The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-07-22
SPEECH OF wm. "A. SEWARD.

SPEECH OF WIN. H. SEWARD.
The following is full report of the re-
marks made by Secretary Seward in Wash
ington, on Tuesday night after the reception
of the news of the fate of Vicksburg:
"When I saw commotion uprising in civil
life, thought it consistent with the duty of
patriot and christian to avert the civil war
if it was possible, and tried to do so. If
this was weakness, found what seemed an
instruction excusing it in the prayer of our
Saviour, that the cup, the full bitterness of
which was understood by himself alone,
might pass. But found, also, an instruction
to duty in his resignation: " Nevertheless
not my will but thine be DONE" When it
was clear that without fault on your part or
mine the civil war was inevitable. I then
thought it consistent with the duty of pa
triot and Christian to take care that the war
should be begun not by the friends of the
Union, but by its enemies-so that in main
| tanning the Union we should not only main
tain the cause of our country, but should be
maintaining it in righteous self-defence. 40
gression, unjust aggression, is in every case
weakness. Self-defence in a righteous cause
is the strongest attitude that an individual or
a nation can have. The weakest nation NAV
resist powerful adversary, while it occupies
an attitude of self-defence. Powerful nations
have been ruined in making an unprovoked
attack upon one infinitely weaker than them
selves egsa. le .a a5-fs1sz =
al thought further, that it was consistent
with my duty as patriot and Christian to
do what was in my power to render the war
as light in its calamities and as short in its
duration as possible. Therefore, I proposed
to retain on the side of the loyal States as
many Of the States which were disturbed by
elements of sedition as could be retained by
course of calm and judicious conduct.
would have had, if possible, the insurrection
confined to the seven original so-called seced-
ing States. When all these conditions had
been secured, so far as was possible to secure
them, / thought still further that it was con-
sistent with my duty, as a patriot and Chris
tian, to combine the loyal States and consoli-
date them into one party for the Union, be-
cause I knew that disunion had effectually
combined the people of the disloyal States to
overthrow the Union. I thought that this
could be done only through the sacrifice of
individual and State and sectional opinions,
interests, prejudices and ambitions.
ga nation cannot be saved from death
whose individual citizens lack the virtue to
make these sacrifices. Unwilling to ssk of
my fellow-citizens sacrifices I had not the
resolution to make myself, 1 determined to
wait until should be called upon to make
them. I said, l give myself up, my family,
my friends, my party, all that have laid up
of character in the past, all the interests that
| now possess, and all the future that I had
thought was in store for me. take for my
associate and leader the first brave and disin-
terested man who leads the way, and follow
his guidance and share his fortun es found
a leader in Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a
man who tolerated and excused, if he did not
justify slavery. As openly as all the world
knew that l then abhorred and detested it,
God knows l abhcr and detest it now. I said
party if it will, by the Democratic Iarty if it
choose, without slavery if it is possible, with
slavery if it must. pes
"Once engaged in the contest was. pre-
pared to demand, as l have demanded ever
since, that no treasure, no amount of human
life necessary to save the nations life should
be withheld. I thought that the war might
be ended in three months-in six months
in year-and I labored to that end. But,
as you will all recollect, that it was the peo-
pie, and not only one man or any combination
of men, that could bring it to an end, then or
ever, and the people could only do it by
showing so much zeal, determination and
consistency as would not only keep envious,
or interested, or ambitious foreign nations
aloof from the battle, but should make it
their obvious interest to frown upon and dis
J, courage the insurrection. We failed to make
that exhibition, and so the war has been pro-
tracted into its third year, through the en-
couragement and aid the insurrecton has re-
J. ceived from the fears or the listlessness of
portions of our own people, and the infuen-
ces of the enemies of the Republic and of
human freedom throughout the world. 1t
was doubtless ordained that it should be so,
and therefore it may be believed that it was
best that it should be SO, although we may be
allowed to indulge our sorrow over the aug
mentcd sum of miseries which the war has
inflicted upon the land
I say it is perhaps best because think
this ought to be the last insurrection in the
United States-the last effort ever made TO
dissolve the Union. The more severe the
suffering that attends tLis attempt, the less
J, likely it is to be repeated. But We have
reached, think, the eliminating point at