Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-06-17
18TH OF JUNE, 1864.

MEN OF OH1O: IO-uay am again IN
your midst, and upon the soil of my native
State. To-day am once more within the
District which for ten years extended to me
the highest confidence, and three timeshon-
ored me as its Representative in the Con-
gress of the United States. was accused
Of no crime against the Constitution or
laws, and guilty of none. But whenever
and wherever thus charged upon me by
due process of law, | am now here ready
to answer before any civil court of compe-
tent jurisdiction, to jury of my country
men; and in the meantime, to give bail in
any sum which any judge or court, State
or Federal, may affiX; and you, the hundred
and eighty-siX thousand Democrats of Ohio
offer as my sureties Never for one hour
have renamed in exile, because recog-
nized any obligation of obedience to the
unconstitutional and arbitrary edict. Nei-
ther did personal fear ever restrain me-
And to-day / return of my own act and
pleasure, because it is my constitutional
and legal right to return. Only by an
eXertion of arbitrary power, itself
against the Constitution and law,
and consummated by military force,
was abducted from my home and forced in
to Punishment. The assertion or insnua-
ton of the President that / was arrested
''because laboring with some effect to pre-
vent the raising of troops and to encourage
desertions from the army" and was respon-
sible for numerous acts of resistance to the
draft and to the arrest Of deserters, causing
assassination, manning and MURDER" or
that at any time, in any way, l had disobey-
ed or failed to counsel obedience to the law
full authority, or even to the semblance of
law, is absolutely false. appeal for the
proof to every speech / ever made upon
those questions, and to the very record of
the Mock Military Commission, by the trial
and sentence of which was outraged. No;
the sole offense then laid to my charge was
words of criticism of the public policy of
the Administration, addressed to open and
public political meetings of my fellow citi-
zens of Ohio, lawfully and peacefully as
sembled. And to-day my only 'crime" is,
that in the way which they call treason, /
worship the Constitution of my fathers.
But now for more than one year, no public
man has been arrested, and no newspaper
suppressed within the States adhering still
to the Union, for the expression of politi-
cal opinion; while hundreds, in public as
sembly and through the press, have, with a
license and violence in which | never in
dulged, criticised and condemned the
acts and politics of the Administration,
and denounced the war, maintaining
even the propriety and necessity of the rec
ognition of Southern independence. En-
dorsed by nearly two hundred thousand
freemen of the Democratic party of my ma
tive State, at the late election, and still with
the sympathy and support of millions more,
do not mean any longer to be the only
man of that party who is to be the victim OF
arbitrary power. If Abraham Lincoln seeks
my life, let him so declare; but he shall not
again restrain me of my personal liberty,
except upon "due process of law" The
unconstitutional and monstrOus "Order
Thirty-eight' under which alone was ar
rested thirteen months ago, was defied and
spit upon at your State Convention of 1868,
by the gallant gentleman who bore the
standard as your candidate for Lieutenant
Governor, and by every Democratic press
and public speaker ever since. 1t is dead.
From the first it was against the Constitu-
tion and laws, and without validity; and
all proceedings under it were and are ut
terly null and void and of no effect. The
indignant voice of condemnation longsince
went forth from the vast majority of the
people and presses of America, and from
all free countries In Europe with entire
unanimity. And more recently, too, the
"platform" of an earnest, numerous and
most formidable convention of the sincere
Republicans, and still further, the emphatic
letter of acceptance by the candidate of that
Convention, Gen. John G. Fremont, the first
candidate also of the Republican party for
the Presidency eight years ago, upon theral
lying cry of Free Speech and a. Free Press,
give renewed hope that at last the reign of
arbitrary power Is about to be brought to an
end i'm the United States. 1t is neither lust
nor fit, therefore, that the wrongs inflicted
under "Order Thirty-eight," and the other
edicts and acts of such power, should
any longer be endured-certainly not by me
alone. Butevery ordinary means OF redress
has first been exhausted: yet either by the
direct agency of the Administration and its
subordinates, or through its influence or in
timidation, or because of want of jurisdic-
tion in the civil courts to meet case which
no American ever in former times conceived
to be possible here, all have failed. Counsel
applied in my behalf to an unjust judge for
the writ of habeas corpus. 1t was denied |;
and now. the privilege of that writ is
suspended by act of Congress and Execu-
tive order In every State. The Democrat
ic Convention of Ohio, one year ago, by
aresolution formally presented through q
committee of your best and ablest men, in
person at Washington, demanded of the
President, in behalf of very large minority
of the people, a revocation of the edict of
Punishment. Pretending that the public
safety then required it, he refused saying,
at the same time, that sit would afford
him pleasure to comply as soon as he
could by any means be made to believe
that the public safety would not suffer by
it," One year has elapsed, yet this hollow
pretense is still tacitly asserted; and to-day
I am here to prove it unfounded in fact. /
appealed TO the Supreme Court of the
United States; and because Congress had
never conferred Jurisdiction In behalf of q
citizen tried by a tribunal unknown for
such purpose, to the laws, and expressly
Snrh;ddanN NV tha 'Constit,ffion r. was now