Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1863-02-27
VOL Xiv.
Great Speech The copperhead ChieHs, Rich
ardson, Valland;gham and Cox, Dissected!
SPEECH
oFHoN. S. sHELLABARGER. OF OHIO.

]
barger said
| Mr. CHAIRMAN The extinction of a ma
| tionality, in whose language are recorded The
| first events Of human history, whose constitu-
! tion antedates the pyramids by three hundred
years, aud whose arts. literature, and laws are
the sources of all future civilization, is record
by its last historian in that one startling SEN
teuce, sedition destroyed the city, and the
| Romans destroyed the sedtion." A policy
older than Tbebes, Government whose life
outmeasures Assyrian, Chaldean and Grecian
dominion combined, has the story of its de.
cline and fall summed up and its history told
/ in this sentence with which the Hebrew State
I is dismissed forever from the families of men.
! Sir, the sedition which let Titus into the
| Hebrew capital was but the madness of those
whom the gods would destroy. If the attacks
we witnessed the other day upon tbi7 Govern
ment when my colleague Mr.. VallandghamI
sought to persuade its subjocrs no longer -
/ give to it their support in its present struggle
/ against armed treason were mere madness,
they would be relatively innocent. But, sir.
we are spectators to-day Of events in our
midst, seen in an arranged, simultaneous, and
| systematized effort 10 puralize the Government
| in this IFS life or death struggle with treason,
and to persuade one haH its subjects TO lad
here to its enemies which are not mere mad
ness. stop not to prove to-day. My coun-
+ trymen. you no longer need proofs, l think
/ But whether you do or net l cannot stop TO
proof. but only warn you to-day that the
" enormous conspiracy" of which you were
told in the last public utterance Of Mr. Doug
las, on the lst Of May, 1861, has its conspira-
tors in the NORTH do not say in the House
who there play their Internal part in this
drama. The keynote was struck by Stephens
at Savannah; on the 23I of March, 1861
when be said
"The progress of disintegratiOn in the old
Union will go on with almost certainty. We
are the nucleus of a growing power. Looking
to the future 1t is not he
yond the range of possibility, and even proba-
biiity, that all the great States of the North
west shall graritate this way. Our doOIs are
wide enough open to receive them, but not un-
til they are ready to assini!ate with us in prin
ciple. ."
And, sir, what We see in the North
duly of these efforts to paraIize this, and to
| Inspire with confidence the rebel government.
are assigned and set parts iu the play Of the
conspirators in this process Of disintegra
lion"
My colleague LMr. Valandigham] said the
other day that " this government, with an ar
bitrary power which neither the Gar Of Rus
sia nor the Emperor of Austria dare exercise,
hes struck down at blow eterg badge and
muniment of freedom" Tile gentleman from
! Kentucky. FMr. Harding in substance re-
Tg,,R -. H.
10 this point, gre tut itiiations, and almost
| copies OF the speech of Mr.. Breckenridge IN
| the United States Senate, Of the 10Th OF July
1861, made shortly before he entered the rebel
service and all are :he echoes of 4 message
| Of Jtfferson Davis. Another gentleman Mr.
Cexl alleges. in substat &c, that The six hun
dred and Iortt-one days of Mr.. Lincolns Ad-
ministration have divided the Union in two
| belligerent parts; have dtbaurhed The reli
gon and morals of the nation; have murder
ed, by its waF, che hundred aud fifty thousand
Of lis children, and by disease as iiidny more.
Another gentleman Mr.. Richardsonl attri-
| butes this war and its fearful casmilies to the
" President and his friends because he SAYS
they could have avoided it by an honorable
compromise.
tack upon him who, as the National executive
if we are to live, must be supported in the
discharge of his constitutional duty to pro-
tect and defend the government by all Of
the people, to say that these are parts Of the
play Of the conspirators, for that would be un-
parliamentary. | do not refer to them for the
purpose of influencing their authors by any
reply, for that would be useless. do not al
lude to them for the purpose OF finding fault
with any criticism of the acts Of the admins
tration. A6 is not the right merely, but the
duty, of every representative of the people to
watch, and by truthful and manly criticism,
to guard the interests of the people, and Of
their government, by detecting and exposing
the errors and wickedness of the highest and
lowest officer of the government. If bad
proclamation has been issued, if vicious pol
icy has been inaugursted, if a faithful and able
commander has been superseded, or frauds
have been committed, show these by patriotic
and reasonable appeas to facts, and every pat
riot in the land will honor you, and will leap
to your support in correcting the error. l
bow in blind alteration to no President, no
party, no administration. l know none OF
| them as such in this lrightful struggle for na-
tional life ] honor the man who makes this
government stronger by showing its faults
! But, sir, the utterances have cited belong not
ato this class of truthful or reasoning expo
sures orrebube Of, error in this Government.
What, sir ? tell Americans, who are not
! fools, and can read, that when the President
arrests men such as Merriman ard Kane, en-
gagged in numbering our uGarmed soldiers, r
Baltimore, coming to rescue this capital from
the torch or when he arrests those who were
burning the bridges over which they came
here, or who were acting in the plot to assas-
sinate the President, he struck down at a
blow every badge of republican government" !"
and is guilty of acts of despotism which the
Gar dare not do why, sir, the audacity of
this accusation, that the military arrests for
the public safety IN time of great danger are
unprecedented despotism, is absolutely sub
lime. In the war for our Institutions, and
most Of them under the general command OF
Washington, the military arrests were dlmost
daily. Some were charged with being in-
imical to the liberties of America as in the
case of Connolly aud others, in Maryland
Others with damning General Washington
and Congress" as in the case of Kirkpatrick, OF
thS same Olate. OlneTS IOT tA plCsSlilS SGbll-
ments inimcal to America" and "for advising
men to lay down their arms, as in the case Of
Bclmires, of the same Stale. Others for " be-
ing enemies to American liberty" as in the
case Of Joshua Testil, of the same State
Others for being dsaffected to the cause oi
American freedom, as in the case of twenty
Friends taken from Philadelphia and impris-
oned at Winchester, Va. Others for being
suspected of being loyalists, as in the case oi
Col. Henry Frey Of New York, imprisoned