The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1864-09-22
OTTUMWA, IOWA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER o. 1864.

poets, conducted according to their own ps-
culiar radical ideas and theories They want
guarantees for swift and universal, and COM
plete emancipation, or they do not want the
nation saved. Oshe-s stay away because
they want to be assured that in coming on,
Of the revolutionary storm, the ship of state
will be found exactly in the same condition
as when the tempest assalled it, or they do
not want the ship saved at ALL as If anybody
could give such guarantees in the name Of a
people Of thirty millions. Others arc Dem.
ocrats. They received from their fathers
the axiom that only Democrats could save
the country, and they must save il by Dem.
ocratic formulas and combinations which the
progress Of the age has forever exploded
They cannot come up to celebrate chieve-
ments which condemn their narrow and
hereditary bigotry. GEES i1
Others of both the Republican and Dem
ocratic parties are willing that ths nation
shall be saved, provided It is done by some
one Of their chosen and idolized chiefs, which
chief they mutually denounce and revile -
They cannot honor Grant, and Sherman, and
Fanagut, and Porter, because by such hom-
age they fear that Fremont and Mcclellan $
fame may be eclipsed.
Nevertheless, there are enough here of the
right sort, enough Of men who once were
Republicans, but who, taking that word in a
partisan sense, are Republicans no longer,
and men, who once were Democrats, hut
who, taking that word in, its narrow appl-
cation, are Democrats no longer. All of
whom are pow Union men. because they
found out at the beginning Of this tremen.
dous civil war, or in some period of its prog
ress, that no man-no party--no formula
no creed caqld save the Union, but that only
the people could save it. and they could save
it only by ceasing to become rartisans, and
becoming patriots and Union men. (Cheers
for the Union. .r
Yes, my friends, when this war shall be
ended in the restoration of the Union, no
man then living will exult in the recollecti n
that during its continuance he was neither
Radical or Conservative, a Republican or
Democrat, but every man will claim to have
been throughout an unreserved and uncon.
ditional Union man.
But why should party spirit, especially
at this jnncture, divide the American people?
And why should I, member of the Execu-
tive Administrati on, aliude::to it on such an
occasion as this! The answer is at hand.
The Constitution of our country commands
that Administration to surrender its powers
to the people, and the people to designate
agents to assume and exercise them for four
years. You receive the Executive Govern
ment in condition very different and high
ly improved. We found it practically ex-
PEELED from the whole country south Of the
Delaware, the Ohio and the Missouri, witt,
the most Of the army and navy betrayed or
fallen into the hands of insurgents, and
new and reasonable Confederacy, with the
indirect but effective cooperation of foreign
powers, establishing itself on the Gulf Of
Mexico. We cheerfuly give the Govern
ment back to you, with large and conquer
ing armies. and triumphant navy, with the
hateful Confederacy falling into pieces, and
the rebellious States, one after another, re-
turning to their allegiance.
Regarding myself now, therefore, not as
Secretary, but simply as one of the people,
I, like you, am called by my vote, to deter.
mine into who's, hands, the precious trust
shall now be confided. We might wish to
avoid, or at least to postpone that duty, un.
til the present fearful crisis is passed Blu.
it cannot and it ought not to be avoided or
adjourned. 1t is constitutional trial and
the nation must 60 through it, deliberately
and bravely.
shall, therefore, scheerfully submit for
your consideration, the course which have
concluded to adopt; and the reasons for it |:
First, beg you to remember that the pre-.
sent is no common or customary Presiden-
tial election. It occurs in the midst Of civil
war, arising out Of a disoqted succession to
the Executive power. Disputed SUGGESTIONS
are the most frequent causes of civil wars,
not only in republics, but even in monarch.
les. A dispute about the succession of the
President, periodically begets an abortive or
real revolution, in each one of the Spanish
and American Republics. So the disputed
succession of the Spanish throne, begot that
memorable thirty years. war, which con.
vulsed all Europe. A dispute whether Jua-
rez was the lawful President brought on the
present civil war, with the consequence Of
French Intervention in Mexico. A dispute
whether the present king of Denmark, who
succeeded to the throre last winter, is law.
ful heir to the Duchies Of Schleswig and
Holstein brought about the civil war in that
country, which, through German interven-
ton, has just now ended with the dsmem-
berment of the Danish Kingdom. It is re-
narkable, also, that civil wars, produced by
disputed successions, invariably begin with
resistance by some one or more Of the States
or provinces which constitute the Kingdom,
Empire or Republic which is disturbed. It
was so with the United States Of Mexico
1t was SO in the United States of Colum.
bia, and the case was the same in the Uni.
ted States of VeDezuela. Now it is certain
that in 1860 we elected Abraham Lincoln