Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1864-04-23
A Bold Speech


ered BY Hon. ALEXANDER LoNo, OF Ohio,
on Friday OF last week. 1t has fcarlessness
and lrankness TO recommend it and al.
though it takes a different view o cur
national trouble, il will be read with great
interest, After reviewing the condition
Of the country when Mr.. Lincoln came
into power and alluding to the fact that
Mr.. Seward had promised TO put down
the rebellion in sixty days, with $4,000
men, instead Of which the war had now
lasted over three years and that 2,500.000
men had been called for, Mr.. Long takes
the ground that tho real friends Of the
Conlederates in the North-those who
gave them aid and encouragement and
enable them to carry on the war, arc Mr..
Lincoln's administration and those who
support it, He contended that LiDcoln's
foolish Emancipation and Amnesty proc
lam alton, csn6scation laws, &c, had done
better service to The cause Of the South
than ifhe had made gift of millions Of
greeubacks to Jefferson Davis 10 be used
a. bounty money in recruiting the confed-
crate army.
Mr.. Long than goes on TO argue ths. The
Union can n,per be ~sto,ei by War, lie
objsct, to the further prosecution Of the
war on the ground that il is wroni, in
violation Of the Constitution and OF the
principles on which the Federal Union
were founded, and because it will, il con.
,inued, result in the destruction of the
Government and the loss Of civil liberty to
both north and South. Mr.. Long quotes
from the writings Of John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson, William II. Seward,
Henry Winter Davis, Edward Everett
and Others, 10 prove tina. we have no right
to coerco the Southern States to remain in
tho Union aid that any attempt to do so
would end in tho ds.truc!ion Of the govern.
ment.
Mr.. Long further contend, that the
Confederate States are out of the UnIoD,
occupying the position Of an lndepend' ut
Power, which they have maintained for
three years and that the war has abroga'
ted all the obligations that bound them
under the Constitution. If the time ever
ws-, which be does not believe, when the
Union could have been restored by war. it
has long since been dispelIed By eman-
patton, confscaiion, amnesty and the like
proc amations, military orders annuling
state constitutions, setting aside state laws,
obliteralng state lines and attempting to
organize and set up form oI State COVER
nment in their stead, in which one man
out of ten who shall turn abolitioni.t, take
| subscribe an oath to execute ard obey
the will Of Abraham Lincoln, whatever it
may be, shaI! govern and ruis over the
remaining nine who refused to become
Aboli,oni,ts. These follies of Mr.. Lin
con, have, instead Of, crushing the rebel
!ion," crushed out whatever Union scnti,
mcut may have remained among the
Southern people. Some few may take the
oath in order to save their families and
property, but in their hearts they detes
aud dsspise The oa b and the authority
that rcsu RS it.
Mr.. Long goes on to argue that in wa
gipg war Of suhjuga,ion and conquest a
gainst the Confederate States, which havt
seeded from US and set up a govern
erument of their own, We are acting in
consistent with all our former acts. II,
says there never was people on the fac
If the earth that demanded an ipdepend
cut govermcu. that did not have the sym
daily of the American people, aud ough
we now to shrink from the doctrine W
have been willing to apply to others! Mucl
as he regretted that any Of our Siste
States should have desired to cut asunds
lhe lgame 4. that bound them to US, i
would be better, severe as would be th
pang of regret, to partin friendship, rathe
than TO hold sovereign States pinned to u
by the bayonet, Much better would
have been for US in the beginning-muc
better would it be for US now--to conseI
to a division of our magnificent empir
and cultivate amicable relations with ou
estrangsd brethren, than to seek to hol
them to US by the power of the sword.
Mr.. Long said he was reluctantly an
despondipgly forced 10 the conclusion thu
the Union is lost, never to be restored
: He said be dld not share in the belief CT
tertained by many Of his political friend
y that any peace is attainabs upon the bas
of Union and reconstruction. If the Den
ocratic party were in power to-day,
! had no idea that they could restore Il
. Union over thirty four States. lie BELLE
g ed that there we're but two alternslive