The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1864-09-23
Appeal or the National Union Com
mittee TO the People OF the Unl-
ted States.
HEADo'Rs OF rHE NATIONAL COMMITTEES. !
NEW loRK Sept. y. 1864.

near its crisis It's armies have been
beaten, its territory has been con
quered, the forts and posts which it
trcacherously seized have been occu-
pied and held by the soldiers of the
Republic, its foreign allies have been
detached from it's support, and it's hos
tile arm, paralyzed by exhaustion and
discouraged by defeat, is upheld solely
by the hope of political victories, to be
achieved by its allies in the Presiden-
tial Election of November next.
II the People in that election sus-
tain the Government, if they re-assert
its just authority, and re-nffirm their
purpose to maintain it by war so long
as war assails it, the rebellion will
speedily end. If they falter in this de-
termination, or leave any room for
doubt on this vital point, the rebels
will take fresh courage and prolong
the contest. Every utterance of their
organs and agents af1irms and con
firms this position. Every rebel III
arms and every rebel in office--every
rebel organ in the rebel States or III
foreign lands-every hater of demo
cratic freedom and the rights of man.,
longs and labors for the overthrow of
the administration and the expulsion
of ABRAHAM LINCOLN from the Prcsiden-
tial Chair.
! In the Northern and Western States
this hostility has been embodied and
organized in the acts and declarations
of the Chicago Convention. That
Convention gives silent approval of
the rebellion itself, and an open con-
demnation of the war waged for its
suppression. Without word of CEN
sure for the conspirators who plotted
the nations death. it brands with un-
sparing denunciation the patriots and
heroes who defend its life. While it
passes in utter silence the usurpations
of Jefferson Davis and his confederate
traitors, while it overlooks entirely,
and thus, by just and necessary infer
ence, approves their abrogation of po-
litical rights and personal liberties over
all that portion of the 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 is placed in his
hands.
That convention had no words of
exultation for our victories -no thanks
and honors for the b. ave soldiers and
sailors who have shed their blood to
achieve them. While it denounces
our Government for neglect of duty
toward our 'fellow-c citizens, who are
now, and long have been, prisoners of
war in suffering condition, 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 rs well MS
of every usage of civilised warfare,
have deliberately and with systematic
purpose inflicted upon those prisoners
all the fortunes 4Of exposure, of neg
lect and starvation, and have offered
premiums for their murder to the bru-
tai guards to whose grim custody they
have been consigned. And, on the
very eve of the most glorious victories
that have ever crowned our arms af-
ter three years of bloody, costly and
successful war. when three fourths OF
the territory originally held by the reb-
els had passed into our hands at the
very moment when the rebellion itself
is tottering to fall and the flag of our
country is rapidly advancing to aid its
old supremacy the party represented
at Chicago demands that "immediatt
efforts be made for a cessation of hostai-
ties'-a step which would instantly ar
! rest our conquering armies, and snatch
from them the glories of final tri-
umph repeal the blockade, and throw
the whole rebel frontier open to the
supplies they SO sorely need secure
the recognition of foreign powers, and
, either accomplish their independence
or give them the ability to fight for il
four years longer.
We appeal to the people of the Uni
ted States-lovers of the Union and
, friends of freedom, against the consum.
) nation of the foul crime both which
the acts and declarations of the Chi.
eago Convention involve We invoke
them not to sanction these principles
and sentiments by electing the candi-
dates put forward to represent them
We implore them as they love then
country, as they seek the renewed in
tegrity of its territory, as they desire
the peaceful protection of its flag. and
the blessings of it's free institutions and
r its equal laws for themselves and then
[ posterlty, not to arrest the blow which
9 is just ready to descend upon the re-
bellion now lettering to its fall moi
to give the rebels time to renew then
strength for fresh conflicts not to aid
, those who would aid them in over.
throwing our Government, in destroy.
/, ing our Union, in plunging into a cha,
os of anarchy the great communitie,
, of which the Constitution makes on,
, great and glorious nation, and in thus
| extinguishing, finally and forever, til,
hopes of all who have faith in freedom
and the rights of man.
We call upon the people to bear il
mind that, by whatever sophistries they
may cloak their purposes, the Chicago
| Convention neither condemns the &C,