The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-05-20

!, cured substitutes shave Folantafily s surrender
ed their civil rights, subjected themselves te
> military law, and thus passed under the com
o. mand:and within the controfof the Presiden
. of the United States. 1t is not for me IL
complainsof that It was theirlown act-dont
! of their own free will and accord-unless
. bounties, promises and persuasion may be re
{ garded as coercion. The work you proposed
!, was gigantic, and y5nr means proporfionatetc IL
it And what has been the result7 What dc
r you propose pow! ny hat is the sbili2 A con
t fession that the people arc no longer ready, tc
Eenist, that they are net, willing to. carry or
this war longer, until some effort s beer
made to settle this great &c ntroyersy in some
other way thon by the sword. And yet;oir
: addition to The one million two hundred. and
thrty-seyen thousand men who have volunta
rily enlisted you propose now to force the
entire body of the people, between the ages ei
twenty and iorsy Eve, under military law, and
within the control of the President as Com
d emander in-Chief Of, the Army, for three years
or during the war-which is to say isfor iife,,
ay, sir, for life, and half your Army has al.
ready found, or will yet find, that their enlist
ment was for life too. = - 3
4 repeat it sir, this bill is confession that
the people Of the country are against this war.
1t Is solemn admission upon the record in
the legislation of Congress that they will not
voluntarily consent to wage it any longer
And yet, ignoring every principle upon which
the Government was founded, this measure is
an attempt by compulsion to carry it on against
z, the will of the people. Sir, what docs all
this mean? You were mnjcrity at first; the
people were almost unanimously with you,
and they were generous and enthusiastic in
4 your support You abused your pswer and
your trust, and ayou failed to do the work
which you prom ised. You have lost the con-
fdenee, lost the hearts of the people. You
are now in a minority at home And yet,
what spectacle is exhibited here to-ni2ht!
You, an accidental, temporary majority con-
demned and,repudiatedy by the people, are ex-
hausting the few remaining hours of your
political life in attempting to defeat the popu-
lar will, and to compel, by the most desperate
and despotic of expediehts ever resorted to,
the submission Of the majority of the people,
at hem to the minority, their servants here.
i Sir, this experiment has been tried before in
ether ages and countries, and its issue always,
among people born free, or fit to be free, has
been expulsion or death to the sconspirators
! and tyrants 9a ieaj fus O: z.si'4alsits -,
r. make no threats. They are not targumcnts
| ftsto be addressed to equals in a legislative
as SeHbly; but there is truth-solemn, alarm
ing truth-in what has been eaid to day by
gentlemen on this side of the Chambers Have
a care, have care, I0entreat you, that you do
not press these measures too far. / shall do
nothing to stir up an already excited people
not because of any fear of your petty con-
temptible petty provost marshals, but because
desire to see violence or revolution in the
North or West. But 1 warn you now, that
whenever, against they of the people, and
to Spcrpetuate powersand Office in a popular
Government which they have taken from you,
you undertake to enforce this bill, and, like
the destroying angel in Egypt, enter every
house for the first born sons tf thespeople-
remember Poland. . You icannot and will. not
be pern1ittedto establish a'military despotism,
Beinot encouraged by the submission of other
nations. The people of Austria, ofiRussia, of
Spain, of Italy, have never known the inde-
peDdence and liberty of freemen. France, in
seventy-years, has witnessed seven principal
rcvolutions-the last brought about in single
daj by the arbitrary attempt of the king tc
suppress freedom of speech and of the press
aad next the free assembling of the people,
and VIXEN he would have. retraced his steps
and restor, d these liberties, a voice from the
galleries mot filed with clerks and plumber
ers and place men-uttereds the sentiments
and will of the people of France, in words not
historic: fit is too ]ate.Has The people of
England never submitted, and would not now
submit, for moment, toathe Jdespotism which
you propose toinaugurates in America. En- |
Slduu cdHuot, Nh up
mics by conscriPtion. Eventhe "pr9ss gang,
unknown to her laws, but for a time acquie--
ced in, has long since been fdeclaredsillegal;4 !
and "a ,s~eepiug eoEscriptions like this now
would hurl not only the ministry from power,
but the queen from her throne. Gos:asY |
Sir SO far as this abill is a mere military
measure, Imightl have been content to have
given q asilent-vote against it but there are
two previsionsein it hostile, both TO theletter
and spirit of the Constitution. and inconsistent
with the yayowed scope and purpose of the bill !
itself and, certainly, as l read them in tho
light of events which have occurred in the past |
two years, of a character which demands that |
the majority of this House shall strike them
out There is nothing ins the argument that
we have no time to send the bill back 10 the I
Senate lest it should be lost The. Presiding |
Officers Of both Houses arc friends of the bill,
anti Will consttnte committees circumference |
of men fay sFable to lit. ,1heya will agree ats
once, and can at any 3 moment between, this I
and the 4thr of March, present their report as
a question fthe highest privilege and you
have a. two thirds majority in both branches
to- adopt it, d .TiaruTD G1i54sdsE sa- a
With these provisions of the bill stricken
out, leaving it simply as a military measure,
to be tested by the great question of,peace
and war, would be willing that the majority
Of the House should take the respons ibility of
passing it without further. debate although.
even then, you would place every man in tho
United States, between tho ages of twenty
and forty 1--we, under military law, and within
the control, everywhere, of the President, ex- /
cept the very few, who are exempt but you /
would leave the shadow, at least, of liberty to
all men not between these ages, or not subject
to draft under this bill, and to the women and
children OF the, coutry too.baiE al la sci 81
= Sir, these two provisions proposed to 60 a
step further, and include every one, man; wo7,
man and child, and to place him or her under
the arbitrary power not only of the President
and his Cabinet, but of some two hundred and
fifty petty officers, captains of eavalry,appoint
ed by him. There is no distinction o of sex,
and none of age. These provisions, sir, are
contained in the seventh and twenty 9Th sec,