The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1864-1911, 1864-11-02

FROM A PROMINENT SOUTH
|, CAROLINA CONGRESSMAN TO
SEFFERSON DAVIS.
We find in the Richmond Wig, Of Octo-
Der 18th, the following remarkable letter
from Hon. w. II. Boyce:
WINDsBORO. 5. G., Sept. 90, 1864
HIS ETceiLcncy Jefferson DdriS:
SIR: The Democratic party Of the United
States, in their recent Convention at Chlca-
60, resolved that if they attained power they
would agree to an armistice and Conven-
tion OF all the States, to consider the sub
ject Of peace / think that action demands
a favorable response from our Government.
You are the only person who can make that
response, because our Congress does not
meet until after the time appointed for the
Presidential election. If our Congress met
in time, | should propose the action | de-
sire taken to that body, and submit to Its
Judgment my argument, but as that oppor-
tunity does not occur, ! have no alternative
but to remain silent or address myself to
you.
We are waging war to obtain a satisfac-
tory peace BY satisfactory peace | mean
peace consistent with the preservation of
our free institutions. BY satisfactory
peace, do not mean that cessation of hos
tilities which might after a protIacted con-
test result from the exhaustion of the be-
ligerents, whereby the sword would fall fiom
their nerveless hands, their hearts prey to
| the tulies. Such peace as that would be
! but hollow truce, in which each party
would be incessantly preparing for new,
final and decisive struggle. The peace which
mean Is peace which reeonciles the in
/ terests and the feelings of the belEgerents;
peace, in short, which restores harmony.
Unless we can obtain such a peace as this,
our Republican institutions totter to their
fall, and we become the subjects of a mill
tary despotism. Every Government must
exist; that is the law OF its being. If it is
attacked by great toice, 1t must bring pro
portionately great force to its defense. if
| its form is such as not to furnish military
strength to the full extent Of its means, it
must disregard that form. The Republican
form, especially the form Of a contederacy
Of flee States, is not the hest adapted Tor
war. In fact it is peace establishment.
! The form best adapted to war, is national
military despotism. The Republic at war
is gradually passing into military despotism.
As the war continues and the pressure OF
| its enemy increases, this transition is accel-
Grated. A Republic forced to the wall by a
| powerful enemy must end in desp0tlsm.
| If we tuln our eyes to Europe We find
only two nations with flee Institutions,
Great Britain and Switzerland Why is
this? The reason is obvious. ! he necessity
OF being constantly in the highest state OF
preparation for war, compels every country
! to the utmost development Of its military
! dinaIy condition. If there we've no other
Ir1,a a hn nm
mense standing amy she Is compelled to
keep constantly under arms would be con
elusive. France is compelled to keep six
hundled thousand men a.ways in aims
| France is obliged, Therefore, to be what she
, iI,,, military despotism. Take the case OF
Prussia in the celcblated seven years war.
! Suppose her institutions had tcen liberal,
what would have been the result? Frederick
the Gr cat would either nave had to abandon
the struggle, OF seize all lower. Nothing
but abSoiute power in the hands of Fredel-
lex enabled him to come forth victorious
| from the contest. He sacliticed everything
else in Prussia to the one idea Of military
strength. As Prussia had no natural deien
ces and was greatly inferior in strength to
| the other great powers, it was necessary to
| give exclusive development to the military
dea this Frederick did. AS Macauley said,
, he made Prussia all sting THIS was log
ical in Frederick. 10 save Prussia it was
necessary to give her the mailman military
strength--he did this liussia still has a
! place on the map, but he made no effort to
save liberty. Frederick found Prussia an
! al soiute monarchy, he left it an entlenchcd
camp. Liberty was never thought OF. 1t
| is impossible III her condition. Fplussia,
! with her excellent population were at vast
| distance from where she is, and protected
! hy oceans aud mountains, she might be a
republic; but where she is, it is impossible.
On the continent Of Europe no State cal
exist with free institutions, because the
! tOlm of government must tie such as 1ul-
ni.hes the greatest amount OF military
| strength. Perhaps it may te Said that
Switzerland contradicts MY The oIy. ! reply
that Switzerland is an exceptional case--a
I few nests Of poor people buried in remote
valleys surrounded by inaccessible noun
tairs they ae not woth conqueling. Be
! sides the mutual Jealousy OF the ptat pow
ers is their real saftguard. England is the
only great and free power in Eulope. This
/ is OWING to her lnsu.ar position. lhe ocean
is the divine charter Of her rtedom ii
nothing but surveyors $ line separated
England from France, England would lie
military dcsrotism as France is. No coun-
try can be free which has her hand on hci
| sword.
But why resort to general reasoning and
| the condition OF Eurol oleaf nations to prove
| what | have asserted, when the ploof stares
us in the face in the example OF our own
country. We sec it in every sight; We ieellt
| in every emotion; We hear it IN every sound.
| When our present Government was estab-
ished everything possible was done in the
interest of States Rights every conceivable
guarantee was taken for individual freedom
as little as possible was conceded to the
! Federal Government was ''cabined, crbbed,
confined " 'hedged in by saucy doubts and
fears" The school Of extreme State Rights
were at work flaming a constitution for
Federal Government, with the accumulated
suspicious of seventy years, They did their
work well. The problem to be solved was
the framing Of Federal Government with
| the minimum of power to function |
| thought at the time it was useless labor be:
cause | conceived, in the humility Of my
Judgment that the constitution Of q cOun-
try was that which its necessities pointed
out, and that you could not in advance say
what would be the necessities OF Contcdcr-
acy exposed to perpetual war with neigh
boring power OF superior force. But the fra
mers OF our Constitution were not deferred
by any such considerations as these from
their.work. They established their Confed-
eacy, guarded and limited in the interest of
the rights of the separate State as much as
possible. ........
Well, we have been at war not quite four
years, and what is the result? Is not our
Federal Government in the exercise of every
possible power of national central military
despotisln? Suppose there were no States,
only provinces, and unlimited power was con.
ferred upon you and Congress; what greater
powers would you exercise than you do now?
Have we not carried conscription to its last
limits? Is not every man in the country be-
tween II and SO subject to military author