Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1864-04-29


If right or wrong can't conceive;
Altho' therein my name Is found
They are to me an empty sound.
Now children, when these lines you read,
Go search the Scriptures with all speed,
And if my name you don't find there,
I'll think it strange, | do declare.
[PreSbyterida
DEBATE ON THE RIGHT OF SECESSION
speech Of the Hon. James A. Garfield.
The House being in Committee of the Whole
on the State of the Union, April 6th, 1864, and
Mr. Long, of Ohio, having concluded his speech
in condemnation of the war and the policy of
the Administration
Mr.. Garfield, of Ohio, obtained the floor and
addressed the Committee as follows:
Mr.. Chairman, / should be obliged 10 you if
you would direct the Sergeant-at-A Arms to bring
awhite flag and plant it in the aisle between
myself and my colleague who has Just addressed
You. / recollect on one occasion when two
great armies stood face to face to face, that
der white flag just planted | approached a
company of men dressed in the uniform of the
rebel Confederacy, and reached out my hand to
one of the number and told him respected him
as brave man. Though he wore the emblems
of disloyalty and treason, still underneath his
vestments | beheld brave and honest soul. /
would reproduce that scene here this afternoon,
] say, l0ere there such flag of truce-but God
forgive me if | should do it under any other cir
cumstancesl-l would reach out this right hand
and ask that gentleman to take it; because |
honor his bravery and honesty. believe what
has Just fallen from his lips is the honest senti-
ment of his heart, and in uttering it he has made
a new epoch in the history of this war; he has
done new thing under the sun; he has done
brave thing. 1t is braver than to face cannon
and musketry, and honor him for his candor
and frankness.
But now l ask you to take away the flag of
true; and / will go back inside the Union lines
! and speak of what he has done. | am remind
ed by it of a distinguished character in Para
disc Lost When he had rebelled against the
glory of God and sled away a third part of
Heavens sons. coniured against the Highest" :"
when after terrible battles in which mountains
and hills were hurled by each contending host
with iaculations dire" when at last the leader
and his host were hurled down mine times the
space that measures day and night" and after
the terrible fall lay stretched on the burning
lake, Satan lifted up his shattered bulk, crossed
the abyss, looked down into Paradise, and, sOlil-
oquizing, said:
''Whch way fly is hell; myself am hell
1t seems to me in that utterance he expressed
the very sentiment to which you have Just lis
bCucO, ubbcIcQ Dy OuS uO lcSS OIdNt, anu
fallen This man gathers up the meaning of
this great contest, the philosophy of the moment
the prophecies of the hour, and in sight of the
paradise of victory and peace, utters them all in
this terrible wall of despair (Which way fiy
is hell" He ought to add, Myself am hell"
Mr.. Chairman, / am reminded of two charac-
ters in the war of the Revolution as compared
with the war of to-day. The first was Lord
Fairfax who dwelt near the Potomac, few
e. IL
opened between the mother country and the
colonies Lord Fairfax, after protracted strug-
gle with his own heart, decided he must go with
the mother country. He gathered his mantle
about him and went ergrandly, solemnly, and
impressively, and joined the fortunes of Great
Britain against the home of his adoption. But
there was another man who cast his lot with the
struggling colonies, and continued with them
until the war was well nigh ended. But in day
of darkness, which just preceded the glory of the
morning, that other man, deep down in the
damned pits of his black heart hatched the treas
on to surrender forever all that had been gained
TO the enemies of his country. Benedict Arnold
was that man.
Fairfax and Arnold find their parallel in the
struggle of to-day. When this war began many
good men stood hesitating and doubling what
they ought to do. Their doctrine of State
Rights, their sympathies, all they had ever loved
and lOnged for, were in the South, and after long
and painful hesitation some of them at last went
with the enemies of the nation. At that time
Robert E. Lee sat in his home across the river
here doubling and delaying, and going off at last
almost tearfully to join the enemies of his coun-
try. He reminds me in some respects of Lord
Fairfax, the stately loyalist of the Revolution.
But now when hundreds of thousands of brave
souls have gone up to God under the shadow of
the flag, and when thousands more, manned and
shattered in the contest are sadly awaiting the
deliverance of death; now, when threee years
of terrific warfare have ragged over us, when our
armies have pushed the rebellion back over
mountains and rivers, and crowded it back into
narrow limits, until wall of fire girds it; now,
when the uplifted hand of majestic people is
about to let fall the lightning of its conquering
power upon the rebellion; now, in the quiet of
this hall, Matched in the lowest depths of SIM
liar dark treason, there arises Benedict Arnold
and proposes to surrender us all up, body and
spirit the nation and the flag, its genius and its
honor, now and forever, to the accursed traitors
to our country. And that proposition comes
God forgive and pity my beloved Statei-it
come from citizen of the honored and loyal
commonwealth of-Ohio.
Iimplore you brethren in this House, not to
believe that many such births ever gave pangs to
mother State such as she suffered when the trait
orwas born. / beg you not TO believe that on the
soil of that State another such growth has ever
deformed the face of nature and darkened the
lightof God day. But ah, am reminded that
there are other such. Ny zeal and love for Ohio
have carried me too far. / retract. remem-
Der that only few days since a political con-
vention met at the capital of my State, and al
most decided to select from Just such material
representative Mr.. Vallandighaml for the DEM
ocratic party in the coming contest; and to-day,
what claim to be majority fthe Democracy Of
that State say that they have been cheated or
they would have made that choice / therefore
sadly take back the boast first uttered in be-
half of my native State.
But sir, viii forget States We have some
thing greater than States or State pride to talk
of here to-day. All personal or State feeling
aside, ask you what is the proposition which
the enemy Ofhis country has Just made? What
is it? For the first time in the history of this
contest it is proposed in this Hall to give up the
struggle, to abandon the war; and let treason run
riot through the landl / WILL if / can, dismiss
feeling from my heart, and try to consider only
what bears upon the logic fthe speech to which
we have just listened.
First of ALL the gentleman tells us that the
right of secession is constitutional right. l do
not propose to enter into the argument. Ihave
expressed myself hitherto upon State sovereign
ty and State rights, of which this proposition of
his is the legitimate child. But the gentleman
takes higher ground-and in that agree with
him-namely. that five millions or eight millions
of people possess the right of revolution
Grant it; we agree there. If fifty-nine men can
make revolution successful, they have the right
of revolution. If one State wishes to break its
connection with the Federal Government, and
does it by force maintaining ITSELF it is an inde-
pendent State. If the eleven Southern States
are determined and resolved to leave the Union,
to secede, to revolutionize and can maintain that
revolution by force, they have the revolutionary
right to do SO. Grant it. stand on that plat
form with the gentleman.
And now the question comes is itour constitu-
tional duty to let them do it? That is the ques-
ton; and in order TO reach it / beg to call your
attention, not to an argument, but to the eondi-
ton OF affairs which would result from such ac-
ton-the mere statement of which becomes the
strongest possible argument What does this
gentleman propOse2 Where will he draw the
line of divisions If the rebels carry into sue
cessful secession what they desire to carry; if
their revolution envelopes as manv States as
sIa~- .r4o,d - ubo1l oruo11v,o..