M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1864-09-29

Those speeches were made tC
white men, not for the purpose ofpre
venting the enlistment Of negroes, hu
one purpose was to ally the excite
ment of the citizens, and keep down,
forcible resistance to your measures
and l know that they did much good
in that way.
And now Mr.. President, ] propose,
for every negro that any Of YOU
agents can find that has been directly
or indirectly influenced by any of my
speeches not to join the army, to flnd
you one hundred white men who
have been kept out Of the army by
your pr9cIamations. You have the
power; but truth and justics are with
me.
thank you for the printed copy Of
Jour letter to Mr.. Hedges, whck
you sent to me with the proHered
parole. 1 have read it carefully, and
find in it this remarkable statement.
"By general law, life and limb must
be protected, yet often limb must he
amputated TO save life; but u life;
is never wisely given to
save Glimb. / felt thai measureros
otherwise unconstitutional might
become lawful by becoming indispen.
able tO the preservation of the Con-
stituti0n thrOught the preservation Of
the nation. Right or wrong, as-
sumo this ground, aud now avow it. :"
Uuless 1 have been strangely misin-
sructed, Mr. President, the Consti-
tuition is not a limb attached to the
Government, but is the life of the
Government. In destroying it, you
destroy the bond by which the Union
is held together, and take the life OF
the Government. The idea of an
unconstitutional policy becoming
necessary to preserve the Government
and save tue Constitution, is like the
idea Of killing a man to save his life,
and keep him from dying Of disease. -
| You annual the law to make the re-.
bells obey it-disregard tbs Con8titu.
tion to make them respect it--break
your Data to keep from breaking it,.
The trainers oithe Constitution sare
y never intended that a President
should tamper with his solemn oath,
and with that sacred instrument, in
such o manner.
Again, you say: 4 was, in my best
| judgement, driven tJ the alternative
Of either surrendering the Union, and
with it the Constitution, or Of laying
s.ron hand upon the colored element
| chose The latter" Do you really
mean to sag that the whito citizen
soldiers could not whip the rebels
and that, after exhau5ting all the wis
dom, strength, resources, power. and
yalor Of the white man. you failed to
save the Usion-that, with two mill
ions OF ablebodied white men still in
reserve, you had tolorce the negroes
to fight in order to save the countrylI
Ii you do, Mr. President, what com
plinent You pay 20 white men in and
out OF the army! One negro, accor
ding to this doctrine, is worth in the
army much more than a dozen white
men, Do you believe it.
You claim gain by this policy oft
one hundred and thirty thousand col.
oret soldiers to the army. Would
not two hundred thousand white men
have done as well?
You add. "Now let any Union
man who complains Of his measure,
test himself by writing down in one
line that he is for subduing the rebel.
iob by force OF arms, and in the NIX
that he is for taking one hundred and
thirty thousand men from the Union
side, and placing them where they
would be but for the measure he con-
demns. If he cannat face his case
50 stated, it is only because he cannot
face the truth"
/ am that Union man, and thus |
face the case: To place your one hnn
dred and thirty thousand colored men
where they would be but for the mea
sure in question, would be to place
most Ot theu back'into the corn.feids
to raise supplies for our army, and to
return the remainder Of them to their
legal owners, making them g monu-
ment ofthe justice, magnanimity and
good faith vi our Government, being
as they would be, so many living wit
uesses that you had kept your pledges
while their places in the army would
be ten times more than filled by five
hundred thousand white men, who
bul for this measure would have VOL
uuteered.
Now Mr.. President, will you test
yourself, by writing down on one
o;Ja - tha nopar that or tho 0Op.-