Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-03-04

| LHc OHlDeutCldUeS Is proven cOncllSlVely ny
the fact that under an act of Congress passed
since the secession, the federal cOnrts are
contscating the estates of rebels for acts OF
treason against their Government. You
know that treason necessarily implies cit
izenship, and that it cannot be committed
by an alien enemy. To assume such doc
trine is to make inapplicable to the charac-
ter OF the Southern people the names insur-
| gent and rebel. 1t is in effect to abandon
or deny the essential claim OF every eXecu-
tive declaration, proclamation and mani
festO, and all the recognitiOns of the admin
istration party from the first act OF seces-
sion down to the present time. It's to ac-
knowledge the power of secession, and to
declare the existing war, on our part, to be
one of aggression. All parties in the pres
ent Federal States have agreed that ordi-
nances of secession are null and void, and
that the sovereignty of the Constitution
was bindingly fixed upon all the people OF
the realm. To enforce this universal idea OF
the subsisting unity in law ofall the States,
the Union-loviLg people, without respect
to party, have responded to all the calls of
the military administration, and allowed
their blood to be poured out on many bat
| tle-fields, and public debt which tor many
| years, with its crushing weight, must task
the ability OF the nation, to be fixed upon
them and their posterity. "Crush out the
TeDelllOn-fcsuvIO ti.s C--:..-,n -''n-n tho
battle-cries on every field. Has greatpre-
dominating party, holding, for the present,
such tremendous issues in its hands, and
have you, gentlemen, as the representatives
of that party, determined to change your
front OH this vital question? If so, you can
not reasonably expect your conservative
representatives in Congress to follow your
example. Is the war hereafter to have no OBJ
ject but conquest and determination! A
second sober thought'is often needful but
now, a first sober and rational thought seems
to be in danger rotsupersedence. Weshould
still insist that the rebels return to their al
legiance, and that the rebel States return to
their proper position in the Union, and not
attempt to change, by any unauthorized or
revolutionary process, the Government to
which we claim their subiugation, and thus
give them an apology for resistance. While
we carry on a bloody war protessedly
against aggression, let us not show to the
world that our purpose is aggressive.
1t is clear to perceptive mind that the
Union might be restored upon its original
basis and our once great and powerful, but
now divided and distracted, country re-
united by simply honest declaration OF
the Northern people, through the ballot
box, in favor of return to strictly con-
stitutional administration of the Govern
ment. Let such declaration be made III the
proper authoritative way, and the States
and people will recohere by natural and
habitual proclivity.
But so long as that policy shall be refused,
they will be kept in severence. Upon no
narrow, selfish, or sectional plan, can the
symbolic stars of the republic be reconstcl-
lated upon our flag. These considerations
press with great force upon the minds of
large majority of your representatives i'll
Congress, and they regret and wonder that
you do not perceive and regard them in the
| melight. .l..
At the present time the indications are
much stronger than they have heretofore
been of an inclination on the part of the
| Confederate people to abandon their project
of a separate government, and to restore
their respective States to the Union upon
the principles of the original confedera-
| ton. hold that such desire on their part
ought to be encouraged by us. But any
one not politically blind can see that to strike
| down without their concurrence their pres
| ent State rights would be certain to incite
them to continued resistance and to fore
| close all hope of restoration or peace. No
more unpropitious time for such blow
against the national hope could possibly
have been selected, nor could more injur-
ious blow be given. The chain of policy
| of which this is a link, demonstrates that
| the Republican party is utterly averse to q
restoration of the Union. 90" -
| You have undertaken, in that peculiar
| part OF your legislative composition called
| preamble, to define and declare the facts and
principles upon which you require fourteen
| representatives from Ohio to sacrifice their
| opinions and convictions to yours. Itseems
| proper, therefore, that the propositions so
laid down by you should receive sufficient
consideration to enable us to determine
whether they are logical and true, or sophis-
| tical and false. Among those propositions
are some which have always been taken as
aXioms; but they are mixed and confound-
ed with others which are so manifestly false
as to stand in clear repugnance to all our
national history. In fact l regard it as one
of the most comprehensive issues of false
hood ever penned. ..... .F ....
You say, among other things, that slavery
is "a disturber of the Union and domestic
tranquility, ahindrance to the common de-
| fense, spoiler of the public liberties, has
inaugurated civil war, and is the cause of
our national calamities." That is a pomp-
Gus declaration, but subject to the objection
that there is no truth in it. Your Demo-
cratic representatives in Congress have
marked well the history and incidents and
| effects of the anti-slavery controversy, and
each one of them is living, competent
witness, who well knows that slavery in
the States was not, of its inherent qualities,
disturber of the Union, nor of domestic
tranquility, nor hindrance to the COM
mon defense, nor a spoiler of the public
| liberties, nor did it inaugurate civil war.
nor is it the cause of ournational calamities; (;
| but that it was wickedly seized upon as an
| instrument in the hands of fanatics and
selfish politicians to secure the partisan OBJ
ject of all dissenters to Democratic princi-
| Piles, in the predominance. of a political
| organization which it was seen must ever
be powerless until it could successfully as
sail the vital principles of the Government
and the compacts of the Union. In the
steady pertinacity with which this baleful
instrument was used, continuous and un-
| remitted opposition, in all effective ways,
! to the original, reserved and constitution
4 guaranteed rights of the Southern people,
became the fixed policy of the anti-slavery
party, which finally. predominated, and
still holds sway in the non-slaveholding
Il States. -A''''
4 1t is useless at this point of time and of
our calamities to inquire whether any other
cause could possibly have provoked the
crimes of secession and rebellion. "Sufi-
cient unto the day is the evil thereof" whose
malign efficiency was foreseen and con-
templated with dread and apprehension by
| our bes; and wisest statesmen, some OF
whom died uttering rational but vain ex-
postulations to their countrymen against
their sectional policy. in view Of these
4 considerations deny, with the support OF
oil ptrr htotnru oyt, oria