The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-03-06
Ths Pe3ce Programme.

the session got leave to print one, in the course
OF which the Washington correspondent Of the
New York Woyd reports him as advocating the
following views;
"Were he certain thai in a military sense this
: war would prove successful nevertheless he would
oppose it, for with the destruction of tae resisting
power CT the South would vanish every hope OF
their existence as equal and oontented members
Of one household.
"In his view this war, nomnally for the Union,
had been waged against it, With this belief,
rither than prolong it he would concede separa-
ton as the only means of an ultimate reunion up
on such principles as true republican should en-,
terrain.
"When every conciatory measure shall have
been resorted to in vain; when negotiations shall
have been exhauSted when the purpose of the
southern people to abstain from political compan-
i0nship with US shall have been demonstrated as
fixed and irrevocabe fact, and not the passionate
resolve of heated blood-then, as a necessity use
less to struggle against he should not only coun-
sci but urge separation.
"ln his opinion the only prospect of accommo-
dation rested in a calm and dispassonate appeal
to the judgment and better feelings of the conten-
ding parties. With such convictions, and beley-
Ing that every hour of hosties tended to our
further estrangement, he had never voted dollar
for the war.
GAS legislator, as a citizen, and as a man, he
claimed to be abS0lved from all participation in
this, as he characterizes it, 'murderous strife
With all his humble abilities he had eHdeavored
TO arrest it. He would still endeavor, and if in
vain, let his efforts attest before God and man
that he was unstaned witt the blood Of his coua.
trymen."
"From u.s." he says, being materially the
stronger party, the proposition for an armistice
can come with good grace. Let wise and lust
and good men from all the States assemble 10 con-
vention. II then no honorable peace can be Sc
cured bis faith in human nature will have passed
away"
John McKeon also Democrat of New York
City, made an elaborate argument in favor of an
armiSice, and Cancellation, and peace, before the
Union Democratic Association of that city Tues
day evening, in the course Of which he is reported
as saying:
1--WE should at once endelvor to recover our
lost brethren, not by arms, bat by endcayor8 to
concate them back again. (Applause) He
was tJr an armstice. He was for convention OIL
the States, whereby to stop the war and remedy
the condition OF things under which we labor. Ill
the policy OF the administration is carried cut the
Union is lrreyoclbly lost. He was anxious 10
save the Union, and he believed that it could be
saved BY little sacrifice"
The larger part of this speech was devoted to a
historical parallel, in which the Southern traitors
were compared to our revolutionary fathers srug-
Cling for their liberty and the rights Of man, and
the Northern peace men, like McKeon, were mod
estly compared to Burke and Fox, and Erskine
The Speaker had not quite the courage to COM
plete the parallel, bat will undoubtedly, in his
next discourse, tavcrabIy mention jeff. Davis as
the antelope of Washington.
Our purpose in these quotations is to show how
delusve and dishonest has been all the talk of
these politicians heretofore, when speaking of "the
Constitution as it is" Both o! these couperheads
are for convention of States, to agree upon some
settlement Of the war, and for cancellation and
compromise. This means a convention of States
for the purpose Of changing the Constitution.
And this is the inevitable result of all attempts to
appease the South. The work of Cancellation
must commence with altering the Constitution
The mildest rebel will listen to nothing else until
compelled to. And an armistice and conven.
ton would have for its sole object change in our
organic law. We commend the contemplation of
this phase of the programme of the peace-and-arm
'istice.men to those who have adopted for their
motto, "he Constitution as it is and the Union
as it was" In their violent opposition to the
government they have already reached the point
where they boldly advocate change in our Con-
sttution and disruption of the Union. There is