Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-09-03


Ont weanons-if our whole country were
devaststed. and our armies crushed and dis
banded-could we, without giving up our
manhood. give up our right 20 govern our
selves? Would you not rather die, and feel
yourself man, than live and be subject TO q
foreign power?" IL
From your standpoint there is force In
what YOU saw" replied the Colonel. But
we did not come here to argue with you, Mr.
Davis We came hoping to find some hon
orable way to peace, and | am grieved to
| hear you say what you do. When l have
seen your young men dying on the battle
| field, and your old men, women and children
starving in their homes, have felt | could
risk my life to save them. For that reason
am here, and l am grieved, grieved, that
| there is no hope"
! 81 know your motives, Colonel Jacques,
and honor you for them; but what can
do more than am doing? / would give my
poor life, gladly, if it would bring peace and
| good will to the two countries but it would
not. 1t is with your own people you should
labor 1t is they who desolate our homes,
burn our wheat fields, break the wheels of
wagons carrying away our women and chill
dren, and destroy supplies meant for our sick
and wounded. At your door lies all the mis-
cry and crime of this war, and it is fearful,
| fearful account - ~ q - s4NdA@
| |" Not all of it, Mr.. Davis / admit a fear
| full account, but tits not all at our door. The
passions of both sides are aroused. Unarm-
ed men are hanged and prisoners are shot
down in cold blood by yourselves. Elements
of barbarism are entering the war on beth
sides that should make us-you and me, as
| Christian men--shudder to think of. In
Gods name, then, let US stop it. Let us do
something, concede something, to bring
about peace. You cannot expect, with only
| four and half millions, as Mr.. Benjamin says
you have, to hold out forever against twenty
millions" rs
Again Mr.. Davis smiled.
| "Do you suppose there are twenty millions
at the North determined to crush US ?"
81 do-to crush your Government. A
small number of our people, very small
number, are your friends-secessionis
| The rest differ about measures and candi-
dates, but are united in the determination to
sustain the Union. Whoever is elected in
November he must be committed to a vigor-
Gus prosecution of the war;"
Mr. Davis still looked incredulous. re-
marked
at is SO, sir. Whoever tells you other
| wise deceives you. think know Northern
sentiment and / assure you it is so. You
know we have system of lyceum lecturing
| in our large towns. At the close of these
| lectures it is the custom of the people to
| come upon the platform and talk with the lee
| turer. This gives him an excellent opportu-
nifty of learning public sentiment. Last win
| ter / lectured before nearly hundred of such
associations all over the NOrth-from Du-
buque to Bangor-and / took pains to ascer
tain the feeling of the people | found a
unanimous determination to crush the rebel
| lion and save the Union at every sacrifice
| The majority are in favor of Mr.. Lincoln, and
nearly all of those opposed to him are oppOs-
| ed to him because they think he does not
| fight you with enough yigor. The radical re-
publicans who 60 for slave suffrage and thor
ough confiscation, are those who will defeat
| him if he is to be defeated. But if he is de-
! feated before the people the House will elect
a worse mani mean a worse man for you.
| 1t is more radical than he is-you can see
| that from Mr.. Ashley's Reconstruction bill
and the people are more radical than the
House. Mr.. Lincoln, know, is about to call
| out five hundred thousand more men, and |
can't see how you can resist much longer !;
| but if you do you will only deepen the radical
| feeling of the Northern people. They will
| now give you fair, honorable, generous terms;
| but let them suffer much more, let there be
dead man in every house, as there is now in
| every village, they will give you no terms
they will insist on hanging every rebel south
-. Pardon my terms. | mean no Of
fence"
"You give no offence" he replied, smiling
very pleasantly. / wouldn't have you pick
your words. This is a frank, free talk, and l
like you the better for saying what you think.
Go on"
"I was merely going to say that, let the
Northern people once really feel the war
they do not feel it yet-and they will insist
on hanging every one of your leaders"
"Well, admitting all you say, l can't see
how it effects our position. There are some
things worse than hanging or determination.
We reckon giving up the right of selfgovern-
ment one of these things"
"By selfgovernment you mean disunion-
Southern independence 2"
eyes" ..t '
+" And slavery, you say, is no longer an ele-
ment in the contest"
"No it is not, it never was an essential ell
ement. 1t was only a. means of bringing 9TH
er conflicting elements to an earlier culmina-
ton. 1t fred the musket which was already
capped and loaded There are essential diff
ferences between the North and the South
that will, however this war may end, make
them two nations"
ssYou ask me say what think. Win you
allow me to say that / know the South pref
ty well, and never observed those differen-
ces."
"Then you have not used your eyes. My
sight is poorer than yours, but | have seen
them for years."
The laugh was upon me, and Mr.. Benja-
min enjoyed it.
swell, sir, be that as it may, if under
stand you, the dispute between your Govern
Ilent and ours is narrowed down to this -
Union or disunion."
eyes; or to put it in other words: indie
pendence or subjugation."
"Then the two Governments are irrecon-
cilably apart. They have no alternative but
to fight it out But it is not SO with the peo-
pie. They are tired of fighting and want
peace; and as they bear all the burden and
suffering of the war; is it not right they
should have peace, and have it on such terms
as they like"
81 don't understand you. Be little more
explicit"
Mr.. DAVIS REFUSES AN ARMIsTIcE.
"Wel, suppose the two Governments
should agree to something like this To go
the people with two propositions, say peace,
with disunion and Southern independence as
your proposition-and peace, Union, eman-
cipation, no confscatiOn and universal am.
nesty as ours. Let the citizens of all the
United States Gas they existed before the