Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-01-26
what We Took UP Arm. for.

w mAl VIC OOA Up hEhahF AOse
The Philadelphia Inquirer, an Admins
tration paper of the ultra type, on the 23(
devoted an editorial to the consideration o
the subject of Peace, and it arrived at thu
conclusion, that according to present as
poets, all the talk about Peace negotiation;
which may be INDUCED in, and all the con.
ferences which may take place will be fruit
less" The reasons for this belief it sums
up in theee two paragraphs
'srhe United States demand that the States
In rebellion shall return to their allegiance
under the Constitution; that SLAVERY shat be
abolished as the cause Of the lodr, and that the
Government set up at Richmond shall be
0verthrown.
"The Rebel States insist that the United
States shall acknowledge their independ-
ence, agree to a separation, and restore all
the territory conquered from them since the
beginning of the war, viZ-Louisiana, Ar
kansas, and parts of Virginia, North Caro-
lima, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi
and Alabama, and some territory which
they have claimed. but were never able to
held, viz:-Kentucky, Missouri and Tennes-
see."
In conclusion it says:
ave are willing to stop the war when we
attain the object for trhich zoe took up arms
against the aggressions of the South. When
those objects are gained the war will cease,
and not before"
AS The Inquirer states the question, one
of the objects ''for which we took up arms"
was that slavery shall be abolished" and
that not until this object shall have been
'.gained" will the War cease. If this state
nent is true, then the President did not |
truly state the object of the War in the
Proclamation in which he called for 5000
volunteers; nordid Secretary SEWARD truly
state the object of the War to Mr.. ADAMS,
or Minister to the Court of st james; nor
did the CRIrTENDEN resolutiai., which was
adopted unanimously by Congress, in July,
1861, declare the truth. These three dis
tinct utterances harMonized in this, that
''we took up arms" for the purpose only of
enforcing the authority of the Federal
Government, aid to maintain the Union.
Mr.. SEWARD was especially particular to
impress upon Mr.. ADAMS that the Aboli-
tion of slavery was not contemplated as an
object of the War. On the 9th inst. Sena-
tor WADE, in the United States Senate, de-
clared that he had 'never higgled about
the cause of the War" He admitted that
at the commencement, the War was
"a strictly defensive War"-that it was
such as the utterances alluded to represent
ed 1t to be; but he expressed himself aglad
Of the stub6ornness lctth aohich the South held
out" and he hoped 'tkey iciH hold out in their
blindness until they provoke us to do that
which the occasion demands, without which
being done you ought to have no peace, and
you can have no peace" and, with pious
affectation, he gave utterance to the ''hope to
God there will be no Peace until we can
say there is not slave in the land" even
''if it continues thirty years and bankrupts
the whole nation"
These citations conclusively show that
the Abolition of Slavery was not one of
the objects ''for which we took up arms"
Why should the War, then, be continued q
day longer than necessary to accomplish
the object we contemplated in the outset ?
We do not envy the feelings of the man
who, like Senator WADE, rejoices over the |
stubbornness with which the rebels have |
fought and held out. Such rejoicing neces-
sarily carries with it satisfaction over the |
slaughter Of our brave men at every point
where the Rebels have made stand against |
them. Senator WADE wants no Peace
win have no Peace-it it can simply be had |
on the basis of the Old Union, and by the |
recognition of the theory ON which the |
Union has rested since the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, even "ifWar continues
thirty years and bankrupts the whole ma
tion." The people will have cause to con-
gratulate themselves if they are not either
carried into the ranks of the army or bank
rupted through the policy of fanatics and |
malignants like WADE.