The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1863-01-17
Governor seymour,s Message.

land, the doctrines of this most admirable |
document. Did its principles rule in the
hearts of our people, and in the conduct
of our administration, State and national,
the devastations of war would soon be
brought to close, and a strengthened and
reinvigorated UNION would once more
place us upon that highway to supremacy
among the nations, which our own folly
and madness has caused us to desert
At the present moment we have not space
or time at command to give it fair and
intelligent review. We must beg our
readers, therefore, to accept the imperfect
analysis we can now present; but above
all, to read, to understand, and to circu-
late this admirable State paper for and
among themselves.
The main structure of the document IS
an argument to show that the UNION is a
controlling necessity of our situation, po-
litically, politico.economically, and topo-
graphically. Each Of these questions is
ably and carefully examined, and finally
brought to the support of the resulting
conclusion, that the Union is, and must
be indissolubie, with a breadth of compre.
hension, and a presentation of undeniable
facts, that marks this paper, as no other
has been marked since the rebellion COM
menced-as the work Of a STATESMAN.
Another part Of the document is devoted
to an exposition Of the causes which
brought on the rebellion and the skill,
boldness, aud fidelity with which this is
doue, ought tie sink deep into the hearts
Of Il people, for he makes free to plainly
| tell them that the want Of their fidelity
| -, and their misconception of, the UNDER
lying principles Of the political institutions
Of their country, is really what tas brought
, all our caiarnities upon us. In doing this,
/ Governor Seymour has ventured to take
position that no statesman among US
ever yet dared to occupy. For his lam
1 guage, upon this point, Is not that Of the
/ politician, arraiguing his adversaries, but
/ Of the great statesman, speaking the coun.
sells of wisdom TO the whole people. This
alone will ever mark this document as
among the most evenifui in our history
God grant that the people may under.
stand and heed its counseIs
The Causes which have thus FAR pre-.
vented the restoration of the UNION
which have paralysed our armies, and
brought our civil councils to nought, are
next examined With a delicate-with
even an indulgen, hand the governor por.
trays the incapacity Of those who rule the
affairs of the nation. Alright, dismay
confusion, overw helmed the government
when a rebellion which they HAD no,
sought to avert, and which they knew no,
how to control, burst in ali its fury upon
them. willing as the Cove fnor, speaking
for the people of the State Of New York
(and really, we hope, not for them alone
might be to forgive, or at ltast to e1cus,
this disastrous incapacIty, there is We
something further, which C annot be pal
lated, and cannot, and ought not, ever Il
be forgiven. When these Incapable men
in their madness and their blindness com
United the same crime that the rebels wer,
ommitting-vioIated the imperial Law
they had just sworn to uphold-rHE Cox
, sTIrUTioy or TIE UNITED STArEs-viola,e
by acts subversive of the constitutions
the laws and the tribunals of the Iowa
States-and the liberties of their indi
, vldual c;,izens-then, indeed, time hac
come, when, if the people should fail t.
maintain their rights and to rebuke tn
, violators Of them, the fate of the nation
was indeed forever sealed, and the problem
. of self-government forever solved
Firmly, molly. aye graadly, the peopl
r met the awful crisis. Not by violence
, not by revolution, but by firm and peace
full exercise of the means provided 10y tn,
emcrgencies-by the elective franchise
. they stayed the hands Of these insatuatec
, violators Of their country's laws. and O
their individual liberties-and thus ia
their country was saved. The Emancipa
ton proclamation-an act that operate
, upon, not the slaves of rebels, for Congress
! had already enfranchised them, but upol
the slaves, the property of loyal and unoi
Tending men alone, so far as it has an,
operation at all, is held up to the gaze Q
the people, as a violation of the constitu
tion so fragrant, and the vehicle of polio
so monstrous, as to authorize the suspicion
that it was intended by those who devised
I it-not by him who issued it-not b.
members who honestly but mistak emil
, uphold it-but by that dangerous, blind
' and mad influence which concocted il
and in an evil hour forced it upon tn,
D Presidents aeceptance,-thatt the Uniol
I should not be restored. to the end tina
D these mad secessionists might reign in it
= stead
, Without at all undertaking to say hov
Y far this suspicion might be made to as
sumo the position of fact, by bringing t,
: bear upon it all the cogent arguments
a and they are not few or obscure-tha
, tend to establish it as such-we are OF
] ourselves, inclined to read by the light Q
, tt at suspicion We can see other causes
not less disastrous, but ve are glad to sa,
e less criminal, than such an intent would
: be-and to these causes We prefer, for :h,
r sake of the less dishonor 10 human nature
, to assign it.
We regret that We cannot discuss thi
d admirable message further; we coDclnd
as we begun, by again earnestly recon
; meuding it to the thoughtful attention O
3 the whole American people.
: The FORGERY OF GOVERNMENT VOUCHERS
: j. Ward and George Sutphen, arrestet
on New Years on charge of forging gov