Weekly Trinity journal., 1866-08-11

mated for Congress, on the 10th Of July, BY the
Unionists of the Ninth district of Indiana Inc
following letter from him was read at the Ton
IIousz or REPRESENTATIVES,.
WASHINGTON July lsoo')
Dear Sirs The harmony ard success OF the
Union organization, welded together IN .he iuf-
nace-fre Of four years war, Is OF such paiA-
mount importance to all other Considerations
that ! write YOU this letter. to be read at the
Westville Convention that my POSITION may ne
Enthusiastically understood by those who nave nom
ored me with their confidence so cordially ana
SO long.
Last Winter when nv name had been suggest
ed nv several papers in various parts OF the stare
for the Senate, published a card, stating thar
was not and never had been, candidate for
that distinguished position, having always pre-
ferred service in the House. But my name must
not be in the way single moment if any con-
siderable portion of the Convention prefer some
other standard bearer even though that portion
should be a minority. In that event the delega
ton from St. Joseph county are requested to
Withdraw my name, and to pledge my most earn
est exeriions to whoever of my many active and
f,ithful friends of the Union the concen-
ton may prefer to nominate
The contest before us is of as vital Importance
to the truesr and best interests of the nation as
the exciting contests of 1862 and 1861 and the
issues should be clearly and distinctly before the
people. They be condensed into single
question Which shall govern in the councils
of the naton-loyaty or disloyalty|' 1t has
been well said, in language as terse as il Is true
that the power to carry on war for national ex-
istence carries with it the power to prescribe the
terms Of peace. The duty of guarding the land
against the danger of second rebellion is as
imperative as its preservation from the first
And nothing seems clearer than that the same
authority which prevented eleven States from
destroying the Union has right, as indisputable
the right of selt-defense, to regulate the
sumption of the relations of these States.
When the rebel armies surrendered, the Presi-
dent decided, and rightly, that civil government
had been destroyed in each of the rebel States.
and be officially proclaimed that fact in his
missions to the Provisional Government thereof.
That Congressional policy starts from the same
initial point. The President declared that
sential conditions, involving great changes, must
be complied with by those States before they
could resume their forfeited rights. And so does
Congress. The President required the ratiica-
ton of an important constitutional amendment,
which had been submitted by Congress repre-
sentng the loyal States, and in which the rebel
States had no voice. And Congress makes a
similar demand to day If the President could
rghtfully require their ratification of one amend
ment, changing their whole system of labor, and /
DESTROYING what they regarded as vested rights
of property. proposed by Congress in which
they unrepresented, and in conflict, rs :;
was. with their lifelong prejudices. why cannot
The Congress- elected as the law making power Of
the country by the same voters as himself, re-
quire the ratification of another amendment, pre- !
venting the rebel States from welding increased
power in Congress hereafter, because OF the war,
which, against their desires, had lifted their
slaves into the fall stature of freemen? i
That this amendment is in accordance with the
wishes Of the loyal millions who won the brill
liant political victory of 1864, is proven by the
unanimiiy with which it was supported in the
House of Representatives. Every man elected as
Union member, whether from the North or the
South, from the East the West, gave it his
vote ; no: barely the two-tbirds required by the
Constitution but nearly four-hfths. On this
amendment, as II security for the future, the
Union party of the nation have planted them
selves and shall stand with them most cordi-
ally vindicating its justice wisdom and neces-
siry, and willing on it to stand or fall.
For one. | do not donbt the result. Shall
rebels settle their terms of coming back to
govern us? Shall they re-ascend to enlarged
and increased power; using us as steps to the
graves of the Union dead? Should not Congress,
whose solemn duty it is to see that the republic
suffers no evil, pause before the bitter foes of
Yesterday are admitted to the inner SANITARY OF
the nations life? Ought they not to guard the
halls of national legislation from being trodden
BY the feet of those who have been numbering
the defenders of the Union for fidelity to an
allegiance they themselves so wickedly repudi-
ated2
Every newspaper in the land, North or South.
which eulog;zed Jefferson Davis and villfed
Abraham Lincoln now denounces Congress in
the severest terms. Every unrepentant rebel
and INSCRIPTIONS sympathizer joins them i'll
their rcvilings. But rejoice that it has been so
faithful, infexibe in what it has regarded as
the path way of duty and right. And it now
mains for the people, by their Endorsement or re-
lection of its proposed constitutional guaranty to
approve or condemn those who present it rs an in
dispensabe prerequisite to the restoration of the
forfeited rights and the political power our enc
mics made such hot haste to resign and abjnre
at the opening of the rebellion. Nor are these
terms oppressive unJ Just Never has a nation
whose existence has been imperled, and whose
hundreds of thousands of graves and thousands
of millions of debt attest its gigantic sacrifices,
offered more lenient conditions to those who
conspired for its destruction. Have we forgot
ten the insulting defiance with which their menu
hers sworn like ourselves to the Constitution
and the Union, left their seats F.; the persecu-
tions, conscriptions, tyranny, explosions and
haugings by the rebel authorities, of all who re-
fused to forswear, like themselves, their alleg-
ance to their country and their flag the willful
torture and starvation of scores of thousands OF
our soldiers when prisoners in their hands their
unyielding persistency in the paricidal con-
fict till armed rebellion expired, not from change
of will, but from poverty of resource and the
heroism of the.loyal boys in blue the continued
existence of this hostile feeling, as evidenced in
their political and social prescription of every
Southerner who fought for his country, the dis
loyal utterances of their press and pulpit, and
the election in every rebel State of Governors
who have served or fought for the rebellion p
Despite all this Congress only asks that repre-
sentation, North and South, shall be based on
those eligible to participation in political power ;
that the civil rights of all persons native born or
naturaiized, shall be maintained that the ma
tionai debt and the pension list be preserved in
violate the reble debt repudiated, and exclusion
rom once OF these who, having once taken
and broken an oath of fidelity to the nation
eouid not be trusted in the faithful ful6lIment
thereafter OF smother similar obligation
contrast this with the course of our fathers
refused to fight for the Independence of the Cole
MES The Tories of that day insisted that their