Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-11-24
THE NATIONS VERDICT OF PEACE
Sermon Preached by Rev. L. E. MATS0N, at
the Congregational Church in Madison,
Sunday Evening, New. 18th, 1864. -

The voice OF God speaking peace unto con-
vulsed Israel finds an emphatic echo in his
recent declaration to the American people
for God speaks through events as well as
| through Inspiration; he declares through the
ballot which human fingers deposit, as well as
through the word which human lips proclaim.
History has never asserted a more re-
markable fact than when on last Tuesday
evening, at the closing of the polls, she wrote
| on the eternal tablet the reelection of Abra-
ham Lincoln. No election ever took place in
this country of equal Importance; and l ask
| you to consider what it means, for it imposes
duties, We are not simply to meet it with
| cheer and boAhre and cannon roar.
Whatever else may be said of it, / wish to
note this: 1t luaS a sublime illustration of poDlt
| lar Self-control. We were ushered into the
! Presidential canvass in the midst of most
trying civil war The resources of the nation
had been unsparingiy taxed. Families haG
been discovered. Thousands had been
! slain in battle-almost enough to re
alize the dreadful picture of Tamerlane's
pyramid of human skulls. An unpopular
| draft was already in progress, and, adding to
! the causes Of anxiety and fear, in the very
bosom of the electing people were secret
traitors and open sympathizers with them
men who through reasonable organizations
and unparalleled fraud planned to disrupt the
governments war of such gigantic magni
tude that its thunders reverberate with APP.
palling significance in the courts of Europe
and of such penetrative power thatit strikes
with ruthless violence the tenderest heart
strings Of every citizen.
That people, placed in such circumstances.
should with a free vote and by vast majorities
re-elect the Administration under which they
had suffered privations, in which honest men
had found abundant fault, against which ca
lumny could easily plant malignant batteries,
and for which no claim could be urged OF
popularity is circumstance which Francis
Lieber declares GStOatldiRg.*
When VIM. Pitt met at the ballot box the
friends of the French rebellion he said ''Y GU
cannot have that ticket-it is treason to Eng
land to vote that" When Napoleon called
upon the French people to vote Tor his pTeSt-
de7acy for ten gears, or for the empire, the bay
onet guarded the polls and no opposition was
permitted. But this Is u government of the peo-
pie, and every man IN the exercise of his cleo
tive franchise, could vote and did vote for whom
soeyer he chose. And not only was the elec
ton free, the issues at stake were clearly set
forth. If the canvass abounded III appea.-
TO selhshness and coWardice, such appeals
were certainly not made by the party which
inscribed victory on its banners last Tuesday
Men were not told that taxation should Gi-
minish-at least for the present. They were
nos ca oiled into the belief that there would
be no more drafting. They were not assured
that high prices would Immediately cease.
The platform upon which they chose their
next President was unequivocally for war :;
and war brings desolation; it sweeps over "a
land as comet sweeps through the sky, and
its trail is blood. 1t will necessitate discom-
fort and want. 1t will demand expenditure.
1t may call for personal service. And yet,
with their eyes open and with these facts
staring them full in the face-facts which are
unquestionably repulsive and which we natu-
rally shrink from encountering-the Ameri-
can people haze decided; and that decision
echoed over the earth makes our cause to
mean Union, Nation Liberty, Honor We
have drowned the cyoakings of fear in the
bugl blast Of anew-born courage. We have
said to the impulses to self-indulgence, ST.
lence, now !" And l declare tonight that
this event, occurring in the heart of an IN
finished fratrcidal war, its horrors already
let loose upon US, is the grandest exhibition
of patient endurance, of heroic sacrifice, and
of majestic self-goVernment which the world
has seen.
The speaker then proceeded to analyze the
| verdict of last Tuesday. 1t was a final con-
clusion by the nation on two principal points
LIST, the method of achieving peace. I'd, the
kind of peace which we shall demand
|. The American people had come to an
ultimate decision in favor of a vigorous pros
ecution of the war as the method of achiev-
ing peace. There was a sense in which the
Chicago platform was peace platform and
the Baltimore platform a war platform. Yet
all the people wanted peace The two Ma
tional Conventions were rivals in their
eagerness for peace. They differed in the
modes they proposed for obtaining it. 1t
was foolish to imagine that the people
had decided for war for it's own
sake. We were not warlike nation, there
was not an instinct Of the popular heart that
did not reach out with beating aspirations
towards peace. All our interests were CD
posed to war. The idea IF standing army
was revolving to US. All the wars in which
we had been engaged had been forced upon
US, with two exceptions. And every child
knew that the wars against the Seminoles and
against Mexico, in which we were the ag-
gressors, were brought about by the influences
of Southern domination, in the interest of
slavery. So of the present war. The South
began it, not we began it in such way that
day We decided for war, not because we
loved war, but because we thought war was
the wisest, safest and surest method of secur-
ing peace. We looked upon it as the vesti-
bule to temple, and men said eve must go
through the Vestibule, though it be dark and
gloomy before we can kneel at the inner
shrine"
The speaker next alluded to the two meth.
DDS OF achieving peace proposed for our
choice. They were clearly defined. The
Chicago platform to be sure was a botched
bungling CONFERENCE.-The poorest exhibition
of literary work ever hung out as sign for
the door Of political convention. 1t was
like patched bed-quilt a piece from an old
Woman's dress in Ohio, a piece from an old
woman's dress in New York, piece from an
old woman's dress in Wisconsin and so on.
But it all resolved into one proposition: seek
peace by compromise and conciliotion, and, if
these failed, no other mode Of maintaining
the Union was provided. The Baltimore
platform On the other hand declared that the
only practicable manner of dealing with
armed rebels was to subdue them, and, by the
yindication of popular government, teach
them the sacredness and majesty of the pop
ular will. With these two methods of Sc
curing peace before them, the American peo-
pie went to the polls and deliberately record
ed their decision as follows:
L. The war is not failure.
2. To negotiate with armed rebels is not
safe way to secure peace.
8. War offers the only feasible hope for
peace and Union. They that unsheath the
sword shall perish with the sword. And look
Gen. Sherman, standing on the borders Of
Tennessee, waits to catch the first breath of
the Nations verdict. No sooner doeshe hear