The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1863-02-04
VOLU NE 90, NO 40.

ton struggled with power In fiendly strif
for the mastery at home.
On the 4th Of July Congress met, rot +
seek peace, not 10 rebuke usurpation nor +
restrain power; not certainly to deliberate
not even 10 legslate, but to register and rat
lily the edcts and acts of the Executive, ant
in your language, sir, upon the first day o
the session, TO invoke universal baptism o
fire and blood amid the roar Of cannon ant
the din Of battle. Free speech was hac
only OF the risk Of prison; possibly OF lie
Opposition was sileBced by the fierce clamoi
OF 'disloysl,y." All business not OF war wa:
voted out OF order. Five hundred thousand
men, an immense navy, and two hundred
end fifty millions Of mohey were speedily
granted. In twenty, at most in sixty days
the rebellion was to be crushed out. TC
doubt it was treason. Abjeet submission
] was demanded. Lay down your arms. sue
Tor peace, surrender your leaders-iorfeiture
dsath--this was the only language heard or
this floor. The galleries responded; the cor.
ridors echoed; and contractors and placemer
and other venal patriots every where gnash.
ed upon the friends oi peace as they passed
by. In five weeks seventy eight public and
private acts and joint resolutions. in the Sep-
ate and House, quite as numerous, all full o.
slaughter. were hurried through without de.
lay and almost without debate.
Thus was CIVIL WAR iuaugurated in A.
merics. Can any man to day see tho end
ofitf
And now pardon me, sir IL pause here a
moment to define my own position at this
time upon this great question.
| Sir, am one oil that number who have op.
posed aboltionism. or the political develop.
ment Of the anti slavery sentiment OF the
North and West, from the beginning. In
school. at college, at the bar in public assem-
blies, in the Legislature, in Congress- boy aud
man, as private citizen and in public life, in
time Of peace and in time OF war, at all times
and at every sacrifice, have fought against
1t, II cost me ten years exclusion from vfiice
and honor, ut that period OF life when honors
are sweetest. No matter; learned early TO
do right and to wait. Sir, it is but the de-
velopment Of the spirit Of intermeddling,
whose children are strife and murder. Cam
troubled himself about the sacrifices OF Abel,
and slew him. Most Of the wars, conten
tiens, litigation, and bloodshed, from the be.
ginning OF time, have been its fruits. The
spirit of non Intervention is the very spirit Of
peace and concord. do not believe that II
slavery had never existed here we would
have bad no sectional controversies. This
very civil war might have happened fifty per.
haps hundred years later. Other and
stronger causes Of discomfort and oidisunion,
it may be, have existed between other States
and sections and are now being developed
every day into maturity. The spirit assum>
ed the form OF nbolitioniSm because slavery
was odious in name and by association TO the
northern mind, and because ir was that
which mes, obviously marks the different
civilizations of the two sections The South
her. eli. in her early and later efforts to rid
herself il, had exposed the weak and OF
lensive parts Of slavery to the world. Abo.
liton intermeddling taught her at last to
search Tor and defend the assumed social, Q
conomic, and political merit and values Of
the institution. But there never was an
hour from the beginning when 1t did not
seem to me as clear as the sun at broad noon
thai The agitation in any form in the North
and West of the slavery question must soon
er or later end in disunion and civil war
This was the opinion and prediction for
years of Wing and Democratic statesmen
alike: end alter the unfortunate dissolution
of the Wing party in 1854, and the organi
za;ion the present Republican party upon
an exclusively anti slavery and sectional ba
sis, The event was inevitable; because, in the
then existing temper Of the public mind,
and after the education through the press
and by the pulpit the lecture and the polit-
zeal canvass for twenty years, Of generation
taught to hate slavery and the South, the
success Of that party, possessed, as it was,
Of every engine Of political business, social,
and religious influence, was certain. 1t was
only question OF time, and short time
Such was its strength, indeed that do not
believe that the union OF the Democratic par
ty in 1850 on any candidate, even though he
had been supported also by the entire so
called conservative or anti>Lincoln vote o.
the country, would have availed to defeat it
and ii it had, the success OF the abolition
party would only have been postponed four
years longer. The disease had fastened too
strongly upon the system to be healed until
it had run c0urse. The doctrine OF the
"irrepiessib|e conflict" had been taught too
long and accepted too widely and earnestly
10 die out, until it should culminate in seces
sion and disuDion; and, if coercion were re-
sorted to, then in civil war believed from
the first that it was the purpose Of some Of
the apostles oil that doctrine to force coils
sion between the North and the South eth
er to bring about a separation or to find a
vain but bloody pretext for abolishing Flav
thought.l knew, hat the end was certain col
lision, and death to the Union.
Believing thus have for years past de.
nouDced those who taught that doctrine with
all the vehemence, the bitterness, if you
choose--l thought it a righteous, a patriotic
bitterness-of an earnest and impassoned
nature. Thinking thus, forewarned all who
believed the doctrine or followed the party
which aught it., with sincerity and depth
of conviction as profound as ever penettated
the heart of man. And when, for eight years
past, over and over again. have proclaimed
10 the people that the success OF sectional
a ti>slavery party would be the beginning OF
disunlon and civil war in America, believed
it. did. ! had read history, and studied
human hature and medltated Tor years upon
the character OF our institutions and form OF
government, and Of the people South as well
as North; and | could not doubt the event.
But the people did not believe me, nor those
older and wiser and greater than |. They
rejected the pr .phecy and stoned the proph
cts. The candidate Of the Republican party
was chosen President. Secession began
/ Civil war was imminent. 1t was no petty
Insurrection; no temporary combination 10
obstruct the execution OF the laws Ia certain
States; but REVOLUTION, systematic, delib.
era,ive. determined. and with tho consent OF
majority Of the people Of each State which
seeded. Causeless rs it may have been;
wicked 1t may hsve been; but there II was;
not to be railed at. still less to be laughed Al.
but 10 bs dealt with by statesmen as 1 fact.
| No display Of yigor or force alone. hnwaxer