The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-01-28

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of the party and its splatferm-of. the<yery
[prineipie, in fact, upon which it had justwon
the contest for the Presidency; not, indeed, by
: majority of the popular vote-the majority
was neal II a million against it-but uRder the
forms of the Constitution. Sir, the crime.
THE "high crime of the Republican party was
pot so much its refusal to compromise, as its
original organization upon a basis and doctrine
wholly inconsistent with the stability of the
Constitution and the peace Of the Union.
But to resume. the session of Congress ex-
PRED. The President elect was inaugurated;
and now, If only the policy of non.coercfoh
could be msintaiped, rand war thus avsrted,
time would do It's work in tue North ana the
South, and anal peaceable adjustment and re-
announced that the Presfden I had resolved" 10
continue the policy Of his predecessor, and
even go q Step further, and Ieyacuate Sumter
and the ether Federal sfotts and arsenab in
the Seeded States. His OWE party acquieseed;
the whole country rejoieed. The policy of
non-coercion had triumphed,, and for oiice; sir,
In my life I found myself in i'm N ebse 1saiori-
TT. No man then pretended that a Union
founded in consent could be ecmented by
force. Nay, more, the President and Seereta.
nv of State went further. Said MI. Seward,
IN an OtaCIa. QlpIUuidIIC ISGtCL w p4i q
sFor these reasons he THE President would
not be disposed to rsi; ecta cardinal dogma of
theirs, Etbe ssoessionists, namely, that the
Federal Government could Sot reduce the Sc
ceding States to obedience EY al
proposition.ofEBuf IN fact The President acit-
lfn3y accepts 1t as true. Only an inapesacq
or despotsc Government 7cauh sueiu9ete tho
roughly disd6ected and iasurreetionasy mem
5ers of It's Stdte.
Pardon me, sir, but / beg to know whether
this conviction of the President and his Score
tary, is not the philosophy of the persistent
and most vigorous efforts made by this Admin
istration, and first of all through this same
Secretary, the moment war broke out and ever
since till the late elections, to convert the
United States into an imperial or 1despotic
Government But Mr.. Seward adds, and I
agree with him: 80 80
"This Federal Republican system Of ours is,
of all forms of Government, the very one
which is most untitled for such q labor s.
This, sir, was on the 10th of April, and yet
that very day the fleet was under sail for
Charleston. The policy of peace had been
abandoned. Collision followed; the militia
were ordered out. civil war began.
Now, sir, on the 18th of April, I believed
that coercion would bring on war, and war
disunion. More than that, I believed, what
you all in your hearts believe to-day, that the
South could never be oonquered-heger. And
not that only, but I was satisfied-and you of
the abolition party have now proved TO the
world-that the secret bat real purpose of the
war was TO abolish slavery in the States. In
any event, I did not doubt that whatever might
be the momentary impulses of those in. power,
and whatever pledges they might make in the
midst of the fuzzy of the Constitution, the
Union, and the flag, yet the natural and mex
orable LOGIC of revolutions would, sooner or
later, drive them into that policy, and with it
to It's fnal but inevitable result, the change of
our present democratical form of government
into an imperial despotism. 9sl.
These were my convictions. on the l4th Oft
April. Had I changed them on the 18th,
when I read the Presidents proclamation, and
be come convinced that I had been wrong all
nv life, and that all history lisa fable, and all
human nature false in its development from
the beginning of time, I would have changed
my-publiezeenduct also. But my .congiotiols
did not change thought that if war was
disunion on the 18th of April, it. was equally
d.sunion on the 18th, and at all times. Be-
lieving this, 1 could not, as an honest man, a
port to the war: and I did not. had rath
err my right arm were plucked from its
socket, and cast into eternal burnings, than,
with my convictions, to have thus def!ed my
soul with the guilt Ct moral peasjpry4 Sir, /
was not taught in that school which proclaims
that .s1n is fair in politics." loathe, abhor,
and detest the execrable maxim. I stamp
UPON it. No State can endure a single gene
ration whose public men practice it. Who
eyer teaches it is a corrnpter of youth. What
we most want in these times, and at all times,
sc bopoSt md fpdapandopt nuhlio n That
man who is dishonest in politics is not honest,
at heart, in anything, and sometimes moral
coWardice is dishonesty. Do right; and trust
to God, and Truth, and the People. Perish
Office, perish honors, perish life itself; but do
the thing that is right, and do it ike a man.
L did it. Certainly, sir, l could not doubt
what he must suffer who dare DEFY the opin-
ions and the passions, not to say the madness,
of twenty millions of people. Had I not
read history? Did ! NOT ksp9E human nature?
But | appealed to TINE, and righht'noblly hath
the Ayenger answered me.
I did not support the war; and to day I
bless God that not the smell of SO much as one
drop of its blood is upon my garments. Sir,
I censure no brave man who rushed patriotic
ally into this war; neither will 1 quarrel with
any one, here or elswhere, who gave to it an
honest support. Had their convictions been
mine, I, too, would doubtless have done as
they did. With my convictions 1 could not.
But 1 was a Representative. War existed
by whose act no matter-not mine. The
President, the Senate, the House, and the
country, all said that there should be war
for the Union; union of consent and good
will. Our southern brethren were to be
whipped back into love and fellowship at the
point Of the bayonet. Oh, monstrous delu-
sion ! I can comprehend a var to compel q
e. pss aose to assspt e { s siSs s. to t]sr, i,anss to E d fSFp
ish a domestic institutionssin short, a war of
conquest and ~sub1ngation but a war for
Was the Union thus made ? Was
it eyer THUS preserved Sir, history will re-
cord that after nearly six thousand years of
folly and wiekedness in every form and ad.
mihistration of government, theocratic, demo-
cratic, monarchic, oligarchic, despetic, and
mixed, it was reserved to American statesman