Litchfield enquirer., 1863-10-08
ntisfellol,,,.
Letter of Gen. Meagher te the
 Union Committee of Ohio.
NEW YORK, Sept. 23d, 1863.


 my power to get away from there iD time to Reap my engagement with your Committee. If | obliged to break the engagement, I shall ex- | ceedingiy regret it. To aid you, were it ever | so feebly, in the contest in which you are en- gagged would gratify me beyond measure, Jack sonian Democrat as am. The issues inyoly. ed in the contest are of National consequence | They concern every loyal State, and should ex- cite the socitude of every loyal citlzen
 The contest itself, to be sure, will be confn- ed to Ohio but with the principles, the inter- ests, the cause at stake, California is virtually l identified. So is Maine. So is Illinois. So is Oregon. So is every State that has proved it's fidelity to the National compact. and fully 1 comprehends, as it proudly values the sgniG- 1 canoe of the National flag, the brilliant and vast advantages of National unity, the necessi- | ty of a National Government and the obliga- | tion to sustain it, heart and soul, in perfect strength, authority, and power, with life as well as treasure. It is not too much to say, indeed, that in this contest in Ohio the Government at Washington is on trial, and that, with it, the noble armies it has sent forth to recover the National domain and property from the jnsur- gents of the South, shall either be renounced and condemned, or be heartily sustained, as your votes decide the day.
 Electing Mir. Brough, Ohio vindicates and fortifies the National Government. Electing Mir. Vallandgham, Ohio abandons, and, so far as one State can do so, weakens and prostrates it. Electing Mir. Brough, Ohio stands true to the ,lendld soldiers who, from the rocks of Gettysburg, hurled back bold invasion- iron. the bluffs of Vicksburg broke the letters of the Mississippi, con secrating it to Freedom and the untrammeed service of united peo- pie, and who, at this very hour, rain deserved chastlsement on the city in which the National Flag was first struck down, and the torch of treason tossed aloft as the signal of revolt. Electing Mir. Vallandigham, Ohio turns her back on these brave men, disowns their ser vices, dlscards the victories they have won, sends them vote of repudiation instead of a vote of thanks, and, in place of cheering them on Tn thelr new enterprises, casts a cloud be- tween them and their fame, their proud mem- ories, their exalt: purposes and hopes, mak- ing them feel they have poured out their blood in the defeat of armed traitors in their front but to encounter the faithlessness and base iu- gratitude, or at best the equivocal recognition and impoverished praise, of mutinous party in their rear.
 such, Ii mistake not, are the main issues ot the contest in which you, the citizens of Ohio, are engaged. There are, however, other important consequences involved.
 The election of Mir. Brough will deepen the depression and confirm tle discomliiure of the South, gong lar to convert into wofuness and blank despair the ecstacies inspired by the Peace meetings and riots of New York, Iowa, aud other places where Copperheads abound, and the venom as well as the slime. the tangs, as well as the slippery skin, of the reptiles, warn the community of danger.
 On the other hand, the election of MT. Val landigham will rouse the dropping spirits of the guilty States that have been so effectuaIy crippled of late. It will revive in those States great expectations of q diversion in their favor and stimulate them to renewed efforts of des- peration. Summon Mir. Vaandigham from his congenial exile in the bosom of his British sympathizers, seat him in the Cnrule chair of your State, let him have the disbursement of the patronage with which it is richly padded, and, not doubt of it, the usurpers at Rich mond will have good reason to infer they have reliable friends at the North, and that Presi- dent Lincoln is beset, undermined, hampered and overborne by 9 swarm of enemies.
 The severe. thin features of Mr. Davis, will dilate and soften with the news Another Thanksgiving Day will be added by his author ity to the long list of Feasts and Fasts in which the auctations of the Confederacy from the pentential to the hilarious phases of pety are commended, as lesson on the variability of all human affairs, to the study of an irrever- ent and headlong age. The sweetest smiles will break out and play in tropical radiance all over the neat round chin, the dainty lips, the plump and cosy cheeks of Mir. Judah Ben, jamin and, yielding to the entertainment of the glad tidings, he may indulge in the vision of a triumphant entry into Cincinnati, on the inyi- tation O. Gov. Vallandigham and, more bless ed than his forefathers were, may in his dreams partake of grapes such as the gleaning or Ephraim never yielded, and of hams such as Solomon in all his glory, with all his gold and silver, with all his ivory, apes, and peacocks. never had the happiness to taste. Mir. Toombs even may be induced in the enlivening sun- shine of the event, to think better of the finan- cial system he has recently, with such sepul- l chral sobriety and heaviness of heart, consider ed it his duty to expose.
 | Picture to yourselves the transports of the refined and exquisite editors who danced-as the King of Dahomey dances at his loathsome and awful holocausts-over the stranglne and mutilation of the harmless and helpless negroes of New York and the massacre at Lawrence, the lnstigation to which barbarities-unparal leled since the butcheries of the Septembrists and the Noyades of Lyons-must have sprung from the deepest abyss of he'll. Picture to yourselves the transports of these delicate and chivalrous gentlemen when tue news reaches them thai their persistent champion-who from the outset of the war has done everything in his power to aid the insurrection, while he has left no stone unturned that could embar- rass and incapacitate the National Government has trlumphed in his disaffection and disloy- alty, becoming invested with magisteral func. tions that will enable him all the more boldly. all the more defantly, all the more mischiev- ously, to resume the line of conduct that com pelled the National Government to send him beyond our lines.
 | The South, be assured of it, will interpret his election in its direct bearing and full signit- canoe. They will recognize in it the defeat and condemnation of the National Govern ment, and in this defeat and condemnation the power and predominance of the conspiracy which fosters and facilitates Secession, voting down supplies to the Army. destroying public confidence in the Administration, instieating resistance to the laws of Congress, compelling the withdrawal of veteran troops from the field to enforce the obedience which State aathori ties think it no duty of theirs to see to and by every other arti6ce compatible with it's malie- nant safety, doing its best to sap and paralyze the good, great cause it lacks the courage to rear it's head against and with brilliant au.