American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-01-27

| world the novel spectacle OF NlctoTy Hl'H-
out reprisals, of liberty strong enough to
survive civil war; if your Constitution
remain, and Slavery alone fall in such a
t,confict; if on the morrow of the struggle
the law remain supreme, if elections for
the Senate and House of Representatives
be again open as in the old time, if the
representatives of the Southern States re-
appear at Washington, if taking the oath
to be faithful to the Union and to support
the modified Constitution they find them
selves on footing of perfect equality
with the representatives. of the North, if
it be permitted to them to attack and to
embamass the Government, you will have
won the most glorious of victories, and as
sured to your country the best chance of
prosperity and greatness.
Accept, gentlemen, in the advice which
we tender to you, proof Of our esteem.
1t is not of every Government, it is not of
every people that such things can be asked,
Protracted civil wars tend to arbitrary Gus
toms, stir up passions and hates, AMI at
last engender development of military
power and irresponsible authority which
generally hinders return to control, to
free opinion and to the strict letter of the
law We honor the United States enough
to believe that they will be capable of set
tling us this, too, after so many other ex-
amples.
The moderation which we hope for from
you at home we look for also from you
abroad. Assuredly on the morrow of the
submission of the South there viii not be
wanting a class of persons eager to recall
to you wrongs, real or fancied, suffered at
the hands of this or that power. They
will point to your armies, disposable fleets
They will prove to you that foreign war
is perhaps the surest way to draw together
the two sections so lately hostile. They
will tell you that a common enmty COM
mon dangers, are the cement needed to
strengthen your shattered edifcc
You will not believe them, gentlemen.
You will feel that after these jars, it is
needful before all else to restore to Amer
lea peace and liberty. You win not seek
new adventures and thus lengthen the
temptation Of relationships, the peril Of
exceptional rule.
You will fear a return to the aggressive
policy which with its invasions and turbu-
lence the influence of the South forced
upon you, the day, when, to assure the ox-
tension of Slavery, it awakened in your
hearts a wicked covetousness and pushed
you almost to the violation of the law Of
nations. Your glory viii be to take the
opposite of those violent declarations, of
these fillibustering expeditions, of those
INSCRIPTIONS ambitions.
The temptations which great army
excites-are of the class most difficult to re-
press. May you. not hesitate to reduce
your force after peace. Not only your
material prosperity but your very liberty
is involved in disarming, in reduction of
your expenses, and return to the old idea
of small armies and large budgets.
But we do not deceive ourselves
Your small armies, do what you may, will
be large compared with those Of three
years ago. Your military education is
eompleted you have replied but too well
to those who smiled at the recital of your
battles of 1861. You have learned but
too quickly to face death and to kill, and
what you have learned you will not un-
learn. You will not return to your former
situation. q
But while we do not expect again to
see your effective force at ten thousand
men, we do hope that effective forces which
are now numbered at hundreds of thous-
ands will not long be witnessed on Amer
lean soil.
III. Courage! You have before you
one of the most noble works the most
sublime which can be accomplished here
below--a work in the success of which
we are as interested as yourselves work
the success Of which will be the honor
and the consolation of our time.
This generation will have seen nothing
more grand than the Abolition of Slavery
Gin destroying it with you, you destroy it
everywhere), and the energetic uprising of
people which in the midst of its grow
ing prosperity was visibly sinking under
the weight of the tyranny of the South,
the completely Of the North, odious laws
and compromises.
Now, at the cost Of immense sacrifices,
you have stood up.against the evil you
have chosen rather to pour out your blood
and your dollars than to descend further
the slope of degradation, where rich, uni
ted, powerful, you were sure to lose that