Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-09-20

sdlu w Mr. udue ana MS followers. Lnat
gave them the unequivocal defiance that
there was no one act of my life, and no
sentiment | had ever uttered, that | was
not willing to have Investigated before Il e
American people. Very well. a'i
Now my friend Hayes has taken up that
challenge in this speech to which | have
been referring, and has undertaken to in
vestigate my record. What does he say in
respect to me? Does he quote one single
sentiment ever uttered to condemn it
NOT the least one. The only quotation he
makes from anything ever said, was from
speech delivered in Congress. in the time
OF the Mexican war. and he quotes that In
order to approve it. Not one sentiment does
he quote to condemn. What acts have ever
done that General Hayes finds he can con-
demn? My friends, If you can keep your
eountenances when / tell you, it will be
more than expect. The only two acts of
my life he arraigns me for are, first that
with nearly two hundred thousand Demo-
Gratis of Ohio, 1 advocated the election OF
Valiandigham for Governor of this State
in1S63. [Applause.l And the second of
my acts for which am to be eondemed is,
that with 100000 Democrats all over the
country. electioneered and voted for
George B. Mcclellan for President of the
United States. [Applause.l Well, now my
frieods, plead guilty to both these acts,
and | shall plead guilty to them just as
long as live; and when | come to find it
necessary to apologize and beg pardon for
these acts, it will be when 1 get in that
condition in which Mr.. Wade Gisgraceful-
ly describes one of the most aged and il
lustrious men of this country-demented
Applause, and cries of ''Give it to him.
But General Hayes says, while he quotes
no sentiment of mine at all to condemn !;
while he finds nothing | have said to con-
denim, he finds matter for condemnation in
certain things that he says Vallandigham
once said. Whether Vallandigham said
them or not, l don't know. | never saw
them until 1 saw them in General Hayes
speech. | dare say he did say them, as
General Hayes is a man of truth. If he
will send them to Val, l have no doubt he
will explain them to his satisfaction
Laughter. But let him not call upon me
20 answer Tor more than my own sins, and
let him leave Vallandigham to answer for
his sins. d a-H.f
THE KEYNOTE OF 1868.
But, by way of arraigning me for sup
porting Vallandigham, he says the key
note of that campaign of 1868 was contain
ed In letter in which Vallandigham ad-
vocated peaceful settlement of our diff
culties-not in the platform adopted by
the State Convention that nominated VAL
landigham-not that, but ValIandigham's
letter, out of which he culls paragraph
that he SAYS advocated a peaceful solution
of our difficulties, which he says makes us
the peace party of Ohio. Has General
Hayes been so ignorant of Ohio politics in
1868 as not to know what was the keynote
of that campaign? Is he so ignorant that
he doesn't know what made every Demo-
crat from the Ohio to Lake Erie, with one
voice and one impulse, cry out LET us
elect that man"-whether war Democrat
or peace Observation-Disclosures soldier or
civilian. Has he so little knowledge ofthe
Keynote of that campaign as not to know
that it was. liberty and the constitutional
rights of the people of Ohio? .. .-.
In defiance of the Constitution, by the
most arbitrary and outrageous exercise of
power, that man. tor the mere exercise of
his constitutional right of debate, that man
had been dragged in the nighttime from
the side of his wife and children, in his
own home, had been tried before military
commission, organized to convict, had been
sentenced to Punishment to the Dry Tor
tugas, and that had been commuted by
sending him into exile until the end OF the
war; and when the people of Ohio saw one
of their citizens thus treated by arbitrary
power, the Democracy poured forth to Co.
lumbus, not by hundreds or thousands, but
by tens of thouSanhS-more than twice ten
thousand-to say that that man, on whom
you have thus illegally laid your hands,
we will, if possible, make Chief Magistrate
of the State. They said, you have Chief
Magistrate in Ohio who thus allows arbi-
trary power to drag one OF your citizens,
without process of law, without crime, to
drag him from his bed, try him by a mill
tary commission against the law and the
Constitution, and Danish him from the
country. That Mr.. Tod, your Governor,
has permitted, and now we will see if we
can put into that chair man who has some
sr-t.H
Constitution. If General Hayes had
been where 1 was in Ohio that
year, he would have had 10
difficulty in understanding the real key
note of that campaign. He would have
had no difficulty in undt rs anding why
General George w. Morgan, Ben. Lefevre,
George E. Pugh, and such men as they,
war Democrats, could support Vallandig-
ham, just as ardently-and did support
him just as ardently-as did any peace
Democrat in the whole length and breadth
of the land. Itwas the vindication of con-
stitutional liberty that was the kev-note of
that campaign; and tell you, nv friends,
to-day, that never since there was such a
thing as a free government in the world
never did so noble, never did so effectual a
protest go up against an act of arbitrary
wrong, than went up from the two hun
dred thousand Democrats who that year
sought to make Vallandfgham Governor OF
Ohio. Why, after tlas great outburst of
the people, of the Demo ;rats of Ohio, after
the spirit you manifested that year. with
that bold, outspoken assertion of your
rights, what took place?
Vallandigham was arrested under Order
No. 80, and never was man arrested under
that order again. 1t was trampled under
foot practically the very moment after the
people assembled in Columbus in D mo-
cratic State Convention in that campaign
of 1868. That last great cry which you
made for your constitutional rights and
the liberties of your citizens; from that
tine forth arbitrary arrests throughout the
length and breadth of this land did cease.
You know how many hundreds, nav thou
sands, were arrested and imprisoned before
that campaign of 1868, but after the Demo-
cratic people of Ohio had spoken that year
i'll their voice of thunder, there were no
more arbitrary arrests necessary to be
guarded against. And when history comes
t, be truthfully written, if it ever shall be
truthfully written, and If our Constitution
shall still continue the historian will give
to the Democracy or the State of OHIO, who
fought that battle for civil freedom in 1868,
the merit of having saved, in this country.
perhaps, all the civil liberty that remains
So, my friends, 1 give my friend General
Hayes full liberty to tell, whenever and
wherever he pleases, that | was alongside
of the 100000 Democrats of Ohio who sought
to make Vallandigham Governor of the
State. [Applause.l
But, il he will take this letter of Vallan-
digham's. which he says was a peace letter
if he will take that, instead of the plat
form upon which he was nominated, as the
keynote of the party, why won't General
Hayes take General McClellau's letter as
the Keynote of the campaign of 1861? It.
was a war letter all over; it was in favor of
prosecuting the war. AS to 1868, Genera
Hayes shoves aside the platform of the
convention that nominated Vallandigham
and tries to find the keynote of the CAM
paign in a scrap of one of Vallandigham's
letters. AS to 1864, he sticks up a scrap
from the Chicago platform and says that
is the keynote of that campaign, and sets