Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1864-07-21

I IL J. bDt -ptelhF stopped. TO reverse all tins
to destroy permanently all State SOVEREIGN
~ and local iuri,diction, and make the Fed
I cral Government rs omnipotcut and su
! prcmc as that Of Austria or Russia. whicl
even nov are rs only patterns. It may b
/ a splendid and powerful de,poti.m, bu
splcndor and power for the few are but
/ poor consolation for the impoyori.hmen
and drgrcdatiOn Of the many. and for th,
/ loss Of all their liberties. all that ennoble
/ life and dirnfes manhood.
/ The States when they created the feder
| al system, as ! have already shown. ex
/ prcssly refused to confer upon it the power
[ 10 cocrcc sovereign State or party to the
compact
No one then dreamed or supposed that
after this explicit refusal TO place this pow
cr in the hands Of the federal agent. that
the latter would ever have the tcrnerity and
audacity TO seek 70 oxercie it without such
a delegation OF authority.
| If it had been 50 believed not one single
State would have ratified the Constitution
and joined the union.
} This no one will deny who is conversant
with the debates in the federal and State
conventions that ratified the Constitution
Force and coercion Of State were out OF
place and inappropriate in the form Of Gov
crnmcnt they de,lgned--a form resting en-
tircly upon the mutual consent Of each and
all the parties 10 the compact. No l'niOn
but voluntary one could be republican. and
they would have no other North Carolina
and Rhode Island refused TO come into the
Union, and were treated By it IL separate
and independent nations. If George Wash
ngton had been Abraham Lincoln. land I
ought to ask pardon for thus coupling their
names together. he would have collected
an army and invaded those States. who.
parties to the Union under the Article, Of
Confederation, refused to be member, Of il
under the Constitution that their colleagues
had formed; and he would have sought. by
force and civil war. 70 have made hated
and detcsted | nion-a Union only IN name
but not in fact.
General Washington was a statesman as
well as patriot. and the men Of his day
would have almost unanimously spurned any
attempt to bring into the Confederacy an
unwilling or conquered State. The new
lights of Abraham Lincoln had never burst
upon their vision.
1 Feliow-citizen., OF all the wild vagarie,
that ever afflicted reasonable and mtclli.
gent man. the idea that this voluntary M.
ion Of equal and sovereign States, which
had been sundercd by alienation Of feeling
between them could, be restored by the
power of the sword and the bayonet and by
gigantic civil war is the greatest.
Postcrity will wonder that madness so
eXtravagant and palpablc could ever have
seized hold of an intelligent and civilized
people.
That madness combined with the fanati-
cal and unnatural idea Of placing the negro
upon the level with the white has dclucet
/ this land i'll blood, has impoverished us viii
/ debt and taxation. and destroyed the con
,titutonal liberty bequeathed TO us by ou
i ancestors
Calamities Of which we previously had Il
conception have been visited upon these VI
happy States which have already expiate
: in sorrow and misery, the consequences
the mad aud fanatical policy Of their unfol
tunate and insane rulers.
The question for us now. my fellow cit
zens, to consider, is: Whether we are Wi
ling this state of things shall continue
whether this new Government set up by Mr.
Lincoln in place of our old free Governmcn
| shall remain, or whether we can overthrow
: it in its tuln at the elections and re-establisl
| in the remaining States III it, place the Gov
ment of our fathers.
confess to you that this, to my mind, i,
question Of great doubt; yet | believe
that if the proper effort is now made that
| if the great conservative element which eX,
lists among the masses Of the people, and i
on the increase daily, is now given an OPP
| portunity to unite upon il clear. positive
and unmistakablc platform for peace; i'm
mediate peace, upon the best and most hon,
orabe terms it can be obtained, but peace
! the man who now rules by the power of hi,
own will, and the multiplied thousands who
swarm around him, in and out of Office, anC
who have grown rich upon the spoils, a
the hearts blood Of their couutrymen ha
been and still is being poured out like water
can be hurled from power i'll the legally con
sttuted mode, through the ballot-bo
| believe the people, the great mass o
the people, who neither hold Office nor ar
in any way benefited by government con
tracts, OF government patronage, are to
peace; they have waited patiently for th
end of this bloody contest, they have con
fded in the promises so frequently mad
that the end of the war was near, they hay
seen their sons. their brothers, their friends
their neighbors, and their countrymen q
forth, either voluntarily or inyoluntarily, a
each call has been made for more troops
and driven like bullocks to the pen to b,
slaughtered. They have borne up under
| the pressure of taxation and were willing
to make one more effort, at the opening O.
| the campaign; of the fourth year Of tho
war, assured as they were, a. at the com
mencement Of each previous campaign; thai
| it only required one more effort to put dowI
the rebellion, end the war and restore the
| Union.
But alas. they have again been doome,
to disappointment; they were soon advised
of disaster to Banks and Steele in TIL
Southwest. Instead of Sherman marchin
straight into Atlanta in the South, there
a protracted struggle, obstinate resistance
great loss and doubtful result. Richmon
is yet in possession Of the Confederates, a
ter two months desperate fighting, master
ly flank movements, and the loss of over a
hundred thousand men, and while we al
assembled here o-day Washington is agai
in danger, and the President calling upol
New York and Pennsylvania for the militi
of those States to save the Capital, A
this the people have been doomed to witnes
in less than three months and before tn
campaign is scarcely over Not only this
but the people now wait in hourly eXpect1
ton to hear of new call for thee hundrc
thousand men to be drafted, andtrom whic
there is no escape by the payment of a com
mutation
The question now presents itself squarel
to the people VIII you allow yourselve
to be all butchered, and thcentire nation t
become "A common wreck, to perpetuate tn
power and crafty the insane and futile at
tempt of the. man who now occupies tn
place once filed by Washington, TO Subiu
; gate eight million of people, whose otfense