True Democrat., 1863-03-11


 the thing that is right, and do it ikea man. did it. Certainly, sir, could not doubt what he must suffer who dare defy the opinions and the passions, not to say the madenss, of twenty million people, Had not read history7 Did not know human ture7 But appealed to Time, and right noby hath the Avenger answered me.
 l did not support the war, and to day bless God that not the smell of so much as one drop of it's blood is upon my garments. Sir. I censGre no brave man who rushed patr otically into this war; neither will quarrel with any one; here or else where, who gave to it an honest support. Had their convictions been mine, 1, too, would doubt fess have done as they did. With my convictions I could not. But 1 was q Representative. War existed-by whose act no mntter-not mine. The President, the Senate, the Ho:se and the country, all said that there should be war-war for the Union; union of consent and good will. Our Southern brethern were to be whipped back into love and fellowship at the point of the bayonet. Oh monstrous delusiou. can comprehend a war to compel people to accept q master; to change .a form of Government; to give up territory; to abolish domestic institution; in short, & war oi conquest and suhjug ttion, but war for Union! Wa, the Union thas m. de? Was itever preserved? :? Sir history will record that, after nearly six thou sand wears of loiy and wickerness in every form and administration of Gpverument-theocratic democratic, monarchic. oligarchic, despotic and m xed-it was reserved to American statesman- ship, in the nineteenth century of the Christian era. to try the grand eYpei iment scale the most costly and gigantic in it's proportions. of ere atnS love by force, and developing fraternd atec- t )n by war; and history will record, too, on the same pa ge, the utter, disastrous and most bloody failure of the experiment.
 But to return: the country was at WAT; and be- longei to that school of politics which teaches that when we are tt war; the Governmental do not mean the Executive alone, but the Government- is entitled to deIntnd and havf without resistance ] a.2y y,.l n m nny and supplies generally IS may be necessary for the war, until an appeal can be i'd to the people, Be fore that tribunal alone, in tho first nstance must the question of the continuance of the war be ri- ed. This was MT. Calhoun's opinion, and he laid it down very broadly and strongly in a speech on the Loan Bill, in l64l. Speaking of supplies, he | said
 q hold that there is a distinction in this respect between state of peace and war. In the latter, the right of withholding supplies ought to be held subordinate to the energetic and successful prosecution of the war. 1 go further, and regard the withholding supplies, with view of torcingthe country into dis1onorable peace. as not only to be what 1t has been called, moral treason, but very little short of actual treason itself
 Upon this principle sir, he acted afterward in the Mexican war Speaking of that war, in lo4I he said
 '" Every Senator knows that was opposed tc | that opnosidos. With my conception of it's char acter and consequences, it inposs be for me te | vote for it."
 And again, in l949:
 sBut, after the war was declared, by authorit, | of the Government. I acquiesced in what l coul, not prevent and whch it was impossible for me |, arrest and then felt it to be my du:y to limitIn, efforts to give such direction to the var would ar far as possible. prevent the evils and danger 1 I, thr and 1 tution5."
 Sir, adopt all this as my own position and m, 1 defense; though, perhaps in ! civil war, l nigh fairly go further in opposition could not, with my [ convictions, vote men and money for this war, ant | 1 would not, as d Representative, vote agaips them. l mean that, without opposition, the Presl | dent nj ghJ take all the men and al the money h should demand, and to hold him to a strict ac counta5ility before the people for the results No 1 bell ewing the soldiers responsible for the war, o | it's purposes, or it's consequences, 1 have neve withheld my vote where their separate interest were concerned. But have denounced from th beginning the usurpations and the intractionS On' and ali, of la and Constltuti n, by the Pre>iien | and those under him; their repeated and perssten bitrary arrests, the suspension of habeGs corpus the violation of freedom of the mails, of the prl vate house, of the press and speech, and all thu | other multiplied wrongs and outrages upon public | liberty and private right, which have made thi ! caai.trT one of the worst despottsns on earth 10 | the past twenty months: and will continue to re buke and denouuce them to the end; and the peo ple thank God, have at last heard and needed, an( | rebuked them, too. To the ord and to time appeal again for my justification.
 | And now, sir, 1 recur to the state of the Cnol l to-day. What is 1t? Sir twenty months hav | elapsed but the rebellion is not crushed out; it military power has not been broken; the insur gents have not dispersed: The Union i. not re tho it,ttn ipta nod. tb l laws enforced Twenty, sixty, ninety, three hun dred six hundred days have passed, thousan | millions been expended; and three hundred thou sand lives lost or bodies mingled; and to-day tn Confederate flag is near the Potomac and the Ohio and the Confederate government stronger, man
 times, than at the beginning. Not State ha
 voluntarily returned to the Union. Not Stat has been restored, not any portion of any Stat has voluntarily returned to the l'niOn And ha any thing been wanting that Congress, tn States, the people in their most generous en
 thusiasm, their most impassio led patriotism, coui
 bcstow? Was it powerl And did not the party c the Executive control the entire Federal Govern
 ment every State Government, every county
 every city, town and village in the North an
 West2 Was it patronage? All belonged to it. Wa
 it influence? What more? Did not the school, til
 college, the church. the press, the secret order:
 the municipality, the corporation, railroads, tele
 graphs, express companies, the voluntarily a5s-
 citations, all, all yield it to the utmost' Was
 unani mity2 Never an Administration so sup
 or;ed in England or America. Five men an
 half score of newspapers made up the opposition l Was 1t en hu5iasml The enthusiasm tanatcii
 There has been nothing like it since the Crus tde
 Was it confdencel Sir, the faith of the peopl
 exceeded that of the patriarch. They gave U
 Constitution, law. right, liberty, all at your d'
 mand for arbitrary power, that the rebellion migh
 as you promised, be crushed ont in three month
 and the Union restored. Was credit nee !e-
 You took control of country, young, vigorou
 and inexhaustible in wealth and resources, and
 a Government almost free from public debt, an | whose good faith had never been tarnished. Yo,
 great national loan bubble failed mseraby, az
 deserved to fail; but the bankers and merchan
 of Philadephia New York and Boston lent yo I-more than their entire banking capital. And wht
 that failed too, you forced credit by declaring yor | paper promises pay legal tender for all debt
 Was money wantedl You had all the revenues | the United States diminished indeed, but still 1 gold. The whole wealth of the country, to tn
 last dollar, lay at your feet. Private individual
 municipal corporations, the State governments, a
 in their frenzy gave you money or means wit
 reckless prodiealitv. The great Eastern citi'
 lent you < | 50 ,000. Congress voted, first, tn
 sum of S25O 900 ,O09, and next $500 900 ,03O mol in loans: aud then. first, $50 0000,0 ,000 then SID
 GOO GOO. next 800 ,000 ,000, and in July last Sl 50 | OOn GOO in Treasury notes and the Secretary ha
 issned also a 'paper postage currency, Tn sums a
 low os five cents, limited in amount only by h discretion Nay more; already since the 1th ( Mly. 1861, this House has appropriated S2,49O 6oOOOO, almost every dollar without debate an , without a recorded vote. thousand million
 have been expende. since the 18th of April, 1851 ot. ,..t