The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1863-07-17

sworn allegiance (Nreat apDiause)
do appeal to you my Republican friends,
and beg that you will receive this appeal
in the earnest and patriotic spirit which
prompts me to make it, | appeal to you
if you are not dong yourselves and your
country great wrong when you declare
that harmony and unity of parties are es-
seniial TO save the nations life, essential
10 the highest interests of our land, and
yet stigmatize men as true and honest as
yourselves, and whom experience has pro
we'd TO have been wiser too, as men who
do not love their country, and who are un
we to get this indispensable harmony
this needed unitys II is not to be obtain
cd By trampling upon rights; it is not TO
be obtained BY threats; it is not to be OBJ
tanned bv coercion it is not to be obtain
ed By attempting to close our lips when
we would utter the honest purposes OF our
hearts and tie warm convictions of our
Judgment. but, my Republican friends,
there is a mode bv which it can be reach
ed there is IN ode hy which the nations
life can be saved; there is mode bv
which, in the end, we will restore this
Uaion of ours. and bring back those glori-
ous privileges which were so waltonly
thrown away. We come to you in no spir
it of arrogance We do not come to YOU
asking YOU 10 make any concession Of ad
vantage to US. On the contrary. we only
say to you, holding IN your hands and in
your control almost all the political power
of your country, to exercise it according
to your chartered rights. tremendous
appiause) We only ask that you shall
give to us that which YOU claim for your
selves, and that which every freeman, and
every man who respects himself will have
for hlmself-freedom of speech, the rica It
to exercise all the franchises conferred nv
the Constitution upon an American
Great applause,) Can you safely deny
US these thlnsss Are you not trampIing
upon as ana our rights, if you refuse to
listen 10 such an appeal! Is it not revo-
luton which YOU are thus creating when
you say that our persons NAV be ightful-
ly seized, our property confiscated, our
homes entered Are YOU not exposing
yourselves, your own interests. to as great
a peril as that with which you threaten
US! Remember this, that the bloody and
reasonable and revolutionary doctrine of
public necessity can be proclaimed bv a
mob as we'll as by a government. (Ap-
pIause.l Remenlte er all the teachings Of
history; and we imp,ore you, with regard
to your own interests, to stop and inquire
If you are not doing Yourselves and your
'n families. and all that you hold dear to
you, ali infinite wrong when you sustain
propositions that tear away from them. as
well as from US, the projections which the
Constitution of your country has thrown
around public liberty. (Great applause
Can you tel! when ambition, love Of plum
der. or thirst for power, will induce bad
and dangerous men to proclaim this very
princi pie of public necessity, as a reason
why they should trampe beneath their
feet all the laws Of our land and the insii-
| tutons Of our country? ask YOU again
to think if measures like these give pow er.
dignity, or strength to our government.
/ ask you. on the other hand, if these co9-
ernments have not lived ont the lone est
periods, which, in times of public danger.
instead Of shrinking back from the ,rinci
PIES Of liberty and tne barriers of order,
have raised a'ofs these great principles.
and ba.tIed under them, and thus given
strength TO the hearts of the people, and
gained the respect Of the world Gap
plause) l ask Won if it is not an evidence
of weakness, defeat and discontinue. when
IN the presence Of armed rebellion, the a1-
ministration is compelled to assert that
the verv charter by which it holds is
power has ceased to have virtue that can
protec. a citizen in his rights, Suppose
we accept this doctrine, what will be the
consequences to this government. To-day
the great masses Of conservatives who still
battle for time honoral principles
chartered principles Of government, amid
denunciation and contumely, and abuse,
are the only barriers that stand between
this government and lis own destruction
IF we accent tomorrow this teaching, if
We tomorrow should acquiesca in the dor-
trine that in times o. war Constitutions
are suspended, and laws have lost their
force, then We should accept a doctrine
that the very right by which this Govern.
ment administers It's power, has los: its
virtue, and we would be brought down to
the level of rebellion itself having an exis-
tence only by virtue Of material power -
Would not vital blow ,, struck to iber
ty! If we should accept this doctrine,
what would be the consequence? When
me-: accent desnotism, they may have A
choice as 10 who the despot will be. The
struggle then will not be. Shall we have
Constitutional liberty? But having ac-
cep,ed the doctrine that the Constitution
has lost its force, every instinct OF person
pl ambition, every instinct of personal Sc
curitv. will lead men to put themselves
under the protection Of that power which
thew supposed most competent TO protect
| theii persons And Their this administra.
ton would find that, in putting military
/ rulers over us they had made military mas
/ ters for themselves: for this war teaches
ia tn at the general who will betrav the
/ Iihert es Of the people for the purpose o
/ gaining the favor Of power. will. when on
rortrniiy occurs, seize power itself. ZAP
: plause)
=