Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1863-10-08
Letter from Gen. Meagher.
To the Union Contmittee of Onto o-The
Election OF vaiiandishsm would be a
Rebel Victory.


DEAR Sir: Very urgent business call.
mo to Washington to-day. / fear it will
not be in my power to get away from there
i'll time to keep my engagement with your
committee. III Obliged to break thu engage
menti [ shall exceedingly regret it. TO aid
you, were it ever so fccbly in the contest in
which you are engaged, would crafty mt
beyond measure, Jacksonian Democrat as
am. The issues involved in the contest are
OF National consequence. They concerr
every loyal State, aud should excite the SO
lici dde Of every loyal citizen.
The contest itself, to be sure, will be con
fined 10 Ohio; but with the principles, the
virtually identified. So is Maine. So is
Illinois. So is Oregon. So is every State
that has proved its fidelity to the Nationa
compact, and fully comprehends, as it proud
ly values the significance Of the National
flag, the brilliant and vast advantages Of
National unity, the advantages of National
Government, and the obligation to sustain
it, heart and soul, in perfect strength, au-
thority and power, with life as we'll as treas
ure. 1t 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 1t has sent fsrth to recover
the National domain and property from the
insurgents of the South, shall either be re-
nounced and condemned, or be heartily sus-
tanned, as you decide the day.
Electing Mr.. Brough, Ohio vindicates and
fortifies the National Government. Electing
Mr.. Vallandigham, Ohio abandons, and, SO
far as one State can do so, tTeakens and
prostrates it. Eecting Mr.. Brough, Ohio
stands true to the splendid soldiers who
from the rocks of Gettysburg, hurled back
4 bold invaslon--from the bluffs of Vicks-
burg broke the fetters Of the Mississippi,
consecrating it to freedom aud the untram-
meled service of united people, and who,
at this very hour, rain deserved chastise-
ment 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 Mr.. Vallandigham, Ohio turns her
back on these brave men, disowns their SER
vices, discards the victories they have won,
sends them vote of repudiation instead Of
a vote Of thanks, and, in place of cheering
them on in their new enterprises, casts a
cloud between them and their fame, their
proud memories, their exalted purposes and
hopes, making them feel they have poured
out their blood in the defeat of armed trait
ors in the front but to encounter the faith
l6ssness and base ingratltude, or at best the
eqnivoeal recognition and impoverished
praise of mutinous party in their rear
Such, if / mistake not, are the main is
sues of the contest in which you, the citizens
of Ohio, are engaged. There are, however,
other important Consequences involved.
The election Of Mr. Brough will deepen
the depression and confirm the discontinue
of the South, going far to convert into woe
tdlness and blank despair the ecstacies in
spired 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 reptiles, warn the COIN
munity of danger.
On the other hand, the election of Mr..
Vallandigham will rouse the dropping spirits
of the guilty States that have been SO effec-
tually crippled of late. 1t will revive in
those States great expectations of diver
sion in their favor, and stimulate them to
renewed efforts of desperation. Summon
Mr.. Vallandigham from his congenial exile
in the bnsom of his British sympathizers,
seat him in the Curule chair of your State,
let him have the disbursement of the pa
tronage with which it is richly padded, and,
not doubt Of it, the usurpers at Richmond
will have good reason to infer they have re-
liable friends at the North, and that Presi-
dent Lincoln is beset, undermined, hamper
ed and overborne by swarm of enemies.
The severe, thin features Of Mr.. Davis
will dilate and soften with the news. An
other thanksgiving day will be added by his
authority to the long lists of Feasts and
Fasts in which the fluctuations of the Con
federacy, from the penitential to the hilari-
Gus phases of piety, are condemned, as a
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 cosy cheeks of Mr.. Judah Benjamin
and, yielding to the enchantment Of glad IT,
dings he may indulge in the vision Of tri-
umphal entry into Cincinnati, on the invi-
tation Of Gov: Vallandigham; and, more
blessed than his forefathers were, may in
his dreams partake Of grapes such as the
cleaning of Ephraim never yielded, and
hams such as Solomon in all his glory, with
all his gold and silver, with all his ivory,
apes, and peacocks, never had the happi-
ness to taste. Mr.. Toombs even may be
induced, in the enlivening sunshine Of the
event, to think better of the financial system
he has recently with such sepu1chral So
briefly and heaviness of heart, considered it
his duty to expose. H.r,
Picture to yourselves the transports Of
the refined and exquisite editors who dsnced
las the King Oh Dahomey dances at his
loathsome and awful holOcausts over the
.1A 4 H. ka. lac.