Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1863-01-08

OF DIR. OEDS AT
EANCASE EH.
lie is welcomed Home by Hon. G.. ID.
Martin.
THE SPEECHES.
THE SPEECHES.
g. d. MARTINS RECEPTION SPEECH.

G. d. MARTINS RECEPTION SPEECH.
DR.. OLDs: | have been commissioned
by the Democracy of this county to per-
form the grateful and pleasing task of
bidding you formal welcome to your
home, your friends, and your constituents.
And now, sir, in their name aud on
their behalf, | bid you most cordial well
come to your home, from which you were
so ruthlessly and lawlessly torn-wel-
come to your friends, who this day greet
your return with so many manifestations
OF enthusiasm and Joy and welcome 10
your constituents, who, notwithstanding
your incarceration in a distant prison,
unanimously ly elected you their Represen
tativc in the General Assembly.
Fairfield county is Justly proud of the
eminent public services of several of her
Sons and citizens. some of them have
written their names hi III on the scroll Of
fame and pluckcd unfading laurels from
the hard contested fields OF battle. For
such men and for such services public
ovations are commonly reserved. But
this magnificent reception, surprising in
numbers and cr thusiasm anything of the
kind ever before witnessed here, is no
oblation to military renown-no clamor-
ous outburst for dazzling achievment.
1t is the spontaneous and generous
greeting with which magnanimous
people welcome the deliverance of their
friend and representative from the obi
Gus thraldom cf political Bastie. 1t
is, sir, the token and memorial Of the
fixed and unalterable determination of
the sovereign people that such insulfer-
able wrongs shall not be perpetrated
with impunity.
On the 18th day Of August last, at
the midnight hour, the privacy of your
home was invaded-meanly and STEALTH
ly invaded by armed strangers-your
chamber was broken into, and yourelf an
old man, wholly unarmed and unprotect-
ed, were dragged from bed Of sickness,
and forcibly and secretly abducted. You
were transported hence in the same Sc
cret and violent manner from your home
and friends, from your county and State,
and confined within the gloomy walls OF
q military fortress, whose heavy buttresscs
and frowning battlements look out on the
deep blue waters.
Iou were there detained a prisoner for
four long and weary months. We have
heard somewhat of "the secrets of your
prison house." How for % days you
were kept in solitary confinement in a
dark, gloomy and i'll ventilated easement.
How you were completely excluded from
the world and all knowledge of home,
friends and country. How every person.
al comfort was denied yon, and you were
permitted to behold no human countcn-
ance but the grim visage of your jailor.
How in short those days Of imprison-
ment were cmbi,tered by the studied arts
of refined cruelty. Well may you exclaim
in the immortal language Of the prisoner
of Chillon:
"My limbs are bowed, though not with toll,
But rusted with u vile rcposc,
For they have been a Dungeons spoil
And mine has been the fate of those,
To whom the goodly earth and mir
Are baned and barr'd-forbiddcn fare"
Posterity will read with wonder and
Even the hardened jailor was touched
with compassion at your sufleringS. For
when demonstrated with by your son,
who had found his way to your prison
door, he declamed against the iniquties,
le was compelled to practice by his SUI
periors at Washington,
You were thus arrested, thus abducted
| Al. al lou IN
contempt even of the forms Of law
You have suffered execution of sentence
YOU have suffered an iuhuman and bar
barous punishment, but without an ac
cusation, without a trial, without al
opportunity for defense. and without
| judgment.
have said no accusation was present
ed against you. Doubtless the authorities
who moved in this matter had a pretcX
for SO doing. Common rumor assigns
it to the published report of speech
made by you last July at Crooks School
house, in this county. That report was
made by political enemy, and represents
you as uttering unpatriotic and disloya
nts-discouraging enlistment and
coun, ing resistance to draft. 1t is wei
known in this community that you repu
dated it at the time and pronounced i
false. There the matter rested until yol
were forcibly abducted. AS to what par
ties presented and varihed that false lie
port as predicate for your arrest w
are left mainly to conjecture. Certain
it is, however that soon after your arres
its ialsity was shown by the affidavits o
fourteen of your most reliable and re
spectacle fellow citizens. They hearC
your speech on the occasion referred to
and they have severally, on their corpo
raj oaths, pronounced that report of
false in every particular and that so ia
from discouraging enlistments and coun
selling resistance to draft, its tone ant
bearing were patriotic and mrnly. s.
far then, as any available pretext for thes
inhuman outrages is concerned, we ma.
dismiss the subject with a single remark
that their only truthful solution consist
in the fact, that you were fearless, activ
and outspoken democrat, and loved you
country moro than the present corrup
and usurping administration.
A secret and insidious political inform
er has always been esteemed the mos
odious of characters. He is in ut
{ ter detestation by all honorable men,
t He stabs in the dark. Personal maligni
ty and private gain are his only motives
Al,