Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1864-11-03

opinions. No other order has ever gone
further than to say Chat men who have been
in arms against the United States, or who
have given aid, comfort, or encouragement to
the enemies shall be allowed to vote. Of
Disunionists, we have twenty thousand in
Maryland; of men who have given aid and
comfort, we have only perhaps two or three,
or four thousand General Schenck's order
stopped at the latter. General McClellan's
order covered them all, [applause;l and at that
election Senator johnson was himself a can
didate for the Legislature and was elected,
and never complained of the order. BY that
Legislature he was chosen to the seat in the
Senate Of tho United States that he now holds
and never complained of that order. And yet
he is the gentleman who makes that imputa-
ton against President Lincoln in behalf of the
originator of the invasion of the freedom of
the elective franchise in Maryland. Great
applause Military at elections! Were l an
advocate of Mcclellan. | would seek some
other topic Of putatione were a Democrat,
| would never mention it, for | would know
that the bloody ghosts of the the thirty men
and woman who were shot down while peace
fully walking in the streets OF Washington,
in 1857, by the orders of James Buchanan,
would rise and point their CHASTITY fingers at
me. Still less as a Maryland Democrat, if [
were one, would ever refer to it, whc.a re-
membered that Governor Lyon, finding it
impossible to control otherwise the indomi-
table spirit of the American party of Balti-
more, Summoned cut six thousand soldiers to
control them on the dag Of election, and failed.
And of all the men in the ";ide world to urge
that argument, i!:o last man is the Hon
Reverb Johnson who gave the opinion to
Governor Lyon that it was legal to do so !
If any one has any curiosity in reference to
that sort of literature, here is the opinion
OF what sort of stuff are these men made,
that they venture to fling in our faces their
own vices, or their completely with ours? 1t
is the most overwhelming defence Of Tie con-
duet Of the Administration, of things that
myself think unadvisable and frequently ille-
gal to find that its antagonists are stepped up
to their elbows with the only imputations
they can cast upon it, If they, not respon-
sble for the supreme direction of affairs, yet
entertain the opinion that these things were
allowable when the pressure of the necessity
of the public administration was not on them.
how can they blame with any reason those
who, being responsible for the conduct of af-
fairs have resorted to the very measures that
they have themselves executed and vindi-
Gated ? Applause
WAR on CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES.
But" our opponents say. 1--WE will carry
on the war on Christian principles" Laugh
ter The only principle of war that | re-
member to have read of in Christian dispen-
sation is that, if one smite you on the right
check, you should turn unto him the left also!
| take it that is the Christian principle upon
which the Democrats contemplate carrying on
this war. Laughter and applause. Chris
tian principles y l take it that when they
refer to the conduct of Christian nations in
war, they must be taken to refer to some of
the great nations that have waged war under
great emergencies like these: and if so, | ask
their historians (for they are learned every
now and them whether they remember the
rebellion in India, when Christian England
shot the King of Delhi in cold blood, in his
own palace, unarmed, after the capture of the
city, and blew from the mouths Of their can
mons men who had only rcbelled to get their
natural rights, against foreign nation. APP
plauso. Or, ii they do not like the morals
Of protestant England, do they remember the
day when Catholic France By her Marshals
smoked to death in an Algerian cave ain army
of her rebel enemies? Or, if they do not
like Catholic France, will they take Greek
Russia, and tell me whether they wish to APP
ply the Christian principles that now make
Poland smoke with blood and hvae hung
upon the gibbet the sons of her best families
for claiming their national rights Or if
these are not the - Christian principles" to
which they refer, will they point to some other
war conducted by greater and more Christian
nations upon more humane principles, and
point out to us the way, that we shall follow
hem? Which of these things have we done
Gentlemen, after some small reading on the
fields of history, by way OF amusement, IN
life that is getting to be not very short one,
| desire to puta challenge out to those learned
pundits, and say that they can produce no.
where, in all the range OF history, sacred or
profane, ancient or modern, any war OF four
years duration where one half the men were
,rrayed ON either side that have here been
ranged in battle, any one year of which did
not exceed all the atrocities that the United
States troops have committed in four years of
war-none None whatever. Applause
| have mentioned the recent instances. Who
would think of mentioning the great dcsola-
ton of the Thirty Years War, that left Ger
many waste? Who would mention the
evenly wears war of the Netherlands, where
bc sallows srllowed the advancing Spanish
roops In the ell wars of England, did
and blood follow victory. There
never has been war conducted upon prnci-
Pies that could be called so nearly CHRISTIAN,
that the only Christian principle
IAN apply to the conduct of war is that it shall
De short, and sharp, and merciful. Applause
And the danger of this war has been that the
President could not rise to the height of the
and steel his heart against what
was pity in the individual but cruelty in the
result. Aye, many man sleeps this day in
A soldiers grave because the President would
not execute marital law upon deserters; and
many bloody battle has been lost, and many
a regiment torn to pieces because traitors were
allowed to march free in the day and carry
of the march of our troops, and
OF their numbers, to the enemy Gentlemen
war is war. No other word is its equivalent.
1t needs no definition. 1t is the greatest de-
structon in the shortest time. That is mercy,
and that is wisdom.
A FREE STATE.