Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1863-06-23

| Look above to the sun that is never to set
| heart,
| Or the wife of thy bosom in sorrow depart,
| Look to Heaven from the darkness and dust of th
/ tomb,
To that soil where affection is ever in bloom
And oh when death comes in his terfors, to cast
His fears on the future, his pail on the past;
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy hear
And smile in thine eye. look aoft and depart!
PEACE CONVENTION AT NEW YORK
SPEECH OF FERNANDO WOOD.
FELLOW CITIZENS We have fallen upon evi
/ times. We have lived too long, if We have out
/ lived our country for, disguise it as we may
i the American Union has been severed, and per
haps forever, and candor compels admission that
our once proud Republic has fallen from its ex-
alted height. 1t is now PROSTATE, decrled, in
suited, and without second-rate position "a
broad rent asunder by fearful civil war at
home ruined by Cespotic power on principles
of partisan hate; and upon theories of Govern
ment utterly antagonistic to those upon which
our institutions were founded; we stand before
the world an object of wonder, contempt and rid
icule. These facts are not referred to in spirit
| of reprOach. but anticipate the record of his
tory; and shall leave to others to fix the respon-
sibility. reprOach none. 1t is not difficult to
charge error or wrong doirg after the accom-
plishmen. Of results. All OF US can see causes
! for misfortune that have occurred better than we
can provide preventive. 1t is sshuman to err
it is divine to forglve'' and, while it is easy to
commit errors ourselves, it is difficult to over
look 1T in others. With these sentiments / am
disposed to alleviate the national woes rather
! IA a mr. oa1c
would do something to extricate the country
| from its terrible calamties. The effort, however
feeble, is ennobling. Even in the attempt, if
made ingood faith is worthy the highest intel
lect and must alleviate patriotism.
l regret that of the many of this character, of
which America has boasted, who have honored
us in the several departments Of human progress,
none have arisen at this time for this blessed
mission. Heretofore, In every age. great nation
al exlgencies have produced the man tor the oc
casion. AS the Almighty sstempers the wind to
the shorn lamb so has He, heretofore, pro-
Vided the instrument by which great national re-
suits have been accomplished for the advantage
/ of humanity. As yet, He has not vouchsafed
this favor to N o man equal TO this crisis has
lappeared-neither in the field nor in the Cabinet,
nor in the many elevated spheres of private life
has the man presented himself with the brain.
the heart, and the courage to seize and work out
1 the great political problem now to be solved in
reason with the force and power equal to the
Ipending crisis. Those who have the intellectual
liability have lacked the nerve and those with the
nerve have lacked the ability. But there is an
other wonder; That in this civilized population
of over thirty millions 81 N orth and South--a-
bounding with benevolence, purity, cultivation,
and enlightened Christianity, mono are found to
raise the banner of peace. Among the thou
sands of lofty spires which rear their towering
turrets to benignant God, but one that | know
of covers pulpit devoted to the true principles
lof Christ, and proclaims sspeaee on earth.7 L
is that OF Mr.. Pratt, preacher of Staten Island
Cheers for Pratt.) CA voice. ssVan Dyke, Of
Brookli1N AS if the most damnabie crimes Oh
record of history, ancient and modern, consti
tnte religion, forgetting that war is the child OF
Satan, and that peace is Of God, the emanatio1
of the Divine Spirit.
That man who has the intellectual power and
ability to stay this current has not had the
to make the effort, and when the man having the
nerve has attempted, he has lacked the power
and influence TO accomplish it. In my person
without pretending to hold any power OF in1u-
eRce, after studying and contemplating the the.
ory of our Government, with full appreciation
of the issue, !, alone and single handed, will
throw myself into this contest, let it be for my
lcouutry or myself as it may be. Now, my
friends, am for peace as the ouly possible hope
of the restoration of the American Union.-
+ (Cheers and applause.) | am for peace because
war has failed. (Cries-ss That's SO. Cheers.
4 And it has been read in a letter tonight from a
distinguished gentleman lately a candidate for
4 Governor of Connecticut-( (cheers)-'syou can
not cement two antagonistic elements by blood -
/ Therefore, / am against this war, in the first
1place, because, under the theory of our Cavern,
ment, there is no power to coerce delinquent
/ States. By careful reading of the debates in
congress, during the time of the formation ol
the Federal Government, and OF the debates in
the general State Conventions, believe that
there IL no man that dare contend that the most
distant authorization OF the military war power
against the State can be found. On the contra
ry when effort was made to incorporate such
a power, it was denied by Jefferson, Hamilton,
and all the great minds, inelnding John Adams,
of Massachusetts They denied the power, and
they finally declared to the world on that occa-
sion, if there was any coerciye power at all in
the Constitution it was legal and not military.
Therefore, my friends, if there be no military
war power in the Constitution, it is necessarily
an unconstitutional war, and all the instruments
| and results of the war. All these various at
tacks upon the rights of the people, upon the
rights of the press, upon property, upon life,
all the results CT the first fatal mistake of the
sault when there was power in the Federal
Government to perpetrate it. (Cheers.) For
cannot for my life, understand how those men,
bers Of the Democratic party can consistently as
sail the acts of this Administration pretended to
be necessary for the prosecution of the war.
cannot for my life understand how these men
who call themselves war Democrats, can coasis-
tentIy assail the Administration in carrying out
what the Administration believes to be necessary
| for the war. The President of the United States
is there under the notwithstanding to
the provisions of the Constitution We cannot
deny that He is clothed with the executive
powers controlling the military and if, in his
Judgment, responsible to the people, it is neces-
/ sary in the vigorous prosecution of the war, to
commit these acts of which some men complain,
| say that men who favor the war, who are in ia
vor of its prosecution, that it is due to the ad-
minisiration that they, at least, shall not take
exception to what the Administration deems to
be necessary in its prosecution. (s.ThatS so.''
/ Now, gentlemen, | am opposed to the war,
because it never ought to have been commenc
| ed An amicable adjustment could have been
made in the peace conference, which was voted
down and rejected. l am prepared to say tina.
until but recently | know the fact that ami
cable adjustment, securing the constitutional
rights of the South, was within the power of the
Administration. Therefore, / am opposed to
the war, 1ot only because it never should have
been commenced, but because it could have
been arnicably adjusted and determined. Again,
| I am opposed to this war because it has been dl-
verted from its original purposes Instead OF
/ war for the Union it has become warrior the to-
tai sequestration and abolition OF State soyer-
eighty. 1t is for the abolition OF slavery, and
the abandonment of State and territorial limits
i 1t has been used pretext tor the basest par
i tisan purposes of plunder and political power. -
i (Cheers.) And when the Americanpeople COM
.l~.z~, -