Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-11-17
Another Speech from Secretary Seward.

Another speech from Secretary Seward.
On the evening prior to the election, See
rotary SEWARD, as has been his wont for
many years, addressed ibis fellow citizens at
Auburn, New York. Although some portions
of Lis speech were of only temporary inter
est, there is much of it of more permanent
nature. The Secretary, as is well known,
avows himself an optimist, and defends his
custom of looking at the cheerful side of the
future, never despairing of the country. And
so after expressing his confidence in the tri-
umphant vindication OF the Administration
before the great popular tribunal on the fol-
lowing day, he added
| should be recreant if I did not confess
that see no hope Of safety for the Union if
the people to morrow should give it over in
trust to the opponents of the present Admin
istratio1. Cries Of We won't do that "
But | do not forget what | say on the night
before the election whlbegheard on the morn
ing after the election, however it may result
therefore, let no man expect to hear after an
adverse result that I am desparing or even
respondent. Cheers. If the opposition
prevail, do not know, indeed, the fountain
disastrous event; but [ do know that God
has a thousand ways of saving nations, even
in their extreme peril. Cheers. do know
that nations are born to live, although thew
must eventuallyEdie; and do know that as my
voice in the dark hours of 1861 rang through
the world, giving reinsurance to the friends
OF human progress, so, if utteranCe shall
be left to me, it will proclaim with even
greater earnestness and energy that this Re
public is not altogether lost Vehement
applause. And as | speak, so in that fear
full crisis, trust l shall be able to act. Cries
of That's you," and cheers.
He then painted the dangers that surround
ed the country, civil war confronting it, for
eign wars tire catching it, the fires of treason
Gus faction on all our borders and sending up
sulphurous smoke under our very feet. It
would be. absurd to say that the country was
not in a strait, but there were only two cours-
es before us-one, to persevere in the effort
to put down the rebellion, the other to ahan-
don it. Hazard attended either, but in his
deliberate judgment by far the lesser hazard
lay in marching on in the line of persever-
ence, Indeed, in no other way could our
national integrity be assured.
. After abiding to the conspiracies in the
Western States, the concerted action between
Chicago, London and Richmond that has
been revealed, the raids from Canada upon
Sandusky, St. Albans and other points, and
the amazement that many felt upon seeing
after all this large class of our own citizens,
with alternate obstinacy and levity, refusing
to give an unreserved support to their own
Government, the speaker said that such fac
tions were among the invariable incidents of
civil war. Opposition would rise high as
government became energetic, and grow into
faction and "faction in civil war was unmiti-
gated treason" After speaking of various
governments that have passed through SINH
lar trials, he continued:
No Government in any of those countries
ever was less embarrassed in civil war by
faction than the Government of the United
States during the last three and half years
None of those Governments at that same
time ever dealt with domestic faction with
so much moderation and humanity as this
Government has practiced toward citizens
who have aided and abetted, fed and warmed
clothed and armed, its open and defiant enc
miles, (Cries of "That'so-better if they had
hung Vallandigham and the est of them
Cheers) Not one head has fallen on the
judicial block. (Cheers.( Nor need you be
alarmed at these demonstrations of faction.
The people of the United States have had a
Christian education, apolltical education, a
moral education, such as Providence has never
L, g. -
as the forces and facilities of faction are, the
repressive and loyal forces possessed by this
people are magnifed and multiplied in proper
ton. (Cheers)
After characterizing the attempted frauds
on the ballot-box in New York as "more
fraudulent in conception, more wicked in de-
sign than we have before encountered and
congratulating his hearers on their timely
detection, he spoke of the policy of the Ad-
mlnlstration respecting slavery as connected
with the war, as follows: 80. .T-...-
There is no question before Won of aba,
donlng the war measures against slavery and
substituting for them policy of conservation
or concession to slavery. Cheers.7 Tbosa
measures are apart of the war. Cheers II
| is for the nation in a state of war and not for
the nation in future state of peace, that the
Government is acting, and of course that we
are voting. Applause. There is no cues
ton before you of changing the object of the
war from the maintenance of the Union to
that of abolishing slavery. Slavery is the
handspring of the rebellion. The Govern
ment necessarily strikes it in the very centre
as well as upon every inch of its soil fCheers
and cries of Its dying out?l In nv poor
Judgment the handspring is already broken.
and let the war end when it will, and as it
may, the fear that that handspring will re-
cover Its elasticity may give US at present no
uneasiness. lCheers, Before the war slav-
cry had the patronage and countenance of the
United States against the whole world Its
inherent error, guilt and danger are now as