Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1864-01-02
Gen. Dix ON Reconstruction


the Annual New England Dinner in New Y ork,
on the oath ut., is worthy Of extensive peru
sal. 1t is manly earnest, patriotic and sound:
GENTLEMEN-The time is not far distant
when the elements of society in the United
States, thus rudely and wickedly disturbed,
must be re adjusted and the old order of
things reestabIished, possibly with modi6-
cations growing as necessities out of the
shock they have sustained With whom
shall the conditions of the re union be ne
gotiated and arranged? Certainly not with
the men who caused the war and with it
the sacrifice Of half million OF lives. Ma
tional honor, retributive Justice, respect for
the principle of stability in established sys-
tens, proper regard for the generations
which are 10 come after us, and whose po-
litical organizations will derive strength or
weakness from the issue of the mighty con-.
hict we are engaged 10, oil these considera.
tions demand that the architects Of disorder
who have violated the public peace aud
broken The social contract they have sworn
to observe shall have no part in our future
Government With them we can never
even negotiate for peace.
When they shall have been expelled from
the county they have devastated and dis,
honored; when their military power shall
have Teen broken and their forces dispers-
ed, and the deludtd masses of the South
shall have been liberated from the tyranny
under which they have been crushed, it
will bo time 10 make terms-not with the
guilty learders, but with those whom they
have defrauded, plundered and oppressed
In contest reaching far beyond ourselves,
involving the destiDies of our children,
and the fate Of the country itself-a con.
test which is to settle for ell future time the
momeutvc:.. problem whether governments
founded upon popular Representation have
the strength necessary to sustain themselves
| against internal discord and vlOlence--it is
amazing that there are any among US who
connot rise above the level of their person
al and party interests and act only in ref
erence to lbe great peril with which We are
grappling, and which still threatens with
struction all that is most sacred 10 gov
ernmen,. in society aud 10 domestic life.
| In such contest, no man who thinks
rightly, can doubt wherein bis duty con-
sisls. 1t may he stated in o single breath.
Stand by the Union. Stand by the CIV
ernmeDi; it 10 the repres enlative of the
Union. Stand by the Administration 10
its war measures; il is the exponent of the
Government; nay, it is, for the time being,
tie Government itself. 1t may not have
suited US all in every respect. We may
think that in some things it has done wrong
in others that it might have done better.
But the destinies OF the country are 10 its
hands. aud it is not only the duty, but the
interest, of those who desire speedy and
successful termination Of the war, to sus
tain il. strengthen it cooperate with it cor.
daily aud thoroughly, until its authority is
| f.niy established. Let Us bear perpetuslly
4 in mind that 10 Government constituted
like ours with numerous parts aggregated
/ into one consistent whole, disruption is
death not merely TO one or few; but death
10 each and to all. No sacrifice uf treasure
or life is too great to avst such dissolu-
tion Of our political system. Better that
these walls within which We are assembled
should erumble into dust; better that this
island, with all lis treasures of Industry
and art, with its uDeyampled social aud
commercial activity, TO which million of
voices every day Of lis great l,!s bears tes-
timony--better: l say, that it shoald be
given up, with oil these trophies of civil
izaIion. 10 its primeyaI silence aud solitude.
than that The Institutions. which have made
it what it is, should be torH down by trail
torous hands But | have no such gloomy
forebodings of evil. II the darkness is not
yet all gone, and the ligh. fully come, if
The period Gf transition is not yet ended
yet every day brings with il fresh evidence
OF the hopelessness of the rebel cause aud
The speedy exhaustion of its strength in
resources and in men. Every day furnish
es stronger assurance that The process of
! fermentation through which We are passing
will throw of what is impure. and give in
tho end pew strength to The UuioD, new
prosperity, glory and grandeur TO the
Republic. Add 10 return 10 the topic
With which ! began--when our day Of
tria! shall have gone BY The old flag shall
aoat again uuqaeslioned on the laod and
on the sea, the emblem not merely Of tbe
past, but Of the latest and nobIest OF oil
victories, the triumph Of a great nation
over the elements Of weakness and danger
cont sfned within itself