Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-04-27
TUE SHAREHOLDERS REBELLION.
aTTs CAUSE AND PURPOSES"
SPEECH OF SENATOR HOWE,

IN the United states, maze IN the T. D sen
ate April 4th, we take the following:
Mr.. President. we have been struggling
with this rebellion for three years and it is
one of the saddest facts know of in history
that although we have pretty generally come
to concede that in law these rebels are guilty
of treason, yet there is to-day large ooay
of the people, standing almost IN the very
blood the rebellion has shed, VINO aHecl 10
believe that after all, this reoeil1on 10 one VI
the respectable kind OF rebeiilons, pretty
decent thing that If 1t cannot pc Juslineu
there is a great deal of excuse for IT. tell
Won that sentiment is very prevalent through
out these loyal communities and these loyal
States to-day.
hold that no such guilt as is personifed
in this rebellion has been allowed to staik
abroad on the face of Gods earth since he
allowed the earth TO stand, as this same re-
bellion Is Either you who palliate it are
right or | am and if there be no sort OF pal
Hation or excuse for that which you are con-
stantly attempting to pailiate or excuse you
have a heavy responsibility to settle for your
efforts in that direction.
After struggling with it for three years, af-
ter expanding our thousands of millions of
money and our thousands upon thousands of
lives and our rivers of blood in our effort to
crush the rebellion | was shocked, unutter-
ably shocked to hear the other day Senator,
IN the employ of this government u ours
and paid out of its treasury, straining himself
TO complain OF 1t, out of decent regard to
loyalty, and finding no word in the English
language that be dared to use in deruncia-
ton of it stronger than to say it was not
" wiSen
Sir. a representative from one of the loyal
States of the Union paid by your money,
couple of wears since, standing IN the House
of Representatives, representing district of
that State which is represented here by the
WaAn |
discussing the merits of this rebellion, said:
ssYou have utterly, signally, disastrously-I will
not say ignominiousy-failed to su6due ten mil
lion rebels whom you taught the people of the
north and west not obIy to hate but TO desplse--
Rebels, did I-say Yes, your fathers were rebels,
,r vour grand fathers. He who before
canvass looks down sadly upon us, the false, de-
generate, and lmbecile guardians OF the great he
public which he founded, was rebel. And yet we,
Graded ourselves in rebellion, and who have foster
cd aud fraternlzed with every lnsurrectleh IN tue
nineteenth century everywhere throughout the
globe, would now, forsooth, make the word rebel
reproach. - ppendtE 20 Congressional Gto6e,
Thirty SeUeth Congress, third session, pags %.
An American Representative in one of the
Halls of your own Legislature used this Ian
guage in reference to this very rebellion OF
which [ am speaking.
beg leave to read to the Senate an ex-
tract from speech made by Earl Russell at
Blair Gowrie on the goth of September last.
Speaking of the relations of the Crown to
the Confederate States, he uses this remarka-
BILE language:
.sWen, then, it was said that these confederate
states were rebels, rebels against the Union. Per
genrler1e4f am n OF So nice as ought to ba
the subject. But recoIlect that rebeiled
against Charles I. laugh rebelled against
1ames II ana the PEOPLE Of New Enrland nor
content with these two rebelhons, rebelied against
George III. = Hear ~ and laughter am not
saying now whether all these rebellions JUST
liable whether they were wrong am not say
ing whether the present rebellion in the Southern
states Is justihabIe Instruction or is great
fault or is gr"l5 crime, but say that the mer5
tact OF rebellion IS not IN my eyes a crime OF o
deep a dye that must reuouuce all lei owslip
and communion and all relationship with those
who have been guilty OF rebellion Loud cheering.
But, certainly, il L look to the declarations OF
ing lately, If the whole, ct very great part of
the very long speech by Mr. Sumner ON the subject,
50 SCI these men the offspring as it were Of three
rebelions, are the offspring OF t@o rebelIons,
ut Turkey, Louis NV himself, OF the dreadful
crime and guilt OF rebellion
There, by one Of your own Representatives
in Your OWE Legislature, and there out of the
mouth Of a minister of Great Britain, and be-
fore the British people, this rebellion with
which YOU are now struggling Is Hkened to
that in which your foretathers engaged, and
chat in which their foreiathers engaged
against Charles l and James Ii.
rHE SHAREHOLDERS REBELLION CoNTRAsTEo WITH
OTHER REBELLIoNs.
Sir, what was the rebellion in which those
men engaged to depose Charles L? Against
what authority or government did they rebel:
The authority of the king, who claimed to
govern, not by the election Of his subjects,
not bY their choice and selection, but by
divine right and by the accident Of birth, and
who claimed for the measure OF his authority
what. The right 10 appoint himself, as be
did, members of one House of the lawmaking
department of his Government; the right to
r
every administrative and executive officer
Ii the members Of his Parliament disatlected
him. he dismissed them at his pleasure. He
convened them only when he wanted them
He kept them no longer together than they
would survive his purposes. When mem
Der OF the House OF Lords displeased him, he
refused TO summon HIM to his seat. He de
clared war when he chose to make war. The
fact of war he made the pretext for levying
taxes which his Parliament had denied to him;
and when, against all these assertions Of
power one Of his own subjects appealed TO
the courts to redress wrong committed by
the Grown, or by the agents of the Grown,
he dismissed Judges who would not agree to
decide in his favor, and he appointed judges
Who would agree to decide in his favor.
Ii was against such authority in such hands
that that rebellion was waged; and yet they
did not resort to that rebellion until they had
tried every means TO avoid it, by appeals to
Parliament, by appeals to courts, 10y appeals
10 statutes, by appeals TO reason. For twen-
Il years and more, the people OF Great Brit
ain struggled by every possible peaceful
means to prevent the exercise OF these pre-
rsratiyes aad to renress the wrongs that
we're occasioned through their exercise, be-
fore they resorted to force.
Against what did your own forefathers re-
beI-your fathers and mine-whom degen-
crate Representative in Congress hkened 10
the men who have made this rebellIons Let
them speak for themselves. | am not assert
ing any more than did Earl Russell that all
rebellion is guilty. know it is not. know
that revolution has been employed as an IN
strumeut of reform. | know 1T has often been
employed. l know that IN some eases It
necessary % be employed. | regard It my
self a shat sort of volcanic agency, so TO
speak, 10y which the underlayers in the social
qualification are upheaved into the light Of
liberty and equality. But, SIR, everybody
must concede, what All philosophy and all ex-
Derienee teach that revolution, rebellion
var are the most frightfui remedies That
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