The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1863-07-30
Established 1925.
Vs1landighAm'S Address 90 the People
Of Ohio.
NIAGARA FALLS CANADA WEST. !
Julv IL 19R2

OF Ctate ;Danlsneo tnence 10 the Confed.
crate States, and there held as an alien
enemy and prisoner of war, though on
parole, fairly and honorably dealt with
and given leave to depart, an act pos
sible only by running the blockade at
the hazard Of being fired upon by ships
flying the flag Of my own country, l
found myself first freeman when on
British soil. And to-day, under the
protection ofthe British flag, l am here
to enjoy, and in part to exercise, the
privileges and right which usurpers in
solently deny me at home. The shall
low contrivance Of the weak despots at
Washington, and their advisers, has
been defeated. Nay, it has been turn
ed against them; and I, who for two
years was maligned as in secret league
with the Confederates, having refused,
when in their midst, under circumstan-
ces the most favorable, either to iden-
tify myselfwith their cause or even so
much as to remain, prefering rather ex-
lie in foreign land, return now with
allegiance to my own State and Gov
ernment, unbroken in word, thought
or deed, and with every declaration
and pledge to you while at home, and
before was stolen away, made good
in spirit and to the very letter.
Six weeks ago, when just going into
banishment because an audacious but
most cowardly despotism caused it, !
addressed you as fellow citizen. To-
day, and from the very place then Sc
lected by me, but after wearisome and
most perrilous journeyings for more
than four thousand miles by land and
upon the sea still in exile though al
most in sight Of my native State, |
greet you as your representative
Grateful, certainly l am, for the conf
dence in my integrity and patriotism
implied by the unanimous nomination
as candidate for Governor ofOhio, which
you gave me while I was yet in the
Confederate States. 1t was not mis-
placed it shall never be abused. But
this is the last Of all considerations in
times like these. ask no personal sym
pathy for personal wrong. No: it is
the cause Of constitutional liberty and
private right cruelty outraged beyond
example in free country, by the Pres
ident and his servants, which gives
public signifcancy to the action ofyour
convention. Yours was, indeed, an act
of justice to citizen, who, for his de-
votion to the rights of the States and
the liberties of the people, had been
marked for destruction by the hand Of
arbitrary power. But it was much
more. 1t was an example of courage,
worthy Of the heroic ages of the world;
and it was a spectacle and rebuke to
the usurping tyrants, who, having bro
ken up the Union, would now strike
down the Constitution, subvert your
present Government and esablish a
formal, and proclaimed despotism in its
stead. You are the REsToRERs AND
DEFENDERS OF CONSTITUTIONAL LIBER-
TY, and by that proud title history
will salute you.
l congratulate you upon your nomi-
nations. They whom you have placed
upon your ticket with me, are men of
character, ability, integrity, and tried
fidelity to the Constitution, the Union,
and to Liberty. Their moral and po-
litical courage-a quality always rare,
and now the most valuable of public
virtues-is beyond question. Every
way, all these were nominations fit to
be made. And even jealousy, l am
sure, will be hushed if l especially re-
joice with you in the nomination ofMr,
Pugh as your candidate for Lieutenant
Governor and President ofthe Senate
A scholar and gentleman, a soldier in
foreign war, and also a patriot; emf
nent as lawyer, & distinguished as a
patriot and statesman, hail his ac-
ceptance as an omen of the return of
the better and more virtuous days Of
the republic,
l indorse your noble platform-ele-
giant in style, admirable in sentiment.
You present the true issue, and COM
nit yourself to the great mission just
now of the Democratic party-to re-
store and make sure first the right and
liberties declared yours in your consti-
tutions. 1t is vain to invite the States
and people of the South to return to a
Union without Constitution, and dis
honored and polluted by repeated and
most aggravated exactions of tyranic
power 1t is base in yourselves, and
reasonable to your posterity, to sur
render these liberties and rights to
the creatures whom your own breath
created and can destroy. Shall there
be free speech, free press, peaceable as
semblages of the people, and free bal
lot any longer in Ohio? Shall the peo.
pie hereafter, as hitherto, have the
right to discuss and condemn the prin-
ciples and policy of party-the minis
try-the men who, for the time, con-
duct tho Government--to demand of
their public servants reckoning of
their stewardship, and to place other
men and another party in power at
their supreme will and pleasure? Shall
Order 80 or the Constitution be the Su-
preme law of the land? And shall the
citizen any more be arrested by an
armed soldiery at midnight, dragged
from wife and child and home, to a
military prison thence to a mock mil
itary trial; thence condemned, and
then bandished as a felon for the exer-
else ofhis rights? This is the issue; and
nohlu Won have met IT, II is the very