Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-11-19
Another Speech from Secretary Seward.


Aaothsr Speech from Secretary Seward.
On the evening prior to the election, Sec
Rotary SEwARD, as has been his wont for
many years, addressed his fellow citizens at
Auburn, New York. Although some portions
of lis speech were of only temporary inter
Fest, there is much of it of a. more permanent
nature The Secretary, as is well known,
avows himself an optimist, and defends his
custom of looking at the cheerful side of the
future, never despairing Of the country. And
so after expressing his confidence in the tri-
umphant vindication OF the Administration
before the great popular tribunal on the fol
lowing day, he added: .'''-
| should be recreant if did not confess
that see no hope of safety for the Union if
the people ito morrow should give it over in
trust to the opponents of the present Admin
istratioa. [Cries of ave won't do that.
But ] do not forget what / say on the night
before the election will be heard on the morn
ing after the election, however it may result !;
therefore, let no man expect to hear after an
adverse result that / am .despairing or even
Respondent. CHEERS If the opposition
prevail, do not know, indeed, the fountain
from which streams of hope can flow, in that
disastrous event; but do know that God
has thousand ways of saving nations, even
in their extreme peril. Cheers. do know
that nations are born to live, although they
must eventually die; and / do know that as my
voice in the dark hours of 1861 rang through
the world, giving reinsurance to bhe friends
of human progress, so, II utterance shall
be left to me, itgwill proclaim with even
bat n
public is not altogether lost Vehement
applause. And as l speak, so in that fear
full crisis, trust l shall be able to act. Cries
of I" That's you" and cheers q
I He then painted the dangers that surround
ed the country, civil war confronting it, for
eign wars threatening it, the fires of treason
Gus faction on all our borders and sending up
suphurous smoke under our very feet. 1t
would be absurd to say that the country was
not in a strait, but there were only two cours-
es before us-one to persevere in the effort
to put down the rebellion, the other to ahan-
don it. Hazard attended either, but in his
deliberate judgment by far the lesser hazard
lay in marching on in the line of persever-
ence. Indeed, in no other way could our
national integrity be assured.
After abiding to the conspiracies in the
Western States, the concerted action between
Chicago, London and Richmond that has
teen revealed, the raids from Canada upon
S,andusky, st. Adams and other points, and
the amazement that many felt upon seeing
after all this, large class of our own citizens,
with alternate obstinacy and levity, refusing
to give an unreseryed support to their own
Government, the speaker said that such fac
tions were among the invariable incidents Of
civil war Opposition would rise high as
gogernn1ent became energetic, and grow into
faction and "faetion in civil war was unmiti-
gated treason" After speaking of various
governments that have passed through SINH
lar trials, he continued: ~ .sh 81.
4 No Government in any of those countries
ever was less embarrassed in civil war by
faction than the Government of the United
States during the last three and half years.
None of those Governments at that same
vi..-~ --- 17-it :'i- f.atinr, with
40 much moderation and humanity as this
Government has spracticed toward citizens
who have aided and abetted, fed and warmed,
clothed and armed, its open and defiant enc
mics. (Crfss of tsThaeso-better if they had
hung valiandigham and the rest of them. ~
Cheersl Not one head has fallen on the
judicial block. (Cheers.) Nor need you be
alarmed at these demonstrations Of faction.
Fhe .peopis-efr the United States have had a
Christian education, political education, a
moral education, such as Providence has never
before ,youchsafed to any nation; and great
as the forces and faeilitieslof faction are, the
repressiye. and loyal forces possessed by this
people are magnifed and multipliedin proper
ton. (Cheers.) eoi z .FoE ,ffo7ss1g
After charaeterizing the attempted frauds
on the. ballot-box in New York as "more
fraudulent in z conception, More wicked in de-
sign than we have before encountered" and
congratuiating his hearers on their timely
detection, he spoke of the policy of the Adj
ministration respecting slavery as connected
with the war, as follows; nias nj sba.I-
"Thsre is no question before youof aban-
doning the war measures against slavery. and
substituting for them apology of conservation
or concession to slavery. 1Cheers. Those
measures are apart of the war. lCheers. IL
| is, for the nation in state of war and not for
the nation in future state of peace, that the
Government is acting, and of course that we,
are. voting, Applause. There is no ques-
ton before you of changing the object of the
war from the maintenance of the Union, TO
that of abolishing slavery. Slavery is the
mainspripg of the rebellion. The Govern
ment NECESSARILY strikes it in the very centre
as well as upon every inch of its soil. Cheers
and cries OF Its dying out n In my poor
judgment the handspring is already broken,
and let the war end when it will, and as it
may, the fear that that handspring will re-
cover its elasticity may give us at present no
uneasiness. [Cheers.] Before the war slav-
cry had the patronage end countenance of the
United States against the whole world. Its
inherent error, guilt and danger are now as