The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1865-10-21

of our Union to the party object of per-
sonal aggrandizement?
Nor was it Southern Union men alone
whose natural promptings to defend the
Union were checked by the efforts of the
existing and prospective authorities in
Washington who were cooperating in this
purpose 1t was through these influences
that the movements throughout the North
for the armed defense of the Union were
repressed, and the impression conveyed
to the South that secession would be
peaceful Let me recallan instance. The
Pennsylvania Legislature met in Janua-
ry, 1861 and resolution was Immediately
presented which, | believe, was unani-
mously adopted, declaring it to be the duty
of the State authorities to raise, organize
and equip military force for the defense
of the Union. This movement was stop
ped from Washington, and among the
means resorted to for that purpose, as /
was informed by Speaker Pennington at
the time, the Legislature were told by a
distinguished member from Maryland, !,
then believed TO hold confidential relations
with the incoming premier, that Mary
land would secede if the movement were
persisted in. The movement was ahan-
doned, and it was abandoned undoubtedly
through his counsel and in Difference to his
position as the incoming premier. Non
resistance was we have seen, his publicly
declared policy in the Senate as it was in the
Cabinet. He agreed with Judge Camp
! hell. the rebel Commissioner, for the sur
render OF Fort Sumter, and when the
President came to Ii:;Herent determine
tion, he, nevertheless, made good his
promise. He it was, undoubtedly, who
gave the notice by the telegram sent
through Mr.. Harvey, then and still our
Minister to Portugal, of the Presidents
purpose to reinforce But the sueeor
never came Mr. Seward got an order
directly from the President, Withdrawing
the Powhattan, the armed vessel assigned
to the expedition by the Secretary of the
Navy. without the knowledge of the Sec
retary. and without the President know
ing that the Powhattan was the vessel or
dered to relieve Sumter. The men and
provisions came, but not a sailor with
them to put into the fort, the Powhatan
having been Withdrawn. 1t was in defe-
renee to him that General Scott recon-
mended the surrender of the Fort, be-
cause the General, during the previous
Administration, had wished to reinforce
it. and had been refused permission to do
so by Mr.. Holt, then Secretary of War.
Mr.. Holt. now the head of the bureau
of military justice, was then also power
in Washington. While Secretary of War,
as already stated. he refused to permit
General Scott to reinforce Sumter, and he
had. while Postmaster General, written
and published a letter, dated 30th Nov
ember, 1860, iustifying the rebellion. He
says in that letter, the people of the North
q have been taught that they are respon-
sble for the domestic institutions of the
South, and that they can be faithful to
God only by being unfaithful to the COM
pact they made with their fellow-men.
Hence those liberty bills which degrade
the statute books of some ten of the free
States. and WHICH are confsssedly ashame-
less violation of the Federal Constitution
| in point vital to her honor. We have
here presented from year to year the hu-
initiating spectacle of free and sovereign
States, by solemn act of legislation, le-
galizing the theft of their neighboFs' pro-
perty. | say theft, since it is not the less
so because the subject of the despie
cable crime chances to be slave instead
of a horse or bale of goods" After
much to the same purport, he says: ~
am still for the Union, because have a
faint, hesitating hope that the North will
do iustice to the South aud save the re-
public before the wreck is complete. But
the action must be prompt. If the free
States will sweep the liberty bills from
their codes, propose convention of the
States, and offer guarantees which will
afford the same repose and safety to South
ern homes and property enjoyed by those
at the North, the impending tragedy may
vet be averted, but not otherwise" Sim
ultaneously with his refusal to permit sue
cor to Fort Sumter, and his arnaistice with
the rebel Secretary, he refused his sane
ton to bill introduced into the Senate
by Mr.. Preston King, to authorize the
Union men in the South to organize them
selves under the authority of the United
States. refusing thus to allow them to de-
fend themselves
Mr.. Stanton, now Secretary of War,
then Attorney General, was in full SYM
pathy with the leaders in Congress who
dragged the South into rebellion. He
met Senator Brown of Mississippi at the
door of the Supreme Court as he passed
! from the hall of the Senate, after taking
leave OF it as secessionist forever, He
encouraged him; told him he was right
it was the only course to save the South
he must keep his constituents up to it, etc.
This is proved by Mr.. Brown, former
Senator from Mississippi, who mentioned
it at the time to the Hon. James S. Rol.
Inns of Missouri. Mr.. Salisbury, Sena-
tor from Delaware, by resolution offered
to the Senate last Winter, proposed to
/ substantiate il before committee of that
body. but the committee was not granted
The fact is confirmed, too, by the known
relations of the Secretary to parties at the
time, and have been assured by one Of
his colleagues in Buchanan S Cabinet that
in his intercourse with his associates OF
that ilk, he was most violent in denounc-
ing any attempt to maintain the Union by
force, and continued bis denunciations till
he entered Mr.. Liacoln's Cabinet.
Is it not for this that he was so laud-
ed and glorifed by the Thad. Stevens
party in the resolutions Of the recent con-
vention at Harrisburg, in which Presi-
dent j Johnson is substantially pronounced
an usurper for presuming to set up gov
ernments in the Southern States, instead
of calling on Congress to take the subject
lin hand, to which they claim it belongs