The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-11-20


and brothers and mine, as intelligent, as well
trained as we or their opponents, better EMIT
eled to vote than you or /, for they have gone
forward to the battle, while We have been con-
tent with staying at home and making cOntri-
buttons, meritOrious in themselves, but never
theless contributions in money instead of blood.
Not allow the soldiers to vote for the govern.
ment2 You saw what came of it by refusing
to allow him his vote last year. You voted
the government down in his absence, and then
were obliged to call the soldier from the front,
in face of the enemy back to the State. to re-
store peace, order and safety at home. Not
allow the soldier to vote? Has the soldier only
the right to languish in the hospital, to die on
the battlefield, and to be carried into captivity?
Is this the sum of the soldiers rights? l tell
you no. / tell you that the soldiers of this
war will vote, some thousands of them to-
morrOw-many more thousands every year
hereafter-and they will sit in judgment upon
parties in this country throughout two genera
tions, and determine the verdict of property
in regard to them.
THE ISSUE OF THE WAR.
I have another ground for knowing that you
will succeed tomorrow. You have the right
side upon plain, practical, simple issue. Our
opponents DO not see this-they have suffered
faction to blind them. They say they are vOt-
ing down this administration, because it is in
competent and ought never to have been elect
ed. They say again, that they are voting to
decide the Presidential question of 1864. They
are doing no such thing. Abraham Lincoln
was elected in 1860 to the Presidency of the
United States for four years, viz from the 4th
of March, 1861 to the 4th OF March, 1865, fairly,
justly, honorably, constitutionally elected.
The question is not whether he ought to have
been elected in 1860; that was settled in the
election of 1860, and is reversible The ques-
ton is not whether he or any person connect
ed with his administration shall be elected in
hat I>,o loA ~, he 80
1864. Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 to
be President not of part, but of the whole of
the United States but he has been forcibly
kept out of part of the United States, Lou
isiana Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro-
lima, Georgia and other Gulf States. In those
States he is President de jure but not de .tdcto.
The object of this election is the object of the
war. 1t is to make Abraham Lincoln President
de facto from 1860 to 1864 in Georgia, South
Carolina and the other Gulf States, as he is
President de tacto in Massachusetts, New York
and Ohio.
NO PEACE UNTIL ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS PRES
IDRNT OF THE WHOLE UNITED STATES.
know the war waged for that object will
| succeed, and know elections held for the same
| object will succeed. They will succeed because
the object is Just and Justice in politics is ne
! cessary. 1t is injustice and downright robbery
| of Abraham Lincoln, and the majority of citi-
| zens who elected him, to refuse him the full
| enjoyment of the authority conferred upon
| him in that election. There can be no quiet and
peace until abraham Lincoln is President, under
| that election, of the phole States. Now, justice
| is an instinct of the whole human family Ifa
| man has house, or horse, or boat, and it is
taken from him, all society combines to restore
| it to his possession, and it awards severe pun
ishment to those who attempt to rob him of
his rights. You saw this lesson written in the
earliest school book that was put into your
| hands:
Steal not this book, my honest friend,
For fear the gallOws will be your end
The American people will repeat this simple
moral instruction tomorrow by saying to every
insurgent and every confederate in the free
States, as well as in the slave States:
Steal not the Presidency, my honest friend.
For fear the gallows will be your end.
The result to be attained is as important to
our opponents as it is to us. What if through
| battle and suffrage, the President who was
elected in 1860 should by his opponents, be
kept out of the Presidency Of the United States
until another election? What if they should
then succeed in electing a President in Is GA
| against the majority who elected Abraham
| Lincoln in 1860? Can that majority be expect
| ed to acquiesce without voting and without
| bloodshed, in the election of Jefferson Davis,
or John G. Breckenridge. or Horatio Seymour
| Certainly not; and then you have perpetual
civil war, which is nothing else than perpetual
| anarchy. Let us not be deceived. Abraham
Lincoln must be President of South Carolina
| and Georgia by virtue of his election of 1860,
or not only the peace of the Union, but the
| Union itself, is forever lost. Peace comes
through that success, and in no other way.
| There is always peace where justice reigns-
| always disorder where injustice prevails A
| great poet expressed the truth in homc!y Ian
| guage, which you doubtless remember -
"Jack shall have his Gill
| Naught shall 90 ill:
The man shall have his mare again,
| And all shall 20 WE'LL"
know you will prevail tomorrow for an
| other reason. Like the last one, il is founded
! upon moral instinct-that moral instinct
which guides the people of every country to
| maintain and defend that country simply be.
| cause it is their own. 1t is an instinct as nat
ural and as strong as are the instincts which
are the basis OF the family relation. Every un-
perverted man adheres to his own wife in pre-
| ference to another mans wife, and fights i'm her
defence in preference to the defence of strange
woman. Every unperverted man cares for and
| guards his own child instead of wasting his
care on his neighbours children. So every un-
| perverted citizen defends his country against
its enemies, domestic and foreign instead of
defending foreign country or seeking TO de-
stroy his own. The robin does as much. He
guards his own nest, because it is his. The lion
defends his lair, and each of these is endowed
with force adequate to that defence Our
dlslOyal citizens act on the assumption that
the enlightened and virtuous American pco
| pie are less sagacious than the fowls of the air
| and the beasts of the field
| You see from these remarks why it is that
throughout this war have refused to be di
| verified from the main question to engaye in
collateral, and therefore idle and miscRieyous
debates. 1t is such debates that trouble weak
minds and faithless hearts. They are afraid of
the loss of individual liberty and of State rights
and they therefore saw continually on the
string OF arbitrary arrests and suspension of the
ha5eas corpus. They do not see that the coun-
try is in a condition of civil war-eXposed to
foreign invasion; that arrests are weapon of
war which must be welded by the military
| power of the State, and not by its courts and
eonstables. The dangers they fear are future:
they overlook the present danger. which, if it
| prevails, will leave the country no future. Thew
mourn the public peace SO piteously that they
have no heart to restore it in the only way it
can be restored-by contest with the enc MES
in arms who have destroyed it. They sigh for
peace in the future, and thus invite the insur-
| gents to invade our own homes and firesides
| They are troubled to know the terms upon
which you will give peace to the insurgents.
The answer iSa simple one There can be NO
| peace to insurgents In arms until then haze sub
mihed and accepted abraham Lincoln as Presi-
dent Of tie United States; then, and not before,