Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1864-04-27
RIGHT OF SECESSION.
DEBATE IN THE HOUSE.
April 8tb, 1854.
REMARKS OF MR. GARFIELD.

REMARKS OF ME-. GARFIELD.
Mr.. Chairman, | should be obliged
you would direct the Sergeant-at-Arms I.
bring white flag and plant it in the aisl
between myself and my colleague who ha
Just addressed you.
recolleet on one occasion when tw,
great armies stood face to face, that unde
a white flag just planted [ approached I
company of men dressed in the uniform o
the Rebel Confederacy, and reached ou
my hand to one of the number and tolC
him | respected him as brave man.
Though he wore the emblems of disloyal
ty and treason, still under his vestmentl
| beheld brave and honest soul.
would reproduce that scene here thi.
afternoon. say, soere there such fae
of truce-but God forgive if should do il
under any other circumstsnees!-I would
reach out this right hand and ask that
gentleman to take it; because honor his
bravery and honesty. / believe what has
just fallen from his lips is the honest sen.
timent of his heart, and in uttering it he
has opened a new epoch in the history oi
this war; he has done a new thing under
the sun; he has done q brave thing. II
is braver than to face cannon and mus
kerry, and l honor him for his candoI
and frankness.
But now [ ask you to take away the flag
of truce; and will go back into the I'm
ion lines, and speak of what he has done,
am reminded by it of a distinguished
character in Paradise Lost. When hehad
rebelled against the glory of God and lied
away third part of Heavens Sons, con-
jured against the Highest" when after
terrible battles in which mountains and
hills were hurled by each contending host
with CALCULATIONS dire > when at last the
leader and his hosts were hurled down
''nIne times the space that measures night
and day." and after the terrible fall lay
stretched prone on the burning lake, Sa-
tan lifted up his shattered bulk, crossed
the abyss, looked down into paradise, and,
soliloquizing, said:
(which way fly is hell: myself am hell"
1t seems to me in that utterance he ex-
pressed the very sentiment to which you
have Just listened uttered by one no less
brave, mahgn, and fallen. This man
gathers up the meaning of this great con-
test, the philosophy of the moment, the
prophecies of the hour, and, in sight of
the paradise of victors and peace, utters
them all in this wall of terrible despair,
Which way fly is hell" He ought to
add, Myself am hell"
Mr.. Chairman, am reminded of two
characters in the war of the Revolution
as compared with two others in the war
of to-day.
The first was Lord Fairfax, who dwelt
near the Potomac, few miles from u.s.
When the great contest was opened be-
tween the mother country and the colo
nies, Lord Fairfax, after a protracted
struggle with his own heart, decided that
he must 60 with the mother country
He gathered his mantle about and over
him grandly, solemnly, and impressively,
and joined the fortunes of Crest Britain
against the home of his adoption.
But there was another man who cast in
his lot with the struggling colonies, and
continued with them till the war was well
nigh ended But in a day of darkness,
which just preceded the glory ofthe morn
ing, that other man, deep down in the
damned pits of his black heart, Matched
the treason to surrender forever all that
had been gained to the enemies of his
country. Benedict Arnold was that man.
Fairfax and Arnold find their parallel
in the struggle of to-day.
When this war began many good men
stood hesitating and doubling what they
ought TO do. Their doctrine of State
rights, their sympathies, all they had ev-
rloved and longed for, were in the South,
and after long and painful hesitation
some of them at last went with the ene-
mics of the nation.
AT that time Robert E. Lee sat in his
home across the river here doubling and
delaying, and going off at last almost tear
fully to Join the enemies of his country.
He reminds me in some respects of Lord
Fairfax, the stately royalist of the Revo-
luton.
But now, when hundreds of thousands
of brave souls have gone up to God under
the shadow Of the flag, and when thou
sands more, manned and shattered in the
contest, are sadly awaiting the deliver
ance of death now, when three years of
terrific warfare have ragged over US, when
our armies have pushed the rebellion back
over mountains and rivers, and crowded
it back into narrow limits, until wall of
fire girds it now when the uplifted hand
of majestic people is about TO let fall the
of its conquering power upon
the rebellion; now, in the quiet of this
Hall, Matched in the lowest depths of a
similar dark treason, there rises Bene-
dict Arnold and proposes TO surrender us
all up, body and spirit, the nation and
the flag, its genius and its honor, now and
forever, to the accursed traitors to our
country. And that proposition comes
God forgive and pity my beloved State !
lit comes from a citizen of the honored
and loyal Commonwealth of Ohio.
/ implore, you, brethren in this House,
not to believe that many such births ever
gave paugs to my mother State such as
she suffered when that traitor was born.
Suppressed applause and sensation. +
[ beg you not to believe that on the soil
of that State another such growth has ey-
er deformed the face of nature and dark
ened the light of Gods day. An audible
whisper, "Vallandighani. Butah, lam
reminded that there. are other such. Ny
zeal and love for Ohio have carried me
far. retract. remember that only
few days since a political convention met
at the capital of my State, and almost de-
cided to select from just such material a
representative for the Democratic party
in the coming contest; and to-day, what
claim TO be majority of Democracy of,
that State say they have been cheated or
they would have made that choice. |
therefore sadly take back the boast first
uttered in behalf of my native State.
But, sir, will forget States. We have
something greater than States and State
pride to talk of here to-day. All person
81 or State feeling aside, ask you what is
the proposition the enemy of his country
has just made What is itf 3 "a
For the first time in the history of this