Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-03-18

y
and teniered his resignation. Itseems that
the House is not prepared to leave JOSEPH
20 In peace--at least not until the inVesti-
gatingcommittee report upon certain trans
actions of the nature of the disreputable
traffic In recruits in which it is alleged he
has been engaged. H541
The Germ of the Present Abolition
gu DissinIon Party---Its FIRST Presi-
dental Candidate and his Dis-
.ow union Views. ses
It Is interestingly may be proftable--in
the present whirl of excitement when all
sSzV things once thought stable are being over
,aturned, and interminable discord and an
archy lire likely to ensue, to cast a momen-
sai Gtary glance backward over the years that
q have Just gone by, and see if we cannot
"a trace out the origin and lineage OF the pres
ent revolutionary party that hypocritically
u''q styles itself 'Union," while It really means
"a and practices Disunion. 1t is called by its
tlqii.opponents, and its leaders admit 1t to be,
"a strictly and uncompromisingly an Aboli-
tion party M
The Abolition party says McCLosKEY's
a54s'Political Text Book" 'first made its ap-
~ pearance in national politics in the Pres-
~ Dental contest of 1910, when its ticket, with
eie JAMES G. BrRNEY, of Michigan, as its can
didate for the Presidency, and Francis j.
. LEMoyNE of Pennsylvania, as Its candidate
- for Vice President polled 1000 votes. In
se 1871 with Mr. BIRNEY again as its candi-
date, it polled 62140 votes" We will not
- stop to recount the votes received by the
"A subsequent Presidential candidates run by
81 the same party-VAN BUREN in 1S48 HALE
N and SMITH in 1852 FREMONT in 1856, and
LINCOLN in 1860 We will turn our atten-
;'h1 tion to the views held by its first represen-
tatiye man, JAMES G. BIRNEY, who stood as
80 its first Presidential candidate for two sue
cessive campaigns. =.
The Abolitionists in 1910 and 1874 called
themselves the Liberty party" with about
as much propriety as they now call them
selves the "Union party" In the course of
their proceedings in arranging for the Pres
idential campaign of 1874, the Hartford Ct-
committee addressed Mr.. BIRNEY asking his
opinions on the various questions in agita-
G4ztion. In his reply under date of August
Is, 1914, Mr.. BIRNEY said: "My mind strong
ly inclines to the opinion that if Congress
can rightfully abolish slavery in time of
war. it may abolish it in time of peace."-
r. He seems in this passage to place the power
in Congress alone; his Abolition successor,
. who is now in the Presidential chair has
got ahead of him, and discovered that he
UINcoLN) possesses the power of abolish
ment without the aid of Congress.
Mr.. BRNEY said in the same letter that
to one another, to abolish slavery-a pledge
.NsEwhich Mr. LINCOLN, taking BIRNEY ando
JOHN Brown as his forerunners, guides and
prophets, is trying to redeem-with what
success history is fast recording. In his
Hartford letter, Mr.. BIRNEY laid it down as
.af the policy of the Liberty or Abolition
party, should it gain power ato confne the 1
appointments to Office under the Govern
ment to such as are not slaveholders"-
Here was a deliberate proposition made
twenty years ago by a candidate for the
Presidency, to adopt as the policy of a po-
litical party, the disfranchisement of all
shareholders, in defiance of the Federal
Constitution and of State Constitutions and
laws. His faithful disciple A. LINCOLN,
has gone beyond his master, and disfran-
chised Uncertain States, not only all slave
holders, but all who win not swear to be-
come Aboltionists and make war upon
shareholders.
In a letter dated August 5, 1874, in reply
to Mr.. Errett, of Pittsburg, and in another
y letter to the same Hartford Committee,
" dated Sept. 2 1874, Mr.. BrRNEY thus express
ed the views held by the then Abolition
party, and now held by Mr. LINCOLN and 4
the present Abolition party:
~ The accession to power of the Liberty
(Abolition] party implies, as 1 take it, the
speedy extinction of slavery everywhere
within our country, and, of course, the 4
bringing Of all its labor into Homogeneous !
state. Till our labor is brought into this
state, all legislation for its benefitmust nec- |
essarily be, in great measure, unayailing; |
and this can bedone only by the extinction !
SO Of slavery.
Here we have the germ Of the airre-
pressible conflict, y Of Messrs. SEWARD and |
rLrNcoLN. al 4Ags
The Southern and Western Liberty TAb-
o,ition] Convention" met in Cincinnati on j
s.a the l1thf Of June 1s45.y Its proceedings.
were published in the Cincinnati Moruiuo
Herald. From these proceedings we learn
that JAMES G.. BIRNEY, the then late Presi-
DENTAL candidate of the party, said on the
hrst day Of the session: II have no idola-
trous veneration for the Union. If slavery
could not be abolished without the dissolu-
4tion Of the Union, l. for one, would 90 for i
dissolution II there can be traitorous
utterance, this certainly was one. But it
has become the watchword, and forms the
creed Of the party now unhappily swaying /,
the destinies Of this once great and prosper,
GUS country.
The leaders Of the present Abolition-Dis-
union party are following in the footsteps
Of Judge srBvENs Of Indiana, who, during
the session Of the same Convention, said:
We are asked how slavery Il to be .h,,-
ishedP Sir, Iwill tell you. we must reach ry