Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-01-03
Hon. S. s. Cox will accept our thanks for
valuable Congressional fayors. ~
Whnt must be Accomplished I'm the
..,, Year 1854.

'N-~NN~N~N O~'~t5
~ ------~n--
What must be Accomplished I'm the
...,,.r Year 1864.
In conversing q few days since with an
aged, intelligent and rejecting citizen of
Ohio, who has, through the partiality ofhis
fellow-citizens, occupied many important
posts Of trust and honor we asked him this
question ''What is to be the end of our
present troubles?" His answer was thus
Everything looks dark and gloomy, and /
fear the end of our difficulties will be Mil
itary Despotism." This venerable man has
been a steadfast member of the so-called
Union party ever since the war began, and
now at the close of the year 1863, his Opin-
ion is such as we have stated above. Our
valued friend, for such we esteem him, Is
not alone in this opinion. The miserable
inefflciency, imbecility, corruption and
gross usurpation of those who are in power
in the civil administration of the Govern
ment is beginning to have its effect upon
the thinking and patriotic men who have
ed the Administration in all its acts, not
withstanding the many alarming and gross
violations of the Constitution of which it
has been guilty. They were willing to toll
crate all, under the hope and expectation
that they would be only temporary, and
that the intention of the Government was
pure and patriotic. But gradually such
men begin to discern the evil of tolerating
usurpations which have steadily and rapid
ly increased until there is now scarcely a
vestige of Constitutional liberty left. Be-
tween the usurpations of the legitimate Adj
ministration at Washington, and DAvIs's
ill,gitimate Governments at Richmond, pub
lie liberty and the liberty and rights of the
idividual citizen, are rapidly disappearing
in the United States, and if change does
not take place, and that right speedily, the
worst fears of our venerable friend must
come to pass.
Can nothing be done to avert this terrible
result? Is there no way left open by which
our troubles may be composed, the Consti-
tuition preserved and our Union restored ?
Have the men of this day and generation so
degenerated as to be unable or incompetent
topreserve the precious legacy of FREE Gov
ERNMENT which the Revolutionary fathers
established, and which has been trans
mitted to us, from destruction? This simple
question (what a reflection on the patriot
ism of the age that it is necessary to pro-
pound it) should arouse all lovers of our
country and its hallowed institutions to en-
ergetic and UNITED ACTION, Immediately
and at once, to avert such q dire calamity
and to save, if possible, our liberties and
institutions.
There is not Democrat in the whole land
who is not impressed with the belief that
the continuance of the Federal Administra-
tion in the hands Of the ultra fanatics, be-
yond the present term Of ABRAHAM LIN
colin, will be fatal that within the next
constitutional term of President If things
go on in the same way they are now tend
ing, our Republican Institutions will be
blotted out, and the people become the vic
tins of such form Of government as force
or chance may give them. This opinion is
not confined to Democrats. Hundreds, nay,
thousands upon thousands of conservative
men who never cast Democratic vote in
their lives, are strongly impressed with ap-
prehensions and fears as to the future of our
country, if the mad and fanatical influences
which now control the Administration
are not arrested; and these men stand
ready to unite with the Democracy in
an effort to take the Administration out of
the hands of the radicals and place it under
the control of conservative constitu-
tional man, surrounded by patriotic
and Union-loving influences. And this is
necessarily the first step. Put man at the
head of the Nation as its Chief Executive
officer, who, when he holds up his hand and
swears to support, protect and defend the
Constitution, means to regard his oath, and
a great good has been accomplished, and a
point gained from whence we may all pro-
ceed to labor with confidence. The success
of the conservative element of the country in
the Presidential election ofnext fall is then a
thing that must be accomplished or our lib
critics and Republican form of government
are lost. How important it is then for DEM
ocrats and all other conservative men (who
when combined will have the majority in
the States not in rebellion) to take counsel
together and so act as to consolidate their
strength for the achievement of the grand
and noble purpose of saving the Union and
restoring the supremacy of the Constitu-
tion. No pride Of opinion-no selfish mo-
tive--nothing of that sort should intervene
to prevent action in direction likely to do
good in SO holy acause. The great point is
to save the country; and the memory Of the
men who unite together for, and succeed in
accomplishing that great and glorious pur-
pose, will live enshrined in the hearts of
unborn generations of our countrymen.
"Tw Loyal League" says the New York
: Times, has four thousand five hundred
Councils in the loyal States, with menu
bership Of over three quarters of million.
Such is the extent and numbers of the
great secret political combination, organ