Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-09-06
The Political Canvass in Ohio.
Speech of Hon. ]. A. Bingham,
AT BowERsTowN, HARRISON CO., AUGUST "a

|
At Union meeting held at Bowerstown
In Harrison County, Ohio, on the Oath o
August, Hon. John A. Bingham, spoke a
follows. We quote from the Cincinnati
Commercials report:
Fellow-citizens--A election moro impor
tant than that now pending before tht
American people has never before been helt
in the Republic. 1t involves, my fellow
citizens, the great question whether the
Republic, which has been saved from over
throw by arms, shall be perpetuated By
wise and Just laws The man who attempt,
at this hour, before the American people
to persuade them that the pending election
is an ordinary contest for place mainly be-
tween political organizations, each of which
is alike friendly to American institutions
deceives himself and attempts to deceive
others. Falsehood is inexcusable under
every possible condition of life, but false
hood amounts to crime of the deepest dye
iD the interests of conspiracy and treason
against their dearest interests. think that
great and thoughtful man Of England
| (Carlyle) in his address few months since
in Edinburgh, uttered a word fit to be
spoken to-day and to be believed to-day,
when he said that he whs speaks to his fel-
low-men and refuses to adhere to and utter
the truth is the meanest creature in God 8
creation.
THE ISSUE.
tell you, NY fellow citizens, to-day, the
simple and unadorned truth, that the issue,
and the whole issue, to be decided in the
coming election is whether loyal men-mon
Ivvh La h.o La i th 81
of conflict their obligations of fealty to the
Constitution and government-shallr rule it
by just laws, or whether those who con-
spired through these years Of conflict to
overthrow that Government hy arms, shall
rule it by unjust laws and such legislation
as must ultimately end in anarchy and the
ruin of the Republic. Applause. 1t is
not contest between a political organiza'
tion called by the name Of the Democratic
party--it is not contest between that party
and another political org anization called by
the name of the Republican party In the
presence Of the great conflict by arms which
has just closed, every man knows that all
fermer party associations were broken up
that men organized into two great parties
known as the party for the Union and tho
party against the Union. 1t was not the
Democratic party--it was not the Republi-
can party--it was the great party of the
Union and the Constitution and the supre-
macy Of the laws that sustained through
these four years of trial the Republic--the
last hope of afflicted and down-trodden hu
manity everywhere on the earth. No soon.
er, my fellow.citizens, had the battalions of
treason surrendered to the triumphant le
gions of Grant and the triumphant legions
of Sherman, than the same party that had
been baaten by arms in the field, essayed to
attempt to achieve their triumph over the
Constitution and laws by conflict with the
ballot. To accomplish it, the chief Of these
traitors sent their hired assassins to your
capital, that they might take awayfro the
people, their true and faithful President,
who never at any hour forgot the obligations
of that oath, which, to use his own simple
words. was registered in heaven--and by
which no had bound himself to protect,
maintain and defend the Constitution Of the
United States. That was the first step in
this conspiracy to achieve by fraud and
deceit, through the instrumentality of the
ballot and the final instrumentality OF un-
just laws-which was taken by the common
enemy of the Republic after they had been
conquered by the virtue and valor of your
heroic soldiers in the field. [Applause. ]
A. JeHNsoN--HIs TIGHT" MARCH 4, 1865
When Lincoln died and lay in his bloody
shroud in the Capital, and the whole land
was filled with mourning when even the
little children cried in the streets because
the father of the Republic was dead, his
successor, by force Of the Constitution, was
made President of the United States in his
place, whom we had elected by eur ballots
to the second Office Of the Republican,
drew Johnson--took upon himself the same
obligation prescribed by the Constitution
which had before been taken upon himself
by Abraham Lincoln, as President of the
Republic. He swore the same oath to pro-
tect, defend and maintain the Constitution
of the United States. Standing as he did
in the presence of his murdered predecessor,
feeling as he doubtless did, the beating
pulse of the whole people of the Republic
he uttered words that gave all true men
in the land cause Of rejoicing, when he said
that treason was crime, and being crime
it must be made odious; [applause that
loyal men only must be intrusted with pow
er and that to the hands of loyal men alone
must be committed the great trust of re-
organizing the States lately in insurrection.
Applause. Having said that much, yeu
remember that the people of this great
Commonwealth of Ohio in their State Con-
ventisn indorsed him. They forgot the sad
exhibition that he made Of himself 10 the
Senate Chamber, on the 4th of March,
1865. when he was inaugurated as the Vice
President. They were willing to forget it.
They were willing not only to do that but to
trust him and sustain him; and if he had
been only faithful to the strong and brave
and true words which he uttered in the
presence of the dead body--of the maneled
body, should say-of your murdered Pres
ident, good men and true would not be 10
doubt to-day as to the issue Of this great
conflict. II is not the Democratic, party
which was dissolved, as | said before, in the
midst of this great conflict OF arms, and
merged itself in the great party of the
Union-it is not the Democratic party that
endangers the future Of the Republic, but
it is new organization, under the lead of
this recreant President Of ours, that fills
mems minds with alarm and concern
throughout the land. The Democratic par
ty is nowhere seen or felt in this contest. It
went in the persons of its representatives to
Philadelphia the other day, to strike hands
with those whose hands were red with the
blood of your sons and brothers, and to or
ganize not what they call a Democratic Ear