Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1866-07-26
attorney General spesd-The
philadelphia convention-fhe
dutv of Union Men.

The late AtGOIHCt
speed. has just written very able
and interesting letter, in reply to one
from the Hon. J. r. Doolittle, calling
upon him for an expression OF his
opinion touching the proposed Phil
sdelphia Convention. Mr.. Speed, in
a frank, plain manner, gives Mr..
Doolittle and his friends to under
stand that he does not and cannot
approve of that movement, and will
not lend it his name or influence
The whole letter is full Of sound,
practical truths, which well merit the
attention and careful consideration
of every loyal man IN the country
He declares that he docs not recog-
nize the gentlemen who have made
this call, rs the acknowledged organs
of the great Union party of the coun-
try. That that party is still in being,
with its organization intact, and its
organs known; and as that party, by
its faith and devotion, saved the
union of these States at q time when
half the new and all the old world,
deemed its dissolution inevitable, he
considers it to be still the only, or at
st any rate the most effectual means
as far as q party can do it--of final
iy adjusting all the remaining minor
and unsettled matters of reconstruc
ton. He says:
This party is the same to-day as
it was in the days of its trial; the
same party now as when, but few
short months ago, it elected Lincoln
and Johnson and the majority of the
present Congress; and as l acted
with it then for paramount reasons,
nv sense OF duty demands that re
main and act with it now"
These words have the ring of the
genuine metal, and every Union man
should make this spirit and senti-
ment his own. Again he says:
"The pith and marrow of the pres
ent call tend toward convention to
form a party for sustaining, not the
Government in its entirety, as has
been the mission of the Union party,
but department of the Government;
and here l must take the liberty Of
adding, that ! can hardly conceive OF
any sadder spectacle under the crisis
of present circumstances, than that
of the tried Union party of this
country becoming dislocated and
broken up by divisions; or that of
one branch of the Government of the
country taking an isolated position
upon questions of deep and common
interest, and placing itself in hostile
confic. CO. ordinate departments.
For these, and other reasons that
might be mentioned, l cannot join
in the call for the Convention in
Fhlladeiphla.
These are sound words, and words
which at this time are needed; for
the fact cunnot be disguised, that
many tue and honest 10y al men are
in dam ger of drifting away into this
"New Party" movement, .allured on
by the fair outside in which it is
clothed; and yet every day more and
more fully developes the fact, that
rebel and copperhead influences are
to govern and predominant in that
convention; thst there will be no
room there for true Union men. Who
are the men who are being selected
at the South, as delegates to this
Convention? What are their ante
cedents? Do you find among them
q single one of those true Southern
Unionists, who, during the war, stood
by the Government at the risk of
their lives and their property? Not
one. But on the contrary, the dele
gates thus far selected to represent
the South in the Philadelphia Con-
vention, are, without exception, men
who were strenuous advocates of Sc
cession, and occupied high places in
the Confederate Government, ex-
rebel Generals and ex-rebel Mem
bers of Congress. And at the North
also, with now and then q rare excep-
ton, not single public man, who
stood with the Union party during
the war, now endorses the call for
this Convention; and the men who
are to represent the North in that
Convention, are for the most part
men who acted with the Copperhead
party during the war; men who de-
nounced the war, were opposed to
coercion, and willing to stand by and
zee the Union dissolved without
single blow in its defence; men who,
in Congress and out Of Congess, re-
fused to vote single dollar or a
single man for the prosecution of the
war. These are the men who ami
mate and control this movement for
the formation of new party at
Philadelphia in August. Can any
true Union man abandon that grand
Union Party that fought the war
through single-handed and alone, in
order>to go over to these men, who,
from the beginning, and all through,
opposed the warf Whist affinity can
the soldiers of the North now have
with these very men. who but a year