Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-01-24
0blo Statesman. at.
An "AmncSty" from Hon. s. S. Cox.
His speech i'm Tammany Hall, New
York, on the Night of Jan. 8, 1866.

His speech in Tammany Hall, New
York, on the Night of Jan. 8, 1866.
Your invitation, gentlemen of the Tam
many Society, has in it the phrase and soul
of amnesty. 1t bids us forget all victories
since that ''great victory which closed the
war OF 1872" The lustre of a united patri-
Otism will be tarnished tonight by no un-
charitable memories. | join you in that
''unteigned joy with which you hail the
advent Of season when we can recur to
an event which no achievements In our sub
sequent history can ever dim, and which
reunited brethren in every portion of our
glorious republic can celebrate with equal
pride" In celebrating this fiftieth annivers-
ary of the Victory at New Orleans over a
foreign foe, we not only bury for season
our own domestic strifes; we give the
statuesque form of Andrew Jackson TO the
marble, and that of his heroic namesake,
''StOnewall" Jackson, to the dust. To me
this is the chief attraction of this banquet.
If the Chief Magistrate, welding the civil
authority, can pardon the errors ana crimes
of his own recusant section; If General
Grant can wreath his sword with the gar
lands of good will ; If the organized Gov
ernment in all its branches (save the Legis-
lature), can temper justice with mercy, may
not the great Democratic heart, whose pulse
Is here in Tammany-and in whose honor
am requested to speak--sweeten its festiv-
ity with the associations of forgiveness? II,
by reunitiDg in spirit again with that
branch Of the Democracy which left us in
1860, we meet the reproaches of the re-
yeDgeful and sullcn, we share them along
with our clement Executive. IF he in civil
affairs, can accept victory without reprisal
and raise the fallen foe, without piercing
him with additional punishment-may we
not in our party relations, be excused for
following so christian an example?
| The crime which followed the defeat of
the Democratic party in 1860 has been
| punished. In the charred homes, the vast
ed fields, the sacked towns, the ruined
| thoroughfares, the rude swath of desola-
ton and misery which had their saddest
climax of woe in the bereavement so COM
fortless and the mourning so poignant for
the dead. all speak of penalties so heavy
that none but fiend would willingly add
| to their weight.
That these results were a consequence of
the desertiOn of the Democracy by the
Southern portion OF the party is now his
tory. That great party whose beginnings
were cOeval whith the Constitution, whose
| philosophy is in Jefferson's Inaugural,
whose successes, had thirteen out of the
| fifteen Presidents since the election of jeff
erson, whose achievements in foreign war,
! territorial expansion and domestic progress
constitute the advancement of our country;
the party which, through shine and shad-
| ow, advanced the starry flag and the civic
tasces, at last succumbed, not to an enemy,
but to its own internal dissensions. None
| but itself could be its conqueror! We
know how the divisions came. The little
crevice in 1874 became perceptibly frac-
ture in 1913, and although cemented and
trellised over in 1852 and 1856, as if by a
quake OF nature in 1850, became an un-
bridgable chasm. The agitations of the
| slavery question, beginning in 1920, with
the Missouri contest, creeping into Con-
gress in 1885, in the form of petition, at
last touched territorial government. But
during these years, the Democracy were
unaffected. The Presidency, in 1852 and
1906, was won on the doctrine of nom
intervention. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery
men, forgetting their differences, united by
a love OF union, to leave this veXcd matter
to the local authority. Gradually the ex-
tremes of the North produced their count
erpart South, and while the nation, in 1860,
by its majoritjes for Bell and Douglas, voted
and hoped for union, the fatal Democratic
fracture gave the President to minority
and the land to sectional strife and fraternal
bloodshed.
l recall these things because it is
necessary to have plain talk with South
ern men. Forgetting the usage and law of
Democratic conventions, they deserted the
flag under which they had ever found
honorable protection. They left lis alone
to battle with the common foe. They left
us and retired sullenly to the rear, at time
when the well appointed and iiercely in
spired Republicans were laundering on our
flanks!
The Convention met at Charleston. There
was division nearly sectional among the
delegates. While many eloquent champi-
ons of Democratic unity, North and South,
were ready to concede much for the i'm
perilled country, the Convention was dis
tracted. The report of the committee,
affirming the Cincinnati platform and
leaving the subject of slavery where the
contests of 1913, 1852 and 1856 lett ito
the people of the Territories-was passed
by vote of l75 to 13S. By Democratic
usage this should have settled the platform,
BY the code of honor this was the law of
our party. But Alabama, followed by
Mississippi, Florida, Texas and part of
Louisiana; South Carolina, Arkansas,
Delaware and North Carolina, withdrew,
They Withdrew because the Convention
hOAN Ohog SioNOA uCSJTOyGu DVg
the people OF a Territory, and would not
agree to protect it by code. Under the
brilliant lead of Mr.. Yancey a seeding
Convention met. Then began the chasni
which widened till stream of blood filed
its abyss. Oh! sirs it was sad hour for
this nation when that severance took place,
| need not dwell on the bitterness of that
hour. only refer to it to show that a
power of cohesion was in that Democracy:
and what consequences followed its disrup-
tlon. Religious societies had parted; tract
societies had been severed; domestic, lit
erary, social, political and religious circles
were all disorganized; the last and only
iink--the Democracy, remained. Ruthless
hands, which spared not the Union after,
wards, spared not the Democracy thenl
Assassins stabbed that party, and the ma
tion tottered! remember too wellthe taunts
and Jeers hurled at Northern Democrats in
that bitter hour. 1t was on that hour on
the 10th of June, at Baltimore, that Gener-
al Richardson read the dispatch from Doug.
las II learn that there is danger that the
Democratic party will be broken by the
breaking up of the onvention--such an
event would expose the country to section
al strife. Intervention means disunion,n
lie begged his friends to withdraw his
name, but not to sacrifice the principle. IL
NuyoC boz. ls.k, = l.