The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1865-09-07
GENERAL COX'S
o5ERLlN SPEECH.
HIS VIEWS OF NEGRO sUTFn AGE.
To!egraphic Correspondence Cincinnati Commerca a
+4aG aOBERLIN, ONO, August 81.

The Union meeting at this place to-
day was called with very short notice.
and excited very general interest, on
account of recent political events. 1t
was held in the Great Church, which
was densely crowded, many persons
being unable to gain admittance.-
The meeting was called to order by
Ralph Plumb, on whose motion Pro-
fessor Fairchild presided, who, after a
short invocation by Rev. G. G. Foote,
introduced the speaker, as follows:
"FELLow CITIZENS have the pleas
ure and unprecedented honor of intro
ducing to you an dlumnus of this in
stitution, a Major General of the army
of the United States, and who is about
to be-Providenee and the people per.
mitting-Governor of Ohio. Major
General Cox"
The General was received with en-
thusiastic applause, and spoke as fol-
lows: i'
GENERAL CoX's SPEECH.
he said 1t had been no part of his
plan in visiting the Institution during
the week of their commencement ex-
ereises, to address them, and now he
hardly felt like introducing among tho
finished and scholarly productions Of
the day, crude dissertation concern
ing political questions; but he had con
sented to give them briefly his views
of some of the exciting questions that
entered into the present canvas. We
as nation had been passing through
terrible eonyulsions-through a revo-
luton in some respects, and which the
enemies Of the country intended should
be revolution in all respects. This
meeting, where he recognized many
returned soldiers, reminded him of
scenes in the beginning of the war,
and those who went out to the war as
the first fruits from this college; when
an entire company was sent forth of
such intelligence as drew commenda-
tion from an officer of the regular ar
my, who remarked with emphasis
more severe than polite, it was a
id shs nae that such men should be
food for powder, 1T was because of
this spirit, which had sent out armies
composed of moro Intelligence, real
virtue and thorough patriotism, than
the world ever saw before, that we
were successful, Determined that we
would either live with the country, or
perish with its wreck, the war had
cost US hundreds of thousands of lives,
besides the many we now SEQ with
lost arms or legs, and for whose en-
ployment it was our duty to furnish
means, in view of the service they had
rendered the country. Now the pow
or of the rebellion was broken, and no
one, from Texas 10 Virginia, did he
believe, could be found to attempt, by
force Of arms, to break up the Gov
ernment, whatever they might seek to
do by political action or other means.
Before the rebellion, anti-slavery men
had been accustomed to speak of the
system Of human slavery as SO much
at war with the principles on which
our Government was based, that both
could not exist. Such had been tho
declaration of the late President, Mr..
Lincoln, and of Mr.. Seward. Though
speaking thus of slavery, and feeling
thus, regarding it as great evil, they
had not thought, as an organization, to
attack it directly where it appeared to
be protected and hedgcd with forms
of law, but to restrict it in territories,
believing that thus hemmed in and
confined, it would die. Thus they had
not taken the direct and immediate
action which some sought. We had
no,O to confess that withoM perhaps Suf-
fciently meighing lis tendencies, the er-
trems doctrines Of State Rights had found
a lodging in our brains; to confess that
hero In Northern Ohio we had been
misled until we had begun to look to
State Rights for q remedy for our
wrongs. When some of our friends
were cast into prison under q wicked
law, We began to look to State laws to
remedy tho evil, instead of camly
awaiting recourse to proper authority
We low looked back to this doctrine
ofState Rights as the author of seces-
sion, and We repudiated it forever
In this, We showed the action of an
intelligent and honest people. Wings
and Democrats had rivalod each other
in affirming the Virginia and Ken.
lucky resolution, and we had thus been
weakened by adhesion to false princi.
pies, until, when the war broke out
many even. in the North, west were
swayed by them. We now found il
necessary to put away, as abounding
IN mischief, all doctrines Of the right
ofsecession. and to affirm an allegiance
more direct to the General Govern
ment than to any local jurisdiction
We have by force of arms determined
that the United States is a nation; dc,
termined that in this respect there
shall be fresh and complete expires
sion of patriotism which shall entirely
overbear the idea of divided allegiance
and local patriotism. He had seer
men in rebel armlesso debauched with
the idea of State Sovereignty that
though fighting secession to tho last
as likely to bring war they had Piles
Of it helng necessary to 60 as theil
State went; like ono in North Oaroli
ma who gathered his family around
him in an inner room Of his house, and
with tears in their eyes, sung the Star
Spsngled Banner, and the next day he
bnckled on his knapsack with 10. S
A." marked upon It. We had learned
that IL was better TO seek 10 correct
evils in the Union itself, than in any