Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1863-08-13

Senator John Sherman mndo N srencl
at Delaware, July 2S. II has beon mil.
lishcd in the Culnmbus Journal and Cin.
cinnati Gazette. In that speech. Mr..
Sherman charges the Democratic marty
of Ohio with nominating as their candi.
date for Governor a Convicted Troit.
or, and with calling upon the people to
entrust, with the Chief command of our
militia and the Executive authority Of the
State, q man convicted as n traitor"
John Sherman is lawyer and a U. S.
Senator. !le knew when he uttered and
published this false and malicious libel on
the Ohio Democracy what he was doing.
He did il from the basest Of m motivcs--to
promote the interests of his party at the
expense of honor, truth and justice. He
knows, as every intelligent man knows.
that the candidate Of the Democrats and
Conservatives Of Ohio is no Convicted
Traitor"
Clement l.. Vallandingha m is no Con
victed Tiaitor." A man can only be
convicted of treason by a civil court of
competent jurisdiction. Mr.. Vallandig.
ham has been tried by no such court. 1t
is, therefore, false ard malicious to assert
Tint he has been convicted of treason, or
to call him, as John Sherman docs, a
"Convicted Traitor"
Our National Constitution defines the
crime of treason, and law Of Congress
affixes its punishment The Military
Commission that sat on Mr.. Vallandiug
hams case in Cincinnati. did not pretend
to try him for that crime or any other
known to the Constitution or laws of the
country, civil or military.
The President Of the United States,
who, we take it, is quite as good author
ity as John Sherman, and who changed
the sentence of the Military Commission
from Imprisonment TO bansbment beyond
The lines, says. in his response to the
Ohio Committee who sought Mr.. Valan-
dignam's release, dated Washington,
June "a, 1868
The military arrests and detentions which have
been made, including those of Mr.. Vallanding
ham, which are not different in principle from the
other. have been made for PREVENTION, and not
for PUNISHMENT as injunctIons to stay nury-as
proceedings in such cases and for like reasons,
they nave not been accompanied with indictments
or trials by le:ies, nor, in single case, by any
punishment whatever beyond what is purely Incl
dental to the prevention. The original sentence
of Imprisonment in the case of Mr. Vallanlgbans
was to prevent injury to the military service
only, and the modification of it was made MS n
less disagrecablc mode to him Of securing the
same prevention,
Here the President declares in effect
that the arrest was not made nor the pun
ishment inflicted in the case of Mr.. Vail
audigham and others, because he or th ey
were charged with any crime or offense on
which trial could be based in the ordi n
ary tribunals Of the country. They were
arrested and impris ned, or otherwise
punished, not for the commission of n
crime, but that crime might not be com
mitted.
Thus it appears on the authority of
Abraham Lincoln, who changed NJ
Valandigham's sentence from imprison
ment to transportation. that John Sher.
man willfully falsifies the record when
he charges tho Democrats and Conserva.
tive men Of Ohio with having nominated
a Convicted Traitor" as their candidate
for Governor. But Sherman had an OBJ.
iect in view in making this false charge
1t was to STIR up party strife. to incite
mobs upon Democrats, to deceive the
soldiers and make them believe it their
duty to put down, as their enemies and
the enemies of their country, all who
should support or offer to vote for a
"Convicted Traitor" With this lie in
his mouth the demagoguc Sherman ex
pccted to aid in exciting commotion
and riots in Ohio as an excuse for preven
ting Democrats and Conservatives from
exercising the rights Of frcemon as citi-
zens of free State.
Mark the incendiary words Sherman
used 10 his Delaware speech, after having
made his false charge that the Dom ocrats
OF Ohio had nominate for Governor A
"Convicted Traitor" He said
1t will require some forbearauce tor the bra We
soldiers who are now exposing their lives to the
bullets Of the enemy, to discuss this n minntion,
and admit that it tries the patience of patriotic
citizens to discuss it with good temper.
Should there be mobs or riots hercar-
ter, originating in attempts by citizens or
soldiers or both. to prevent the free ex.
ercise of those civil rights, without which
aur Government is not worth preserving,
let these words Of Senator Sherman, be
remembered, and meet with the public in
dignation they deserve.
If for expressing his honest convic.
tons in regard to certain acts of tbs Ad-
ministration, Clement l.. Vallandigham
is traitor, John Sherman is as much OF
traitor as he. We prove this by single
instance from Sherman's record in Con
'gress,
At the extra session of Congress, on the
10th of July, 1861, a joint resolution was
introduced into the Senate, to approve
and confirm certain acts of the President
done previous to the commencement of
that session-among others, suspending
the writ of habeas corpus on the 9th of
April, 1861, and issuing proclamation
on the % of May, 1861, calling into the
service of the United States fortytwo
thousand and thirty-four volunteers, in.
ceasing the regular army by the addition
Of twenty-five thousand seven hundred
and fifteen men, and the navy by an ad-
dition of eighteen thousand seamen-and
to declare these ordere and acts of the
President to be "in all respects legal aud
valid to the same extent, and with the
same effect, as if they had been issued and
done under the express authority and di,
rc1tlon OF the Congress of the United
L Il