Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-03

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 8.
General Blair's Exposure of Sec
retary Chase.
CHASE PROVED TO BE A DISuNI0NIST.
CORRUPTION AND THlEvERY IN THE TREASURY
DEPARTMENT EXPOSED.
Rich Development Of Operations in
Columbus, Ohio.
How Jay Cooke a. Co Fenthered
their Nests.
tFrOm the Congressional Globe of April 2s.l

tFrom the Congressional Globe of April 2sl
When resumed my seat in this House,
felt myself constrained by sense of duty
to my constituents to ask for a committee
to investigate the manner in which the
regulations of trade" with the States in
insurrection have been carried out by the
Secretary the Treasury. But it seems that
the Secretary's friends had not the same con-
fldcnce in committee of Congress as /
have shown, for when | asked for COM
mittee to investigate the charges which had
been made against the Secretary, of sacrifice
ing vast public interest to advance his
ambition, his friends upon this floor re-
fused it, and was assaled in all the news
papers of the country with having made
that allegation against the Secretary, be-
cause he had stopped my "liquor specula-
tion."
Now, Mr.. Speaker, permit me to say that
when the Secretary of the Treasury was adj
vanced to his present position, although my
good wishes were worth nothing to him at
the time, yet he had them. was in favor
of his appointment. As a matter of course
that was of very little consequence so far as
his appointment was concerned, yet it is a
fact well known. 1t is of consequence
simply so far as it shows that l was not
inimical at that time TO the Secretary. The
reason of my change of sentiment toward
him was that understood that he had au-
thOriZed the Mayor of Baltimore to pro-
claim on the streets of that city on the 10Th
of April that he was in favor of letting the
States in rebellion "go in peace" and because
/ also took this impression from the tenor of
his conversation that it was his opinion and
wish that they should be allowed to go in
peace. / understood the same thing from
the publications made by newspapers in his
own State which were regarded as express
ing his sentiments. The allegation was
made that such was his position, and it was
never denied by him. 1t was accepted as
fact by all.
know, and he 'ciH not deny his tcritten and
recorded opinion, that he was opposed to the
reinforcement of Fort Sumter. knew that
after Fort Sumter had fallen he had opposed
the calling out of large and sufficient
force to put down the rebellion, and al
though he and others of the men of his
party and my party then (but l hold no
party relations then or nO,1 with peace men)
were compelled by the war cry that went
up after the fall of Sumter to abandon ap-
parently their peace position. Yet Mr..
Chase, soon found, never really abandon
ed his determination to cut off the South
ern States. On the contrary, he has en-
deavOrcd to work out, by another pro-
gramme, the very thing he was then in
favor of doirg-of letting the South go. He
is now fo' making them go, so far as their
condition as States is concerned. He is un-
willing that they should ever return to in
terfere with his Presidential aspirations.
Why, sir, it was perfectly under stood in
the second session-the long session-of the
last Congress, that he favored the annihila-
ton of the State Governments of the South.
His friends in both Houses made that prop
osition; those who had the most intimate
relations with him in both Houses made
that proposition. And 1t is pressed in this
House again this winter in disguised and
insidious form, and under the pretentious
title of reconstruction" but which is in
fact intended for the destruction of those
States; but this being the very crime of
which the rebels i'll arms are guilty, and
which the gentleman from Ohio Mr.. Ash
ley charges upon them, it is thought con-
veniert to give the operation another name.
The bill reported by the distinguished gen.
tleman from Maryland, Mr.. Davis repre-
senting the committee on the rebellious
States, which, by the way, is composed to
considerable extent of the Pomeroy private
circular committee, for understand that
the gentlemen from Maryland, Mr.. Davisl,
from Ohio, Mr.. Ashley, and from Missouri,
Mr.. Blow, are members of both these COM
mittees, is a bill which could very properly
have come from the Pomeroy committee. 1t
is bill which should have been entitled "a
bill for the permanent dissolution OF the
Union, to disfranchise the whites and en-
franchise the negroes, to prevent any of the
States from coming back in time to vote for
Mr.. Lincoln for President, and to promote
the ambition of the Secretary of the Treas
ury." 1t is bill which requires the con-
sent of Congress for the readmission of any
of these States to the Union. ,rt 4 |
The gentlemen proceed in their disfran-
chising bill upon the pretext that the usur-
patton of the rebels for the hour has de-
stroyed the States, or that the forces of the
United States sent to drive out and over
throw the rebel power which held the State
and National Governments in the South
alike in allegiance, are to be considered con-
quering forces, eXtinguishing the local con-
stitutions the nation is bound to guaranty.
Looking to the root of the matter, the cause
of all our disasters, proves that instead of
considering the State Governments abolish
ed, Congress would best perform its functions
by amending the Constitution of the United
States itself, so as to eradicate slavery from
our whole system. This simple remedy
which can be attained by adhering to the
forms OF the Constitution Itself, superSedes
the revolutionary schemes of those who
would convert the States into Territories
and assert absolutism over them in regard
to their future admission into the Union.
The founders Of the Government. saw the
lurking evil in admitting the slave-tolera-
ting clause in the Constitution; they foretold
Its fatal tendency. Our present Chief Mag
istrate, before he was thought of for the
nlace he held. nredicted that this Govern
ment "could not endure permanently half
free and half slave" And can there be a
better solution of the danger than that fur
nished by the Senate's bill incorporating
Jefferson's ordinance Of freedom with the
ftindatiental law of the nation? Is it not
better than, disfranchising States and rob-
bing loyal men Of their rights, putting them
on, a footing with rebels already disfran-
chised by their bloody treason?, Our. SOL
diers invoke the loyal citizens Of the. South
to ioin their ranks, and patriots everywhere