Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-05-28
ov. seymour,s VaIlandigham Letter.

DIeRAA sympathzers, held ID Albany last
Saturday evening. will be found below.
ltsbows where the heart OF the man is.
When traitors were Selling the forts and
arsenals of the United States, when trail
tors stood up in Congress and announced
the dissolution of the Union, when States
declared themselves out OF the Union,
when bands of armed men organized in
the very purlieus of the National Capitol
to assassinate the constitutiOnaly elected
President, no voice of warning or reproval
was heard from HoRATIo SEYMOUR. But
now in the midst of lite-and-death sIrug-
gle tor national existence, when a man
is arrested for counseling resistance to the
military authorities, and attempting to
excite hostility to a further effort to put
down the rebellion, this tsse and con-
temptible POLITICAL demagogue hastens to
express his sympathy with the offender,
and to encourage others to initiate bis ex-
ample:
STATE OF New YORK, EXECUTIVE DEPT,
ALBANY, May Is, 1868.
cannot attend the meeting at the Cap
itol this evening, but wish to state my
opinion in regard to the arrest of MIR.
Vallandigham.
1t is an act which has brought dishon-
CT upon our country; it Is full OF danger
| to our persons and to our homes it bears
upon its front conscious violation OF law
and Of Justice. Acting upon the evidence
of detailed intormers, shrinking from the
light of day in the darkness of night,
armed men violated he home OF Ameri-
can citizen, and furtlvely bore him away
to a military trial conducted without
those safeguards known in the proceedings
Of our judicial tribunals.
The transaction involved a series of Of
fences against our most sacred rights. 1t
interfered with the freedom of speech it
violated our rights to be secure in our
homes against unreasonable searches and
seizures il pronounced sentence without
trial, save one which "as a mockery,
which insulted as we'll as wronged. The
perpetrators now seek to impose punish
ment, not for an offence against law, but
tor a disregard of an invalid order, put
forth in an utter disregard of principles
of civil liberty. Ii this proceeding is APP
! proved by the Governmental and sanctioned
| by the people, it is not merely step to-
wards revolution, it is revolution it will
not only lead to military despotism, it es-
| tablshes military despoIism. Ia this as
pect it must be accepted, or in this as.
| pect it must be rejected.
If it is upheld, our liberties are over
thrown. The safety of our persons, the
security of our property will hereafter de-
| pend upon the arbitrary wills of such mil
itary rulers as may be placed over Us,
while our constitutional guarantees will be
| broken down. Even now the Governors
and Courts of some of the great Western
States have sunk into insignifcance before
! the despotic powers claimed and exercised
by military men who have been sent into
their borders, 1t is a fearful thing to in
crease the danger which now overhangs
US, by treating the law, the Judiciary and
the authorities Of States with contempt
The people of this country now wait with
the deepest anxiety the decisions of the
Administration upon these acts. Having
given iJ generous support in the conduct
of the war, aCe noac pause to see what kind
of Government it is for which We are
| asked to pour out our blood and our
| treasures
The action of the administration will
determine in the minds OF more than one
half Of the people of the loyal States
whether this war is waged to put doom re-
6ezlion at the South, or to destroy free I'm.
stitutions at The North. We look tor its
decision with the most solemn solicitude.
HoRATIo SEYMOUR
To Peter Cagger, Solmon F. Higgins,
Erastus Corning, Jr,, Committee.
The Albany Journal a paper that has
treated Gov. SEYMOUR with much more
lenience than he deserves, is constrained
to protest against the infamous nature of
this letter. Its language, though mild,
conveys a just and severe rebuke. 1t
| says: "This is not the language of un-
conditional patriotism for it makes q
support of the Government and prosecu.
ton of the war for the suppression of the
rebellion contingent upon the decision of
an individual. Whether the President
shall act wisely or unwisely in this case of
VALLANDIGHAM, cannot affect the question
of the restoration of the Union. In as
Stunning that it will, Gov. SEYMOUR reveals
more of the partzan than the patriot, and
insults the common sense as we'll as the
loyalty of the people. He, and those who
think with him, may pause while the
bloody hand of rebellion is at the throat
of the nation, but they will pause alone.
The loyal people will know no pause un-
til the rebellion is put down and the
| Union restored.
''But His Excellency not only 'pauses
but threatens. If VALLAND1GHAM, the
contrere of BRECKENRIDGE, and the pimp
and pet Of the whole tribe of traitors, is
not released, then, according to Gov.
SEYMOUR, the war will be deemed war
to destroy free Institutions at the
North and, that event. of course, the
war will be opposed! Thus, His Excel
leney makes the fate of the Union hang
upon the decision of the President in the
case of VALLANDIGHAM. This is neither
Craftsmanship nor Patriotism. If the
President shall do wrong in that or any
other case, the more need to push the wal
to right conclusion, that he may the
more speedily and the more certainly be
punished.
I'VE trust that the Governor is more
loyal than logical; and that he will re