The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-01-28
sPEECH

- ~z
sPEECH
OF
HQNsELE1kEsNT LAIRD EALLAN-
-1DIGWA1I, OF OHIO
, IAN House q Representatives. January II
. 1863. <
Mr.. NALLANDIGHAM. Mr.. Speaker In
dorsed at the recent election within the same
district for which / still hold a-seat on this
floor, by a majority four times greater than
ever before, 1 speak to-day in the name and
by the authority of the people who, for SIX
Tlyearsghave intrusted me withthe ofica gofsp
'ERepresentatiVe. Loyal, in the true4andShigh-
est sense of the word, to the Constitution and
4 the Union, they have proved themselves de.
vatedly attached to and verify of the kber-
i ties to secure which the Union and the Con
stikation were established. With candor and
fffeeaom, therefore, as their Representative
nj .much plaihness Of speech, but with the
dignity and decency due to this presence, /
pgopossiio consider the sTATEsoF THE UNION
to-day, and to inquire what the duty is of
every public man and every citizen in this
the very crisis of the Great Revolution.
ItIisfnoW two years, sir, since Congress as
sembled soon after the Presidential election.
Ausectional aRti-slavery party had then just
succeeded through the forms of the Constitu-
I ton. For the fs.sAtime a President had been
chosen upon q platform of avowea hostility to
an institution peculiarsto nearly one half of
the States of the Union, and who had himself
proclaimed that there was an irrepFessihle con-
hfct benauso of that institution betwAa.rsshs
States; and that the Union could not endure
sspart slave and part free. GAngress met,
therefore, in the midst of the profeundest agi-
/ tation mot here onlFHbut throughout the en-
tire South. Reyolntion gldred upon US. Re-
pested efforts for conciliation and compromise
were attsmptedin Congress and out of All
were rejected by the party just coming into
power, except only the promise in the last
hours of the session, and that, too, against the
consent of a majority of that party both in the
Senate and House ; that Congress-not the
Executive-should never be authorized to
abolish or interfere with slavery in the States
| where Il existed. South Carolina seeded !;
Georgia, Alabama. Florida, Mississippi, Louis
lana, and Texas speedily followed. The con-
federate government was establishes The.
other slave States held back. Virginia de
lmanded q peace congress. The commissioners
met, and after some time, agreed upon terms
of final adjustment. But neither in the Sem
ate nor the House were they allowed even a
respectful cousideratioh. The President elect
left his home in February, and journeyed to-
wards this capital, testing as he came pro-
claiming that the crisis was ouly artificial, and
that "nobody was hurt He entered this city
under cover of night and in disguise. On the
4th of March he was inaugurated, surrounded
by soldiery and. swearing to support the Con-
lstitution of the United States, announcing IN
the same breath that the platform of his party
should be the law unto him. From that mo-
ment all hope eff peaocable adjustment fled.
But for a little while, either with uHsteadfast
sincerity or in premeditated deceit, the pol
icy of peace was proclaimed, even to the evac-
uati ON of Sumter and the other Federal forts
and arsenals in the seeded States. Why that
policy was suddenly abandoned, time will ful-
ly disclose. But just after the spring elections,
and the secret meeting IN this city oftbe Gov.
ernors of severalnorthern and western States,
a feet carrying a large number Of men was
sent down ostcnsibly to provision Fort Sum
ter. The authorities of South Carolina eager
" accepted the challenge, and bombarded the
fort into d surrender. viii e the feet fred nos
q gun, but, just SO SOON as the flag was struck,
horne awuy and
was Sunday, the l4th of April, 1851 and,
that day the President, in fatal haste and with
out the advice or consent. of Congress, issued
his proclamation, dated the mex day, calling
cut seveBty-fve thousand .militia for three
months, to repossess the forts, places, and prop
erty seized. from the United States, and COM
handing the insurgents to disperse in twenty
days. Again the gags was taken up by the
South, and thus the flames of a civil war, tho
grandest, bloodiest and saddest in history,
lighted up the whole heavens. Virginia forth
with seeded, North Carolina, Tennessee, and
Arkansas followed Delaware, Maryland, Ken
lucky, and Missouri were IN a blaze of agita-
tation, and within a week from the proclama-
ton, the line of the Confederate States was
transferred from the cotton States to the POI
tomaa, and ALMOST to the Ohio and the Mis-
souri,, and their population and fighting men
doubled.
In the North and West, too, the storm
ragged with the fury of a hurricane. Never in
history was anything equal to it. Men, .wo-
men, and children, native and foreign born,
Church and State, clergy and laymen, were
all swept along.with the current DISTINCTION
of age, sex, station, party, persisted in an in
slant. Thousands bent before the tempest;
and here and there only was one found bold
enough, ~foolhardy enough it may have heen,
to bend not, and him it smote fell as a consul
ming FIRE. The spirit of persecution for opin-
ions sake, almost extinct IN the Old World,
now, by some mysterious transmigration, ap-
peared incarnate in the New. Social relations
were dissolved friendships broken up the
ties of family and Kindred snapped assunder.
Stripes and haRgiHg were every where threat
ened, sometimes executed. Assassination was
invoked SANDER sharpeped bis tooth false
hood crushed truth to the earth reason fled
M dness reigned. Not justice only escaped
to Ii. skies, but peace returned to the bosom
of God. hence she came. The gospel 6floye
perished ; la. .e sat enthroned, aud the eaerif-
ces of blood smoked upon every altar.
But the reign OF the mob was inaugurated
only TO be supplantcd b v the iron domination
of arbitrary power. Conssfitntiohal limitation
was broken down haJeas cor nus fell liberty
of the press, of speech, of the person, of mails,
oftravel, of ones own house, and OF religion
the right to bear arms, due process of law, ju-
dicial trial, trial by jury, trial at all every
badge and imminent of freedom in republican
government or kingiy goyernmentzaIl went
down alta blow and the chief lay officer oe
che crown-I beg PARDON sir, but it is easy
now to fall into this courtly aeeuaee-the