Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-29

Confederate soldier who had been
sent out to meet him: { l am a citizen
of Ohio and of the United States. [ am
here within your lines by force and against
my will. L. therefore, surrender myself to
you as prisoner of war; He knew we'll
the shallow object of Abraham Lincoln in
banishing him within the Con federate lines,
and the moment it was announced to him
on board the eunboat at Cincinnati, had
resolved to defeat it at the outset.
'For several hours, while the answer of
General Bragg, who was sixteen miles dis
tant was being obtained to the question
whether he should be received, he remain
ed in the neutral ground They were
hours of solitude, but calmly spent-the
bright sun shining in the clear sky above
him, and faith in God and the future burn
ing in his heart. At noon, a favorable n
swer having been returned, he was received
within the Confederate lines. and passing,
| under cavalry escort, through numerous
camps, reached General Bragg's headquar-
ters, at Shelbyville, soon after dusk. Here
he was kindly received, and directed to the
| house of Mrs. Eakin, where a spacious and
pleasant room had been provided for him.
! Il retired at once,' he wrote to a friend,
| 'having slept but half an hour since Satur-
| day night and was awakened early next
morning by the rays of a bright Southern
sun piercing the eastern WindoM-af SOW
and walked out unchallenged.' In Shell
byville he remained a week in almost en-
tire seclusion, passing his time in reading
On the lst of June he was directed to re-
port on parole, to General Whiting, at Will
mingto1. North Carolina; and the next day
| left by the cars, passing through TullahO-
ma, Chattanooga, Knoxville and Bristol,
to Lynchburg, where he was met by Colo
mel Robert Ould, the Confederate commits
sioner of prisoners, and by him accom-
panied through Petersburg to Wilmington,
where he reported to General Whiting
| At every depot from Shelbyville to the end
of his journey of more than thousand
miles, large numbers of the people were
assembled to meet him; but no public
demonstration was attempted, and he pass
ed quietly to his destination. Before leav-
! ing Cincinnati, he had resolved to reach
Canada at the earliest moment; and in case
he found blockade-running from the East
ern ports impracticable or too hazardous,
then to cross the Mississippi and make his
way through Texas to Matamoras, and
| thence by steamer to Havana and Halifax.
| But at that time vessels were running to and
| from Wilmington almost with the regular
itv of packets, and after a sojourn there of
few days. he took passage OIL the steamer
'Cornubia' Captain Gayle, on tie evening of
t ie 18th of June ran out in safety through
| the blOck&ding squadron, and arrived in
Bermuda on the Doth. In these quiet and
| very pleasant islands he remained ten DAYS.
and thence by steamer went to Halifax,
landing on the 9TH of July. From Halifax
by way of Truro, he travelled to Pictou.
and thence by steamer up the gulf and
river st. Lawrence to Quebec, where, as in
| Bermuda and at Halifax, he was cordially
and honorably received. At the club
house he was rendered and accepted a very
handsome entertainment, at which he met
a number of the most distinguished gentle
men of Canada. That evening he left by
special train, generously provided for him,
for the Clifton House, Niagara Falls, where
he arrived on the 10Th of July, after Jour-
ney of more than four thousand miles by
land and sea, and twelve days earlier than
the day which he had designated to his
| friends previous to leaving Cincinnati.
Of the incidents and adventures of this
journey the time has not yet come to
write.
After a sojourn in Canada of just eleven
months, Mr.. Vallandigham returned to his
home in Dayton, Ohio. He came of his
own act and pleasure, without revocation
of the order tor exile or imprisonment;
yet he was never molested atJerward by
mob or tyrant." [Applause.l
And, to-day, men OF Knox, [ am again
in your midst, a freeman, to speak to and
for freemen as brave as God ever made
among the children Of men. [Great APP
plause.
And now, my friends, allow me to recur
|
a half ago. We were then in the midst of
civil war the most gigantic in numbers,
in material, in effori the grandest in pro-
portions. the bloodiest aud most destructive
and desolating, and the most penetrating
and far reaching in its results and conse-
quences, immediate anu remote, ever waged
"a civil war between thirty millions of
people, compound race, full of intellect,
of courage, of will unconquerable, set on
| fire by passion, and the most beligerent
and ineXorable on the globe. The earth
| trembled under the tread of their armies;
the heavens reverberated the shock of their
| battles; almost an entire continent was the
theater of the conflict, and for four years
it ragged with the fury of the hurricane.
| We were then, also, in the midst of civil
revolution. the most extraordinary ever re-
corded in the history of free governments
| "a revolution before which the Constitu-
| ton was overthrown, the Union dissolved,
aud liberty crushed out beneath military
and civil despotism the most searching. the
most complete, tue most appalling ever es
| tablished in a republic; a despotism COM
bining the madness and license of the mob,
with the system and discipline of the mill
tary-a despotism to which fear in ty-
rants, ambition in Generals. hate in
churchmen, and madness in all, gave a
cruelty, a desperation, venom and fury
which smote and consumed and deVoured
as it walked in darkness or wasted at noon
day. Freedom of speech, of the press. of
public assemblages, and of the ballot, had
all perished in every border State South !;
and the Butcher of Fredericksburg"
writhing and infuriate under defeat, had
just been deputed to eXtinguish the last
lingering spark of liberty in the North
west. Once before, indeed. she had been
assailed in the United States, and for sim
liar purpose-to suppress and crush out
i the opposition of the Democratic party,un-
| RI nr Tpff N nf
stirred up by the Federal party under the
elder Adams; and my distinguished friend
I here, General George w. Morgan. states
man in peace. hero in war, chivalric gen.
j tleman at all times, bears in his veins the
blood of a martyr to freedom of the press
live-and-twenty years before / was born.
But the reaction came; the Democratic
party triumphed. and the Constitution was
''saved at the last gasp" Applause.l
Under circumstances, such as / have de-
scribed, you, the men OF Knox, and OF other
counties near you, assembled upon this
spot, sacred thenceforth and, forever to
I liberty, to the number of more than ten
thousand. Twas May-day in the year of
grace, 1868. The sun shone brightly; a
thousand banners streamed peacefully in
the gentle breeze; every bird was upon the
wing, and the forests rang vocal to their
cheering melody. The flowers, too, lent
their sweetest perfumes, and the blue sky
was
so cloudless. clear. and purely beautiful,
| That God, Alone was to be seen in heaven"
But while all nature thus gave signs of
good will throughout her realm, and God
commanded peace through all his works,
Il far other was the scene which man had or
dained for the passions of his heart and the
labors OF his hands. Mars drove heavily
and headlong his fiery chariot, while Ter
ror, with gorgon head, turned Religion and
Pity and Mercy into stone. Your assem-.
bling, men of Knox, was an act of courage
unsurpassed in history. Not Grecian, nor
, Roman nor Swiss nor English herojsm