Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-06-16

| - uOUt-
\ over, you will allow me to say. though per-
haps il is hardly strictly proper that |
| should, but as far as know your opinions,
| l suppose it is just as certain now as before
you utter it, whose name you will utter, and
which will be responded to from one end to
| the other Of this nation, as il will after it
has been uttered and recorded by your Sec
retary. Does any man doubt that this Con-
vention intends to say that Abraham Lin
coln shall be the nominee? lGreat applause.
! What wish, however, to call your atten-
ton to is the grandeur OF the mission upon
which you are met, and therefore the dig.
nifty aud solemniiy, earnestness and con.
/ scientiousDess with which, representing one
Of the greatest, and certainly one of the
! first people Of the world, you ought to dis
charge these duties. Applause. Now,
beside the nomination of President and
! Vice President, in regard to which latter
Office l will say nothing. because | know
there is more or less difference of opinion
among you-but beside these nominations,
you have other most important duties to
! perform. You have to organize this party
/ throughout the United States. You have
to put it in whatever form your wisdom will
suggest, that will unite all your wisdom, en-.
ergy, and determination to gain the victory,
which have already said was in our power
More than that you have to lay down with
clearness and precision the principles on
which you intend to carry on this great po-
! litca contest, and prosecute the war which
Is underneath them, and the glory OF the
country which lies before us if we succeed,
plainly not in double sense, briefly not in
treatise. with the dignity and precision Of
great people-to utter by its representa-
] hn 49, Al
intend to live, and for the sake OF which
they are willing 10 die, so that all men every
where may understand precisely what we
mean, and lay that furrow 50 deeply and
clearly that while every man who is worthy
to associate with treenen may see it and
pass over II, every man who is unworthy
may be either unable to pass it, or may be
driven far from it, We want none but those
who are like to Us to be with us. Applause
Now among these principles, ii you will al
low mo to say it, the first and most distinct
is that we do not intend to allow this nation
to be destroyed. Applause. We are a
nation, no doubt 4 peculiar one, nation
formed of States, and no nation except as
these States form it and these States are
no States except as they are States in that
nation. They had no more right to repudi-
ate the nation than the nation has to repu-
diate them. None Of them had even the
shadow Of right to do this, and, God help
| ing us, we will vindicate that truth, so that
it shall never be disputed any more in this
world. Applause. 1t is Il fearful utter
anco that is set before US, but there are
great compensations for it. Those Of you
| who have alluded to this subject know that
from the foundation Of the present Govern
ment before and since our present Constitu-
| ton was torraed, there have always been
parties that had no faith in our Government.
The men that ormed it were doubtful of its
success, and the men who opposed its for
nation did not desire it's success. And am
bold to say, without OBTAINING you On this
subject, that for all the outcry about our
violation of the Constitution, this present
| living generation and this present Union
party are more thoroughly devoted to that
ever lived under it. Applause. While
/ lieye it is capable of the strongest proof, l
may also add that it is greater error which
| is being propagated in our land, to say that
our national life depends merely upon the
sustaining Of that Constitution. Our fathers
made it, aud we love it. intend to main
tain it, But if it suits us to change it, We
can do SO applause aud when it suits US
to change it, we will change it. Applause.
If it were torn into ten thousand pieces the
nation would be as much a nation as it was
before the Constitution was made-a nation
always--that declared its independence as
united people, and lived as a united people
until nova nation independent of all par
ticular institutions under which they lived,
capable of modelling them precisely as their
interests require. We ought to have it dis
tinctly understood by friends and enemies
that while we love that instrument we will
maintain it, and will with undoubted GER
tainty put to death friend or foe who under
takes to trample it under foot; yet beyond
doubt we will reserve the right to alter it
to suit ourselves from time to time and from
generation to generation. Applause. One
more idea on that subject: We have incor-
porated in that instrument the right of rev.
olution, which gives US, without doubt,
the right to change it. 1t never existed be-
fore in the American States, and there is
no need Of rebellion, insurrection, or civil
war; except upon a denial of the funda-
mental principles Of all free governments
that the major part must rule, and there is
no other way OF carrying on society except
that the will of the majority shall be the
will Of the whole, or that the will of the
minority SnaH D9 tne VIII VI tuc Wiolo Do
that, in one word, to deny the principles |
have tried to state is to make a degmatic
assertion that the only form of government
that is possible with perfect liberty, and ac-
knowledged by God, is pure and absolute
despotism. The principles, therefore, which
am trying to state before you, are princi-
pies which, il they be not true. freedom is
impossible, and no government but one OF
pure force can exist or ought TO endure
among men.
But the idea which I wished to carry out
as the remedy for these Troubles. and sor-
rows, dreadful as they are, in this: This
fearful truth runs through the whole his
tory of mankind, that whatever else may he
done to give stability to authority, what
{ ever else may be done to give perpetuity to
,, institutions, however wise, however glorious
practical, and just may be the philosophy
! of ii, it has been found that the only en-
! during, only imperishable cement Of all fre'
institutions has been the blood of traitors
No Government has ever been built upor
, unperishable foundations. which founda
: tions were not laid in the blood Of traitors