Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1863-01-31

patrlotcally into this war neither VIII
quarrel with any one, here or elsewhere
who gave to it an honest support. Had
their convictions been mine, | too, would
doubtless have done as they did. With
my convictions could not
But was Representative. War ex-
isted-by whose act no matter--not mine.
The President, the Senate, the House and
the country, all said that there should be
war-war for the Union union OF con.
sent and good will. Our southern breth--
rem were to be whipped back into love and
fellowship at the point Of the bayonet. Oh,
monstrous delusion! can comprehend
a war to compel people to accept mas
te.; TO change form of government to
give up territory; TO abolish domestic
instituton-in short, a war Of conquest
and subjugation; but. a war for Union -
Was the Union thus made? Was it ever
thus preserved? Sir, history will record
that after nearly six thousand years of
folly and wickedness in every form and
administration of government, theocratc,
Democratic, monarehic, oigarohic, des-
potic, and mixed, it was reserved to
American statesm anship in the nineteenth
century of the Christian era to try the
grand experiment on a scale the most cost
Iy and gigantic in its proportions, of crea-
ting love by force, and developing trater-
nal affection by war; and history will re-
cord, too, on the same page, the utter,
disastrous, and most bloody failure of the
experiment.
But to return: the country was at war
and | belonged to that school of politics
which teaches that when we are at war,
the Government-l do not mean the Exc
cutive alone, but the Government is en-
titled to demand and have, without resist
auco, such number of men, and such
amount of money and supplies generally,
as may be necessary for the war, until an
appea can be had to the people. Before
that tribunal alone, in the first instance,
must the question of the continuance OF
the war be tried. This was Mr.. Cahoun's 5
opinion, and he laid it down very broadly
and strongly in speech on the loan bill,
in l5ll. Speaking of supplies, he said
II hold that there is distinction in this respect be
tween state of peace and In the latter the right
ol NIhhnlulng supplies ougn 10 be hcld subOrl
nate TO- the energetic and successful prosecution of the
war, 90 further and regard the Withholding supplies
rnA rieO et forcing ne country "to dish0HoraHe
pCIrG, not only To be what II has been called
al treason, but very little short OF actual treason ITSELF
Upon this principle, sir, he acted after
wards in the Mexican war. Speaking OF
that war in lS47, he sid -
EVERY Senator knows that ] wns opposed 20 the
war but none knows but myself the depth of that op
position. With my conception Of its character and
consequences it impossible for TO vote for it,"
And again, in lS4S:
"But after the war declared by authority Of the
Goyrrnncnt acqueSced IN what could not prevent,
and which it was impossible for me to arrest and then
felt it he my duty limit my efforts to give such
direction to the war would, far possible pre-
v"nt the evils and dangers with which il threatened
the country and lis institutions.'
Sir, | adopt all this as my own position
and my defence; though, perhaps, in a
civil war, might fairly 60 further in op-
position. [ could not, with my convic-
tions, vote men and money for this war,
and | would not, as a Representative, vote
again,t them. | meant that, without op.
position, the President might take all the
men and money lie should demand, and
then to hold him to a strict accountability
before the people for the results. Not be-
!ieying The soldiers responsible for the war,
or its purposes, or its consequences, have
&c yer withheld my vote where their sep.
aratc interests were concerned. But |
have denounced from the beginning the
and the infractioas, one and
all, Of law and Constitution, by the Prcsi-
dent and those under him. their repeated
and persistent arbitrary arrests, the sus-
pension of h06eHs CO pnS, the violation of
freedom of the mails, of the private house,
Of the press and Of speech, and all the 9TH
or multiplied wrongs and outrages upon
public liberty and private right, which
have made tiis country one of the worst
dospoIisms on earth for the past twenty
months; and will coutnue to rebuke and
denounce them to the end; and tho people
thauk God, have at last heard and needed,
and rcbuked them, too. TO the record
and to time | appeal again for my justif-
cation.
And now, sir, recur to the state Of the
Union to day. What is it Sir, twenty
months have elasped, but the rebellion is
is D OF crushed out; its military power has
not been broken the insurgents have not
dispersed. The Unions not restored
nor the Constitution maintained; nor the
avs enforced. Twenty, sixty, ninety,
hrce hundred, six hundred days have pas
.ed ; thousand millions been expended
and three hundred thousand lives lost or
bodies mangled and to day the confeder.
ate flag is still near the Potomac and the
Ohio, and the confederate government
stronger, many times, than at the begin
ming. Not a State has been restored, not
any part of any State has voluntarily re,
urned to the Union. And has anything
been wanton that Congress, or the States,
Or the people in their most generous en-.
thusiasm, their most impassioned patriot
ism, could bestoN? Was it powerl And
did not the party Of the executive control
the entire Federal Government, every
State government, every county, every
city, town and village in the North and
Wostl Was it patronage All belonged
TO it, Was il Influence What more .