Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1863-03-12


power and 1 am among those who believe
that our fathers made Constitution and
endowed it with power enough to carry the
country through sunshine OF storm, victory
| or defeat, peace or war. E5
When this insurrection swept over the
land, when men were plotting everywhere
10 destroy their country, the President as
sumed that he possessed this power, and 10
obedience to the voice of patriotism and the
demands Of loyal people he exercised that
power, The exercise of that power saved
Maryland in the early days Of the rebellion.
Pl0tters and spies and smugglers and men
ready TO give aid and comfort to treason
were arrested. Mistakes may have been
made, were made, but they were uninten.
tlonal and accidental. know that the
President and his Cabinet made these az
rests with reluctance that they never de-
sired to punish the innocent or oppress even
the guilty Whenever these men we're will
ing to cease plotting against their country,
whenever they were willing to take the oath
of allegiance and fidelity, or whenever the
occasion for their arrest had passed, they
have been discharged from arrest, and some
OF them who persistently refused to take
the oath Of fidelity to their country were
discharged without even giving that pledge,
Some Of these men, like Calhoun BeuHsm,
after their release contaminated their trea-
son by joining the armies Of the rebellion.
assure Senators that when the evidence
now in the Departments of the pIottings
and treasons Of men who have been arrested,
ay, sir and Of men who have not been ar.
rested, goes before the world, the country
will be astounded at the dark plottings and
unpatriotic and disloyal words and deeds of
men in the loyal sections Of the Uuion IL
will be amazed to find that the deadly pojson
OF secession is in the very veins Of our So
clety that here IN the capital are men aud
women who furnish information to the enc
mics OF their country; that our cities are
hlled with men swift to give evidence agninst
the country that protects them, aud to
furnish weapons and the munitions of war
to rebels in arms We have men ready to
discourage enllstments, to counsel men to
desert their flag in the face of its enemies,
10 conceal aud protect men who have turn
ed their backs upon their comrades in the
field. We have men who weep over our
successes and rejoice over our msfortunes
Within few miles of my home, when the
news ca,ne last spring that General Banks
was retreating, pursued by Jackson mp the
Shenandoah valley, ono Of these Democratic
sympathizers with armed traitors shouted
for JOY over the defeats of his countrymen.
Slr, we have such men everywhere
who so long and so blindly followed the
counses OF Davis and Toombs, Shdell and
Mason, and the pro. slavery Democratic
leaders who have plunged their county into
the fire and blood ofcivil war. that they have
not ceased to sympathze with them and to
denounce the Republicans as usurpers and
tyrants.
MIR. President would not sustain the
7 Government of the United States in any
act of tyranny and oppression towards even
the men who stand before us with their
hands dripping with the blood of our coun-
trymen. Nor would deal harshly or un-
justly with their sympathizers. / abhor
their deeds, but would not deal uniustlv
with them. God knows that if they had
Justice done them in this world many OF
them would be quickly sent out of IT, |
would smte down rebels in arms in the field
l would arrest the men who give aid and
comfort 70 traitors wherever found, in the
loyal or disloyal Stgtes, until the Just an
thority OF the Government should be fully
established, and she flag Or the upitss d couli
try should wave everywhere in tfiumph,
from the st. John to the Rio Grande. The
land resounds with tho tread of armed men;
our fields are stained with the blood of civil
war; the maimed, the dying, and the dead
I'LL our homes with anxieties 4 sorrows, n the
Republic, rent and torn by the storms Of bat
tie, is fearfully struggling tor national ex
istence; In this troubled hour, when pa.
trlotic hearts throb heavily with solicitude
Tor the fate OF the nation, when the Gov
ernmentt Is staggering beneath the burdens
imposed upon It by the pressing duties of
n ri tsta %
counscls and action Of lofty patriotism, the
heavens are darkened with the arrows of
partisan warfare, hurled at tho Administra
tion by the reckless hands of political ma
llgnlty. Those envenomed shafts now rain
ed upon the Government and its supporters
recall vividly to our recslections tho boast
tul predictions Of the rebel chiefs ere ,hcy
left these Halls to drench the land with the
traternal blood of civil war. They told US
here, in tones Of assured confidence, that
they would have united South, that we
should have u disunited North. Jetfei son
Davis, the rebel chieftain three years ago
IN this Chamber boastfully announced that
IT blows were struck their Northern Demo
cratic friends would throttle US in our tracks.
Those traitor leaders left these Chambers in
the conscious assurance that the action OfI
the Government would be inpeded check
ed, and thwarted by their Democratic allies.
The fires OF patriotism, rekindled into al
consuming fame by the rebel batteries
around Fort Sumter, sicnced fora season
the voices OF sympathetic Democracy, and
disappointed the high raised expectations
Of the traitor chiefs. Now, sir, the voice
OF the whole pack of rebel sympathizers|
rings out in full chorus on the track of the
Administration. But the people, the in,
telligent, patriotic people, will silence the |
voices Of faction, and dispel the illusions Of
hope created anew In the bosoms of the
rebel leaders BY the clamor Of Northern
demagogues. Sir, the loyal people Of the |
United States, who are for tliberty and
Union, now and forever" will never forget
that the Administration, with all its faults.
has been faithful 10 the rights Of mankiud|
and the unity Of tho Republic. They will
not, they cannot, cease to remember that
the. Republican party, with all its faults Of
omission and commission, never nurtured a
traitor In its bosom to sympathixe with trea.
son, or to fire upon the Gag Of his country,
or into the ranks of his country's defenders
The Senator from Kantucky prates about
abolition aud abolitiouists. Those phrases
fall glibly from his tongue. Sir. I Ire,nem her