Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1863-10-07
Letter Of Gen. Meagher to the I'm
ION Committee" of Ohio.
New YORK. Sept. D. 1867.

New YORK. Sept. 23, 1865.
Dear Sir-Very urgent business calls me
to Washington to-day. / fear it will not
be in my power to get away from there in
time to keep my engagement with your
Committee. IL obliged to break my en-
gagement | shall exceedingly regret it
To aid you. were it ever so feebly. in the
contest in which you are engaged. would
crafty me beyond measure. Jacksonian
Democrat as | am. The issues involved
in the contest are of National cOnse-
quence. They concern every loyal State,
and should excite the sOlicitude of every
loyal citizen.
The contest itself, to be sure. will be
confined TO Ohio; but with the principles,
| the interests the cause at stake, Califor
MIA is virtually identified. So is Maine
So is Illinois. So is Oregon. So is every
State that has proved its fidelity to the
National compact, and fully comprehends
as it proudly values, the significance of
the National flag, the brilliant and vast
advantages of National unity, the neces
sity of National Government and the
obligation to sustain it, heart and soul in
perfect strength. authority and power,
with life as well as treasure. 1t is not too
much to say, indeed, that in this contest
in Ohio the government at Washington
is on trial, and that, with 1t, the noble ar
mics it has sent forth to recover the ma
tional domain and property from the in
surgents of the South, shall either be re-
nounced and condemned, or be heartily
sustained, as your votes decide the day.
Electing MI Brough, Ohio vindicates
and fortities the National Government
Electing Mr.. Vallandigham. Ohio abond-
ons, and, so far as one State can do so,
weakens and prostrates it. Electing Mr..
Brough, Ohio stands true to the splendid
soldiers who, from the rocks of Gettys-
burg, hurled back bold invasIon-from
the bluffs of Vicksburg broke the fetters
of the Mississippi, consecrating it to Free
dom and the untrammeled service of a
united people, and who, at this very hour
rain deserved chastisement on the city
in which the National Flag was struck
down, aud the torch of treason tossed
abort the signal of revolt. Electing Mr.
Vallandigham, Ohio turns back on these
men, disowns their services, discards the
victories they have won, sends them a
vote of reputation instead of vote of
thanks, and, in place of cheering them
on their new enterprises, casts cloud
between them and their fame, their proud
memories, their exalted purposes and
hopes, making them feel they have pour
ed out their blood in the defeat of armed
traitors in their front but to encounter
the faithlessness and base ingratitude. or
at best the equivocal recognation and i'm
poverished praise. of mutinous party in
the rear.
Such, if | mistake not, are the main is
sues of the contest in which you the cit
iZens of Ohio, are engaged. There are,
however, other important consequences
involve6~
The ebtion of Mr.. Brough will deep
en- the depression and confirm the dis
comfture of the South, going far to con-
vert into volumes and blank despair the
ecstasies inspired by the Peace meetings
and riots of New York, Iowa, and other
places where Copperheads abound, and
the venom, as well as the slime, the fangs
as well as the slippery skin, of the rep
tiles, warn the community of danger.
On the other hand, the election of Mr..
Vallandigham will rouse the dropping
spirits of the guilty States that have been
so etfectually crippled of late. Ii will re-
vive in those States great expectations of
diversion IN their favor, and stimulate
them to renewed efforts of desperation.
Summon Mr.. Vallandigham from his con-
genial exile in the bosom of his British
sympathisers, seat him in the Curule
chair of the State, let him have the dis
bursement of the patronage with which
it is richly padded, and, not a doubt of it.
the usurpers at Richmond will have good
reason to infer they have reliable friends
at the North, and that President Lincoln
is beset, undermined, hampered and over
borne by a swarm of enemies.
The severe, thin features of of Mr.. Da-
Wis will dI!ate and soften with the news.
Another Thanksgiving Day will be added
by his authority to the long list of Feasts
and Fasts in which the fluctuations of the
Confederacv, from the penitential to the
hilarious phases of piety are commended,
as lesson on the variability of all human
affairs, to the study of an irreverent 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 corsy cheeks of Mr..
Judah Benjamin; and, yielding to theen-
chantment of the glad tidings, he may in
dulge in the vision of a triumphal entry
into Cincinnati, ON the invitation of Gov
Vallandigham; and, more blessed than
partake of grapes such as the cleaning of
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.
Mr.. Tombs even may be induced, in the
enlivening sunshine of the event, to think
better of the financial system he has re-
Gently, with such sepulchral sobriety
o,,1 Il l., ,f =. L :
duty to expose.
Picture to yourselves the transports of
the refined and exquisite editors who
danced-as the King of Dahomy dances
at his loathsome and awful holocausts-
over the strangling and mutilation of the
harmless and helpless negroes of New
York and the massacre at Lawrence, the
instigation to which arbarities-unparal-I
elled since the butcheries of the Septem.
brists and the Noyades of Lyons-must
have sprung from the deepest abyss of
hell. Picture to yourselves the trans
ports of these delicate and chivalrous
gentlemen when the news reaches them
that their persistent champion-who from
the onset of the war has done every thing
in his power to aid the insurrection, while
he has left no stone unturned that could
emoarrass ana lncapacltate the National
Government-has triumphed in his dis
affection and disloyalty, becoming invest
ed with magisterial functions that will en-
able him all the more boldly, all the more
defantly, all the more mischievously, to |
resume the line of conduct that compell- |
ed the National Government to send him |
beyond our lines
The South, be assured of it, will inter
pret his election in its direct bearing and
full significance. They will recognize in |
it the defeat and condemnation of the |
National Government, and in the defeat |
and condemnation the power and pre-
dominance ofthe conspiracy which fosters
and facilitates Secession, voting down SUP
plies to the army, destroying public con-
idence in the Administration, instigating
resistance to the laws of Congress, compel
~ =