Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-09-22
Appeal of the National Union
Committee,
HEApQuARTEhs NArovAL UNIoy coMMlrTEE, /

.. - NEW York. Sept. o, lS6i
TIE great rebellion, which for more than
three years has wrapped the nation in the
flames of civil war, draws near its crisis
Its armies have been beaten, its territory
has been conquered, the forts and posts
which it treacherously seized have been oc-
cupied and held by tho soldiers of the Re-
public, its foreign allies have been detached |
from its support, and its hostile arm, par
alyzed by exhaustion and discouraged by |
defeat, is upheld solely by the hope of po. |
litical victories to be achieved by its allies in
the Presidential election of November next.
Ifthe people in that election sustain the |
Government, If they re-assert its just au- |
thority and re-affirm their purpose to main
tain it by war so long as war assais it, the
rebellion will speedily end. IF they falter
in this determination, or leave any room for
doubt on this vital point the rebels will
take fresh courage and proleng the contest
Every attendance of their organs and their
agents affirms and confirms this position
Every rebel in arms and every rebel in Of
fee, every rebel organ in the rebel States or
in foreign lands, every hater of Democratic
freedom and the rights Of man, longs and
labors for the overthrow of the adminstra-
ton and the expulsion Of Abraham Lincoln
from the Presidential chair.
In the Northern and Western States this
hostility has been embodied and organized
in the acts and declarations of the Chicago
Convention. The Convention gives silent
approval of the rebellion itself, and an open
condemnation of the war waged for its sup.
preston. Without word of censure for
the coDsprators who plotted the nations
death, it brands with unsparing denuncia
ton the patriots and heroes who defend its
life While it passes in utter silence the
gigantic usurpations of Jefferson Davis and
his confederate traitors, ,-whileit overlooks
entirely, and thus, by just and necessary in
ference, approves their abrogation of polit
ical rights and personal liberties over all
that portion of the United States in which
they have been able thus fa, to sustain
their usurped authority, it pours out its
wrath, without stint or measure, upon ev-
cry act by which the Constitutional Presi-
dent of the United States has sought to de-
fend and protect the life and liberties of the
nation, whose executive power is placed in
his hands.
The Convention had no words of exulta
ton for our victories; no thanks and hon
ors for the soldiers and sailors who have
shed their blood to achieve them. While
it denounces our government for neglect of
duty toward our fellow citizens who ore
now, and long have been prisoners of war
in suffering condition." it has not even a
syllable Of censure for those rebel authori-
ties who, with more than savage cruelty,
and in their disregard of every dictate of
humanity, as well as of every usage of civ
ilized warfare, have deliberately and with a
systematic purpose inflicted upon those
prisoners all the tortures OF exposure, OF
neglect and starvation, and have offered
premiums for their murder to the brutal
guards to whose grim custody they have
been consigned. And, on the very eve Of
the most glorious victories that have ever
crowned our arms-after three years Of
bloody. costly and successful war. when
three-fourths Of the territory originally held
by the rebels has passed into our hands; at
the very moment when the rebellion itself
Us tottering to its fall, and the :hag Of our
country is rapidly advancing to its old su-
premacy, the party represented at Chicago
: demand that immediate efforts be made for
: cessation of hostihttes" step which
would instantly arrest our conquering ar
mics and snatch from them the glories Of a
final triumph, repeal the blockade, and
throw the whole rebel frontier open to the
supplies they so sorely need, secure the re-
cognition OF foreign powers, and either ac'
complish their independence or glve, them
the ability to fight for it four years longer.
We appcal to the people Of the United
States-lovers of the Union and friends OF
Freedom-against the cocsummation ofthe
foul crime against both which the acts and
declarations of the Chicago Convention in
volve. We invoke them not to sanction
these principles and sentiments by eiacting
the candidates put forward to represent
them. We implore them as they love their
country, as they seek the renewed integrity
of it's territory, as they desire the peaceful
protection ofits flag, and the blessings of
its free institutions, and its equal laws fer
themselves and their pos.erity, not to arrest
the blow which is just ready to descend up
on the rebellion now tottering to its fall; not
to give the rebels time to renew their
strength for fresh conflicts, not to aid those
who would aid them in overthrowing our
government, in destroying our Union, in
plunging into q chaos Of anarchy the great
,. communities of which the Constitution
makes one great and glorious Nation, and
in thus cxtinguishing, finally and forever,
the hopes of all who have faith in freedom
and the rights of man.
We call upon the people to bear in mind
that. by whatever sophistries they may
cloak their purposes, the Chicago Convea-
ton neither condemns the action of the
Richmond rebels, nor proposes to expel
them against their will, or by any exercise
of force, from tho seats Of power they us
urped. In all essential respects the action
that Convention took sccords with the re-
suits the rebels seek. Both desire cessa-
ton Of hostiities. Both denounce, with
unsparing bitterness, the Governmea, Of
the United States, and both alike seek
its overthrow. Both demand that the at
tempt to conquer armed rebellion by force
of arms shall be abandoned. Both demand
that, when the Government Of the United.
States shall have passed into the hands Of
men opposed to an armed defense of the
Government against rebellion, the war shall
end by peaceful conference of these allied
powers. What more than this could the
rebels ask or need for the consummation Of
their plans? We call upon the people to
bear in mind that, ifthey elect the candi-
dates of the Chicago Convention they ar
rest the Government in the execution Of its
plans and purposes on the very eve of thor
ful6llment, and one third ofa year before
any new ADMINISTRATION can take its place.
Ths interval will be one of hope and conf
dencs for the rebels, and Of exaltation for