Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-17
Mr.. COX'S SPEECH CONTINUED,

wicked passion ranking in the heart-art
these to remain? And shall there be no in
terregnum for the serene dynasty of peace
and love, to walk together white handed
through this bleeding and bloody land?-7
Shall no one pour the Leathean wave ovel
the scenes of death and the sorrows O.
mourning? Shall there be no recantatior
of the oaths of fierce men, vowing revenge
for homes wasted, property confscated
brethren destroyed and cities ruined9 Oh
Godl Is there no hope that even time may
not be allowed to assuage the hates and griefs
of this bloody era? Shall the young men OF
to-day wear the rancor in their hearts till
their hairs are whitened for the tomb and
teach their children and children's children
to perpetuate the hate of the fathers? If this
Is to be the fate of our Union, then God has
Knocked His creatures by fixing them in
habitations bound together by the same
skies, rivers, mountains, and lakes; Knocked
them by fixing in their hearts the principle
of love, and cruelty Knocked them by send
ing to this star Prince of Peace as an EX-
emplar and Savior! -
Who are the men, or the fiends, who talk
of utter determination? Ifit were possible,
it were execrable! To exterminate the
Southern people rather than reach them, as
Mr.. Lincoln himself proposed, by friendly
idWo, 10 dCllllC hClllOuS
Let the pitiless destruction of the Moors OF
Andulasia by Phillip IL; the merciless
slaughter of the French in La Vendee;
ClaverhOuse's bloody hunts after the Scot
tish Covenanters; the stained and cadaverous
cheek of Ireland; the bloodshot eye of mad
dened Poland; the grim submission of re-
vengeful Venetia-teach us by their history
that powder cannot cement nor bombs bear
messages of love. Superadd to your force,
conciliation, and then your force may not
be mere brute violence. Force has welded
by its blows, but they were tempered in the
fire of old and loving associations. II do not
fight the South because hate her." said Mr..
Crittenden; II love her still" Conquest by
force is only physical; subjugation implies
mental acquiescence on the part of the van
quished in the ideas of the victor. Such a
war, therefore, will produce only the status
quo ante 6ellum, leaving an absolute reciprocal
negation; each party denying the claims
for truce to intellectual conflict.
How can we reconcile the hostilities of the
people thus physically bound to live in
peace and Union? 1t is clear that if the
arms of both belligerants should in mo-.
ment fall from nerveless hands, there would
remain to-day the same antagonism of ideas.
This antagonism was reconciled. on the
principles of State sovereignty and local
self-governmenta as to all domestic questions,
including slavery. Webster, Clay, and
even Calhoun, in 1850, saw Union only this
way. Mr.. Douglas, Mr.. Crittendcn, and
even Mr.. Davis and Mr.. Toombs would have
preserved it by the same principle in 1861.
The compromises of 1861 were drawn from
this source-a final adjustment of the char
acter of all the territory, and complete
non-intervention by Congress with the
domestic relations OF the Territories and of
the States.
This principle would have settled the
difficulties. Ii was defeated by the action
of intemperate and blood-desiring men,
But the rule of right is internal, for it is
born of God. What was kind and just be-
fore the South resorted arms is right to-
day.
The fact that war has come and that sep
aration is impossible, makes more urgent
the ascendancy of party whose first and
only preference is for the Union through
compromise, and who shall at least be al
lowed to try the experiment of recOnciling
the States by guarantees similar to those
proposed in 1861. Ii it be found impossible
to restore the old association of States by
such negotiation, then, and not till then, can
statesmen begin properly to ponder the other
problems connected ,oith Su6jugation andrecog-
nitio,t. l regret that any one, especially my
colleague Mr.. Long, should have anticipate
ed these questions, and in his patriotic de-
spair should have expressed his preference
between the alternative of war of subju-
cation and recognition of Southern Inde-
pendence. / regard each alternative as
premature. We may yet change the war
from the diabolic purposes of those in pow
er, by changing that power to other hands;
and we are not ready to sever our Union
while that hope remains. Of the two evils
of subjugation or recognition, l make my
choice oi-neither.
I'd. That such restorations have been
made in other lands rent by civil conflicts,
l proceed in the last place to show. But such
restorations have never taken place in the
case of an empire of independent provinces,
governed by local laws, all at once absorbed
or compounded into central despotism.-
War cannot work such restoration; or if
war. under some mighty hand, ever does it,
the States disintegrate, and fall an easy
prey to military will or foreign subjuga-
tion. Violence may preside at the birth of
dynasty, but violence is at the death bed
Caesar may defy the Senate and cross the
Rubicon; but Caesar had his Brntus. The
works of violence are soon changed. No
Juggling plan can help them to success.
Order, intelligence, justice and Providence
do not consist with violence or fraud, or the
results of violence and fraud.
Charlemagne with all his conquests, ac-
nothing; all his works perished
with him. He was the meteor athwart the |
gloom of barbarism and feudality. M. Gui-
zot has displayed his glories and triumphs,
his laws and reforms. 1t has been said that
he founded nothing. He founded all the
States which sprung from the dismember-
ment his Empire. His Empire had great
temporary unity; his power and design
we're grand; but the disorder which sprung
from his Capitalization of power was invin-
,ible; and all the unity of force died out
with him. Wherever his terrible will did
not reach in person, the local authorities
ruled, and when he died, his dukes, vassals,
counts, Wears, centeniers and scabina, be-
came independent and resolved themselves
INTO local legislatures. His vast means of
government did not give liberty nor perma-
lency. In the letters of the intellectual,
'giant' OF those days"-Alcuin,- Charlie |
nagne, we find the secret of Charlemagne's |
success. That scholar congratulates the |
Emperor on his victories over the Huns, |
md gives this advice for their reconcile
nent: 1st. "Sending among them gentle
men. I'd. Do not require the |
1.-THE of. them.r 1t is better to lose the 1.-THE |
han to prejudice the people, Another |
writer gave to Charlemagne this advice: |
Mortal always be prepared to treat NOR
;als with mildness /; the law of nature is the |
,ame for them as for thee. One sacred |
stream flows for them as for thee" This |
. tha nb;lnooohu aud ralioiar, of ou,nou |