Maryland free press., 1866-12-20
Mr. vallandigham on Lincoln and his
Friends.

lowing extract iron one Oh MT. tAHanutsnaIn
speeches in the late canvass. Weknow not when
we have read better piece of eratsry. Mr..
vallaudigham's oratory, generally, Is of the
best order. There is no mere flower and furbe-
low of rhetoric in his style. He is simply direct,
earnest, vehement, like Demosthenes or Fox
To scholar, his speaking seems fashioned after
their manly and robust model. 1t is reason and
logic, animated and infamed By feeling and pas
sion. While he seeks no ornament, he seems, in
his earnestness 10 disdain it, his diction is yet
as correct as q writer in the closet need make it.
1t will be found not easy to change any of his
words for the better. This fnish-however off
hand, unstudied and Inspired by the occasion,
the orator may seem-requires careful prepara-
tion and Mr.. Vsllandigham deserves to be
studied, as showing how the highest oratoricsl
effect is attained by the closest adherence to the
sense and matter the speaker wishes to deliver.
in the debate on the Westminster Scrutiny,
Fox stated fact as cause Of doubt whether he
could ''expect justice from the House." An an
CRY cry Of "order" was raised on him. He an
swered with rapid enumeration of many un-
fair acts on their part towards him, concluding
and protest of injustice, expressed in the same
words, that had raised the call to order from
the House, now silenced into respectful attention
Nr. Vallandigham's summary of the reasons why
he will not condemn Lincoln's agents and acquit
him, as accumalative array Of the facts and an
argumentative deduction from them, is finer
than the famous parallel passage in Fox. The
instances are in the highest degree impressive
and imposing, and the climax of horror is
reached, with great oratorical power, in
Turchin's "unspeakable deed" The following
is the extract from Mr.. Vallan6i sham's speech
referred to:
l am here, then, as a Democrat, to address
President as great living issue ofthe hour, and
because that policy is thoroughly consistent
with Democratic principles, and because could
not address to,you a Democratic::speech unless
advocated the Union and the Constitution.
l am not here to night as Democart to eulo-
size the policy or principles, or personal at
tributes of Mr.. Lincoln. I leave that entirely to
those who supported him during his administra-
ton, whether they voted for him in 1860, or be-
came subsequently, his fiends. 1t is not for me !;
it is not for Democrats who opposed him, to
argue that the present Executive is but pursuing
T. line of policy prescribed by Abraham Lin
coin, Neither am here to assai men who were
his supporters, and whom am accustomed to
hear continually denounced.
1t is the fashion to assail Beecher, and Lloyd
Garrison, and Wendell Phillips, and Sumner,
and Wade, and Stevens and g score or two of
others like them, for their fanaticsm and vio-
lence and their disregard and contempt for all
the ancient aud settled principles and institutions
of the government aad the country. And yet
they were the men whose pioneering steps Lin
con more slowly in his own time, got most
surely in the end, followed till the close of his
career. i will not denounce these men and spare
Lincoln.
tbs the fashion, or was till the other day, to
assal William H. Seward because it was he who
spent life time in creating aud gathering to-
gether the elements of anatical and sectional
dscord and strife which burst, at last, with such
desolating fury all over the land; he, who, first
of all men, proclaimed the doctrine Of the ''High-
er Law and of the "Irrepressible Conflict" he,
who, schosled in the devlish politics of the
Medici the Machiavelers and the Richelieus Of
Italy and of France in the fifteenth and sixteenth
ccnturies developed, complete in all its parts in
the very first weeks of the late civil war system
ccption, detail, or execution, Ia ancient, orien-
tai, or medieval tyranny. He at whose instance
the privilege of the writ of Habcas Corpus was,
by Executive order first suspended, and the
Supreme Court aud the Chief Justice Sat at def.
ance he who first closed and barred the case
mates Of Forts Warren and Lafayette upon
"Prisoners of State" and then, by special order
declared to them that he would "not recognize
any one as an attorney for political prisoners u
and would regaad the employment of counsel by
them as "an additional reason for declining IL
release them" !" and finally, who boasted to LORD
Lyons, the British Minister that he could touch
bell at his right hand and arrest any man il
Ohio at his will, and touch it again and arres
another thousand miles distant in Massa
! chusetts, and then with charming affectatior
of simplicity, which Sejanus or Godoy nigh
have envied, asked his Lordship, "Cau He
Majesty do as much ?'-And yet for each ant
every enc of these things, or in spite of them
was he appauded, houored, cherished as hi
chief counsellor and friend, by Abraham Lincoln
to the day of his death. will not condemn th
servant and approve the master. will not dc
nounce Seward and spare Lincoln.
| 1t is the fashion to assail Edwin N. Stanton
for his rudeuess, his brutality, his cruelty, hi
reckless disregard of human liberality, huzar
suffering and human lite; for his heartless refusa
to exchange prisoners during the war, whenc.
the horrors of Andersonvlle; and for thou
sand other crimes and enormities by which hi
name and memory are blackened and defiled day
by day. Aad yet for these, his characteristics
or in spite of them, he too, was retained in office
-honored and cherished as counsellor ant
friend, by Abraham Lincoln, to the hour of hi
death. will not dehouncc Stanton and spar
Lincoln.
1t is the fashion to assail Joseph Holt for hi
merciless and cold booded persecution of politi
cal prisoners through the agency of that odiou
and execrable of all the innovations and inven
tions of the war, the infamous "Bureau Of Mill
tary Justice ce''-odious in name and execrable in