All no
proved Of bis Greeley letter, as showing that h,
was prosecuting the war only for the restoration
Of the Union. He had revoked the Fremont am
Hunter orders protesting TO free the slaves il
their respective departments, and had removes
both those Generals from their commands, anc
finally in his answer to the Chicago CIerica
Committee. he had again publicly committed
himself 20 a conservative aud constitutions
course. and had by most manswerable argument.
and illustrations, pointed out the danger and thu
folly of the course which they urged upon him
Many Of these old Lincoln men-the old con
sentative Webster and Clay Wings. who consti
tuted the conservative element of the Rennbliear