Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-03-17


and ygression are the guilty cause of
the p. ssea. war; is emphatically refuted
by men who ought to be most intimately
familiar with its origin. Not only this,
but so far as any portion Of the North
can be charged with the responsibility,
1t is fixed upon he same men who since
the outbreak of the rebellion have devo-
ted their energies to helping it on, by
embarrassing the efforts of the govern
ment to prosecute it to the overthrow of
the traitors.
In the House of Representatives few
days ago, Mr.. Rollins of New Hampshire
read the well-known letter of Franklin
Pierce to Jefferson Davis, written Janu-
AIRY 6, 1860, wherein Pierce encourages
and comforts treason and incipient re-
bellion, by assuring the arch traitor Da-
Wis, that without discussing the ques-
ton of right, Of abstract power to Sc
cede, he (Pierce) has never believed that
absolute disruption of the Union can oc-
cur without blood; and if through the
madness of northern abolitionism, that
dire calamity must come, the fighting
will not be along Mason and Dixons
line merely it will be within our own
northern borders, in our own streets, be-
tween the two classes of citizens to
whom he has referred, and that those
who defy law and scout constitutional
obligations will, if we ever reach the
arbitrament of arms, find occupation
enough at home"
And Mr.. Rollins asked the question:
Now wish to ask the gentleman from
Kentucky, if in his judgment that class
of politicians in the North represented
by such men as Vallandigham of Ohio,
Seymour of New York, and ex-President
Pierce Of New Hampshire, entertaining
and proclaiming such sentiments as
those l have just read, have not done in
finitely more to stimulate and encour-
age the rebels to take up arms against
the government of the United States and
prolong the war than all the speeches
and efforts of all the abolitionists com
bined?
"Sunset" Cox had serious objections to
this plain question. 1t would affect the
New Hampshire election. Besides "the
gentleman distorts the intention of that
letter" Unless allowed to reply, he obs
jected to the interruption.
Mr.. Green Clay Smith of Kentucky,
appealed to by Mr.. Rollins, made this
rather emphatic answer:
Mr.. Speaker, in answer to the gentle
man from New Hampshire (Mr Rollins),
l say emphatically, yes. and in reply to
the objection of the gentleman from
Ohio, Mr.. Cox) say let the letter of
ex-President Pierce speak for ITSELF
This is not a aoar bettoeen abolitioni lists and
pyoslaee,y men, but aear Jetaoeu loyal men
and baitors-a war resulting from deep
laid conspiracy many years ago ON the
part of bad, ambitious and despotic
men of the South. And when they be-
gan it they hoped doubtless, from pledges
made, that they would have aid in the
North. They confidently expected mil
lion Ofmen from the Free States to Join
in their unholy crusade against the gov
eminent, and it is too true they had their
aiders, abettors and comforters in the
North; and to-day every word spoken,
every sentiment uttered every sympa-
thy expressed in the North in favor of
the rebels, but binders the government
and strengthens the rebellion; and he
who does thus speak or feel finds no
friends among the loyal men of Ken
lucky, for we hate the rebels South and
despise the rebels North; and / declare
from my place here, for myself and for
them, that whether the leaders and con-
spirators of this great crime be South
erners or Northeners, in the South or in
the North, they deserve death, and
should be hung summary, as terror
to those who shall live after us.
The Charleston Courier some years
ago made an admission, which is the
more valuable because made before the
outbreak of the rebellion, and is appro-
pos here. In commenting upon a speech
much noticed at the South, made by
Theodore Parker at an anti-Nebraska
meeting held Feb. Is, 1854, tracing the
consecutive steps of the slave power, the
Courier said:
"There are frequent passages in this
strange exhibition of the mad parson
which, in the main, truthfully as well as
strongly detail and depict the various
occasions on which Southern interests
have obtained the mastery in Congress,
or at least, important advantages, which
are well worthy the consideration of all
who enormously suppose that the action
OF the general government has been on
the whole adverse to slavery"
Again, as to the pernicious influence
OF northern copperhead demonstrations
in prolonging the war, a Southerner
writes to the Baltimore American, over
his own signature, as follows:
II have been resident of the State of
for more than twenty-three
years, was there at the breaking out of
the rebellion, and till long after the fall
Of Vicksburg, and / know something
about the pernicious influence of the
speeches OF the pretended peace party of
the North on the rebels of the South
They hare done more By their elan,or for peace
to prolong this Moody struggle than am OTHER
Binqle cause touching the spar. And NV their