Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-03-27
o1Ilo COLUMBUS OHIO, SUNDAY MORNING. MARCH 27 1864
o civil strife 1 can beartestimony my

no civil strife. can bear testimony my =
to the mischievous propenslties of political
preachers. During the last campaign sew
eral Democratic township meetings In our
county were interfered with and disturbed,
by uniformed rowdies from Camp Chase,
who came armed with clubs and revolvers,
and, soaked with bad whisky, furnished
them gratis for the occasion, violently in
terrupted our meetings and leveled their
reyolvers at Hon. s. s. Cox, our able Rep
resentative, and other speakers. / since
have learned from reliable source, that a.
minister of the Gospel, living in the neigh
borhood, originated the riot, helped to fur
nish the liquor andiinstigate the soldiers, and
should not be at all surprised to learn,
that some hypocritical, sanctimonIous,
white-cravatted gentlemen were at the bot
tom of the recent riots ",ff u
Sirs, If you are men of honor, IL you are
true patriots, II you are sincere In your pro-
fessions Of attachment to the Union, You
will shun and spurn those political minis
ters as you would shun venomous reptile
or loathsome disease! l.1 u ~
Mr.. Speaker, 1 am fully aware that mere
laws, without the willingness to carry them
into execution, are poor protection against
wicked men bent upon overriding the laws.
Yet l know also that among the members
Of the Legislature find men looked up 20
by the masses of the dominant party as
leaders, as men of influence. If they JOINT
ly with us, would raise their voice against
those outrages, if they would say to the SOL
diers: "YOu have enlisted to maintain laW
and order! You disgrace your uniforms by
assisting to produce anarchy and civil war
in the peaceful North" If they would say
to their own party associates who have par-
tieipated in the riots: "We condemn your
conduct! We countenance neither mobs,,
nor the instigators of mobs !" Such de-
claration, couched in terse, clear terms,
would have salutary effect, and would
tend to check the onward march of the mob
demon. " fH
So, Mr.. Speaker, you see, that had ~
practical object in view when introduced
my Resolutions. What treatment did they
meet with from the hands of the majority ?
They were referred to the judiciary COM
mittee, on whose behalfthe gentleman from
Hamilton, Mr.. Stanton, after considerable
time, reported the substitute now under
consideration.
Mr.. Speaker listened with astonishment
to the reading of the substitute and the re-
marks of the gentleman from Hamilton
while listening, / was strongly reminded o
the words of prince Talleyrand, that one,
of the principal objects of language is no
to express but to conceal the true senti
ments Of the speaker! Both the committee
and the gentleman from Hamilton seem t''
have acted upon that somewhat jesuitica
axiom of the old foxy Dplomatist. TIL
gentleman says, that he sis glad to find tina
the Democrats have at last come to the con-'
clusion, that freedom of speech and of the
press are valuablerights." A strange, mys-
terious remark, originating from either ac-
tual or feigned Ignorance of history /;
prompted either by weakness or wickedness!
l challange the gentleman to point out q
single instance where the Democratic party
of Ohio has directly or Indirectly violated
or encroached upon or countenanced en-
croachments upon the constitutional liber
ties of the people! No, sir; to insinuate thd
dignantly back at the gentleman and his
party! The Democrats have always cluna
to those fundamental, eternal, inalienable
rights, guaranteed in the Constitution as
precious to freemen, dangerous only to ty-
rants. We hold them to be the very soul
of the Republic; without them it is dead
corpse. We hold them to be the crown
jewels Of the, Goddess of Liberty. And let
me tell the gentleman, that those jewels we
will never voluntarily surrender; that we
will maintain those rights at all hazards
peaceably, if we can, with armed force, il
we mustl Let me tell the gentleman, that
If we have failed to elect our candidate in
the last campaign, we have at least succeed
ed in trampling theTinfamous order No. 3S,
of Gen. Burnside, under our feet, and con-
quering back the full exercise of the free
dom Of speech from the hands of the usur-
per. But how is it with the gentleman's
party? Years ago the notices "free speech,
free press and free SOIL" were emblazoned
upon all their banners! But where were
those, notices during the last campaign? |?
Nowhere! They, with the dark lanterns
Of the Wide-Awakes, had been buried out
of sight! And rightly so! 1t would have
been indeed bitter sarcasm upon the true
state of affairs if in 1863, they had boasted
of rights which they themselves had helped
to destroy; If they had boasted of freedom
of the press, while the free press was man
acled by military censorship; If they had
boasted of freedom of speech, while free
speech was exiled to Canada; if they had
boasted of free soil, while the graves of our
brave soldiers on the battle-tields of the
South were almost the only free soil left in
this countryI
Mr.. Speaker, what shall say about the
substitute reported by the gentleman from
Hamilton? tits an implied endorsement of
the recent mobs on Democratic printing
offices. To them my resolutions had special
reference. The substitute does not mention
them either directly or indirectly. This
silence, measured by the standard of the old
proverb, s'Qld facet, consentire Uidetur," has q
sinister Significance. I'll .l
But it goes further. After indulging In
some glittering generalities, it specifies and
singles out those mobs which it especially
condemns. The carefully drawn recital of
those specified mobs should oloarly montinn,
but forgets to mention tile mobs on Demo-
cratic printing offices. AS the special, the
exclusive attention of the committee was
called to them by the original resolutions.
it cannot be claimed that this omission In
the recital is accidental. No, sir, it is in
territorial, premeditated, therefore highly,
suspicious. A fair construction of the sub
stitute leads necessarily to the conclusion
that the committee either lacks courage to
condemn the mobs because they were com
mitted by soldiers, or that the committee
.sheds no tears over them," approves OF
them! The substitute has long tail at
tached to it In the shape of a third resolu-
ton. This paper bullet, aimed at the South,
will kill nobody, is perfectly harmless,
without any practical object, and the very
beau ideal of buncombe production. 1T
travels far beyond the scope of the origi-
nal resolutions; in order to have a shot lat
Jefferson Davis, it calls the Southern Con-
federacy mob! Certainly q fancy name
given to it, by q fancy. man; the one as sig
nificant as the other. What Is mob? A
tumultuous crowd of a number Of persons ex-
cited to some violent and unlawful act! A
mob can be measured by the number of