The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-10-07

W L
invoke you, to secure these blessings, through
that, the appointed, potential weapon of free
dom.
C.L. VALLANDIGHAM
WINDSOR, G. W, Sept 18th, 1868,
To the President of The Democratic Mass
Meeting at Carthage, Ohio: f{ g., e.er
Since writing to the Mass Convention at
Dayton to day, the monstrous proclamation of
the President appeare ], suspending the privi-
! lege of the writ Of hdbeas corpus, and thus
deelarng martial law throughout the United
i States II every sue, ant every DIRT Ur- every
one of them, and in all their territories. 1t
comes without previous Warming. It is an
rounced at time when the success of the
Federal armies and the reverses OF the Con-
federates are greater than at any period since
tn beginning of the war ; at a time when the
lines of the former are more extended and of
the latter more contracted and further re-
moved from the original frontier than ever be-
fore; and at time when, according to the
Secretary of State, the rebellion is at last al
most crushed ort. 1t appears in the midst of
no riot, tumult or other popular convulsion
anyphere in the States always true to the
| Union, and no preparation for any and when
even the odious transcription is being exc
cuted quietly and without resistance wherever
!
beilion''-thc President being the sole Judge
and arbiter of how long the rebellion shall be
deemed to last. At such time, and under
such circumstances, it can have but one OBJ
ject-the pending elections this fall, but espe-
cially the Presidential canvass in 1864. Itis,
| indeed, the full development of that which /
have so often warned the people of Ohio and
of the United States-the great conspiracy
against constitutional liberty and free popular
government-the establishment of a tsformal
and proclaimed despotism" in your midst
Oh, that the warning voice, feeble though it
was, which two years ago in the beginning of
this great struggle, in accents earnest as ever
issued from the human lips, cried aloud to the
people that, one by one, their liberties were
about to perish, and that anarchy first and a
strong government afterward-ro more State
lines, no more State governments, but con-
soidated monarchy, or vast centralized mill
larry despotism, must all follow in the history
of the future, as in the history of the past
they had centuries before been written. But
that voice found no echo then, save in the
columns and corridors of the Capitol. To-day
it is lifted up again-and hereafter let no
man tell you--least of all the sentine1s upon
your watchtowers-tha there is no danger, no
ground for alarm or apprehension. To-day
your President is in form, as for two years
and more he has been IN fact, Mifitury Die
tator. The most inc-edulons may see at last
that the issue Indeed, whether there shall
any longer be Constitution and law in the
United States, other than the will, unknown
or expressed of the President whether free
dom of person, of the press, of speech, free
political assemblages and free ballot shall
any more exist among US, and whether the
people shall hereafter, as heretofore, choose
the Legislatures and Chief Executives of the
State and Federal Governments. Shall there
be free State elections any longer, or another
Presidential election of any sort Shall pop
ular government or despotism unlimited by
law uncontrolled by Judicial Courts, hence
forth prevail in the United States? This
now, men of Ohin more than ever, is the is
sue before you. The revolutionary purpose of
the Administration to perpetuat,, by intimi-
dation or force, its power in the States and in
the General Government, stands now fully ro.
vealed. Next, after this declaration of mar
tial law, will follow the armed seizure and oc-
cupation of your State by Federal troops, to
intimidate or overpower you at the polls. But
this monstrous purpose will not and cannot be
executed, except the people cringc or cover
before the threat or the attempted execution.
The time, therefore, has now arrived for the
renewed, solemn, inexorable declaration and
pledge, by the people to each other, through.
the press and in public assemblages, that they,
mean to maintain their liberties at every haz.
zard and to have and to hold free elections,
peaceably if they can, foroibly if they must.
By the Constitution of Chic no soldier or ma
rine of the United States can gain a residence
or become citizen and elector of the State by
being stationed within her limits. By the
law of England, and by provident statute of
Pennsylvania, all troops are required to be
removed prescribed distanoe-not less than
one mile-from the place of holding an elec-
tion and this, too is the spirit at least of our
own laws. Every qualified elector of Ohio
has the right freely, and without molestatiou
of any kind, to vote the ticket of his choice;
and if Federal or State troops be present to
modest or intimidate-no matter under what
pretext-it is the right of the citizen and the
duty of the civil officers and of the militia to
disperse or arrest the offender, and to use
whatever force may be necessary for that
purpose.( I counsel you one and all to stand
by the Union, maintain the Cons ption, sup
port the Government, and obey me laws)-
But in the name and by the memory of your
fathers, and as you would secure the blessings
of liberty to yourselves and your children, 1
invoke you to defend the right of election and
the ballot box by all the means which the ex-
igencies of :he case may demand. The hour
of your trial has at last come. Be firm and be
ready. And God grant thatth spirit ofthe pat
riots and of freemen of other ages and coun-
tries, of the heroes of Greece and Rome, the
spirit of Bruce and Tell, of Hampden and Sgd
ney, Of Henry, and Washington, and jackson,
may be found to survive yet in men of the
present generation in America and that both
the form and the substance of constitutional
liberty aud free popular Government be still
preserved and made secure among us.
G. L. sNALLAND1GHAM Fes