Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-01-21
Gov. Seymour on National Affairs,
From the New York Times. !

|
sympathies are still with the rebellion. He
discusses national affairs at length and with
earhesthess; but all his zeal, all his rhetoric.
al MS al uneHs, are aimed at the Govern
Ineht OF the United States His whole souI
Is enlsteo In the effort to degrade that Gov
eminent in the estimation of the I'D ~
represent 1t as unpatriotic, ignorant racIless
selfish and tyrannical; to alarm the 5000,
| by exaggerated pictures of the ruin i i
bringing upon it; to array public passion
against its action-and thus to cripple and
paralyze its endeavors to suppress the rebel.
lion, and conquer just and permanent peace.
In this as in his previous message Gov. Sew
mour has nothing whatever to say in con-
domination of the rebellion, nor does he take
into account in a single instance those acts of
the rebel authorities which have compelled
our Government to persevere in the exertion
of force for the restoration of peace. He
charges the Government with prolonging the
war for selfish, partisan and vindictiye pur-
poses-and with refusing to avail itself of an
| alleged readiness, on the part of the rebels,
TO lay down their arms and resume their al
| legiance to the Constitution. 1t would be
| difficult to believe Gov. Seymour serious in
| these allegations, if his whole official career
| had not proved his readiness to act upon them.
Gov. Seymour arraigns the authorities for
the most high-handed acts of usurpation of
which any Government can be guilty. He
enumerates the measures it has adopted un-
der the pressure of the terrible emergency
which the rebellion forced upon it. He con-
cedes that they have been sustained by the
army, and acquiesced in by the people"
"This revolution" he adds, of permanently
accepted must be recognized as an overthrow
of the established and cherished principles
of government" WHY does Gov. Seymour
studiously and steadily ignore what he knows
to be the fact, that all these measures have
been adopted avowedly and only as excep-
tonal measures, justified solely by an over
whelming emergency for which nevertheless
the Constitution made distinct provision?
Does he believe-or does he hope to make
anybody else believe-that our Government
has ever dreamed for single instant of max
| ing these measures permanent, of per-
manently suspending the privilege of ba6eas
co1paSs or introducing into the regular and
ordinary administration of affairs the system
| OF arbitrary arrests, of imposing test oaths or
any of the other extraordinary acts to which
the necessities of the nation have compelled
| it for the moment to resort? Unless his
judgment has been strangely warped by the
pressure upon him of responsibilities to
which he is sadly unequal, it is simply impos-
sible that he should entertain any such ideas.
He knows that all these things have been
| done IN the interest of the nation and for its
salvation from those who sought its destruc-
ton. And if he does not know, every sensi-
| bic person does know, that the moment peace
is restored and the supremacy of the Consti-
| tuition established, the personal rights of
| individuals and the local rights of communi-
ties will again Ii sacredly and rigidly main
| tanned
Gov. Seymour looks to different process
for attaining this result. He says:
elf these measures of military, political
| and financial consolidation break dorm, their
failure will show the wisdom of the constitu-
ton in withholding from the General Govern
! ment powers it cannot exercise wisely and
well and it aoW establish tie rights of States
upon basis firm and updaSpated, and will make
the General Government strong by combining
| 1t to its proper jurisdiction. In the end we
| shall return to the principles from which we
have been drifting
Gov. Seymour seeks to establish the
rights of the States by "6reakinq dorm" the
| measures of the Government 1t is their
failure" which is to restore the country to
the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. This
is an ineligible and, for Gov. Seymour
frank, ayowal of his wish and purpose to
"break down the government in the meas
ures it adopts for suppressing the rebellion.
But suppose he succeeds what is to become
OF the Union If he breaks down the Gov
| eminent, what effect will that have on the
rebel COnfederacy? Either Gov. Seymour is
quite Indifferent to this aspect of the case, or
else he is under some strange hallucination as
to the effect of his cherished project 1t
seems quite evident to common sense that if
| the rebellion is to be crushed at all it must
be done by the General Government, and
that the effort of the Government to crush it
is to be aided by supporting its measures
rather than by breaking them down.
Gov Seymour utters great many true and
sensible sentiments on the general subject of
government, and on the temper and spirit
which should preside over all attempts to re-
construct the Union. We agree with him in
deprecating the predominance of personal or
party passion, and in the absolute necessity
for awise, temperate and magnanimous states
manship for the successful close of this great
contest. But we see neither wisdom nor JUS
tice, -neither principle nor poiey,-in the
application which he would make of these
maxims to the present condition of our public
affairs. We see no warrant for his implied
assumption that the war is over, and that no
further exercise of force, or of moral and
material pressure is necessary for quelling the
rebellion. We do not believe in the wisdom
of bl eaking down the Government Just as it
is beginning to succeed in breaking down the
insurrection. Nor have we the slightest faith
in the sentimentalism by which Gov. Sey-
mour would WOO men who are putting forth
every possible effort to sever the Union and
overthrow the Constitution. The time may
come when this treatment will be appropriate,
but it has not come yet nor will it be fastened
by such action as Gov. Seymour advises