Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-08-15

IN 1854 WE'RE FAILURES. fFlT ron
! This resolution does not seem to Ire-
quire explanation or comment. But as
! General McClcllan's letter accepting the
/ nomination for the Presidency did not
/ square well with this part of. the party
! platform, Str. Vallandigham, In speech
/ at Sidney. Ohio, September "a, 1864, ex-
| planned It at some length. In that speech
hc said:
an speaking now Of Che fact that this. con-
vention on01nced swar failure, and gIv-
ing you the rAss ons why tits q failure. -
What has been gained by this campaign? More
lives have been lost, more hard fighting has
been done, more courage has been exhibited by
the Federal as well as the southern soldiers than
cornpilslied d General Grant Is nearer to Rich
mites, " Sic&as not in DE possessidn OF Of the
United states when the campaign began, rom
cure that he gave up all the country from Man
9ssSs down to Richmond and large rye part of & ,Ie
Soathern campaign Gen. Sherman through
the courage ofithe best disciplined best organ
lied, and most powerful army that has beeli seen
since the campaigns of the first Napoleon, has
taken Atlanta-a town somewhat larger than
sidney. 1t has cost him sixty thousand men
campaign ever wagerl ON this continent or any
other, or any other part tof theglobe lie o,cu-
pies frSni two toive miles on each side ofnrdil-
road OF one hundred and thirty-eight miles iii
! length. lie has penetrated that htr into Gcol.
gia What has been surrendered to obtain that?
All of Texas, nearly all of Louisiana, nearly all
of Arkansas, Mississippi, a ablma. and " part
of Tennessee, which were in possession of the
Fcderals ON the first OF May. Kentucky has
been opeIihd to continual incursions OF the Con-
in order To- gain this barren strip of country on
the line Of the railroad. The war, then, has been
pqi ppoiRf Of Wow. Tie Convention meant M that it
has failed to restore the Union, and there is not
u Republican in the land who does not know 1t.
IN the Sidney speech, Mr.. Vallandig-
ham says, also: ......
| What will you have now? Four years more of
war? What guaIpntieh OF success nave your
Do you Want two million more of men 80 go
forth to this war as the Crusaders went to the
scpulcher mt Jerusalcm? The beginning of this
Administration found us with very little debt,
comparatively no taxation, and peace and hap
p,usS among the States, and now look ut the
! scene. Four more years of war, do you tell me,
| when the first four with every advantage, has
! failed? Now, too, that the hearts of one-half
! of the people are turned away from war, aud n
! tent unon the arts Of peace? What VIII be the
| of debt i've hundred millions more of taxation,
more Conscription, more calls Tor i've hundred
/ Thousand men, more sacrifices for the next four
! years. All this Is what Abraham Lincoln de-
| munds of you in order that the Soutli may be
compelled not to return to the UnionI but to
abandon slavery.
All this logic, this eioquence, this tax
ing the imagination 70 portry the horrors
of war, failed TO deceive the people; Lin
coin WIS reelected; the war went on,
and n few short months witnessed the
end of the armed rebellion, and the tri-
umph of liberty and of Union.
Now came the work of reconstruction.
The leaders of the Peace Democracy,
who had failed in everymeasure, in every
plan, in every opinion, and in every pre-
diction relating to the war, were prompts
~ on hand, and with unblushing check
were prepared to take exclusive charge
of the whole business of reorganization
and reconstruction. They had plan
all prcparcd-a plan easily understood
easily executed, and which they aVerred
would be satisfactory to all parties. Their
plan was in perfect harmony with the
conduct and history Of its authors and
friends during the war. They had been
in very close sympathy with the men
engaged in the rebellion, while their
sympathy for loyal white people at the
South was not strong, and they We're Bit
terly hostile to loyal colOred people both
North and South. Their plan was con-
sistcnt with all this.
RECONSTRUCrION PLAN OF THE PEACE
DEMOCRACY. ..
According to it, the rebels were to be
treated in the same manner as If they
had remained loyal. All laws, State and
national, all orders and regulations of
the military, naval and other depart
menta of the Government, creating dis
abilities on account of participation in
or abolished. The rebcllious States are
to be represented in Congress by the
rebels without hindrancc from any test
oath. All appointments in the army, in
the navy, and in the civil service, were
to be made from men who were rebels
on the same terms as from men who We're
loyal. The people and Governments in
the rcbclious States were to be subjected
to no other interference, or control from
a pi .,f
General Government, than exists in the
States which remained loyal. Loyal
white men, and loyal cOlorcd men were
to he protected alone in those States by
State laws, executed by State authorities,
Us if they were in the loyal States.
There were to be no amendments to
the Constitution, not even an amend
mcnt abolishing slavery. In short the
: great rebellion was to be Ignored or for
gotten, or, in the words OF one of their
: orators, "to he generously forgiven. -
The war, whose burdens, cost and car
f nuge they had been sofond of eXaggcra-
f ting, suddenly sank into what the Rev.
Petroleum V. Nasby calls "the late un-
ple0santness, ~ for which nobody but The
, Abolitonists were to blame. Under this
plan the States could soon rc-estabish
slavery where 1t had been disturbed by
the war. Jefferson Davis, ToonlbS, Sill
| dell ana Mason cOulu DC re-cicclcu 10
{ their old places in the Senate of the
United States, Lee could he reappolnted
inIhe army, aud Semmes and Maury he
r restored to the navy. or course, this
plan of the Peace Democracy was ac.
ccptablc TO the rebels of the South.
But the loyal people, who under the
, name of the Union party fought success
fully through the war Of the rebellion
objected to this plan as wrong in prn-
. ciple, wrong in its details, aud fatally
! wrong as AN example for the future. II
/. treats treason ~ no crime, and loyalty as
: no virtue. IL contains no guarantees, ir'
! reversible or'otherwise, against another
0 rebellion by the same parties and ON tn,
3 same ground. 1t restores to political
u honor and power in the Government o
4 the nation men who have spent the best
: part of their lives in plotting the over
= throw of that Government, and who, fol
more than four years levied public wa
, against the United States. II allow,
{ Union men in the South who have risket
: all--and many of whom have lost all bu
!, life in upholding the Union cause-to bt
y excluded from every office, State and ma
= tional, and In many instances to be ban
= shed from the States they 80 faithful!
= labored TO save. 1t abandons the fou