Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1864-09-23
TBE eHIcAeo CONVENTION.
Appeal OF tbs National Union Committee to th
People of the United States.
HEADQ'Rs NATIONAL UNION COMMITTEE,

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 treach-
erousIy seized have been occupied and held by
the soldiers of the Republic, its foreign allies
have been detached from its support, and its
hostile arm, parilized by exhaustion and dis
conraged by defeat, is upheld solely by the
hope of poiaicsl victories to be achieved by
its allies in the Presidential election of No
vember next.
If the people in that election sustain the
Government, if they reassert its just authority
and reafirm their purpose to maintain it by
war so long as war assails it, the rebellion will
speedily end. If they falter in this determin-
alton, OF leave auy room for doubt on this vi
tai point, the rebels will take fresh courage
and proong the contest. Every utterance of
their organs and their agents afirms and con-
firms this position. Every rebel in arms and
every rebel in ofice--every rebel organ in the
rebel States or in foreign lands-every hater
Of democratic freedom and the rights of man,
longs and labours for the overthrow of the ad-
ministratieu and the expulsion Of Abraham
Lincoln from the Presidential chair.
In the \ orthern and Western States this
hostility has been embodied and organized in
the acts and declarations of the Chicago Con
vention. That Convention gives a silent ap-
proval Of the rebellion ITSELF and an open con-
demnation Of the war waged for its suppress
sion. Without a word of censure for the con
spirators who plotted the nations death, it
brands with unsparing denuucation the patri-
OTIS and heroes who defend its life. While it
1 -
of Jefferson Davis and his confederate traitors
while it overlooks entirely, and thus, by just
| and necessary inference, approves their abro-
cation of political rights and personal liberties
over all that portion Of tie United States in
! which they have been able thus far to sustain
| their usurped authority, it pours out its wrath
| without stint or measure, upon every act by
which the Constitutional President of the
| United States has sought to defend and pro-
| tect the life and liberties Of the nation, whose
| executive power was placed in his bands.
| That Convention had no words of exulta-
for our victories; no thanks and honors for
the soldiers and sailors who have shed their
blood TO achieve them. While it denouuces
our Government for neglect OF duty toward
our fellow citizens, who are now and long
!
dition," it has not even a syllable Of censure
| for those rebel authorities who With more
than savage cruelty, and in utter disregard of
every dictate of humanity, well as every
usage Of civilized warfare, have deliberately
and with 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
20 whose grim custody they have been assign
ed. And, on the very eve of the most glori-
Gus victories that have ever crowned our arms
after three years OF bloody, costly and sue
eessfuI war, when three-fourths of the terrific
ry originally held by the rebels has passed into
our hands at the very moment when the re-
bellion itself is tottering to its fall, and the
flag Of our country is rapidly advancing to its
| old supremacy, the party represented at Chi
eago demands that immediate efforts be made
for a cessation Of hostllties"-a step which
would instantly arrest our conquering armies
and snatch from them the glories of final
triumph, repeal the blockade, and throw the
whole rebel frontier open to the supplies they
50 sorely need, secure the recognition of for
eign powers, and either accomplish their inde-
pendence or give them the ability TO fight for
il four years longer.
We appeal TO The people O; the United
| States-lovers of Union and friends Of Free
dom-against the cousummatiou Of the foul
crimes against both which the act and declar-
ations Of the Chicago Convention involve
| w e invoke them not to sanction those prin-
clples and sentiments by eecting the can
dIdates put forward to represent them. We
lmplora them, as they love their country, as
they seek the renewed Integrity of It's terrific
| ry, as they desire the peaceful protection of It's
| flag, and the blessings of its free institutions
and its equal laws for themselves and their
| posterity, not to arrest the blow which is Just
ready to descend upon the rebellion now tot
tering 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 over
throwing our Government, iu destroying our
Union, in plungiDg into chaos of anarchy
the great communities OF which the Consti-
tuition makes one great and glorious Nation,
and thus extinguisbing, finally and forever,
| the hopes Of al1 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 Convention Meth
er condemns the action of the Richmond Reb-
els, nor proposes to expel them against their
will, or by any exercise of force, from the
peats of power they have usurped. In all es-
| sential respects the action that Convention
took with the results the Rebels seek. Both
desire a cessation OF hostilities. Both de-
nounce, with unsurpassing bitterness, the Gov
ernment Of the United States, and both alike
seek its overthrow. Both demand that the
attempt to conquer armed Rebellion by force
Of arms shall be abandoned. And both de-
mand that, when the Government Of the Uni
/ ted States shall nave passed into the hands OF
men opposed to an armed defense of the Gov
ernment against rebellion, the war shall end
! by peaceful conference of those allied powers
What more than this could the Rebels ask or
need for the eonsumatCn Of oil their plans =
We call upon the people to bear in mind that,
if they elect the candidates OF the Chicago
| Convention, they arrest the Government in
the execution of its plans aud purposes on the
very eve of their fuliIlment, aud one third of
year before any new administration can take
its place. The interval will be one OF hope
and confidence for the rebels, and of exulta-
tion for their allies in the loyal States. In
the Western States armed preparations have
already been made by the disciples and advo-
Gates for secession, to follow the example of
the South, and sever the West from the Fed
eral Union The success of the Chicago pro-