The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1865-08-23

captives, exiles or supplicants for pardon;
its armed adherents have saluted their
flag for the last time, and It's friends
throughout tae South have yielded the
contest Their submission has been grace
ful, unanimous, and in all apparent good
faith. Not an. armed Confederate is to
be found within the limits of the State.
The Federal Government professed to
draw the sword only for the sole purpose
of enforcing it's constitutional authority
wherever it was opposed; it is this day
supreme within the entire limits of the
the United States. No opposition is any
where attempted; nor, indeed, can any be
organized. Why, then, 1 ask, are we
threatened with a despotism as inexcusa-
bic as rebellion2 Why are free elections
denied to the Union men and qualified
voters of the State? Why have non res
idents and loungers around Federal camps,
without your knowienge or consent, and
in defiance of your protests and appeals,
been permitted to usurp the high and re
sponsible places of power, and declare
themselves your oppressors and masters
and this, too, in contempt of that Dec
laration of Rights, whose sacred priuci-
Piles are inviolable, and by your Consti-
tuition excepted out of the general pow
ers of Government" Why are offensive
rulers being set over the loyal people of
the State by those who are jointly respon-
sible for the war? Why are bands of
armed negroes permitted to roam over the
country, plundering and insulting the tim
id and defenseless? And more than these,
why are you and L, whose souls are un-
stained by treason, compelled to drain the
cup of shame at the hands of those who
were the original instigators of the rebel
ion?"
[ beg leave to assure your Excellency
that, in using the words "original insti-
gators of the rebellion, I alluded to you;
further, that spoke in no Pickwickian
sense. And now that may invoke your
clemeney, not for myself, but for those
who listened to my remarks, | frankly
confess that I submitted certain proofs of
the truth of my charges. told the peo-
pie that the first time ever saw you, you
were harranguing the multitude to prove
me an Abolitionist; that it was somewhat
"raw and gusty day, and that Jour We
hemence in the open air caused you to
contract throat disease, fromlwhich, un-
fortunately for the country, you profess
not to have recovered. alluded to your
early speeches in Congress, in which you
resorted to the bitterest personal abuse of
John Quincy Adams, because of his relig-
ious, anti slavery opinions; to your reve-
rental confession that God had killed of
Ca-o,ol h. A
olitionist. also told the people that you
had in 1856, in the State of Tennessee
proposed that every Southern man should
'join in one fraternal hug and plunge
into rebellion, if Fremont and Dayton
were elected In addition to this, in
formed the audience that l heard you, in
the Senate, in December, 1859, denounce
Mr.. Seward and the Republican party as
wholly responsible for the murderous raid
of this cold man Brown" whom you ther
stigmatized as ''nothing more than a mur
derer, robber, a thief and traitor
said also, that you not only supported
Breckinridge, the candidate of the avow
ed disunionisss, but that, after the elec
tion of Lincoln, after the meeting of Con
gress in December, 1860, and only on,
day before the assembling of the Conven
tion which declared South Carolina ou
of the Union, you had, in the Senate o
the United States, made labored speech
embracing part of two days, in whicl
you positively pledged yourself, in a con
tingency which has long since happened
to join these same rebels, "to perish in tn
last breach" to ''burn every blade o
grass, and to make your grave in 9Th
last intrenchments" of rebel freedom.
told the people that l heard this speech
i (during the delivery of which Jefferson
Davis offered you most unprovoked in
suit, the effect of which | will not no,
attempt to state,) and that every word Q
it was designed to convince the people o
Tennessee that they were an oppresse
people,and you their champion; that thei
constitutional rights were in imminen
danger, and that they ought to "deman
additional securities" that you then an
T there submitted the following written .'ba
sis, upon which you declared an unalter
able purpose ''to fight the great battle fo
our rights
'Resolued, That we deeply sympathiz
with our sister Southern States, and free
ly admit that there is good cause for dis
satisfaction and complaint on their par
:. on account of the recent election of sec
J tional candidates to the Presidency an
Vice Presidency of the United State:
) yet we, as portion of a people of
slayeholding community, are not for seee
J ding or breaking up the Union of thes
: States until after every fair and honorabl
means has been exhausted in trying t
obtain, on the part of the non-slavehold
7 ing States, a compliance with the spir
t and letter Of the Constitution, and all il
5 guarantees; and when this shall have bee
: done, and the States now in open rebe
: lion against the laws Of the United State
: in refusing to execute the fugitive slay
law, shall persist in their present uncor
| stitutional course, and the Federal Go,
: ernment shall fail to execute the laws
: good faith, it (the Government) will nj
: have accomplished the great design of i
creation, and will, therefore, in fact, be
: practical dissolution, and all the States,.
! parties, be released from the compa
e which formed the Union"
f In commenting on the foregoing 'b
. sis" I said it proved that you did the
n "deeply sympathize with our sister Soutl