Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-06-03

the basis of the Federal Union of the States
twill, In my judgment, be fit and just tha
| the Democracy, waving all minor points o
detail, lend to him a liberal, earnest ant
patriotic support in carrying it into execu
tion. II, upon the other hand, it be such a.
| can but make that solitude which conquer
| ors call peace; or, worse If possible. tina
| peace which hangs Ikea black and heavy
! pail, over Hungary, Ireland, Poland, ther
| 1t will be the duty of the Democratic party
with determined firnlness and fearlessness
| to interpose such constitutional and legal
opposition, through the press and in pupliC
assembly, as may be just and efficient, till
! either the President shall be impelled tC
| change both his Cabinet and the measures
| to which they may have advised him, ol
| the people, peaceably through the ballot
| shall be enabled to secure pacification and
| Union by change of Administration and
Of policies. / say change, in part or in
whole, of the Cabinet, in advance OF the
election because, remembering the pecu-
liar circumstances under which the office
fell to the President, his, advisers, 1.-THE Min
istry," are rather to be held responsible than
himself. H-H... m. E..l aatu
AS to the hitherto vexed question of Sla-
very, allow me to say for myself that from
the very first to the last, with consistency
and persistence, l opposed all agitation OF
the subject; not for the sake of the institu-
toni repeat 1t, not for the sake of the in
stitution, but because | had been taught by
the Fathers to believe, and did truly believe,
that it could end only in civilwar and dis
union, temporary reternal--whether right
or wrong, let the history of the last four
years decide. The price has now been
weighed out and in part paid. A heavy
score yet remains. But will not essay to
reckon up and adjust the appalling account
of debt and taxation, ofsuffering, crime and
blood in the past or yet to come. Again
accept the facts; rejoiced, indeed, if under
the new order of things, we and our chill
dren may enjoy the same measure of pri-
vate happiness and public prosperity which
was permitted to us and to our fathers un-
der the Old Union, ''part slave and part
Free" And now, if without slavery, re-un-
ion and pacifcation real, sincere, and last
ing, together with welfare and security to
the people of all the States, can be made
sure. let tslavery utterly perish. But in no
event, let the question stand any longer in
the way. l still would prefer the Union,
the Federal Union, the Old Union-yes, "the
Union as it was, under the Constitution as
it is"--to either slavery or the abolition of
slavery. Fanatics at home, and envious,
supplanting statesmen abroad, may not be
able or willing to comprehend this con-
viction: every true and liberal-minded
American patriot will.
The fatal mistake of the South-her
"blunder," which false morality pro-
nounces worse than crime, was in ignor-
ing the great American idea of ONE CoUN-
TRY-not an impulse, not theory, not a
mere aspiration OF national vanity, but a
commandment written by the finger of God
upon the rivers and the mountains and the
whole face of the land, and craven thence
upon the hearts of the people. 1t was this,
not anti-slavery, which held the border
slave States in the Union, and stirred, for
good or evil, the whole North aud West to
such eXertions of military, naval aud finan-
cial force, as never before were put forth by
any nation. And it was this grand and per-
vading national sentiment, hedged by the
sanction of destiny, which, according to
the measure of my ability, | undertook to
expound and justify in the House of Rep
Tesentatives, in 1863, and by this line of ar
gumentation to establish that the Union
through peace was inevitable. Nothing
but the violence of anintense counter-pas-
sion, and the terrible pressure of civil war,
could have suppressed, even for time, the
power of this sentiment among the people
of the South also. Had their leaders for
borne to demand separation and a distinct
Government, adhering to the old flag, and,
within the Union under the Constitution,
firmly but justly, required new guarantees
for old rights believed to be in peril, they
might not, indeed, have had barren and de-,
luding sympathy from subjects, and false
hopes of assistance from kings and empe-
rorsin Europe, eager for the decline and
fall of the American Republic; but they
would have been cheered by the cor
dial greetings and the active sup
port of finally an overwhelming majority
of the States and people of the West and
North. But when they established per-
manent distinct government and took up
arms for independence, they marked out
between them and us, high wall and deep
ditch which no man, North or West, could
pass without the guilt and the penalties OF
treason. They went beyond the teachings
of their own greatest statesmen of the past
age, for Mr.. Calhoun himself had declared,
in 1881, that "the abuse ofpower, on part
of the agent (the Federal Goverament), to
the injury of one or more of the members
(the States), would not justify secession on
their part there would be neither the right
nor the'preteXt to secede." No matter who
was responsible originally for that condi-
tion of things which led finally to war, nor
what the motives and character of the war
after its inception-and upon both these
questions entertain and have expressed
opinions as fixed as the solid rockAso far as
the South fought for separate govern
ment, she stood wholly without sympathy
or support in the States which adhered to
the Union. Whatever else may happen,
her vision of independence has now melted
into air. In the appeal to arms-main-
tanned upon both sides for four years with
courgage and endurance grandly heroic
she has. failed; and though it had happened
otherwise, still, in my deliberate conviction,
her experiment of distinct government
would have failed also. But the sole ques-
tion really decided by the war, as by peace
years before it had been settled, was that
two several governments could not exist
among the States of the American Union.
And here the whole controversy ought to
end; with or without slhvery,I care not, so
it end here. Ifupon this point, the "Crit-
tenden Resolution" of July, lS6l-proposed
too, at the same time, In the Senate, by An
drew Johnson--should be modified, let 1t
in all else, both in spirit and letter, be- ex-
actly carried out. But whatever policy
may now be decreed-and I Itrust it will be
wise, liberal, ahealing policy-itisth part
OF wisdom for theqpeopie of the South to
acquiesoe; returning wholly and cordially
to the Union, thus making 1t once again a
union OF consent, a union of hearts and
hands, as our fathers and their fathers made
it at first. Then will the passions of the
recent terrible strife speedily be hushed.
Already millions in the North and West
regard them as brethrens still, and in little
while these millions will become vast ma
,jority of the people, and will see to it that
the solemn pledge be redeemed and the
Union restored ''with all the dignity,
ie0ualitV and rights of the, several States