Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-10-07
Part Of Mr.. Riddles Speech at ChardOS,
CReported for the BEADrR.l
VALUE OF THE GoyEREMERT.

tnl0g lar me IL II WhutS me 10 HOrk IOF
it it must pay me" And this was said
by man claiming to be loyal We have
never comprehended the cost and value Of
our Government We are getting better
views. We are re-buying it, and paying
the red coinage that is struck in the awful
mint Of battle. This generation formed
this Government here, working its great
processes by its own invisible, unheard
and unfelt vOlition, self-impelIed, and
all pervading, like the great and benif-
cent processes Of nature. No external
agencies Of power met the eye, no creak-
ing or jarring of machinery reached the
ear. No taxation, no exactiOn, laid their
weight upon the people. 1t was as ifit al
ways had been, and must ever be. Exist
ent without our aid, and whose blessings
were so spontaneous that they were to be
accepted without gratitude or reflection.
What had it done for Us ? Before Ohio
was rudimentsry State even, this Gov
ernment came, removed the savsges from
her bsrders, walled slavery out, surveyed
her lands, established law, and enforced
justice. 1t imposed its shield between our
scattered hamlets and an invading enemy,
captured their fleet in our waters; con-
structed cur hsrbors opened up the ways
Of enterprise and wealth stood between
US and all burthens, became the unfailing
source of the very titles of our landed es-
t, 81 al
ouisitions With q territory as large as
the Kingdom of Prussia wilderness
sixty years ago, Ohio is now more popu-
lous, more powerful, with vastly more
wealth than had that Kingdom when Fred
erick the Great as3ended the throne. All
this our people have accomplished because
they had no armies to maintain; no na-
vies to support no ruinous wars no dis
turbed peace; no foreign embassies; no
entangling alliances no revenues to
raise for waste. Because . strong arm
like the angel at the gates of paradise,
guarded our borders. Because perfect
peace and absolute security have been as
productive as our atmosphere. Because
our people have been enabled to devote
their whole energies to their exclusive in
diVidual affairs without call upon their
time, or a contribution Of their means.
1t is this which has enabled our State to
devote her entire strength, under the di-
rection of her wisest rulers, wholly to the
development of her resources; TO establish
her benignant system Of education, to en-
ter upon her enlarged scheme of public
charities; to enforce private justice among
her citizens, and lead her broad browed
ba- rraoF III nf cd
ucation, morality and religion, to the
worlds great fields Of ambition and en-
terprise.
Had Ohio been left to herself, to
subdue her savages, to war against inva-
sion, to maintain armies and nsvies, and
sustain foreign relations, she would have
persisted utterly, or be now the feeble, con-
temptible, despised and wretched depend
ent upon some more favored nation, with
an abject, impoverished, degraded and
scattered population.
The Government has never done any
thing for the man Before he was bornit
had made existence desirable. Its peace
watched with his mother over his cradle.
1t educated and cared for his youth, gave
title and value to the acquisitions of his
manhood, protected the hearth of his home;
will transmit his estate to his children. and
guard his burial place from desecrstion.
1he Government has done everything for
him, and to it he owes his all, poor un-
thinking, ungrateful wretch. And if he
is derelict nsw, if he absents himself from
duty; if he fails to appear on the day Of
the great battle in Ohio, he ought to be
shst is deserter. Such man is unworthy
TO live.
And pray you to remember that this
Government, which has done so much for
Ohio, and to which this man owes so much,
is also the same Government that swayed
over Virginia and was sovereign over
South Carolina, and that this Government
is a unit and must exist as a whole or it
must perish. That whoever strikes it
down in Virginia strikes it down in Ohio,
and that if it can be resisted in South Car
olina it can be resisted here; that although
we might continue to obey it, in our State,
yet the great national sanction, by which
it could enforce duty and impsrt protec-
ton, is forever lost; that in order to per-
petaate its blessings in Ohio we must, at
all hazards and all sacrifices, restore its
sovereignty in Virginia, and South Caro-
lima must be crushed to abiect submission.
One half Of the great edifice is torn away
and utter destruction awaits the whole un-
less it can be restored. There is no pro-
cess Of carpentry by which the huge gap
can be botohed up. We must 90 on until
we wrench the lost States from the dishon-
oring arms Of those ravishing traitors, and
bear them back and fix and chain them in
their old places by the everlasting liga-
lures Of justice and truth.
This great cause has been often in sore
peril-at Shiloh and Chattanooga; at Bull
Run and on the Peninsula; at Antietam
and Gettysburgh-bu never in greater
peril than now, and woe unutterable to
the man who permits anything earthly to
come between him and his whole duty. If
could infuse my spirit into our people
the one labor by day and the enc scheme
by night, should he to swell to a mountain
the mass Of ballots that should bury these
iisloyal wretehes forever from the light Of
offended day.
NO EXCUSE FOR THE REBELLION.
Can it be that these men who oppose us
are disloyai wholly, or is there lurking
feeling that the Government is in the |
wrong and the rebels right2 With all |
the means and lights about them, do they |
still think there was cause for the rebel |
ion, that could in the least excuse or pal |
late it2
Macbeth said that q The times have been, |
that when the brains were out the man
would die" Let me or Se and again brain |
this thing-that the rebels had excuse for |
this treason. Understand this matter:
This rebellion is against the Government,
and no excuse can be found for If, except |
in some act of the Government hurtful to |
the rebel States. Some great mischief, /
= :. :.