Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-09-11
.The @.g. Ghranifle.
s HELLAB BAR Err
SPEECH
BEFORE THE UNION CLUB.
Columbus, o., Aug. 10, 1867.
SPEECH
PAST OF DEMOCRACY.

Il a. a4C WV SCAo-4CA
make it 8 crime in the citizen not to
scrutinize the past of political parties,
before he unites in action with either.
One of these considerations is that no
man lives who can afford to inhict on
himself and children, the consequences
of being one of that band who contriVed
the plot, and set the guns, and brewed
the poison, and whet and struck the
knife which were meant TO take away
the nations life. Since the Christian
civilization began to be the controlling
moral force of the world, there has
not been a man who could afford to
have been party to such crime any
more than he can afford to be Arnold
in the betrayal at West Point, or Booth
in the plot for Lincoln's murder, or
Iscarlot in that scene at Gethsemane.
These moral pollutions kill, and kill
down through the ages. Who can af-
ford now to be the descendant of 3
Tory Of the Revolution. The man who
has become an enemy of his country,
his race, or of human liberty, tsints
his own and taints his child's blood
with Virus, terrible as the mark OF
Cain, the leprosy of Naaman, and the
worms of Herod.
May l say 10 you, men and women
of the Republic, that neither one fyou
can afford To belong, or approach near
to, either that band of men who plan
ned and wrought for your country's
murder, or that other and meaner,
because more oowardly, one at the
North who held their garments who
did the murder. Already the scorn of
the nations-a scorn which the centu-
ries shall augment forever as they go
slowly by-has traced the black, deep,
| iReffaceable DEAD LINE around these
bands of criminals whose meant guilt
was to perpetuslly overthrow Liberty
amongst men, and to found govern
ments upon the enslavement and chat
telization of the souls of Gods poor
Guided By the common conscience of
the civilized world, and cut by that In
exorable pen of iron and point of dia
mond with which History engraves the
imperishable DEGREES of the ages, that
fatal DEAD LINE has been drawn to stand
forever. Out from its fearful enclosure
none will ever 90 and be alive, and into
it none will ever pass and not be dead.
Young men Of America may 1 pray
you. by your country's love, by your
love of Liberty-of child-of self-of
God, do neither pass within, or ap-
proach near thai dead 1NEH RI 81
In employing these figures Of speech
and so praying you, indulge none of
the extravagances of inhamed rhetoric,
but on the other hand utter the cold
est, pIainest teachings of most familiar
History. That they who were parts or
aids of the recent and stupendous
crime, are consigned to infamy, l would
no more stop to argue than would
argue on the crime of Judas, the bloodi-
ness of Caiiguls or the infamy of JEFF
reys.
The other reason why it is logical
and demanded that we now inquire
what have been the relations of poIiti-
cal parties TO their country's attempted
destruction, is that we best learn the
future by the psst-best know what
mems and parties principles-pur-
poses-acts will be in the near future,
BY knowing what these were in the
near past. I am then neither illogical
nor censorious when refuse to comply
with the request these recent allies of
treason now beseechingly make of US
all over the Republic, to ignore the
past and forget the awful events Of our
most recent history. Did l, in this
argument, or should my countrymen,
in their future care of the government,
forget the past of these State criminals,
or permit s7tch ''bye cones" to be "bye
cones" then would my logic be huge
with vice, and my countrymen will
have first betrayed and then lost their
country. What In selecting your
companions or your party or your ru-
lers areyou to ignore their lives? Do
men select the known thief for custo-
dian of their jewels Do they COM
NIT their child's purity to the convict
ed profigate Do you give your lambs
to the wolves to keep2 Or do you
make the snakes bedfellows to your
children?
l shall, therefore, ask who, of them
now demanding your political oompan-
ionship and your suffrages, were au-
thors or partners in your country's at
tempted overthrow?
First of all, remember now, as His
tory will forever, that it was inside of
the Demoeraticparty, and By the brains
and hands of its known and recogni-
zed leaders, who controlled the party,
that this huge crime was contriVed in
all its parts, and that its bloody work
was begun. There, in the Thirty
Congress and at the Capital of the ma
ton. and at other agreed points, day
by day, night by mig ght, the whole ma
ton and the world saw these arch con-
spirators, in the name and in the bow
els of this party, complete the plan
and begin the work of the nations de-
structionl And, note it my country
men, when such q plan was complete
and known, and when the first horrid
act in its execution had been already
enacted before Heaven and the Earth,
then the conspirators demanded and
received from their allies at the North
the same now demanding your COM
panionship and suffrages promise
that their work of blood should be per-
nitted to go unmolestei to its fatal
end! 1t was just then that the con-
spirators demanded and received from
Buchanan. their President, the promise
that their treason should not be resist
ed because it was not lawfuIto defend
the nations life! 1t was just then (14th
January, 1861 that Mr.. Cox, in the
Congress Of The United States, in the
name Of the party he represented and
lead, solemnly pledged to the conspir-
ssors that majority Of the men of the
North would fight the battles of these
traitors on Northern ground, unless the
North would render justice to the
South justice whichF Stephens, the
brains and Vice President of the re-
bellion, afterwards solemnly declared
the North had never withheld 1t was.
Just at this time, (2Sd January, 1861, }
that this same party met in State Con-
Vention in Ohio, and renewed this
pledge of Cox by sending to the rebel
lion fond and formal greeting 200, 900
Ohio Democrats, along with the assur-
ance that these 100000 Democrats
would not even consider the propriety
of resisting the nations murder. At
this same awful crisis in our affairs, this
same party sent the resolutions of the
Legislature of Indiana to these assas-
sins, which declared that if any army
went from Indiana to defend the ma
ton. that army must pass over the
dead bodies of these Democrats
Such are some of the specimen acts
with which this party crowded the first