Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-01-13
QDBlio,t Stattle''sjrnl'r:la'lr:r':... Stttl''j y an.
SPEECH OF ...'.
HON. WILLIAM ALLEN
DEMOCRATIC FESTIVAL.
Held in Columbus, Ohio, january
sth, 1896.

upon his great expedition to the East IN
the exuberance of his generosity he dls-
tributed the whole Of his private fortune
among his friends. His steward, when or
dered to deliver over the last piece OF it,
said to him. "And when this Is gone, what
will you have left for yourselfw Hope,
and it is enough;" was the sublime an
swer of the great son of Philip. The DEM
ocratc party is about to renew its efforts
for the restoration and perpetuity OF pub
lie liberty. 1t Is at such an hour as this
that the party finds itself utterly berett OF
all power in the States and In the Federal
Government, and il. under these circum-
stances, it should be asked what that party
has left, / answer with the Macedonian,
slope, and 1t is enoughp -H ....-..
Sometimes the perturbations Of the air
swell into terrific storm-the waters OF
the sea are violently rolled up into noun
famous ridges-the quick lightning flashes
forth from the black bosom of the impend-
ing cloud, and the prolonged reverberations
of the lurid sky might to an uninstructed
observer, seem to portend the immediate
| dissolution of nature; but the philosopher
| looks upon the ecene without any such ap-
prehension; he knows that the all-embrae-
| ing and ever-acting principle of gravitation
will eventually silence these warning ele-
ments, and bring back every particle of
the displaced waters down to tile old oceans
normal level. . . Ff
For four years past, over the great deep
of the national mind, such astOrm has been
| driving-men's passions have been convul-
| sively tossed hither and thither, and their
actions have responded to their passions.
| The wrecks of broken Constitution; the
| desolation of vast regions of the Republic;
the number of prisons; of executions; OF
fresh graves; OF hospitals; OF crlpples; of
widows and of orphans; the ominous NUT
terings of the whole people, under the
| pressure of intolerable taxation; the i'm
mense order for the payment of four thous-
and million of dollars which we have
drawn upon posterity in the form of a ma
tional debt; the mortgage which the Gov
ernment has taken upon every mans lands,
goods and muscles for the payment of this
debt; the prevalence OF crime everywhere,
and in all its varieties; the sense of insecure
ty--the doubt, the dread, for the future
which pervades the mind of the entire ma
tion-these things show where that storm
has been, and measure the intensity of its
violence. A man of even high intelligence,
looking upon this sad scene, with its threat
ening futurity, might well imagine that
our social, as well as political, organization,
was about to undergo total disruption:
|
upon this dismal prospect, net without sOr-
row and sadness, but without despair. He
knows that the all-embracing and ever-act-
ing principle of Democracy, will, in the
long run, speak order to this chaos, and
bring back States and men, with theiI
rights and liberties once more securely
within the old guarantees of the Constitu-
tion and the law. &. ~ 5ua.l ..r..r
But when will this consummation be re-
allied? This question can be answered
only when the present session of Congress
shall have adjourned. II this Congress
shall find its reason so bewildered by the
miscellaneous misery which its predecessors
have inflicted upon the country, as not to
be able to see the direction in which its
duty calls it, it may find an example wor-
thy OF its imitation in the history of the
greatest people, politically considered,
who have ever yet appeared upon the
globe. ...
Ancient Italy, from the Alps to the
Ocean, was originally subdivided into a
large number of small, but Independent,
States. Rome, one of these States, had, after
six hundred years of war and negotiation,
succeeded in establishing an Italian Union
herself holding the position of a central
and paramount authority, so far as to exer-
else the right of highway for the march of
her legions and tue passage of her cour-
riers, throughout the whole of Italy, to-
gether with the exclusive power of peace
and waryandt the correlative powers 0flevy-
ing troops and revenues for foreign con-
quest.~ In every other particular, the other
States, styled allies of the Roman people,
retained their respective State Governments
in all their integrity, tor every object OF
local and municipal legislationfIn the year
| nf
ponding with the year SO previously to the
birth OF Christ, the allied States claimed OF
the Central Government of Rome what
were known as the rights of Lartium, or,
in other words, of Roman citizenship, so far
as to vote in the election Of Roman Con-
suls, and other magistrates; and, also tC
vote in the assemblies of the Roman
people upon all questions of peace and
war; They predicated these claims upon
the admitted fact that for sixty years they
had contributed more than two-thirds ol
the recruits to the Roman legiOns, and more
than two thirds ofthe revenue to the Roman
treasury; and that, whilst with the aid Of
these troops and revenues Rome had af.
fected the conquest Of large and rich
countries beyond the limits of Italy, the
proceeds arising from all those conquests
the lands, the prisoners of war made slaves
/
levied upon subjugated kingdoms, had all
and in every instance, been appropriated by
| andt to the exclusive benefit Of the Roman
people,. alA- -1l- eN" oNa nAA yAJ -HE
II Notwithstanding the manifest1justice Of
this demand, Rome refused to grant it,
4 Having exhausted all the means OF reason
and persuasion, and all In vain, ten or twelve
! OF the allied States seeded in body. They
proclaimed Neutrality-suspicious. of the Cen
trial Government of Rome; they, proceeded
to organize what they termed the Italian
Confederacy they adopted as their Capital
the city of CorfniuIn; they Horganized .
Senate composed of delegates from the
seeded States; they elected Consuls and
other magistrates, with titles and ttlnc-
tiohs corresponding withc those IN the
Roman organization; they organized a
large and powerful army, and, having
done these things, they despatched
ambassadors to the Senate of Rome
4 --they making one, more peaceful APP
peal Ifor what they deemed but Justice to
| themselves. Their ambassadors were sent
| back with q naughty and defiant answer
1 Upon the receipt of this answer, the Con-
4 federate Government ordered its leQi0ns to
4 be drawn up upon the military points In
tervening between the two capitals, and
There TO stand upon theft, defense. Rome
began by oon1erring the rights of Lartium
or Roman citizenshipg upon the border
Estates which had not Joined the new Con.
/ federacy. Having thus, by an act Of justice
II TO these border States, strengthened their
lallegiance and secured their aid, the Roman
Senate ordered their leglons 10 march upon
the capital Of the newborn COufede dernov